EP. 030 - MILLIE

GOOD. WILD. FREE.

MILLIE BROWN

'CAUSE + A(FFECT)'

Age: 32

Location: Los Angeles

Millie is a performance artist whose work explores the synergy and separation of mind, body, and spirit. She is best known as Lady Gaga’s “vomit artist.”

My childhood was very free in many ways. I lived in multiple countries in Europe and the South of Spain in the 90s which was like living anywhere else in Europe 100 years ago. Not many people had cars, they would use horses and carts as means of transportation. I watched old men stumble home from the pub on their horses.

We lived on the top of a mountain with no electricity. It was a very raw life. My parents were hippies. We weren't allowed tv. We didn't have much money. I remember one year we didn’t have a bathroom and would pee outside in nature. I'm extremely grateful for that experience now because my parents were creative individuals. Instead of giving us toys they told us to use our imagination and play with sticks and stones and the ants in the trees.

My mom raised four kids on a teacher's salary alone after my dad left when I was 3. After my parents split, my dad would drop me off at the local Buddhist center and the monks would babysit me. I always felt an affinity to them, almost as if I was a monk in a previous life. It makes sense given my line of work. In performance art, you have to reach a headspace that allows you to be calm in extreme situations.

Although we were poor, my mom found ways to save up money for us to travel. We went to India when I was 7 years old. Being able to travel at such a young age created a well of empathy within me. It gave me a global understanding of humanity.

I hope to open people’s minds to a more collective perspective through my art. We view things as being separate from us, but everything in the world is intertwined. I hope to provoke empathy and help others understand that everything affects everything.