Meet SKY Palkowitz | Multimedia Performance Artist/Actor/Director/Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with SKY Palkowitz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi SKY, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
ART MATTERS. Making Art is essential to the growth and development of the Planet. Artists are the people who truly change and heal the World. The Artist’s role is to enlighten, engage, experiment, challenge consciousness, raise it to a higher level. We are the ones who can shine light where there is darkness. With storytelling, dance, visual arts, comedy, music… we are able to create and entertain, but also to uplift, educate, inspire, and ultimately provoke thought and alter peoples’ views on things.

I make Art, Theatre, Music, Multimedia, happenings, films, videos, performances… to engage people in public conversation about the things that are necessary to be brought up. I make art, write, sing, perform, create… to make a difference. To push the envelope and expand the paradigm.

My work in directing and producing others’ work aims to represent under-represented communities, with a focus on LGBTQ, BIPOC, women, and minorities; and with a particular commitment to protecting and serving children, and the Earth, for the generations which are yet to come. My themes often deal with racism, politics, sexuality, alienation, identity, community, and imagination, to name a few.

My mission is to upgrade Humanity via the use of Multimedia, Visual and The Performing Arts.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Above all, I was born an entertainer. My passion is acting, tv, film, stage, from Shakespeare to musical theatre to experimental. As a multi-disciplinary artist, I have toured the country with seven solo shows and performed regional theatre from coast to coast. My last solo show played off-BROADWAY to sold-out standing ovations. I love to make people laugh and cry and think and feel.

Through my company, DELUSIONAL DIVA PRODUCTIONS, (www.DelusionalDiva.com) I dramaturge and direct, produce, make films, compose, and educate. I’ve been working with other solo artists, storytellers, poets, spoken word artists, musicians, dancers, and artists worldwide, through zoom lessons, to help them create and film shorts, videos and experimental digital media, which I then edit and produce. I have an array of client films on my channel, www.Youtube.com/DelusionalDiva

My clients have been in international film festivals over the last two years with films that I have helped them to create. I also coach actors of all ages, and have been an educator around the country for over 30 years. Since the beginning of pandemic, the hot tool for actors are “Self-tapes”. I help actors to create the best possible digital product in a short amount of time, whether it’s an audition, or a self-created script and tape to show off to agents and reps and attract industry attention.

My path in acting, producing, directing and teaching was a long and twisty journey. I started my serious training when I was in high school, acting in musical theatre and taking private lessons in acting and singing, working in children’s theatre and touring New York. I then went on to be the youngest member admitted to the nation’s top graduate conservatory, “The Professional Theatre Training Program” at the University of Delaware, where I dedicated 2 years of my life to Shakespeare and classical theatre.

In 1994 I moved from the East to the Midwest, where I completed my Master’s Degree in Acting at the University of Iowa, while teaching undergraduates, and performing in local regional theatres and 3 seasons of Iowa Summer Repertory Theatre. And that’s where I started writing my own works, and performing solo theatre and directing and producing. I moved to Chicago, spent a few years there touring and teaching with Imagination Theatre, whilst writing solo shows and touring the country and fringe festivals with my original tour-de-force works.

I moved to Hollywood in 2000 and never looked back. I ran a theatre company for women for a few years, and have performed all over Los Angeles and beyond. I’ve been teaching, acting, directing, working with legends, and creating original works for stage, film, tv and the internet, ever since. I love Los Angeles and all it has to offer. I have new agents and management, and am looking forward to doing tons of television and film, as now there are so many diverse opportunities for wild, wacky women like me onscreen!

For over 20 years, I have been painting aliens and all things outer space. I started my company, COSMIC ALIEN ART, in 2020 as a result of being trapped at home and pumping out art as a means of releasing stress. I paint original oil on canvas and wood, as well as acrylic and watercolor, some mixed media. And I’m super proud of my ever-growing body of fluorescent, glow in the dark paintings. My collections can be found on my website (www.CosmicAlienArt.com) and on social media, like Instagram and Facebook. @CosmicAlienArt

My advice to anyone who has any tiny bit of talent in any field is:
Try new things and stay on the path. Find your passions and do not give up on your dreams and aspirations.
Care not for what anyone else says; be true to yourself and work on your craft.
Make art, be art, live art and see art. Art is the life. Art is the way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve been living in Los Angeles for 22 years now, and I still love discovering how diverse and expansive southern California is, and all it has to offer. On a hunt to find a new place to live, I have explored all sorts of new nooks and crannies and neighborhoods, and found pleasant hiking spots I never knew existed. From parks to lakes, to mountain trails and rich pockets of ever-changing developments, there are so many great outdoor places to walk and hike. I love to just see the beautiful houses, from old to new, around Hollywood and everywhere. I would take my guest on random hikes through and around areas like Los Feliz, Beverly Hills, Griffith Park, Hollywood, Silverlake, Downtown…to Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, Calabasas, Topanga, the Valley… just to see the gorgeous architecture and history, the oceans, the beaches, the rich and the famous and how others live.

To eat, I’d take them to some of the finest Thai, Indian, and vegan restaurants around Los Angeles.

My friends are mostly fellow artists of some sort or another, or interested in art and theatre, so I would plan a couple of downtown museums and art galleries, and book plays at some of the best theatres in town.

Hotspots for my friend:
Ahmonson
Pantages
A Noise Within
Temple of Self-Realization on Sunset Blvd
The Hollywood Bowl
And a movie at the DGA

Daytrips along the PCH. Maybe a day in San Diego.
So much to do!! Maybe my friend should stay for two weeks!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Many of the people I studied about in graduate school, or aspired to be like from watching their work evolve over decades, I have been fortunate enough to meet, work with, and get mentorship from, over the span of my diverse and artistic career. Early on in New York, performance artist, Penny Arcade made a huge impression on me. After seeing her show “Bitch/Dyke/Faghag/Whore” in 1992 at the Village Gate, I was on the path to creating diverse characters for the stage and exploring solo work, and in particular, avant-garde. She had a huge influence on me and my work, still does, and over the years we have become friends and kindred spirits in our quest to better Humanity by writing reality and sharing stories. Penny’s influence definitely had something to do with my first solo multimedia show, “Alien Rhoda”.

Little did I know that years later, I would be turned on to the opportunity to work with the world-renowned Queen of the Avant-Garde, Rachel Rosenthal. I received a scholarship to work with Rachel upon moving to Los Angeles in 2000, and continued a close friendship with her for many years, was in her select performance troupe, even traveled with her to her art opening in Paris. For nearly a decade I was guided by her techniques, creating, developing, performing, producing numerous works under her tutelage, including the premiere of my 5-hour, 3-venue “avant-garde happening”: the infamous one night only multimedia, production of “Alien Love”. Rachel was my mentor, and my soulmate. Her wisdom and her legacy are burned deep in my cells.

My constant source of support and love is from my wife, Ingrid Quintas. I shout this out to her, she is the person I sleep and wake with, who shares my dreams and aspirations, who sees me at my best and worst, and constantly forgives my mistakes. Ingrid is a talented actress, dancer, singer, writer, director… like me, on fire and constantly spinning new projects and ideas into existence. She has been a huge support over the pandemic, as we have been partnering in new and artistic ways: writing, composing and playing music together, working on screenplays and scripts, launching online businesses… When I am down, she is there, and vice-versa. We have been together for 13 years, and it continues to develop and get more exciting, as we hold each other accountable for our goals, and work together to achieve making a giant, artistic contribution and impact to, and for the World and Planet. I love you, baby, my partner in crime!

Website: www.SKYPalkowitz.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/DelusionalDiva

Linkedin: www.Linkedin.com/in/Delusionaldiva

Twitter: www.twitter.com/DelusionalDiva

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DelusionalDiva

Youtube: www.youtube.com/DelusionalDiva

Other: www.DelusionalDiva.com www.CosmicAlienArt.com

Image Credits
Jason Jenn, Orit Harpaz, SKY Palkowitz