[Music]
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great art is making the wonder of the
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world manifest I think it has always
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been the most important thing I mean
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I've got a world without art I would
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just shrivel up and die la is a real
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emergent I see now it's changing your
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lives it's really becoming a creative
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hub for artists and you have all the
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stars here as well and directors that by
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are you've really got to go where art is
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where there's twenty thirty thousand
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people going to see art well I'm a
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really quiet private person that's how I
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think I am but once something goes on
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show I feel kind of transformed and
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you're thinking about the relationship
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with the work to the people that are
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coming to look at it it's somehow really
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strange to see that that work is gone
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and having a life of its own
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you know I know it intimately I'm
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usually by myself and just doing my work
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a couple times a year
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I have these shows and it's a great
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opportunity for me to interact with
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people but short doses and then I like
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to kind of get back to my little cocoon
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and just you know do my work I spent
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nine months for my twenty seven fish
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some like an obsession the face of the
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people what they think about my art and
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this is my pay I love it I love it it's
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a very very big exposure for me these
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are all New York City parking meters
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that I've up cycled into public art
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everyone walks by and I like the fact
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that they smile when they see it because
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it's kind of like a surprise is
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everyone's kind of almost numb you see
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so many things here at a show and then
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they're like oh they kind of wake up the
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age of social media where everything is
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just swiping an image and to actually
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smell the pain and to want to touch it
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limors because it looks like a giant ice
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cream there's that physicality of the
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pain and I think you people are coming
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back to that warning more of a raw
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experience of are I used to go to bed
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and I used to look at a Matisse poster
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on my bedroom wall and they used to just
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stare at it and stare at night after
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night year after year and I just loved
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it the color the pattern it imprinted
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itself in my soul and 95% of my brain is
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taken up with
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visual images this it's like that's what
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is that that's yeah so I grew up
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surrounded by southern and Appalachian
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folk and outsider artists and you know
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and I grew up in an art studio around
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folk art it's all that I'm this is all
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that I know there's certain aspects of
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life that I have zero interest in
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knowing about I haven't gotten a
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driver's license in five years but I can
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tell you all kinds of about all
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kinds of other things I've had like so
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many jobs work with so many people and
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it's like I never want to go back do
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that this is way better
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it sounded like a therapy I got my own
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Disneyland in my head when I make a
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character or a piece or something
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functional and I feel very very happy
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yeah and I'm very happy I don't need
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more I just really want whatever I
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create to be a reflection of that moment
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in that time I'm trying to be an artist
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of today of what today looks like
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oftentimes I do my best work but I'm
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supposed to be like getting ready to go
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to a wedding or something it's like you
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know we're gonna be an hour let you know
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hurry this like open I'm feeling
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something now I'm putting stuff together
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we're gonna have to be a little bit late
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or whatever so invariably when I'm right
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up on something that's when the the
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creativity hits it's a lot of work I
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mean it's it's long days long weekends
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not a lot of human contact just like
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really trying to do this and make this
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right like every job it's a hard job you
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know there's no even though we've got a
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list beauty around us to say we don't
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sell any pictures despair it's really
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hard because I know they've got kids and
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school fees and everything so it's a
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there's always a burden of
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responsibility but it's I wouldn't swap
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it for anything you really need to take
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a long hard look at like whether or not
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you really understand what it means to
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actually be professional at this because
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this is probably one of the most
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difficult professions most other
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professions might be demanding in terms
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of time and all I stopped it to actually
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be able to pull this off and be able to
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pull it off for a number of years and be
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consistent your whole life with this is
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like mission impossible think
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about how you're gonna make money think
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about how you're going to make a living
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from it and talk to a lot of your
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friends and talk to a lot of older
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artists good piece of advice is what
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Andy Warhol's mother gave to him with
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just paint what you like and you see a
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lot of other people that are imitating
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him and Slyke you should paint what you
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like you know that's what made him
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unique and I did that same sort of thing
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I paint things that I like be genuine
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and what you're trying to say no copy
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what other people have already done be
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prepared to fail otherwise you'll never
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come out of anything original if you're
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not prepared to fail and then worry
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about being signed by galleries there'll
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come a time when you just find your
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knees you know because odd there's no
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formula to art art is so subjective and
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non formal a figure out something that's
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just different than what everybody else
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is doing I never did sculpting or
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model-making so I had to teach myself a
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new craft in order to kind of like get
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ahead so reinvent yourself you better be
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prepared to do anything that it takes
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you know because that's what it's going
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to take most of the time unless you got
05:05
parents just pay for everything for you
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and that's another aspect of this too
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but nobody wants to be that person good
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art needs to get you here in the solar
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plexus which is the part of your body
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where you it's like an involuntary thing
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it's not your mind it's not your heart
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it's like almost your breath it's very
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hard to find people that are original I
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like people that are not following
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fashion not doing something that
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everyone else is doing if you are good
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you will get noticed and you know it
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might not happen this year or next year
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but take a long breath and look at the
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long term and think when I'm 70 what
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will my legacy be and don't think it all
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has to happen overnight slow and steady
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wins the race and when we're all dead
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what will really live on is the
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paintings so it's worth making a good
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painting and spending time to do it
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Los Angeles: The pulse of creativity at the moment. More than 70,000 people attended the LA Art Show, the extraordinary five-day extravaganza. See it to believe it!
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