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hello everyone and welcome to black every day artisan conversation my name is michael mangason i am the new

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public program and outreach coordinator at the art gallery of alberta to start this program i would like to do

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a land acknowledgement all of today’s presenters as well as the aga

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are all situated on treaty six territory we’re also in edmonton the traditional land of diverse indigenous peoples including

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the cree blackfoot metis nakota sioux iroquois dene inuit and ojibwe

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salto anishinabe i’d also like to acknowledge all the indigenous inuit and metis people who make immense

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in alberta their homes today aja live black every day in conversation is made

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possible in part through support from the heart and soul fund by epcor

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i would also like to thank the canada council for the arts for supporting our virtual programming as well

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one thing to mention is that i will be moderating the chat so if you have any questions

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for our q a please write them in the chat and i will answer them at the end or we will try to answer them

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at the end uh without further ado i would like to introduce darren jordan the curator of

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black everyday and the producer of five artists one love

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hello hello everybody uh welcome back this is our second uh webisode

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um for the black everyday um art show uh

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and we are really uh we’re really blessed today because we actually have two of the artists that are in the show

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um and what i would like to do is uh have an opportunity to introduce to you

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these people and uh have you hear their narrative and and at the end of this uh perhaps share some thoughts and ideas

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with uh with the q a um but let me just back up i’ll tell you uh

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who we are and and why we’re here so uh basically this is an opportunity for

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us to share this amazing event uh that is uh this amazing exhibit that is going on at

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the uh the aga uh called black every day it is five artists one love

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15th year and we are we’re highlighting it with an

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exhibit that encompasses a number of really intriguing ideas and also introduces

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a number of really amazing local artists so we’re going to be getting into that um before i do also want to thank

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just people that have been associated with us from the beginning that have helped make

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this happen um i would like to start with thanking my my team natalie meyer

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who has been uh she’s uh our artistic director and monique mcfarland who has been

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uh with us for for the last few years and is our our our consultant and uh

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support jeff hendrick who is uh our basically our he’s our music director

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um my wife rose gotta say that for sure it wouldn’t be here without uh

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the support of my wife uh five artists one love has a number of volunteers that have been involved over the years and i just want

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to give a a you know a heads up and uh a nod to them um this year we’re obviously not doing

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it the way we normally do but uh again uh we would be remiss if we did not notice and acknowledge a number of volunteers

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that we have that uh support us um i want to thank also the aga

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uh michael as you have you just met and uh helen lindsey sharman and uh

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catherine crostin and their team for um inviting us to actually do the

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exhibit up in the main uh the main forum so we’re really happy to be in the main

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gallery and uh we appreciate the partnership that we’ve had with the aga um to help facilitate that uh

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toronto toronto uh dominion td canada trust bank group we want to thank them uh we also

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want to thank uh the edmonton arts council who have been supporters of five artists one love for

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the last few years and the edmonton community foundation uh we’ve got some really cool um things

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going on with an organization called uh planet sound uh who have helped us

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uh develop the uh the the marketing and the word out there so that people are

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aware of what’s happening and so want to give those guys a shout out shout out as well um i also urge you

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uh if you want to find out some more information about five wires one live uh please check out our website

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fiveartistonelove.com and you’ll get a really uh comprehensive overview about what it is we’ve done

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here in edmonton um and uh some videos that highlight some of the art shows as well as the

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music show um yeah so i’m gonna i’m gonna soldier ahead

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through this and uh i will uh i will then uh shortly introduce you to

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our our panel um five artists one love is an event that

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has been in edmonton for 15 years it started

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its genesis was an art show um basically i did not see representation

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of black artists in local galleries and i found it a little bit more uh prominent of an issue when uh when

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black history month rolled rolled in and i and i didn’t see anything and so um

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basically started this notion that we would do uh an art show that highlights local black artists

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uh shows what they’re doing and uh gives people an opportunity to learn about uh what

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what black artists are doing in the community and actually teach people about our our community

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so it’s been great uh it’s been 15 years and i’ll get into a little bit more as

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we uh progress but first of all i’m going to introduce

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judy robinson and uh and aj louden and we’re gonna

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have them um they’re gonna have them talk a little bit about themselves

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okay hey aj how are we doing i’m doing well thank you darren good good yeah likewise my friend

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likewise just looking to see if judy’s gonna be joining us here right away

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um in the interim i’m going to ask you to uh you could just tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of um how many

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years have you been an artist uh what mediums have you been uh

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have you been using and uh what do you remember about the first five artists one love

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show that you did when when did that happen i’m gonna go i’m gonna throw in two other things too if you don’t mind cool

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yeah absolutely i want to know uh what’s something that annoys you

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and what’s something that brings you joy cool okay good all good questions yeah definitely okay

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um so i would say i’ve been an artist as long as i can remember um you know some of my first memories

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are drawing on that old school style of printer paper where you had to rip the perforated edges off the sides oh my

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grandma had stacks and stacks of that so i was always just drawing keeping myself busy both my parents were busy people they my

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dad owned a small business and so just keep myself busy drawing making art and then

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uh you know when i ran out of that printer paper i started drawing on the walls a little bit okay and uh now today i’m a muralist so

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um yeah i’ve been an artist really my whole life uh mediums i use a wide variety of different media

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to create different types of artwork you know so i primarily identify as a mirrorless but i do a lot of other experimenting and

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play around with some installation work my studio right now is in a wood shop so i have access to a lot of woodworking equipment

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so i’m just enjoying myself trying to uh trying to just try new things trying new techniques and new tools and

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technologies and all of that um the number of five artists one love shows this is actually my fifth

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year as a five artist one love uh artist and um uh my first one was back in 2011 at the

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tu gallery the two gallery that was a gallery on 124th street it’s no longer there

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that’s right that’s how we started uh so i guess uh yeah i have a few

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different memories from that uh from that first show um yeah just getting to see my artwork

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up in a gallery space was interesting for me and that was a different different feeling you know um before i

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became a muralist i was really interested in uh well i still am really interested in graffiti and street art culture and so

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i saw my work out in the world in different ways but not uh not normally on the white walls of the gallery so that was new for me

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um one specific memory that kind of stuck with me from that uh tu gallery experience was actually uh

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the galleries putting one of my paintings on the floor he wanted to display it on the floor and i had i remember i had to chat with him and

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say oh uh yo let’s just not show this one if we don’t have room on the walls oh i see

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good for you okay yeah for sure yeah so just um yeah having to stand up for myself as an

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artist maybe a little bit there or yeah one of those moments that made me feel like an outsider looking in a little bit

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um so uh understandable yeah yeah but uh the first time that it happened uh yeah

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that was the first gallery show that i’d been into and yeah that’s the first time that um kind of that had come up with uh my work

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obviously so um so yeah that was an uh an interesting and a formative experience too you know

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i think i yeah something i remember and something that i learned from for sure

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um yeah so those that would be the answers to those questions what annoys me um

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you know i just did a video workshop series for for kids and we had this little interview process as part of the video workshop series

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uh and uh that was one of the questions was yo what annoys you and we had the kids ask each other that and for me the

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the biggest one that uh came up for me was uh this idea of not living up to my potential

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oh it just seemed like that seemed like too heavy to bring to the kids so i just said that wasting time

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wait okay i’m sure they can relate to that yeah for sure so that’s uh that is one thing that annoys me one thing

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that brings me joy is being in the act of painting um so painting is yeah really my my

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first love as an artist you know i love to experiment and try other things too but um in the middle of a painting when the

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whole thing isn’t solved yet and i’m still figuring it out figuring the image out it’s still communicating and speaking to me a

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little bit uh that that uh that time and space brings me joy for sure awesome that’s great i appreciate that

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uh i’ll i’ll i’ll share a little bit about myself in terms of uh what annoys me and what

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brings me joy as well and i think we’re going to have judy joining us here in a moment but um one of the things i would i would say

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that um annoys me just generally speaking anybody knows me knows this i just don’t

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like rudeness i don’t i don’t like rudeness no matter what uh your your situation is and how you’re

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engaging with people i just feel that we should always try to approach situations with a degree of dignity

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and and respect and you know even if you’re not you’re not feeling it still you can

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still engage people that way so i don’t know it’s always been a pet peeve of mine for sure um but one of the things that uh

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actually brings me joy is having a collaboration of artists

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working together um and actually creating something that wasn’t there

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and uh and having people engage talk about it be about it and uh and

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know that uh you know they’re leaving with uh with new knowledge and and a really uh you know interesting experience so that

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type of thing always brings me uh brings me joy and it’s obviously done uh through through the arts um in my

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case so that’s awesome and i’m wondering if we have judy if you’re there you could turn your camera on

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i’m hearing you but i’m not sure what’s going on with my i’m on my phone now

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okay well let’s uh can you see me because i can see you uh cat i can’t see

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you but i can i can hear you so if you i’m not sure if you have the icon at the top of the screen that has the uh

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the microphone and the uh little camera you might want to engage that okay there we go

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hey how you doing hey judy okay so judy good to have you my friend

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i’m gonna ask you the same questions that i asked uh aj um my question was

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how many years have you been an artist and this is just a short one we’re gonna deal uh we’re gonna delve into it a little

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bit more in depth as we go on but how many years have you been an artist what’s your what’s your medium of choice what’s your

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medium of choice and what do you remember about uh when you first were involved in um

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five artists one love and you want to just double check to make sure that your microphone is on you can hear me yes

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you can hear us we can’t hear you so can you engage your uh your microphone

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so judy we’re gonna have to get you to turn on your your sound if you can access it through your phone there

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still can’t hear you my friend

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i’m gonna i’m gonna get uh helen if we can get you to uh perhaps call judy or help support her

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with the uh with the sound that would be awesome

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we still we still can’t hear you but what i’m gonna do is uh i’m just gonna talk briefly about um

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about the upcoming can you hear me now there we go loud and clear okay i don’t think i’ve

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ever been happier to hear anybody’s voice oh my gosh that’s okay good awesome i’m

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glad that you i’m glad you got it sorted out and uh if you could try to hold your get your camera still

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and uh hold the space we’re gonna we’re gonna we’re gonna solder through well you know i have my uh

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i have a little thing here maybe this can help guys sorry about this it’s okay yeah no

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worries i think we’ve all been on so many zoom calls i’m gonna just put it on the computer yeah believe me okay oh we can hear you judy

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looking good you look great okay so i’m gonna back up so my question uh my question to you was um how many

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years and this is just a short one we’re gonna get into it a little bit more uh later but how many years have you been an

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artist what’s your medium and uh how many years have you been in five artists one live do you remember

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the first time yeah um i’ve been doing i’ve been practicing um

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as a visceral artist for over 10 years i have done three five artists one love

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shows i the first one was in 2014 at the citadel the citadel theater and if i recall

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well i think the theme was get lifted that’s right yes indeed and um oh that’s right so we

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we had actually moved the for the first time we had tried uh doing the art show

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in another environment other than the aga so it was a grand experiment i was in can you can you turn up your

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volume a bit i i’m not hearing you very well oh okay and mine is at max right now

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okay i’m not really sure if i can do that from here but is that any better right now yep okay great um

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yes i do remember that so um my my my other question to you is what is

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something that you find annoying mildly annoying and what is something that actually brings you joy

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about art in life man in life oh and you know because i want people to

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know you as artists but i also want people to get a sense of who you are as people well everybody who

16:53

knows me know that i’m crazy about gardening oh yes okay i i have a garden at home

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and i always i’m involved with a community garden in our area yes um

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something i find annoying is folks not

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willing to do the work what do you mean by that and the not

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willing to do the work when it comes to white privilege and racism

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yes yeah and uh an apropos topic for what’s happening in the world today

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a good topic for what’s happening in the world today right now for sure yeah yeah absolutely yeah we

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need we need we need allies to be doing better like not it’s no no

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there’s no time for performative stuff right now mm-hmm when it got to got to get down to

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it and make the in and you know institutional changes that needs to happen

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absolutely and that’s a nice segue into uh the actual title of the show black every day and um in in short it’s

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uh it’s a celebration of the uh the the the amazing talent

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uh of black artists within our city and um it also acknowledges the fact

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that yes in fact there is uh there is a movement towards anti-combating anti-black racism

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um and it needs to happen and it needs to continue but uh one of the things that people

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need to uh sort of understand and acknowledge is that uh we’re we are still black

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every day in spite of the fact that that might be a a trend for people right now to get on board

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um and that’s that’s wonderful but we’re still black every day we’re out here we’re we are living uh our best lives as we

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can and dealing with these issues whether or not it’s at the front of the um of the the news feed or not

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uh we are who we are regardless so um it’s been uh it’s been a 15-year

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journey to get us to this point and i’m just very honored to have uh the

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the the wealth of talent that we have um in the show so i want to get into i told

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you i’d give you a little bit more time to uh to talk a little bit more about yourself

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and and so judy i’m going to start i’m going to start with you okay and i just want to preface this by

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saying um my first interaction with judy was not as

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as an artist uh many years ago when i was a youngster when i was still in college um i was a

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member of uh i was fairly active in our black community and i was a member of um a couple of organizations one was the

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uh i remember that yeah the bsa the black students association and the other organization was an

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organization called ebony which is a long acronym which stood for edmonton black organization of nubian

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youth and um we were an organization that where um we were really focused on

20:13

bringing in young black people uh and we would meet every week and we wanted to bring these people in

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and we wanted to just sort of celebrate their their their blackness and also acknowledge that a

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lot of these young people were the minorities in their classrooms and uh and and they were also subjected

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to a an overall narrative about um if you’re black you should be a certain way and

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you should aspire to certain things and we wanted to uh shatter those notions and open up

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doors and so what we would do is we would bring in black artists uh black business people um

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therapists uh lawyers doctors people in the community that were were

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making a difference and showing these young people that there were options if you wanted to be a baller

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you want to work delve into hip-hop you could do that but you could also do so much more and

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at that time judy was uh somewhat of a force of nature um that we were all we were all in

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awe of and respect and um she’d been doing it much longer than we had and um

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sort of just sort of represented uh the generation ahead of us so i just wanted to throw that out there i

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had enough respect for for you before i even knew you thank you as an artist and uh and and that was a

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real gift to see uh what it was that you were doing artistically so my question now is uh how is it that you became an

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artist how did this you said 10 years so how did that happen for you

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well you know um good question um it was an evolution of sorts

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i’ve always been interested and curious about art and its influence and and it seems

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can unconsciously have been positioned in myself near to art communities for example as a

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curator of african heritage gallery as well as a volunteer and patron of

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several art events here in edmonton yes and the interesting thing is about

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10 years ago my and i’m getting a little choked up with

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this okay that’s okay my son recognized my hidden potential

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and he gifted me a birthday present of an art course and materials wow

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and that was a eureka moment of sword swarming and he has continued to feed that beast

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your son very intuitive young man when i paint

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all noise are diminished yes it is all consuming

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and therapeutic for me usually i would explore a thought with a

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sketch guys i had no intention of crying today no this is

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pissing me off no no no no you know when the spirit takes you you know what uh i was gonna come here all bold and

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brave no no no anyways i um i usually explore a thought

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with a sketch or an or outliner story that will develop

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further with my paint brush and my palette knife yeah most of my pieces are informed by

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my community activism yes as well as my people’s history and the

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mundane too every piece starts in a black canvas

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and in my mind i’m challenging the ancestors to guide

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and that’s an honor oh yes yes awesome thank you thank you judy

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and uh you know what um it’s it’s a visceral uh it’s a visceral response we’re

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talking about something that is passionate uh something that is indelibly uh

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connected to our soul and what matters to us so if it evokes feelings uh it should

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it should and so i i thank you i thank you for i thank you for that i thank you for

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being um vulnerable and and sharing with us oh i don’t know about the vulnerable

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today oh you’re great you’re doing great man you got me welling up already a little jewish

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i know man i can’t look like that don’t don’t let it start cause i do the ugly cry my lip gets out

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i shake you don’t want to see that i wouldn’t do it um thank you thanks for for sharing a

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little bit of insight um into into your your craft and and your process

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i’m going to ask you a couple more questions later about the thought process that goes into what

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it is that you uh that you create uh right now i’m gonna go to i’m gonna go to aj

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and um i’m going to uh i’m gonna ask uh this gentleman as well a few

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questions but i want to what i want to do also is i want to know what is the what is the moniker that you

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pro you prefer to go by because um i have mirrorless

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and i have graffiti artists and i i know that some people are very

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particular about that it’s like i’m a graffiti artist or i’m a muralist and and the two of them

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seem to be uh separate what do you prefer to be

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referred to as i’m good with both i mean i find them not much not mutually exclusive so i think uh

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first i’m a human being you know that’s it and i love uh making and building and designing things and

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uh whatever form that takes in a moment i’ll i’ll assume that role for as long as it suits me okay i’d say yeah

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a bit of both a little bit you’re not going to be yeah you’re not going to be uh begrudging me later no i can’t believe

26:18

you call me a graffiti artist okay no good good um

26:24

i wonder um how is it that you actually you became an artist how does this how

26:29

did it start for you how did you hold on to this and make it grow well i

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mean uh like i said kind of earlier i’ve always been making art and drawing and painting but i think i started to see myself as

26:41

an artist primarily um the last decade or maybe even 13 or 14 years or so

26:50

it wasn’t like a light switch where all of a sudden i was like aha i’m an artist that’s all i am or that’s my that’s my

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main mode of being right um but uh but yeah you know i went to school for sciences for a while

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i love learning i’m really passionate about just acquiring knowledge and finding new ways to see the world

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and i just didn’t um you know i always did well in school and and and liked being in school but after a

27:11

while i started to get disillusioned with science as a career for me okay so i just i science is what your

27:17

focus was oh yeah yeah for sure botany i love plants too so judy gardening yeah

27:23

i love plants and um and then yeah mostly the biological sciences i was really into but uh you know i dip my toes in

27:29

everything so astrophysics i took a few intro courses to astronomy and i was

27:34

looking in that direction and then um you know biochemistry i had to take all of that stuff too and i actually

27:40

find i use a lot of the that knowledge in my artwork today uh still but um but yeah i just sort of found my way to being an artist you know

27:46

graffiti started to take um more and more of my time and more and more of my attention and so uh

27:52

i started to wonder if there’s a way where uh something that was um kind of closer to

27:59

some of my activities in graffiti and street art could uh could maybe um become part of my career

28:06

too okay awesome how old are we when he actually started

28:12

doing the graffiti uh it depends on how you want to define it but uh

28:17

like even in middle school i was drawing on stuff with markers and getting in trouble okay when did you pick up a spray paint

28:25

okay a spray can oh that was about 18 years ago was probably the first time

28:30

that i really started playing with one to make art yeah but you know even before then i was spray painting my bike or my skateboard

28:37

and stuff like that okay awesome cool um thank you i’m gonna go i’m gonna go

28:43

on to uh another question uh the black everyday

28:48

exhibit [Music] how has it been for you guys so far

28:59

uh for me was an interesting opportunity for sure i’m just getting a little bit of feedback in the audience so am i i’m not

29:06

really sure why okay

29:11

you know actually what i’m going to do is it looks like we have a video here um and it it basically shows your

29:17

process so can we uh can we show that film and then you can guide us through that

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[Music]

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[Music]

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donna [Music]

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so [Music]

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so [Music]

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so [Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]

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so [Music]

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wow so that’s going to uh that’s that’s awesome so what i’m going

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to need to hear is what was it that we were that was magical what was it we were

33:54

looking at um i want you to start off with some of the projects that uh the the video had initially

34:01

started with and then uh we’re gonna segue into um what it was that you presented uh

34:09

and put together for the uh black everyday exhibit uh the the videos that we just showed

34:15

depict your work in the community and then it went into the actual work

34:20

that you put in this in the show so i’m gonna we’re gonna switch it up a little bit and i’m gonna get you to answer that and then i’m

34:25

gonna go i’m gonna follow up with with uh judy and um we’re gonna get an opportunity to see

34:31

some of her work first so go ahead aj tell us what is it we were looking at

34:36

sure yeah i just uh that the video had you know they said picture says a thousand words so hopefully a video can explain even more

34:42

um so that video just showed uh four different projects that i’ve worked on that i feel are kind of representative of the different types of work i’m doing

34:49

today i do a lot of work in community so a lot of collaborative work like i mentioned um i love making murals

34:55

i love painting at a large scale and spray paint lends itself to that and also love collaborating and teaching

35:01

too um so i love sharing my skills and leveraging the skills and knowledge that i have to uh help other people achieve a vision or

35:08

see have them feel seen in the world um so the first uh the video that you saw first was uh from a project down in

35:14

sutra which is a first nation um near calgary and i work with the community there a lot of youth

35:20

some friends from from the past two i got to collaborate with and we created a pair of murals together so one was

35:27

more just expressing the the youth’s vision and some of their experimentation with spray paints and

35:32

um came out in the format of lettering so that was the bright colorful mural um near the very beginning just sort of a

35:38

quick clip of that and then the blue tone mural that had a bunch of figures in it um was a mural that uh was based on all our

35:45

research so we went to the museum in sutura that has a lot of artifacts and historical photographs of

35:51

um older members of the nation and and uh people that have passed some of the ancestors and we found a way to um look through

35:59

that archive and find things that connected with us um so when i say us i mean the students that i was teaching and then

36:04

the artist team as well and uh and we use all these historical photos to compose an image that spoke about the

36:11

history of uh the suit in the nation and um some of the values and things that are important

36:16

to them too uh and so they were aj how did you connect with the did they reach out to you

36:22

i’m sorry did they reach out to you or did you reach out to them how does how did you initially get that connection well i had

36:30

a personal connection so i’m uh in a couple of different graffiti crews and one of the crew’s uh one of the crew members is actually uh that’s his uh

36:36

heritage he’s from he lives uh lives down there now and i was also part of a city of calgary

36:41

project called the street art program for youth i was the uh the lead for the project for several years in a row and so that

36:47

was one of our um one of our projects yeah yeah it did about four years um as leader that project and um what we

36:54

wanted to do was uh find a way to indigenize the program you know find a way to um be putting art not just in downtown

37:00

calgary where uh people that live in calgary center can can look at it but um find a way to expand that audience and

37:06

also to expand the communities who can feel seen when they see the artwork too um so that was uh that was uh the

37:12

connection there awesome and then you’ve got sorry i was gonna say that um part of

37:19

that video also showed um your work at the uh at the aga that’s been hung up there

37:25

right now constellation yeah so if if i have it sorry i hope i didn’t

37:31

cut you off no if you want to uh expound on on what what happened there how did you

37:38

create this masterpiece yeah for consolation um i was really interested in doing something

37:43

that um kind of engaged with the sense of authenticity of knowledge that you get when you go into a gallery space or

37:49

even a museum um so you know when you go into a gallery sometimes you see art on the wall and they’re like okay this is

37:54

art art it’s in a gallery it must be art art you know yes yeah yeah it has a tendency to authenticate the work in

37:59

there so i wanted to leverage some of that um power that that sense of authenticity that comes with

38:05

the the space um and i wanted to leverage that and and just hoist up my weird black prairie

38:11

myth that uh that i that formed this piece um blackberry myth come on yeah yeah

38:20

um so the the concept behind the piece is that um we recovered these fragments from a dig so

38:26

this archaeological dig we recovered these fragments from under a barn in southern alberta and wow um what we were able to kind of

38:34

elucidate is that uh the the roof of this um personal conservatory had collapsed

38:40

and on the roof on the ceiling of this of this space this personal um observatory sorry um we’re painted

38:46

all these figures um from history and from um what we’d call present day today and uh that we’d recovered these things

38:53

and then tried to reassemble them on a wall as best we could and so that was kind of the idea here and really i use this piece as a

38:58

metaphor for this this digging activity that occurs when we think about identity you know when we

39:05

try and piece together identity from these um from these figures where we draw

39:11

inspiration when we build ourselves uh so that was kind of the idea this this exploration of identity with this

39:16

metaphor of excavation that’s amazing and uh what was the process how did

39:22

how did it um how did that go to actually just actually transform that space into

39:28

what it was that you wanted uh well yeah it was a really valuable

39:33

process for me you know like i said earlier the the most joyous um times in my life are often when i’m in

39:39

the middle of a painting or a project or in the middle of making you know it’s not when i step back and look at the

39:45

final piece that’s not when i get the most joy but when i’m in the middle of it and so for this piece i thought a lot about identity you know i was digging

39:51

through myself and who are the archetypes in my life who how did i construct my own identity and i tried to reverse engineer it a little

39:57

bit and break it down yeah yeah discrete archetypes and that’s what uh some of those that you see on the wall

40:02

and the idea is that there’s gaps between the figures that uh leave room for other archetypes that continue this act of excavation and and

40:10

the the the actual range of the uh personalities that you have up there i see lavar burton to malcolm x

40:18

so what tell us a little bit about that well yeah i think um you know i grew up in a small town on

40:24

the prairies and uh when i was looking for these archetypes to construct myself i had a limited palette to draw from you

40:30

know i didn’t see blackness much in the world around me it was often skewed into these narrow stereotypes and

40:36

you know i was really nerdy growing up i love computers i love you know like i said i went to school for sciences

40:41

yeah i’m always always fascinated by by that aspect of the world uh and so when i saw jordy laforge on

40:47

star trek i saw myself you know i saw this engineer this person was respected for

40:52

their knowledge and their intelligence and not respected for athleticism or for being tough or for being a lyricist or

40:59

anything like that and so i felt uh i felt seen in a way that was really powerful and formative for me at that age

41:05

um and so uh many of the other figures uh i connected to for similar reasons because when i saw them i felt seen in a

41:12

way that i didn’t see when i watched cops on tv and saw a black person after black person getting arrested and that’s

41:18

right these other ways that i saw our shared identity as people of color being skewed into these

41:23

very narrow um spaces these very narrow archetypes and so actually i refer to some of those

41:29

neural archetypes through the sample character that’s on the wall as well okay yes yeah uh and i i completely um

41:37

can relate to the the notion of seeing a black man in the future in space um the fact that we were there

41:45

was acknowledged and uh yeah and if you’re coming from a small town and uh what you have to draw from is limited you grab on to what you

41:52

can um because of course you want to step outside of those confines of uh stereotypical roles so um an absolute

41:59

gift to have that uh that piece in the uh in the space for sure um i wonder if we have judy are you

42:05

available

42:11

there we go hi judy can you hear me i can hear you i can see

42:16

you i’m actually back back in my computer we’ll see how that goes good good uh you’re gonna have an

42:22

opportunity to um to to discuss and share your piece

42:28

that is one of your pieces that’s up in the show uh i’m not sure if i’m pronouncing it right

42:33

but i want to say my alpha yeah yes um what was the inspiration for

42:38

you judy and what was what was the process well a lot a big part of my art is um

42:49

um about my people’s history as i’ve said earlier and um um one of that is the atlantic slave

42:57

trade and um yes the word mafa is the swahili word for

43:03

a terrible occurrence such as a holocaust and um i’m not i’m sure today most

43:10

people would know that this triangular trade in the atlantic played

43:17

a vital role in building the foundation for a stronger

43:22

competitive economies of the west for the portuguese for the british for the french the

43:29

spanish the dutch and later the americans the first side of this

43:35

calamitous triangle took um products from europe to africa

43:42

such as guns and um factory-made trinklets the second side of that

43:49

triangle um was a car it was cargos of enslaved africans

43:55

brought to the americas to work on the plantation in what they called the new world

44:01

the third side and entails goods to europe from the new world products

44:09

of the slave labor and that would be cotton tobacco rum cane sugar

44:16

spices gold silver and a lot of timber for the booming shipping industry in

44:23

europe um in my in the painting maverick color

44:29

and symbolism play a big part and speaks to the horrible story of

44:35

exploitation that was occurring in that slave trade the

44:42

red and gold symbolizes the monumental loss of africa in exploited trade

44:48

relationships yes one of pure profit and navigational breakthroughs little nothing

44:56

for africa the medicine shark silhouette dominating the atlantic ocean

45:04

it is indicative of the cannibalistic nature of capitalism and

45:11

today we experience is white supremacy we know that dead and murdered africans

45:18

forever changed the shark genome of the region they had a new rich diet of bodies

45:28

paradoxically black people traverse the atlantic in chains to keep

45:34

companies such as lloyd of london in the black and to include banks like

45:45

and barclays is where the story is coming from so i mean you’re um you your your work

45:51

speaks to the fact that um well it comes from a place of

45:57

ancestral connection as you present yes and um and and it clearly when one

46:02

looks at your working you see heritage you see tradition uh there’s religious imagery

46:07

when i see your work and and clearly there’s there’s history um

46:12

why is sorry darren one of the most important thing to me in

46:18

my art yes is the importance of memory yes we cannot move forward without memory

46:26

to inform the solutions of the future yes and that that answers my question

46:33

why is that so powerful why is that important to you why is that embedded in your work my other question then is is there a

46:40

theme uh judy or a subject that you would like to explore

46:45

further in your work that you have not yet looking forward

46:50

um i’d say to to correct the distorted discourse

46:59

um when history has been written it’s usually by

47:04

the victor by the victor yes yes we haven’t had an opportunity to correct that discourse okay

47:12

we it’s important that we get um how should i say um

47:20

that we’re removed from the margin and the marketplace yes and on

47:27

um what’s the word and and brought into um

47:37

brought into the main spaces yeah to include you know our archives

47:44

and and documentation yes we we’re not there yet no and

47:50

it it i query in a hundred years um what would edmontonians know of the

47:58

black people who lived here what would they know of kerry west if we do not inform our art

48:07

and our documentation it’s like we never lived that’s right and i see art as an

48:13

integral part of that yes that narrative because um it’s the storytellers it’s the artists that pass

48:20

culture and history forward and um 2021 in spite of the introduction of our of technology

48:28

and such um it’ll still be us it’ll be the artists it’ll be the storytellers

48:33

uh the writers the poets uh that will speak of uh what we’ve done and where

48:38

we’ve been so uh aj i’ve got a question for you brother you ready for this

48:45

let’s hear it all right so art is often uh well mural work and

48:51

graffiti art is often seen as a um as creating as a creative space making

48:59

um so i’m curious like how has the location of your work influenced like its outcome

49:06

like what and also what are the best responses that you’ve received from uh from a piece that you’ve done publicly

49:14

well two good uh good questions uh so as a muralist i really take the physical

49:21

and like geographical context of the space that i’m working in um as a big point of inspiration it’s

49:28

something i need to think about constantly because i mean it informs so many other things about the piece it informs who’s going to see

49:33

it informs the audience in a sense too just that that physical context is is a

49:38

really big part of muralism and um so again for this specific space one of the big things i was thinking

49:44

about was this idea of authenticity you know this idea of who decides what is art and what what

49:50

makes an art official um and so that’s really what i wanted to engage with with this piece is again to

49:56

support that the idea of this um this validation of

50:02

knowledge that uh having something appear in a gallery or museum setting can give and i

50:07

wanted to leverage that and play with it and twist a little bit and use it to support this made up this black prairie myth this idea that we

50:13

found these fragments of uh of a collapsed observatory this personal observatory that somebody had used to observe the

50:19

stars and um and i mean that in more than one way um and i wanted to make that myth real and

50:26

i wanted to um i wanted the gallery’s sense of authenticity to do the heavy

50:32

lifting there to have people walk in and see the piece and and think at least for a second that

50:37

maybe that’s really what it was that it was recovered from this dig but it was results of this archaeological dig

50:43

on this excavation um and so that’s that’s how place paid in it played into this piece uh in particular um other than the you know

50:50

there’s the technical things like the size and proportions of the wall those were important to me too but i also thought about the orientation

50:56

of the walls when you’re looking at this wall uh it basically faces uh west out of the

51:02

gallery and when you look at the star pattern that’s hand painted onto the wall and onto the panels themselves

51:08

it actually lines up with the the group star groupings in the sky that you would see if you were to look

51:13

out if the walls had all collapsed at the gallery but you’re still standing on that floor those are the stars that’s the organization of stars and so

51:20

you can see the big dipper you can see uh you know orion’s belt so if you see marsha p johnson

51:26

uh in the mural when you if you’re able to go see it in person you’ll see that there’s three stars above her head and those are

51:31

actually the three stars from orion’s belt so i’ve repurposed and remade these constellations um so that was another thing i was

51:38

thinking about is yeah but the position of the the gallery in space um but also the position of uh the earth

51:44

in the the larger galaxy and universe and uh this idea of

51:49

alignment there and so the stars uh if you look out today don’t quite align but if you were to look out in 2031

51:55

um so uh 10 years from now in february uh around the dates that were actually installed the mural that’s when the

52:01

stars would align with the mural itself oh there’s this idea of um yeah i wanted to play with anachronism a little bit

52:06

and i talked about these figures from the past you’ll see amanda gorman in there too who’s a more contemporary figure so

52:12

we’re talking about this timelessness of of both this dig for identity uh but also the timelessness of blindness you

52:18

know so nefertiti’s in the mural as well yes so uh i i draw this lineage far from far in the past and

52:24

hopefully uh my intent is to draw it far into the future too because like you mentioned there and when we saw jordy laforge

52:31

on tv we said whoa black people exist in the future we we’re still here in the future we

52:37

make it we made it you know so uh and that was a powerful feeling to me it’s like okay what does blackness look like in the future who are we in the

52:43

future um and so that’s one of the things that i wanted to engage with when you speak about context of space that was one of

52:49

the things i was thinking about oh awesome that’s fantastic uh i got a we we’re actually going to uh i’m going

52:56

to expedite this a little bit um and i’m gonna ask a question or two and then we’re gonna open it up for uh

53:03

for a q a so we might go a little bit over four but um if you’re okay with that i’ve just

53:08

got a question or two for for both of you um

53:14

i should so let’s take a look at the social political climate that we’re currently in right now

53:21

and uh if you could just briefly tell me how that has influenced your practice 2021 this is a

53:30

remarkable uh time on many levels uh how has it affected

53:36

your your your work and and i might am i can i assume that you’re you’re you’re you’re actually producing

53:41

work now even outside of the uh the the context of the uh

53:47

um the gallery show yeah definitely i was in the studio today before this

53:52

oh wow okay okay and so how would you say this time is

53:58

and i have to we have to kind of move it a little quickly but i’m curious like how does it how’s it influenced your practice since

54:04

2021 and we’re talking about the social political climate and the fact that we’re in the midst of a pandemic

54:14

uh judy i’ll go with you i’ll let you go okay um it it hasn’t impacted my painting

54:22

in fact i think it has made it more relevant um my art intentionally

54:29

explodes the complexity of human condition especially psychological implications

54:36

yes and um again memory is as in my mind memory is essential

54:43

to enduring change yes when crafting that just society

54:48

it is critical to black emancipation and liberation so what we’re experiencing now it’s

54:54

probably um in real time getting to us faster but nothing has really changed

55:01

well as will smith said it’s been filmed okay yes what about a good answer uh

55:07

what about you aj yeah so in terms of um some of the

55:12

social awareness that’s going on uh i don’t feel like that has really changed my my practice a ton you know like judy

55:18

mentioned i think uh many of us have been making this art for a while making art about these subjects for a while because we’re black every

55:24

day we’re dealing with this stuff every day uh we live it every day so um

55:29

i’ve i’ve often made art about being black about some of the challenges of perception um in places like north

55:37

america and those those things yeah um so yeah i don’t feel like this stuff has affected

55:42

um my personal work much uh in terms of the pandemic side of things

55:48

uh it’s affected my practice a little just in terms of the collaborating i love to collaborate and for murals in particular it’s really

55:54

helpful to be able to collaborate in person you know we we kind of want to be on site at the same time at the same wall at the same

55:59

time so we can really speak to each other through the paint and have the conversation occur on the wall in real time now you’re like um and now

56:07

that that’s limited a little bit but you know it’s we’re artists we’re creative we pivot so you know i’ve been doing um

56:12

instead of my regular in-person workshops i created a video workshop series that teaches people about expressive lettering and

56:17

that kind of thing so that’s been part of the part of the pivot outstanding one of the reasons i asked that question we’ve got we’ve got about

56:23

one more minute left but one of the reasons i asked that question is because i’ve spoken to a number of uh not just visual artists but um

56:31

musicians and vocalists and so on and um one of the things that people sort of talk about struggling with is

56:37

um always wanting to have time to create but in uh in regular um in the regular

56:45

world you have to fight and and and scratch out a space and time to to actually create now that

56:52

a lot of people find that they do have that time uh the circumstances have drawn from their ability to

56:58

actually create so for the first time i’ve got a musician who complained about

57:03

wanting time to practice they’ve got time to practice but because of the circumstances the

57:09

motivation has been has been drawn from them and you’re saying that for you that you you did not experience that

57:16

that is that accurate yeah that’s not good for me i i make art full time now too i’m very lucky and grateful to be

57:21

able to say that so um yeah that’s uh that’s what i do with all my time anyways so outstanding hello michael how are you my

57:28

friend i’m jane great thank you so much darren so you know i popped up on the screen which means we’re gonna go

57:34

to a q a so if you have any questions for the artists or for the curators please add them to the chat we currently

57:41

don’t have anything oh wait so actually we have a question from rachel

57:47

and they say curious about the logo of the elephant with the mic in the paintbrush so darren this is a question for you do

57:52

you have anything to add about that yeah there’s i do so it’s uh it was

57:59

there’s a great deal of intention behind the design uh five artists one love at its genesis

58:04

as i mentioned was an art show and it was uh it was an art show exclusively for five years

58:10

and on the fifth year when we got invited to the um to do the show at the art gallery at the

58:15

aga um i i realized it required uh it required money

58:21

so prior to that i had been paying out of pocket and we drew from you know goodwill from the

58:26

community and we had this amazing uh event uh but we had to find a

58:31

way to generate some revenue so that we could actually pay the bills for being in

58:36

uh the aga um and so we did an experiment and it became basically it

58:42

was a music show that outlined um it chronicled uh black music as it

58:47

left africa and then uh hit north america and then how it evolved so we did everything from spirituals to

58:55

mississippi delta blues to to bebop to hip-hop

59:00

and that was a story and so at that moment five artists one love changed it became

59:06

something else it was an art show but it was also this production so everything from poetry to music to

59:14

to art and so when you look at the elephone elephant the uh the elephant represents um family

59:20

because they are the the creatures are are very family oriented um and their force of nature

59:27

uh and in its trunk it’s holding a microphone which speaks to the music uh and the poetry and it’s also holding the

59:35

the paintbrush which speaks to the to the art and the other meaning as well is that um

59:41

five artists one love likes to sort of challenge certain notions and conventions and uh sometimes the conversations that

59:48

we have are not always comfortable they’re uh they’re they’re not always comfortable

59:53

um but they’re safe right it’s these conversations are being done in a manner that is safe for everybody

59:59

but we are totally okay being the elephant in the room so that’s that’s what it’s all about

1:00:06

okay great uh i have another question from essence and it’s for both artists what is your

1:00:12

favorite piece of art and why um good question

1:00:18

oh it’s actually what is your favorite piece of art that you’ve created and why cool oh

1:00:28

i can jump in on that one um i would say it would be the last piece that i’ve done that lasts for about 10 15 minutes

1:00:34

after i finish the piece and then i start to deconstruct it and uh and then i gotta go paint

1:00:40

something else yeah so for me i’m really in love with the process for me actually

1:00:47

the one that you can see behind me in the screen and it’s it’s titled pando and um pando

1:00:56

um refers to um forest where literally

1:01:03

one tree is responsible for populating the whole forest okay and in my mind it’s a strong

1:01:11

indication of her connectedness [Music]

1:01:18

connectedness fantastic okay so i have another question uh this is

1:01:24

from um money love how do you keep your creative juices flowing

1:01:31

and i think it’s for both artists um for me um i could be motivated

1:01:38

by words so sometime it’s just reading an article or listening to music

1:01:45

yeah you know um yeah there’s lots for me but words play a big

1:01:51

part yeah i can definitely connect and relate to that i words are really important to

1:01:57

me too and as a powerful influence and point of inspiration and i’m just just living to you know just gather

1:02:03

experiences and having new and different experiences uh is important to me uh third one i would say

1:02:10

is flavor i love food so much and oftentimes i’ll like sometimes i wonder if i have like slight synesthesia you

1:02:16

know when i taste something i just see colors and groups and tears and i see a palette up here and i’m

1:02:21

i just feel like vigorously inspired stuff [Music] for me [Music]

1:02:28

okay we have another question here uh uh thank you for sharing this they say this is so beautiful my question is

1:02:34

which artist visual poet musician have you been following or has sparked joy for you in 2020 and 2021

1:02:41

and it’s for everyone great question

1:02:46

i i am i really like the primitivism of jin

1:02:53

michelle backward oh yeah um it’s so organic i i really identify with

1:03:00

that i also like um the excitement

1:03:06

of the american artist pollock um with his action paintings i find that

1:03:13

i’d like to try that sometimes yeah okay yeah

1:03:20

um i yeah i like i love basquiat as well i would say uh more contemporary for me

1:03:26

is a gentleman by the name of kim day wiley he’s a gentleman that painted um he did

1:03:32

uh obama’s painting uh in the white house and uh his it’s it’s a

1:03:39

realism but he has these vibrant colors and a really um exciting it’s always done on this

1:03:45

exciting background but what he does is he takes uh everyday black people and he puts

1:03:50

them in these sort of classic poses um and it doesn’t matter whether the guy is

1:03:58

whether they’re wearing uh nikes and jeans or whatever there’s just this sense of

1:04:03

strength and uh almost a regal feel um of of the the subject when you

1:04:09

when you look at his painting that’s my that’s my jam right now how

1:04:14

about you aj hmm so many so many um i would say giuseppe riberas is probably my

1:04:21

favorite painter especially portrait artist i saw a few pieces uh in person in um uh in spain

1:04:29

uh in madrid and uh just i can’t get them out of my head uh you just had an ability to turn paint into skin

1:04:36

and just uh it was incredible i really love the installation artist swoon too uh she’s

1:04:41

uh just a really powerful potent artist and she combines images different styles of image making

1:04:46

in a way that i find really compelling and interesting and has a a great way of telling a story through

1:04:51

installation that’s just got this really multi-faceted nature to it that i find fascinating great

1:04:59

uh so we actually have a question that i’ll be able to answer someone asked or maybe darren you also know this off the

1:05:04

top of your head how long will the exhibition be up at the gallery for um

1:05:10

it’s going to be up until september i’m not sure what the final date is

1:05:15

but um i have the 12th in my calendar sounds good so and then um that’s a

1:05:20

really good question uh it should be noted that initially the um the show was scheduled to be uh in there

1:05:28

from march until june march until june and uh due to uh the the uh the the

1:05:36

restrictions that were placed on us uh the aga was uh gracious enough to extend

1:05:41

that date in hopes that uh we will have an opportunity for people to actually

1:05:46

be in the space and experience this i’ve been fortunate enough to actually see the show uh in person uh

1:05:55

uh shortly after it was actually the day that it was actually uh finished and uh it was almost a

1:06:01

reverent experience it almost felt like being in church and when i left i

1:06:07

was if i was uncertain before i was 100 certain that people need to be in the

1:06:12

space to fully experience um what i did um the the work

1:06:18

is a powerful it’s compelling it’s beautiful and it is uh it’s intertwined perfectly

1:06:26

and seamlessly uh with each artist in each area of the room they’ve used the space really well

1:06:31

and i want people to see it so up until september where it’s up until september hopefully we’ll uh we’ll have people in

1:06:37

there um there is also uh there’s there will probably be some sort of a

1:06:42

a virtual offering that we’re still working on which would

1:06:48

be wonderful but i when those risks you see i said when when those restrictions are lifted i

1:06:55

urge people to make the time to go and see what your city is offering here we’ve got some

1:07:01

fantastic artists there yeah it truly is a fantastic show uh i

1:07:06

have another question this is from vina for both judy and aj if you were to engage in a mentorship

1:07:12

with emerging artists what would be your focus and advice also for your own journey at the moment

1:07:19

how do you foresee your work involving so there’s two questions there so the first one is what would be your

1:07:25

focus of advice um uh i do uh lots of or pre-pandemic of

1:07:31

course i did a lot of uh different mentorship activities and um yeah there’s so many so many different

1:07:38

things that i’d want to share and speak about and uh that kind

1:07:43

of thing but it really depends on the artist so whoever the mentee was i need to know what their goals were

1:07:48

what their vision was and then kind of how i could help and what i could offer in that sense so i’d say it’s really contextual in case

1:07:53

by case i try to give people confidence because i think that’s something that’s um

1:07:59

is really valuable for us as artists and can really be a major difference maker yeah but just

1:08:04

just understanding that yeah your work is worthy and just keep making keep being an artist you’re doing something valuable

1:08:11

great what about you judy i’d say um to protect your authenticity

1:08:19

more than anything else yeah that’s some really good advice for emerging artists and so the second part

1:08:27

of the question is how do you see your work evolving

1:08:32

um for me it’s um i’ve been doing this for a while and

1:08:38

i’ve really not exposed myself i’ve been very picky as to

1:08:44

who i collaborate with um for me right now the fight is um get it

1:08:52

into other spaces like aga in fact i would like to challenge the

1:08:58

aga to put this exhibition on the road it will be an amplif it would be an amplification

1:09:05

of forgotten voices

1:09:11

outstanding yeah um for me i would say uh i’m always exploring like new

1:09:16

technologies and tools i just recently hired my first studio assistant and so in terms of

1:09:21

where my practice goes in the future i would say um more experimenting more being

1:09:27

uncomfortable more often being out of my comfort zone and seeing where that can take me and then asking for help more often too so having a

1:09:33

studio assistant means that i can do more lifting you know when i put all those panels on the wall you saw sam my studio

1:09:39

assistant running around and uh in fast forward uh helping me get things onto the wall

1:09:44

physically helping me lift things helping me cut things out she has knowledge that i don’t have so um just yeah asking for

1:09:50

help and and uh being more and more okay with being uncomfortable in my practice nice okay yeah that’s great uh paulette

1:09:57

wants to know what is the major takeaway you hope young children will take away from your work

1:10:03

so the audience is all young children what do you hope they get from the show

1:10:09

can i jump in on that one as well okay um as and and i’ll i’ll share the microphone

1:10:15

but as as curator um i want uh i want uh young young people to know that um

1:10:23

that we’re out there doing it that uh that you will you’ll have you’ll have a space you’ll have an

1:10:29

opportunity to to share your work and and um and that there will be something there

1:10:35

uh a platform there for you should you decide to uh to delve

1:10:40

into this and i want them to see themselves in the work i want them to see that other black men and women are are

1:10:48

producing art and and this work on a very high level

1:10:53

and when you see yourself in something that you you love or has potential for you it’s all the

1:10:59

more motivation so that’s one of the one of the things i’m hoping young people will take away

1:11:04

when they come to our show yeah for me i feel the same i hope that

1:11:11

people and young people that come to see the show can see themselves reflected in the work somehow and i’d be so grateful if people got the

1:11:17

same feeling that i get when i see um a painting that i really connect with um just i feel

1:11:23

um like darin said it’s almost like this uh like uh almost a religious feeling or

1:11:30

almost this this transcendent feeling of of just a deep connection um often i’ll feel in awe when i go into

1:11:37

a gallery and i’ve seen previews of some of the other artists work and it made me feel that feeling of of

1:11:42

being in awe and just being feeling amazed um so i hope that young people can have that feeling and share that feeling they come in this digital

1:11:49

yeah i i agree with with both of you and um we want the children to know that

1:11:57

we’re fighting for them in terms of curriculum to make sure that it’s not just an

1:12:02

elective anymore that art is critical to species survival literally

1:12:08

because um it’s a accumulation of information this that underpins

1:12:16

technology so we’re gonna make sure that they get a better world that we

1:12:21

participated in i’ll say beautifully said so we have about a couple more minutes

1:12:29

so let’s do one more check and i’m just checking the chat here and donna has uh how easy or difficult

1:12:36

is it for you to survive in your present environment as compared to if per say you were located in vancouver so

1:12:43

just to rephrase that question perhaps it is about uh you know what’s the influence of

1:12:49

edmonton has uh on your survival versus another environment

1:12:56

perhaps that’s a difficult question but maybe i’m processing that right now

1:13:03

but i don’t have an answer yet so maybe somebody else can jump in if we’re thinking of as an artist i

1:13:10

think edmonton um is a pretty vibrant artist community um there’s we could do

1:13:17

better in terms of access to the marginalized

1:13:22

um but the very fact that um black everyday

1:13:29

is in our provincial museum it’s it’s promising it’s promising

1:13:36

so i think um it’s getting better and um if um as canadians want to

1:13:44

maintain a sense of multicultural identity then you need to bring in the

1:13:51

marginalized into the bigger spaces and kudos to the aga for taking that

1:13:58

step indeed and coming at it from that lens as well i would say uh

1:14:04

edmonton versus vancouver uh in terms of the art scenes um we’ve had a uh we’ve had a very

1:14:12

vibrant art scene here musically and with the visual arts uh and performing arts as well and uh some

1:14:20

have said that we have actually um overshadowed some of the larger metropolises so

1:14:25

um for little town edmonton um we are i think acknowledged on the world stage that

1:14:31

there’s a lot of talent here so um [Music] our survival is uh is based in people

1:14:37

sort of understanding that and acknowledging that and uh and making spaces for this this art and

1:14:44

this work uh if it’s not there so keep it growing yes we need to be in the

1:14:51

dominant structures we are not there yet absolutely

1:14:57

aj do you have any last words or anything to add with that question no i think yeah i would agree with both of those i feel uh

1:15:03

lucky to live in edmonton i think there’s a lot of good things going on here there’s definitely room for growth but i see people out there doing the

1:15:09

work too so yeah that would be my two cents perfect well we’re pretty much at time uh i’m

1:15:16

just going to say thank you to judy darren and aj for coming in and speaking about their work in this

1:15:22

amazing show that’s on um i can’t wait until everyone’s able to see it when you know

1:15:27

provincial guidelines say that you know it’s safe to do so and thank you so much uh darren judy and

1:15:33

aj do you have any last words um i just would urge people again to uh to check out the website

1:15:42

fiveartistonelove.com and again you’ll get a comprehensive overview about not only uh what five artists one love is as a

1:15:48

whole uh but also uh you’ll you’ll be able to read up on all the artists that are presenting in the show and you’ll you’ll

1:15:55

see their bios and get a photograph so please uh

1:16:01

take a look and uh and spread the word we look forward to seeing you guys yeah thanks to all who made it possible

1:16:08

indeed i’d love to thank everybody who just showed up in the audience and just came to bear witness too that’s such a

1:16:14

valuable part you know the art uh needs an audience uh yeah at least so i appreciate

1:16:25

and with that [Laughter] i again want to thank the aga and

1:16:33

everybody else that was involved in making this happen and uh judy and aj thank you for your

1:16:39

your insights and um again your willingness to kind of open up and and and share what what motivates

1:16:46

you what makes you passionate and makes you feel a little uh a little emotional so thank you for all

1:16:53

of that okay well thanks

1:17:02

you

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