top of page

sebastian levar spivey - artist and producer

Human existence is a web of stories. The ways we craft our politics, relationships, and sense of self are strung through with the tangled truths and excuses we spin in narrative. Through my work I endeavor to crawl through that web, be that by image, word, or sound.

I was born and raised in sticky climes of Northeast Florida, in a city that smelled like coffee, azaleas, and salt. From there I spent a few years studying math, art and religion in North Carolina's Piedmont, surrounded by hills and trees. Until 2019 I worked as a screen printer and audio producer in the corn-flush flatland of Des Moines, Iowa. In 2019 I moved to Nashville, TN to complete my Master of Divinity with honors at Vanderbilt Divinity School. I now live and work as an artist, writer, and museum professional in Miami, FL.

some highlights

In the Summer of 2020 I released a 5-part serialized audiodoc on eating disorders entitled consumedxx (see sidebar), which put my story in conversation with two other folks to interrogate the deeper mental+emotional+spiritual aspects of eating disorders beyond trite and exploitative portrayals which dominate cultural discourse surrounding them. In 2020 I also led a team of producers in publishing a bi-monthly storytelling podcast for Vanderbilt Divinity School called "Ministry of the Arts", which now has a home on SoundCloud (also in sidebar).

From September 2020-May 2021 I worked as artist-in-residence at Larkspur Conservation Burial Ground, a position in which I developed and illustrated a coloring book about deathcare.

In 2021 I presented two versions of a paper on Marc Chagall and Yvette Cauquil-Prince's Job tapestry at the South-East regional and at the national meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature.

From 2014-16. I directed and produced for WXYC Reports, a monthly radio documentary show on WXYC Chapel Hill, a position wherein I was responsible for training and organizing the production team, hosting, mixing, and setting the creative direction, as well as producing my own monthly pieces from interview to final mix.

From 2016-2019 I worked as the producer of Like Micah (likemicah.libsyn.com), a position for which I recorded, edited, mixed, scripted, and published a fortnightly storytelling podcast.

During that same period, I also worked as an audio engineer for the Black Lunch Table (blacklunchtable.com), doing intensive audio clean up on outdoor round table discussions.

In 2018 I designed the curriculum for and taught a class on DIY Audio Documentary for the Des Moines Social Club, where students learned the basics of storytelling and audio production using using their phone to record and Audacity to edit.

I am adept at Hindenburg Journalist, Adobe Audition, and Audacity and am amember of the Association of Independents in Radio.

Education 

2012 -  2016

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. BA Studio Art and Religious Studies.

2019-2021

Vanderbilt Divinity School, Masters of Divinity.

Certificate of Bioethics from Yale's Sherwin B. Nuland Summer Institute in Bioethics

2021

writing

2022         "A Haunting" in NonBinary Review (Zoetic Press)

Awards 

2022          John Olin Knott award for creative and scholarly writing

2022          Excellence in Podcasting, Vanderbilt University

2019

2018

2015

2014

2012

Brandon Honor Scholarship, Vanderbilt University

Sonic South Finalist, Southern Oral History Project

The George Kachergis Studio Art Scholarship

Phi Beta Kappa inductee

State of Florida Parliamentary Debate Champion, American Forensics Association

2020

Holding Patterns, the internet

Exhibitions 

2019

Organ +  Art Show II, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Des Moines, IA

2019

Limited Space III, Curate, Des Moines , IA

2018

Iowa Exhibited XXXIII, Polk County Heritage Gallery, Des Moines, IA

2018

Limited Space II, The Des Moines Social Club, Des Moines, IA

2018

Play, Oliver + James, Des Moines, IA

2018

Organ + Art Show, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Des Moines, IA

2018

Inter/Veil, Yellow Door Gallery, Des Moines, IA

2017

Roah Motel Zine Fest, Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA

2016

This | Then, Chapel Hill, NC

2016

Contemporary Nethers, Chapel Hill, NC

2016

5th Student International Small Print Show, El Minia University, Egypt

2015

Mixed Concrete, TRU, Chapel Hill, NC

2015

Cellar Door, SAMPLE Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC

2022

Viewing Party Between Heaven and Earth, Nashville, TN

Contact Me

svspivey at pm dot me

bottom of page