A conversation with Martina Markota

I had the rare opportunity to talk art, comics and cancel culture with the indescribably talented performance artist Martina Markota, and her alter-ego Lady Alchemy.

A while back, when I was writing my column about ideological bigotry, I found myself thinking about performance artist Martina Markota who, after she was outed as a Trump supporter, had her entire career destroyed by exactly this kind of ideological bigotry.

And the more I thought about Martina’s experience, the angrier I got.

Since just letting myself get angrier and angrier didn’t seem particularly constructive, I decided rather than let my seething anger fester, I’d write a feature on Martina Markota.  

It’s one thing to talk in the abstract about people’s lives being destroyed by the woke mob.  But the problem with talking in the abstract is it's far too impersonal.  So it’s easy to stay detached.

Being able to put single face and name to this vicious practice of personal destruction draws it out of the abstract and into reality.

But as I was planning and researching what to write about Martina, I realized that this lived experience would have far more impact if it came directly from the one who lived it, and not from me.

So I’m not going to write a feature on Martina Markota.  Instead, I’ll let Martina speak for herself.

What follows is my conversation with Martina Markota.

Since you are a first-generation American whose mother is from Croatia, I’m guessing you had a fairly conservative, traditional upbringing. Tell me a little about your background.

Both my parents AND my older sister were born in Croatia. I am the very first American born in my family. Being Croatian I was raised conservative. I remember the war in the 90s, packing canned food to send over, and my mother and grandmother talking about the war and Islamic invasion. This is why they are nationalistic and very proud of their nation and culture. It was a fight to preserve our land and people from constant invasion. My mother told me stories about living under communism and I think many who experienced it, do not like it. At the time it was Yugoslavia. Croatians are very Catholic so I was raised Catholic, baptized, went to Croatian mass in NYC. Many Croatians are diaspora. Many fled during the war and found pockets of communities. There is a Croatian community in New York which is why I was born and raised in NY.

My Mom is German and my German sucks. So I have to ask; how’s your Croatian? Have you had the opportunity to travel there?

Oh! When I was younger I was bilingual and very closely tied to it. As we grew up in America we became more Americanized. My elementary school told my mother to speak English at home because it seemed I wasn’t very strong with it. But now research shows that bilingual kids speak a little bit later than households with one language. It is a shame, but I’d like to visit Croatia now that I’m older.

Your interests and talents are both eclectic and varied — performance art, dance, classics, mathematics — even cooking. Was this something that was cultivated in your childhood or is it all stuff you picked up along the way?

I have always loved cooking and children! It’s the woman in me. I have five siblings so I took care of a lot of kids growing up. A lot of cooking and cleaning. It was a very Croatian upbringing. I was raised we are a clan, family protects each other, so instead of the typical American sibling rivalry, we were very supportive of each other. I am significantly older than some of my siblings so I raised them as kids. That is my basis for cooking.

I taught my brothers only a few years younger than me to read before they went to kindergarten. I’m a great teacher and went on to tutor math and studied to be a math teacher at NYU.

I have also loved dancing since I was little. I remember visiting a friend’s house and she took all these dance classes and had a trunk of costumes. I was so jealous, I wanted to dance and wear costumes. Then I grew up and lived that life. Dancing every day and making costumes and routines. It was a childhood dream. I have always been in band since Elementary school, can read music. We played the classics, Tchaikovsky, and my favorite piece “Rhapsody in Blue” which has a fantastic clarinet piece.

I studied fine arts in addition to mathematics. So all of that shaped my performance art. I think it’s only natural that people who study and work in classical art find some creativity in the avant-garde after some time.

So you initially wanted to be a math teacher? How on earth does a mathematics student stumble into Burlesque? Seems a rather odd juxtaposition.

It is odd. Well most people are dynamic with various interests. The math was separate from my creative side. Just another aspect of me. Like I am a daughter, sister, aunt, wife. I have various aspects to my life that make up the unique person. The other separate aspect was my love of dance, costumes, makeup!

But I was doing pinup modeling in NYC and the pinup photography group invited me to perform in their burlesque shows. Since I love performing, particularly more than modeling, I took the opportunity. Once you take that first step it’s easier to keep working at it!

While I consider myself very well-read, I’ll be honest with you, aside from knowing the word “alchemy,” I knew nothing about alchemy until I was introduced to it on your website. What was your introduction to alchemy? What drew you to it? I’m especially interested in how you arrived at incorporating it into your work.

I have lived alchemy since I was a teenager! It was that very natural questioning of the purpose of life and the mysteries of the universe. I stumbled upon it learning about Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. Two great minds, both obsessed with alchemy to their death. If these brilliant minds thought there was value in it, I wanted to know about it. So I started researching as much as I could on the topic and the more I learned, the more it helped me become a better person and dive deeper into the “mysteries” that surround us.

When did you create the Lady Alchemy persona and how did that come about?

After spending some time performing, I became dissatisfied with putting that weird nerdy alchemy math aspect to the side. Then I realized that I can bring it into my performances. I can BE Lady Alchemy! And since then, my works have symbolism in them that reflects an aspect of the great work and pushes me to learn more.

I was dissatisfied with just performing a sexy little number and had some meditation on it and realized I don’t have to compartmentalize my two aspects. I can become Lady Alchemy, the performer with alchemical archetypes investing in my work. It works well because alchemy has a lot of visual symbolism. Colors, plants, animals, moods, mixed with deep psychological insights. Very great for visual arts.

In your Twitter bio, you say Martina Markota is your “Clark Kent persona.” This might seem like an odd question, but does that make Lady Alchemy the real you?

I never thought of it that way! I have been Lady Alchemy in the public sphere much longer than I have been Martina Markota. My entire identity was Lady Alchemy.

I always viewed Lady Alchemy as a comic book hero. A babe who runs around in the middle of the night in a big Gotham-like city -- wears costumes and is physically fit (I mean dancers, you know?! They are like ninjas). But when I started working publicly as Martina, the other side of me was out. I’m actually quite a nerd, I wear glasses, have black hair and fair skin and eyes! I was Clark Kent! Hiding my Lady Alchemy babe behind glasses and nerdy vibe. I also started working in DC as a reporter so I felt like it was my nerdy, daytime glasses-wearing office professional meanwhile the Lady Alchemy is the female goddess archetype (the superhero).

How was your work received within the New York art community? I imagine you developed quite a following.

My work was received pretty well! The NYC performing arts scene has a lot to it! There are all sorts of performances ranging from classical ballet, cirque, theatre, anything you can think of! So I took off in the Burlesque community. As the years went by and I honed my skills more and more, I became well known and a staple at certain venues. I was appreciated for the costuming and unique aesthetics and the slow sustained movement, we call adagio. That, mixed with the Lady Alchemy persona, was just a complete package!  It was fun, I worked some amazing events.

So Lady Alchemy didn’t just perform in Burlesque shows? For some reason I was picturing a stage in a smoke-filled club -- the clink of glasses, the noise of the crowd -- then the music begins, the curtains part and there you are. Don’t laugh. It’s just what I pictured in my head. So what kind of events did you do? And was my mental picture at all accurate at any point in your career?

That is pretty accurate! There were smoke filled rooms, clinking glasses and what have you! I worked regularly at one underground club/theatre which was like Studio54 but TODAY. It was hip, celebrities would attend, weird performances, DJ, costumes.

But I also worked corporate events, Google holiday party, Xerox holiday parties, special functions at ticketed events for the upper class. People in suits and gowns and all dolled up. But for the 'Performance art' aspect I did some art galleries, stuff more in the 'art' scene rather than nightlife/theatre.

Speaking of your work: I watched your full length piece NIGREDO and I have to say it was both beautiful and chilling, sensual and frightening. I found myself so drawn into the piece, several times I realized I had been holding my breath.

Thank you so much! I wish everyone could have seen it in person. It was even more impactful! That is what I love about New York; we are big on live performance. There is nothing like seeing a real human in front of you performing.

Can you describe your process? What do you start with for an installation like NIGREDO? How do you bring it from concept to completion? And how the heck to you rehearse something like that?

The piece is based on the first phase of the alchemical process called Nigredo. It is a blackening, a burning and purging of impurities and imperfections. it represents coming face to face with you demons. This is the first and necessary step to continue on the path of enlightenment.

It started off as an idea and to do something dark and weird with a black substance taking over me, first from WITHIN. It was scripted out, there were different beats to hit, and that is how I rehearsed it. The only time I actually used the black goo substance was during the live show.

The first beat was in the white dress doing my makeup, putting on lotion, looking at myself in the mirror, fixing my corset. This represents the material world. All the material things we cherish.

Then came the black stuff out of the mouth, from inside.  Then the frantic removal of the material on my body, the lotion then turns to black and I'm just smearing it all over, as if I was trying to rub it away but could not.

Then there were the buckets of black, just thrown at the chaise lounge and the vanity mirror, completely engulfed in the black.

This time, no care in the world for the material things, it’s all released and there is no going back. At that point you can't go back. It's all done. You are on your path to the next phase.

In your work, you are the canvas, so to speak.  Can you talk a bit about the human form as art? And do you find it difficult to balance that line between the body as an art form and pornography?

I talk about this on a blog on my website. The piece is called "Art In the Nude". I only have like 3 articles.  I'm not much of a writer, but I felt it was an important topic because both the Left AND Right are confused about nudity and art.

The Left often use pornography and shock value to their works for that extra kick, they focus on vaginal art a lot for some reason. I think feminists are so focused on the vagina it is off putting and almost clinical. The Right on the other hand goes to the opposite extreme. They shudder at anything with a human form. You would think they never stepped into a museum or the Sistine Chapel.

There is something about the Baroque era, funded by the Catholic Church, that is lost on people today. I think it may be that pornography is so easily accessible and consumed, that people have a hard time disassociating nudity with pornography. I think that is a major issue with the Right in regard to understanding art and culture. There is Godliness in beauty. I am a huge fan of Roger Scruton, and he spoke about this the best. There is a relationship with beauty and God, and like the ancient sculptors and painters, saw marvelous works in the human body, something God created. So the human form as a canvas is not in itself that taboo. 

Burlesque seems far afield from your work as a performance artist. Am I wrong on that?  Or were you able to find a way to fuse your style as a performance artist into your burlesque?

Yes I like to distinguish them as two separate types of work. Performance art encompasses burlesque along with other more avant-garde art pieces, like "Nigredo."

Burlesque is fun, filled with femininity, makeup, costumes, rhinestones, all the fun girly stuff. I can create some performances that are 'cute' and please the crowd and clients of men and women of all ages. Event entertainment is very satisfying, you get to bring joy to people. I love when I get all ready and step out into the crowd and I get so many joyous faces just seeing me in costume.

Performance art is the root of the Alchemical work I'm doing. That is where I can be as weird as I want without having to take into consideration the client or the crowd. This is where I create a piece for alchemy. Sometimes I get to be 'cheeky' and combine some alchemy stuff in my burlesque, like the fallen angel performance or the Rose Cross performance, but for the most part the deep esoteric stuff is in the performance art.

I know the theater community very well and it is extremely Liberal. I imagine the same is true for both the NYC art scene and the burlesque community. Did you find yourself keeping your conservative views under wraps?

Yes it is VERY liberal. I would say leftist, or extremist even. Liberal is too generous of a word for them because they are anything but liberal. You MUST think and act according to the leftist protocol or you will be cancelled. They often eat each other, but me being not even one of them politically made me a target for those extremists or just jealousy in general.

There were moments, even small moments where I could sense a difference. For example one time I was traveling for a gig in the snow, and after getting off a flight we were getting into a van and I had asked if there was a man to help me with my heavy luggage of costumes. Another performer proclaims, "We don't need men!" It made me just stop in my tracks and think about how I am just fundamentally different in nature than the rest of them. What kind of world would we have without men? I could use the upper body strength to help with my luggage...and men often like to be appreciated and needed by ladies. The logic of "we don't need men" astounded me.

I found myself keeping quiet A LOT. Many things would bother me, but I knew that I could not say anything. I was outnumbered, and it didn't have anything to do with the show so don't bother getting into the social justice conversation.

Your career both as a dancer and a performance artist fell victim to the “cancel culture.” Personally, I hate that term. “Cancel culture” sounds far too antiseptic to describe what happened to you. It was vicious and wicked. “Cancel culture” doesn’t come close to describing the character assassination and personal destruction you endured. It is astounding how quickly and completely this kind of ideological bigotry strikes, and the damage it leaves in its wake.

Thank you for understanding all that. It is a very difficult, traumatic thing to happen.

I’m sure this is still tremendously difficult to talk about, but when did it start?  Was it incremental or sudden? Did you have any warning at all what was about to unfold?

Cancel culture hits you like a ton of bricks. It first started when I decided to make some posts on a new account using my real name in 2016. I was sick of being around so many far left conversations and holding it in that I decided to create a different account where people didn't know my real name and post some conservative content. In 2016 I posted an article about conservatism being the counterculture and about art in the nude.

Social media algorithms essentially outed me. It led all my friends and followers to follow this new account in droves. I was confused how they were all finding it, then a bit scared. For good reason.

Soon rumor started to spread that I was a Republican interested in voting for Trump, and that is when the social media attacks started to happen by the people that were my friends and coworkers.

It hurt a lot because I am very sensitive and emotional. When I went to work at the theatre I worked at the time, friends would turn their backs on me literally, face away from me when I said hi or tried to engage in small talk. I was confused.  Then someone would start talking about politics and a performer backstage mentioned my website and blog. She started to attack me saying Trump is a racist. I was shook up by this as I do not like confrontation.

I had a few people quietly tell me it’s wrong what they are doing to me and that they support me, but no one was willing to go out on a limb about it, which is fair enough. I was soon getting a lot of targeted harassment. They removed my ad campaigns from places, posted on social media to cancel me, lots of nasty comments and messages sent to me.

Soon I was called into a meeting with the director at the theatre. He informed me that other performers were coming to them with concerns about my politics. They assured me that I can have whatever opinion I want.

After the election the results were such a surprise that it became a hostile environment in NYC and the theatre. I was afraid to come back to work. Then my producer called me and told me that he would not be needing me and will "let me know when to perform my beautiful acts again." I was never called back to perform again since election day.  Prior to election I worked 5 days a week at that theatre, year round. You would think it ends there, but it did not.

The other performers hounded my talent agent to not book me anymore. She was sympathetic to me, however she was forced to not book me because the other performers started to take a stand and say they refuse to work events or shows if I am part of it. It left my agent no choice.

The years following, I left New York; I left the performing industry, but they continued to follow me. They reported false tips to the FBI against my British fiancé at the time. He has not been able to come to America and meet my family, even when my little sister got leukemia in the middle of all this.

I am now in my mid-thirties and trying to hurry this up and start a family. But when I left NY and left performing, they continued their harassment, talking to the press any lies about me they could come up with in order to ruin my reputation even further. They had succeeded in ruining my performing career, now they were determined to ruin my life.

I read the article in Salon when you first joined The Daily Caller and I admit, it infuriated me. You and I have followed each other on Twitter for quite some time now, and honestly, I didn’t recognize the person described in that article as the same Martina Markota whose work I’ve gotten to know. Salon acted as if The Daily Caller hired Eva Braun, not you.

Thank you again, that is exactly it. The stuff that I see online or in the press about me is so far off it can either drive someone into a mental institution or suicide. That is what these people are doing. At what point is ruining my life enough? At what point do the lies start to fester in them what they have done to some random girl? I do not recognize that person either. It is some crazy villain they made up and used my name identity for.

Reading that sneering, awful piece made my blood boil. I can’t imagine how it’s been for you to have these attacks coming at you like a hail of bullets. How on earth do you hold up under that kind of barrage?

There really must be something done. The worst part is most of those things they said were wrong and the few people that actually dug a little after reading it came to me to tell me they didn't find anything on me. These are strangers, the very few rare people that decide to actually look into the claims the press make. Again, I am not sure what point is enough for them to ruin someone. This can only drive someone to mental issues or suicide. This is the 'tolerant' and 'liberal' Left. I truly think they would cheer my death. If I ended up working as a waitress, they would hunt down the restaurant and demand I be fired. Leaving me to do what? Be homeless? What is it that they want?

I think of what you said earlier about your family — namely your Croatian upbringing and family protecting each other. I imagine having that kind of solid support during all of this must be something of a refuge for you.

For the person that raised me, my mother, she was supportive during this time. I also have a younger sister, 12 years younger, who got Leukemia around this time, she has completely different political values than I do, but I was there for her every day in the hospital while she witnessed what I was going through. The false accusations, the smears, the unfairness of the far-left. So she was supportive in that as well. I have many siblings, and some are in agreement with my politics, some disagree 100%, but we all have our own personal beliefs, like religion. Just because you're a Catholic doesn’t mean you have the exact same thoughts as another Catholic.

When all this garbage went down, what kind of response did you get from folks on the Right? I know it’s silly to generalize since not everybody on the Right is going to act in one uniform way. But what was your overall experience? Supportive? Dismissive? A reflexive scrambling to distance themselves from you? Or all of the above?

A lot of the above.

When things went down I expected a little more support. Instead the Right doesn't really understand my career and all that I lost. I was working professionally for a decade, had an agent, worked a lot and was a rising star. The Right doesn't really understand what it was that I did, or lost. There would be more outrage if I worked in an office or for some company.

I expected a little bit more camaraderie, but the Right is really focused on gaining their own personal clout than helping others. Right wing media is just as much to blame. They will get rid of you the instant the Left write a hit piece on you and call you a 'Nazi.'

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a column that pretty much touches on exactly that.  I think people on the Right grew so used to losing every cultural battle, that too many have lost their willingness to fight back.  For many on the Right, the “fight or flight” nature has been downsized to just “flight.”  They don’t want to get involved, or worse, they’re afraid to stand up for someone else for fear they’ll get sucked into that personal destruction vortex too.

Considering your experience, what does the Right need to do to better combat this and support those, like you, who have had their lives destroyed by this ideological bigotry?

I think the Right needs to wake up and stop taking the Leftists’ bait. When they do a hit piece, you don't bow down, try to hide it and cover your tracks. Call their bluff and don't let them affect you. If you reacted every time they tried to ruin one of your members, that means what they are doing is working. You can disarm the Left if you don't freak out when they do hit pieces. Eventually they will realize that is not working. For now it works. You will see some conservative commentator or someone get 'outed' for association or some edgy comment and the Right will fire that commentator and they become a pariah.  Right now the Right is letting the left win.

Okay, talking about this is starting to make my temper flare.

Yeah I was getting upset all over again thinking about all this.

Besides, you are so much more than that experience.  And while it might fuel your work and hone your art, it doesn’t have to devour you. So let’s go back to art.

You know, art, much like satire, is a very powerful weapon. It can be subversive, constructive, instructive, and even destructive. I have my own opinions on this, but do you think the Right utilizes Art effectively? If not, how can we change that?

The Right definitely does not utilize art effectively, at least not in this current time. I think that the Right has no appreciation for art and culture. They think it's a Leftist game and 'why bother.’ That is the wrong attitude.

Firstly, we should be well rounded. All the great classics appreciate art. To me, being conservative meant well read, well cultured, honorable, and magnanimous. Every great civilization had great art and culture. The golden age of Hollywood was Republican. The Baroque era had some of the most historic and impressive works of art, and it was funded by the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church at the time knew that during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the way to tap in the hearts and souls of the people is through art. The Left know this which is why they worked to take it over and we are in this mess today totally overpowered by them.

If we can learn from all this and perhaps have benefactors, investors or donors, I think we could make a huge impact on society. Until then, we will always be on the fringes, getting cancelled and no one caring, because it's just silly art!

Let's talk about your upcoming graphic novel “LADY ALCHEMY: Mutus Liber.” Can you give a little summary of the story?

Sure! It is about Lady Alchemy who is a performer in the big city. A bigwig media lady named Vinea sees her gift and wants to make her a star and offers her a deal. She books her to perform for world leaders and the 'elites' in some ritual performance. But after one performance she gets jumped in an alley and these mysterious men take some of her blood and mention nephilim. She then goes to an old book store to figure out what is going on. That is when an old man named William gives her the Mutus Liber, an ancient alchemical text. She learns to harness her powers, learns alchemy and magick rituals, summons archangels, and fights the evils in the city.

Basically the story is my real life experience with what happened to me, told in a fantastical comic book way. William is my former step-grandfather who passed away and meant a lot to me. The nightclub was my experience working as a performer in the city. The evil characters in the story that try to lead Lady Alchemy down a dark path are the other people in the performing industry that turned their back on me. It is not explicitly political but it does tell my story.

I think that’s one thing every storyteller does whether he knows it or not.  No matter how close to real life the story might be, the characters and events often reflect the storyteller’s life and experience. I know that’s the case for my works of fiction. Every character is either inspired by someone I know or is, to some degree, myself.  Even the main character from my novel Sliding Home Feet First is me – despite his being an Irish Catholic kid growing up in Chicago in the 1960s.  We draw from the well of our own experience.  Given your experience, I imagine any character based on you would be one hell of a multi-layered, incredibly vivid character.

How on earth did you settle on doing a graphic novel and what was the genesis of the project?

Well I had always wanted to make Lady Alchemy a comic book character. About ten years ago I talked to someone about it. I loved the sexy babes in comics in the 90's. Unfortunately the person I spoke to told me the cost of making a book and it was in the tens of thousands!

So that got put to rest until 2018 when I reported on 'comicsgate.' Basically the comics industry was changing, and a lot of the fans were not happy about it. DC and Marvel had changed all the characters we know and love into SJWs. Changing races, genders, their general appearance, changing sexual orientations. It was all SJW crap.

So a few pros went independent and started Indiegogo campaigns to make their own comics. and a lot of the fans went to them! They are out performing DC and Marvel at this time and it is incredible! I decided now was the time to make my fantasy of Lady Alchemy a comic hero through crowdfunding! And this was just my audience! I can't get cancelled over my politics! It was the PERFECT fit to keep Lady Alchemy alive.

From what I understand, MUTUS LIBER is to be released soon. What are your plans to promote the release?

Yes! I have had some major setbacks with this project. For some reason people are always looking to screw me over so that they can get ahead, so things have been late. I have a brand new amazing team and we are already halfway done with the inking of the book! Just a few more months to ink the other half and get some color and it will be all finished! I would say a few more months, and will get exact dates after talking to my team about it.

Aside from the graphic novel, I know you keep yourself engaged with your live-streaming videos on art, etiquette and even cooking. In looking ahead, what other irons have you got in the fire?

OOOOhh that oven joke was very alchemical. Nice metaphors with that one.

Totally, unintentionally alchemical. But I’m glad it works!

Yes, I livestream regularly about Art History. Currently going through the Art History textbook from Princeton, and I found out that they are no longer offering that Art History course as it focuses too much on white western art. haha. But you can get that information on my stream!

Emily Post Etiquette is another stream. I think etiquette is an important thing. The Left love to control people's thoughts, words and writings, but we already have a mechanism in place for social cohesion and it is etiquette! They hate it because it distinguishes differences in genders and status, and they find it to be old fashioned and snobby. But in reality it is a way to show respect for others without needing social justice and shaming.

The Right could use some etiquette because the youth have become so bitter about women and feminism (understandably) but it then becomes reactionary and we are losing this gender battle. We need to learn respect for elders, women, children, others around you.

Real life is not about trolling. These are important values I do not want the Right to let go of. Chivalry does not mean becoming a doormat for a woman. a true chivalrous man will not become weak and timid to be walked over, but a strong, valiant, magnanimous man who can discern a lady from a slattern.

A lot of people ask for the cooking videos! I need to edit and make some more! I am currently using Selo Olive oil, a fellow Croat with olive oil from Croatia!

I have a lot of iron in the fire!

I am also in the middle of working on an arts magazine. I know print is dead, but any true artist appreciates holding something real in your hand. And a lot of great artists are not getting the appreciation they deserve. So I have curated a lot of fantastic artists, writers, thinkers and am working on creating a really cool print magazine.

My inspiration is Twen magazine. It was one of the most influential magazines of all time, created in the 60's in post-war Germany. It spoke to a lot of people about cultural topics, had innovative design, photography and typography. It is pretty cool. I want to do something like that for today, especially if you are sick of Leftist propaganda; it won't have any of that. Just pure cool art and culture.

When I started working on that, I realized that not all of the artists were best showcased in a print magazine like writing, photography and fine arts. Some creators are very talented musicians and animators. That led me to create a 'TV' version of the magazine which reminds me of an old vintage MTV, Adult Swim, Liquid TV. So a lot of projects to work on! The only thing that would make the world of difference is if we can get donors to realize the importance of all this, and get some positive press coverage for it as well!

Boy, you aren’t kidding; that’s a hell of a lot of irons.  I think it’s great how committed you are to continuing your work despite (or maybe because of) everything that’s happened to you.  Those that tried to cancel you thinking you were easy prey definitely underestimated you, Martina.  That’s the thing about this kind of vicious Cancel Culture. It would be so easy to take the path of least resistance – to retreat and give up.  But you don’t do that.  You keep bringing the fire – which is one of the things I admire so much about you.

Martina, thanks so much for letting me hammer you with questions.  I really appreciate your taking the time to do this – especially given all those irons.

Well thank you so much. I often feel underrated. The only people invested in me are the people trying to destroy me so it is nice to see someone see the darkness that is after me and care enough to say something about it and investigate it a bit. For that I can't express my gratitude. The feeling of someone caring is so powerful. That is why what these people do are so vile, they want people to break down mentally and emotionally. Imagine living that life and thinking you are one of the good guys? I hope to continue to collaborate somehow.

~~~

Check out Lady Alchemy’s website.

You can follow Lady Alchemy on Twitter @LadyAlchemy33, and on Instagram @lady_alchemy.

If you’d like to contribute to the crowdfunding for Lady Alchemy Mutus Liber, you can make a donation HERE.