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Desert Lady Diaries


Sep 25, 2018

Wendy Lee Gadzuk is a visual artist and musician who grew up near Philadelphia, PA, attending art school and playing in her band The 440's, and found her way to the Sonoran desert of Tuscon, where spirits live in the saguaros.
 
Wendy left Tuscon for Los Angeles and while she found plenty of ways to make art and music, making money proved a bit more challengin. In this episode, Wendy talks about the the LA 'hustle' and gives us a peek into the competitive, audition-like process of applying for bar tending jobs.
 
Wendy eventually left Los Angeles and headed north to Oakland, where she founded the band Andalusia Rose. Currently, Wendy and her boyfriend, Tony Buhagiar, are the musicians behind Stone Levitation - listen to one of their tracks at the end of the episode.  Wendy has been playing classical piano since the age of four and has also played violin. Have tried guitar as a teenager, Wendy picked up it's cousin, the bass, after hearing one too many complaints from a roommate about his inability to find a bass player for his band.
 
An art school friend of Wendy's kept posting photos of Joshua Tree and Wendy reached out and learned about the art community here. After a few visits to her friend, she left Oakland and settled in her place in Morongo Valley, which, while lusher than the Sonoran desert, has it's share of critters that keep Wendy on her toes.
 
Currently (September 2018) Wendy has four assemblage pieces in the 'Desert Icons' exhibition at the Yucca Valley Visual & Performing Arts Center and will be one of ten artists participating in a panel discussing the desert's influence on her work. The panel is September 30 at 4 p.m. tickets and more information here.
 
www.wendyleegadzuk.com
 
Photo of Wendy credit Guillermo Prieto