A special treat today! Schmatta’s first original home tour. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing friends — writers and photographers — who have offered their talents to this ‘lil newsletter. So you will start to see more pieces here that aren’t just written/created by me. (But there will also still be your regularly scheduled programming.)
Sharpie Diem
Words by: Erin Lassner
Photography: Jonathan Chu
Lazarus Lynch is probably the coolest person I’ve ever met. He does everything (and does it well), all while remaining ridiculously humble. He’s a chef, musician, model, actor, filmmaker, songwriter, host, therapist, social worker, and writer. And somehow, he’s so much more. Lazarus is a two-time Chopped champion, author of the cookbook Son of a Southern Chef: Cook with Soul, and the first Black queer chef to attend and cook for the Met Gala. The moment I walked into his home, I was met with immediate warmth and the most contagious smile. Here’s our conversation in his fantastic L.A. apartment.
You do a lot of stuff. You're like a modern-day Renaissance man, if you will. Tell me about who you are.
I feel that my work on this earth is to help people rise into their higher selves, use art as a tool of healing and social justice, and put ideas into the world that really shift the way we interact with each other and promote kindness. Whether it's food as the medium of that connection, witnessing people's stories in therapy, creating beautiful art for people, writing books, writing stories, [or] writing music, to me, it's always coming back to that same premise.
How did your love of design start?
I remember as a kid, I would watch design shows [and] I've always felt like, “Okay, I can do that.” So in my own way, I just started to create, and it was really a way for me to express myself. And then later I realized that in expressing myself, I was actually sort of giving other people permission to express themselves too. Design has not been a way expand my career or any of that. It literally has been my heart, joy, and passion that I just do for me. And in some crazy way, it's been able to reach people through social media.
One of your many identities is a chef. What was the food environment like in your house growing up?
So my dad was a Southern-born man from Alabama. Mom was Guyanese from South America. In our home, we were eating American food mixed with Guyanese food [mixed] with soul food. There was always a celebration of cultures in the home…I grew up in New York City, too, so in a way, it mirrored the world around me.
Your home kind of feels like a dish with many ingredients. Like you’ve got different tastes here and there but it comes together as a whole.
I feel like the gut is a really intelligent place to design from because if you really pay attention to what you're drawn to, you'll see that it might feel like it lives in different universes, but somehow, some way, it's intelligent enough to all come together and make sense.
I love that concept! Like, a lot of us approach a home or design from a finished idea, as opposed to building it along the way and finding moments of experimentation.
I think intuition really guided me. I would go to bed and wake up feeling inspired, like, “Oh my God, I got to paint the bathroom black.”
My table is actually handmade from two bookshelves and a random slab of glass that I found near the dumpster. I turned that into a table because I knew that if I bought a table…it might be over my budget.
Tell me about all this art.
It was also important to me to have history and African American art in my space — to see Basquiat or a hand-beaded statue from Nigeria. Before I would purchase something, I would ask, “Where is this from? Do you know the artist? Tell me their story.”
Okay, pivoting for a second to your living room walls — I’m obsessed. Tell me everything.
[Creating these walls] was a way of going to a blank canvas and dreaming out loud what my life could be. And that felt to me like color and shapes and words of affirmation and depth. So when I approached the wall, I was just thinking about pleasure. I painted the wall yellow…one of my happy colors, and freehanded with Sharpie marker. I didn’t know what was going to happen until I actually did it.
What do you think is your weirdest and/or coolest find?
I saw a foot-shaped chair somewhere, and I thought, “Oh, that would be so cool in hand form.” And I discovered that it's actually a thing. And there was a collector of them who lived 10 minutes from me. 10 minutes! It was just wild.
It seems like you get a lot of your stuff from places you'll stumble upon. Do you have any favorite stores?
I love Rubbish Interiors in Silver Lake. Queen Aminah’s in Leimert Park is a shop where I found a lot of my African art pieces. Leimert Park in general has a lot of stores that carry beautiful things. I love the MoMA Design Store. Oh, and of course, Target. I mean, what don't they have? H&M Home, Crate and Barrel, and West Elm are also stores that kind of speak to me.
Final words?
I love things with personality. I love quirky things. I love colorful things. I love objects that just make you feel something where you're just like, that's weird, but that's so cool. And I need that. I need that in my house.
🔥