S01e03 Dianna Settles with Arrangements of a Life Worth Living
Kentucky-based artist Dianna Settles joins us for a conversation about her work. We discuss what inspires the remarkable specificity in her paintings — as well as the people she doesn’t want collecting them, the mistakes first-time farmers make, the type of book one may wish not to read while nursing, and the making of a life worth living.
Terms and topics mentioned:
- Dianna’s own paintings, drawings and prints
- MARCH Gallery, New York City
- “Stacking functions” in permaculture (heads up: link is to a prepper site)
- Police violence at the 2023 South River Music Festival, Atlanta
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- A sampler of some Viet Cong paintings
- High Museum of Art, Atlanta
- Kristin Ross, Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune
- Napoléon Gaillard père (shoemaker/barricadist of the Paris Commune)
- Ill Will
- Ossabaw indigo
- Lexington Still Life Club
- Phil Neel, Hellworld: The Human Species and the Planetary Factory
- Antoine Volodine
- John Berger, Pig Earth
- Joshua Clover, The Totality for Kids and Madonna anno domini
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness
- Greer Kirshenbaum, The Nurture Revolution
- Diane di Prima, Revolutionary Letters
- Rosie Stockton, Fuel
- Jasper Bernes, Starsdown and The Future of Revolution
Terms and topics mentioned:
- Dianna’s own paintings, drawings and prints
- MARCH Gallery, New York City
- “Stacking functions” in permaculture (heads up: link is to a prepper site)
- Police violence at the 2023 South River Music Festival, Atlanta
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- A sampler of some Viet Cong paintings
- High Museum of Art, Atlanta
- Kristin Ross, Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune
- Napoléon Gaillard père (shoemaker/barricadist of the Paris Commune)
- Ill Will
- Ossabaw indigo
- Lexington Still Life Club
- Phil Neel, Hellworld: The Human Species and the Planetary Factory
- Antoine Volodine
- John Berger, Pig Earth
- Joshua Clover, The Totality for Kids and Madonna anno domini
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness
- Greer Kirshenbaum, The Nurture Revolution
- Diane di Prima, Revolutionary Letters
- Rosie Stockton, Fuel
- Jasper Bernes, Starsdown and The Future of Revolution
- James Still, River of Earth
- May 2026 “Lifehouses, Resilience Hubs and Dual Power” gathering at Woodbine, NYC
More ways to stay connected:
- You can follow Lifepod on Instagram or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon, or support the podcast on Patreon.
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
- May 2026 “Lifehouses, Resilience Hubs and Dual Power” gathering at Woodbine, NYC
More ways to stay connected:
- You can follow Lifepod on Instagram or Adam’s personal account on Mastodon, or support the podcast on Patreon.
Creators and Guests
Host
Adam Greenfield
I’m an endurance athlete, a heavy-music appreciator and a compulsive greeter of cats. Before I wrote “Lifehouse,” I was a bike messenger, a rock critic for SPIN in New York, a medic at the Berkeley Free Clinic, head of design direction at Nokia headquarters outside Helsinki, and a bunch of other things besides. Currently Visiting Professor at the Sociology department of the London School of Economics.
Guest
Dianna Settles
Dianna Settles is a Vietnamese-American artist in Lexington, Kentucky who received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014. Her current work explores moments of joyful stillness amidst the cascading series of crises called modern life, accomplished through her synthesis of traditional Vietnamese and classical European painting styles.
