Saint Louis Speaks Podcast Mark Loehrer

Leah Merriman is a multi-media artist who may be the only encaustic painter in St. Louis — she paints with layers of wax. As she explains in the interview, it's a technique that dates back to antiquity (the word itself comes from the Greek enkaustikos; it was used in ancient Egypt for mummy portraits). Bauhaus artist Fritz Faiss revived encaustic painting in the 20th century, but it's still far from common. Leah often paints urban St. Louis landscapes: Art Hill, the Donut Drive-Thru on Chippewa, the riverfront, the bandstand in Tower Grove Park. In addition to encaustic, her body of work includes sculpture, prints, paintings and illustrations. She talks about apprenticing to sculptor Rudolph Torrini, staying in St. Louis, balancing art and motherhood, and how a trip to the Grand Canyon lead her to start doing encaustics.

Leah's website
http://stlwaxworks.com

Leah's Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/leahmerrimanart/

Green Door Art Gallery
https://www.greendoorartgallery.com/leah-merriman.html

"Familiar Layers: Encaustic Scenes of St. Louis, Part 1," at Third Degree Glass Factory
https://thirddegreeglassfactory.com/now-on-display-familiar-layers-encaustic-scenes-of-st-louis-part-1-by-leah-merriman/

Dr. Andrew Hurley, professor of history at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has written extensively about the environmental history of the St. Louis region. In this episode, he talks about his love of cities; how technology can help historians reach new audiences; and how he's helping communities build their resilience in the face of the droughts, floods, and heat waves that are accompanying climate change.

Faculty Page
https://www.umsl.edu/~umslhistory/Faculty/hurley.html

Ask an Expert: Andrew Hurley examines history of climate and its impact on St. Louis
https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2018/08/27/ask-expert-hurley/

Common Fields: An Environmental History of St. Louis
https://www.worldcat.org/title/common-fields-an-environmental-history-of-st-louis/oclc/36024068

Virtual City Project
http://vcities.ite-stl.org

Missouri Place Stories: Missouri EPSCoR
https://placestories.missouriepscor.org

David Lobbig, Curator of Environmental Life at the Missouri History Museum and longtime board member at the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, talks all things Mississippi River — the Mississippian culture that once lived on its banks; how 19th-century riverboats not only impacted the river but contributed to climate change; flood plains; and "Mighty Mississippi," the exhibit he curated for MoHist that opened on November 23 and runs through April 2021.

Cahokia Mounds
https://cahokiamounds.org

Grist: The Army Corps of Engineers and Mississippi River Management
https://grist.org/series/the-corps-of-the-matter-on-the-army-corps-and-the-mississippi-river/

“Mighty Mississippi” at the Missouri History Museum
https://mohistory.org/exhibits/the-mighty-mississippi/

Missouri Coalition for the Environment
https://moenvironment.org

Radical Cartography: Mississippi Meander Maps
http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?fisk

Scientific American: Mississippi River Flooding and Climate Change
https://newrepublic.com/article/148352/can-rivers-people-too

Host Umar Lee talks by phone with "Mama Cat" a community activist and the official chef of the Ferguson movement. Mama Cat (Cathy Daniels) founded the group Pot Bangerz which has worked to feed, clothe and humanize those which society has chosen to make invisible, the unhoused. Potbangerz will be hosting their 3rd Annual Neighbors United Holiday Dinner on December 14th at Christ Church Cathedral (see their facebook group for more details).