SPEAKER_02 1:45

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today stop that back. Roma. Three, two. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Josh Henderson. Josh is a visual and graphic artist, animator, gamer, as well as a lefty from Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from North Carolina AT with a bachelor's in art and design. From digital illustrations to animation, murals, painting, and graphic design, logos, flyers, and cover art, Josh has learned art as a language, the art of being present and relaxing in that. As a child, he enjoyed watching movies and storyboard art that depicts visuals for each major scene. He understands the importance of keeping a childlike attitude in life and to have a sense of wonder. Josh's work urges viewers to look inward and to take hold of what they desire the most. As a teacher at Loren, is that correct? Laurean. Lorien, Academy of the Arts, Summer Art Education Program, where students focus on drawing, painting, printmaking, digital art, digital illustration, and graphic design students. Graphic design, students have the opportunity to receive a certificate of achievement. Josh's work has been displayed in art galleries, billboards, as well as courtside at the Charlotte Hornets Games. Thank you for joining us today. How are you feeling, Mr. Henderson? Feeling all right. Excellent, excellent, excellent. So as you see, we're going to start into this interview. We have some questions that you know you've already seen. Of course, we don't have to stick directly to those things, but they're going to be our background to go back to if we get offline. I will probably get off topic. Excellent. So as we always begin with most people, just for our audience to have a little bit of understanding of who you are and what you do, could you just explain some of your early beginning and influences specifically as a child? What was it like growing up as a creator?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

So I grew up around a lot of my big influences, which were on the TV screen. So everything I saw was between, I mean, like anime, I mean, any kind of comedian. Like I was growing up late night. We was all uh sneaking to watch like Comic View and everything. Yeah, no, I ain't supposed to be watching that. Like, even like when I was too young to understand it, I was watching The Simpsons and stuff, and my dad would be watching it. And I'm over in the corner behind the couch, like sneaking, and I'm just like laughing, trying to hold in my last. Because it's funny, a lot of satire is in my work. So especially my early, early stuff. Like I'm getting back to that now. I'm getting back to my rare form because before I I don't know, I don't know what happened along the way. I was trying to be like, I don't know, I figured other things out along the way. So I kind of took everything like between the comedic side and then kind of taking it back to a more serious note and then just finding a way to get personal with it and then also you know get the humorous side in there too. So with all that being said, the inspirations come from like comedy, it comes from like animation, it comes from just regular things growing up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Oh, cool, cool. Could you tell, and this is something else always like to answer? Of course, I'm gonna ask you about how you discovered your passion for art. But as a child, were either of your parents were they creative?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So okay, so to back to that, yeah, my parents, they were entrepreneurs, so they were into financial services and just any kind of thing. Like my brother and my sister, they all do something. So my whole family, we we do something. My sister's a a stylist. My brother, he's in the stocks and they do real estate. And then my parents, they're they just you know, they do whatever. My mom went to college like almost five years ago and finally got her master's, and she picked up photography. Oh, wow. So yeah, mama's mama's got the juice. She got the juice. She got the sauce, you know. The sauce is forever. Juices is, you know, temporary, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

I like that. So she has the sauce going. Excellent, excellent. So, how did you discover, like, we're talking about how you discovered your passion for art? Was that strictly from your or not just from the things that you saw, but did anybody teach you?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Okay. So, between the animation side of things, I went to I tried to go to school for that. And for some reason, that wasn't a part of the program, but they kind of highlighted it saying, Oh, yeah, one of our students went to Disney. Well, that was something they did. I always do that shit. So the program is a visual art and design program. And uh at Auntie, I love my school. I love y'all. Shout out, as I say, Auntie Agri. But also, y'all had me running for a loop. You know, they they had me out there like, yeah, one of our students, she she's right here. She just interned with Disney, and she did that on our own. Right. So you know, they are proud of her. Everybody does that shit. But it's like that, that's just a a highlight of of what your students can do here, but it's that's not what we did. But I did get a lot of knowledge that I took back with me even after after going there. There's like artists that I met that that they didn't know anything that I had to bring to like they it was two different worlds that we came from. Right. So, I mean, even going into a a regular store and then like looking at all the materials and being able to name things like to the T and knowing what they do versus you know having to figure out on your own, there is like that advantage to going to uh get that college education. So I get that. But so let me get back to your question. I'm trying to remember because I can find it too. I can't, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah. All right, so just wondering about that passion for art and like you said, being You said, Where did it come from? Yeah, where did it come from?

SPEAKER_05 7:19

It came from them. There's a point where you're just kind of like playing around as a kid, yeah. And then there's a point where it clicks that you're doing something else.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Okay, so I like doing just anything with my hands. Like I took, so if I didn't have a toy or something as a kid, I would literally take my hands and make it. Like I would, I would cut out something or put something together, whatever I found around the house. See. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_05 7:40

So a maker of things. Yeah, I like things.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yeah, definitely. And that's what I want to get more into because I I feel like I've been I've been too stuck in what's what I already know and what I'm good at. And I want to like dive into more things that that branch off of that. So a lot of people are hearing now from me about how I'm taking the extra there's there's a theme of food. And I don't know if you see that a lot in some of my work, but now I'm actually gonna take that and do more things around that that realm, whether it's included in pop-ups or in other scenarios. So just look out for that because that's a real big thing for me. Like I have an actual experience when I eat food, like I have my own little moment being a side. Like, like a long time, like my friends will know, they'll see me, and I'm just like sitting here in reverence, sitting here, like, yeah, enjoying the little things. Like, it's it's so funny to me. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

So question Do you uh do you love food or do you love culture of food?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Uh it's a little bit of both. Ooh, ooh. So what do you have?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

What's your favorite food?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Favorite? That's a that's a hard topic. I do enjoy anything that's like that has any kind of home cooked feel to it. So like anything that my my growing up, every Sunday we go to my grandma's house. Oh, and it's just like the culture around. So it's the culture around the food. You really do have a connection to that at the time. Yeah, I do. So everything that we did around that, it was it was at Sunday, you know, at church. Sunday dinner at church. So we lived right, exactly. So right after church, we we if we didn't have a food going on, like we had the whole buffet going on. So it was almost like, see, we weren't, what is it, the house of prayer, how they have I don't know I don't heard so many stories that had their Sunday dinners are. Yeah, yeah. But like that's what we had, but we were a Baptist, I think. So yeah, it's just it was it was so much. I was already introduced to all the these crazy kinds of foods and weird southern dishes that just got crazy names like uh what what's one name? It's called Ambrosia. Dirt cake. Dirt cake. Oh, dirt cake's amazing. Yeah, dirt cake is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

What is it? It's Oreos Oreos. Like gummy worms, yeah. Yeah, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Ambrosia, I don't know if you ever heard of that. There's some church crazy. So are you are you from here? Maybe I'm from the south. What is from the south? Yeah, I'm from the city. So we live between um Mullens and Marion and then Lexan and Columbia. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

So I got some folks out there. Well, not my own folks, but I mean I got friends that got folks out there. So you know how that food culture is assembly. You say we're talking about the same foods. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

No, my fault. I like that you're talking about food because I like food too. And my wife really loves food, so we always talk about food all the time. We're a little foodies ourselves. So it's cool to hear that combination with the art and the culture and food. Um, now question what is this is interesting. This is a good question. You're good.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

I know. I'll be playing. I'll be wanting to be a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

I'll be writing these questions. Well is your name? What is relax? What is it? Yeah, what is relaxed?

SPEAKER_04 10:35

In your name. I mean you seem relaxed. I I really wanted to dive into that, you know, like that state. How did you get that?

SPEAKER_00 10:42

So there's some layers.

unknown 10:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Go ahead. Okay, so the name came from when I just got out of college, I moved to California, and that was already tough. My sister kind of gave me the the the extra push to take that chance and go. Yeah. Because everybody else was like, man, what you gonna do? You know, my mom's all sad. She's like, my baby, oh my girl. And I'm like, I'm cleanly in the same way.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Well, you know, I she and and and thank God, you know, she she didn't mind, but I I know I kind of had to do my own thing. Yeah. And it was really one of my closest friends, is like a soul tie, one of my brothers. We went to Anti together, and we actually were roommates together in school and and and also art majors. So we just connected. And it was funny, long story short, we connected over a video game. We talked about it. What video game? It was super smash, bros. That's so that's the best. So literally, when when that came up, like I brought that up. I was talking to my friend about it, and then everybody else around the class was like, What you talking about? And then I was like, Okay, so everybody meet me at my room. So we all met. Oh, we gotta get busy. And then I met some of my closest friends that I talk to to this day, even after school. Some people live in like California, Atlanta, and everything. So basically, we we lived together for a little bit, him and I out in California. Whereabouts? Victorville. So Victorville's like east of LA. So about I say about an hour and a half, 45 out from that. Can I say this? What's that?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Every time somebody talks about being like California out there, they always talk about how far they weigh from LA. And they be real far away. They be real.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Because everybody thinks that when you're in California, you're in LA, there's like, oh, you're going to New York. So you must be in, you know, New York, New York, New York City, right? Or New Manhattan. California's a lot bigger than that. Let's be honest. California has so many lakes, like between Oaklands. Three cities.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

But the city, but but the state itself, but no.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

It's so much out there. And I wish that. I learned that the hard way. I still have much more to check out. Like between San Fran San Fran and my friend, he moved from San Fran to Oakland, who also was an art major at Anti. Okay. And he's doing cool stuff in the music scene out there with other friends. And it's just crazy. Because he was all, he put me, he always put me on music, like new music in college. And it was cool to know that he's still like into that way. But yeah, basically, I guess it was about the about how what relaxes right. So we got there because I did all this stuff. I was going trying to find my own style. We all went out there to make a name for ourselves as artists. Understood. And what's wild is I was so desperate. Like the day that we were moving, moving day, we got there, and that was like a two-day drive. It was not straight, of course, but we made a few stops. I didn't drive, but people took turns driving, and I was cramped up with all of my stuff with me.

SPEAKER_05 13:33

Y'all was going hard. You think y'all were going hard? It's like a four or five-day trip.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

I've only done maybe like one major road trip after that with friends, which was going to doing a couch surfing tour. I don't know if you heard couch surfing, but uh couch surfing. I did that one. We went to Miami and Atlanta, but yeah, I don't know if I can do that again unless I have enough space to stretch out and lay down. Big message, because just so y'all know, this ain't no small brother, man. I mean, yeah, I'm I'm literally like hanging out of the yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Dog, they had you cramped up in the back.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

We had a sprinter and it still wasn't big enough for me. God, but it was a lot of us too. It's a lot of y'all. But you were G'd up for going out there and riding. Yeah, no, I had to. It was all my friends. Like, we, man, best experience ever. Like going to Art Basel, seeing so many faces. Like, you walk around and every person that you pass in the convention center spoke a different language. Like to be in that kind of place where you you just hear something different and you don't even know where it's from. Right. So that was wild to me. But yeah, so California, it was a lot of crazy moments happened. Like I'm he's my best friend. He's got friends or family from different sides of California. One's in Long Beach, another one's in Pasadena. And I asked him to, like, because he was driving most of the time, I didn't have a car yet. And he would take me to all the art shows I was talking about. I was hype about, I was desperate. Like, so so rewind a little bit. We first got there. As soon as I got it back in the house and we didn't have any, like it's cold, the eight, the heat ain't even on yet. And we just like, we are waiting for all of our stuff. A truck came late. And it's like, I'm sitting here just drawing, I'm sketching.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

I'm just trying to like, I I just got out of school and I was still trying to find a style of my own. My best friend who was there with me, he's the reason that I even got to like understand the style that I'm in now. Like to understand in a 2D perspective. That's it's really it was really difficult because I started on landscapes and all this stuff. And I was doing portraits and landscapes and and and flowers and stuff. But then I and surreal stuff. So the the transition was difficult. But once I got there, it just clicked. And I was desperate to find my own style. And I and on the style thing, I think it's not necessary to try to find the style. You just gotta work and figure out like what until it comes out. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta work till you find what what you feel and what you gravitate towards. So with that being said, I I had inspirations out there, like Buff Monster. He's like a graffiti artist. A few other guys that I I noticed that I was looking at while I was in college, and they had an art show going on in what's the name of that place? It's like a art district in LA.

SPEAKER_04 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Culver City. So Culver City, we went to Culver City. Uh he agreed just us to go out there for a weekend and go to Culver City. And all the people that I had been paying attention to in college were at one show. And I met him in person. That was one of the first times I was ever starstruck, and I did something about it, and I was like comfortable and I was chill. And I was I ran into his girlfriend first, and I was like, yo, what do you think? And then she's like, No, this is crazy. Let me show him. And then so we walked up to him and he's like, Oh, this is clean. And I remember those words specifically. I said, I said, Oh, I know what I'm doing now. Okay, we good. I can yeah, I can stay there. So that that's everything I needed to continue to do what I was doing. Question, this is an offset. Wait, when y'all went out to Covert City, did y'all stay out there in Culver City?

SPEAKER_02 16:49

We didn't stay stay. It was just like more of a like a day trip. So you day trip back and forth for two days. Yes, determination. I like hearing that. I just want people to understand that so when they hear the podcast, y'all didn't just go to Culver City and hang out and stay at the Airbnb. Y'all was going there to get away from the city. Yeah, we're not putting in work. Yeah, you went to go to work. That's dope. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

We were definitely out there. Because basically he had family in different areas, so like we could kind of stay with some of his folks. And then I think it was at the same that same time when his brother was showing us around, he was kind of taking us to different bars and stuff, and we just it just felt like a movie scene or something. I just like the setup because he was he was just talking about his his like love life and experiences and stuff, and we just enjoying the vibes. So yeah, a lot of that that relaxing.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

You know, not just you know, like because we one of the things we talk about is is creatives getting together and you know talking stuff out, but and I'm I'm very critical of higher education, but in particular in the creative fields, I feel like that's that's almost where you meet people having those conversations. It's like it's not what happens in the classroom, it's like it's getting in the world. Right and being able to talk to people about like like the real things that you're doing in the work, and then actually get it and not, you know, it's not no, but like I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

It's not normies, it's not normies, yeah. Like you literally have to make, and this is cool just hearing you break this down. You had to take yourself out of a comfort zone, right? Go far away from family and friends. This is almost like the hero's journey. Go there, burn yourself up like the Phoenix in flight, rebirth yourself, come up with what you want to actualize and do, and then you start creating from it.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah, that's where I am now, even now. Like I'm I'm in a rebirth process. I am not the same person I was last year. So, what brought you back here? What brought you back here? What brought me back here? So basically the the Californian thing happened. Oh, side note, sidebar was we went to one of those art shows with those popular artists, and it so happened one of my friends from AT sent me an email with an image of me and my friend and his brother, and it was Juxtapose magazine, a popular art publication. They took a picture of artists looking at or people, just people looking at the artwork. And I was like, that's message, message made, message. Like, oh, you know, I'm I'm where I'm supposed to be. Just doing, I'm on the right path. So eventually, like me, you know, stuff happens. The for the first time me and my friend ever that was like the reason of me coming back. So yeah, and it was wild, but like I literally talked to him last night. That's my brother. So we still do it because I was like, it's one of those people. It's one of those people I had a conversation with. I'm not letting this go. Nah. Yeah. We're not going out like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah. So that's how I got here. I came back and I moved in with mom again. And then I was just like sad, trying to figure out what to do. I didn't have a job yet. My my best friend, another one of my best friends, like he put me on a job at the airport. So I finally got got that going and just some kind of income. My uncle, rest in peace, my uncle, he died, he passed away last year, but he was the reason for my last my first car. So he gave me my first car, like it was after college and everything. So uncle, you know, he was looking out and need that. That first vehicles. That way I could because I was taking a bus and I lived in Mount Holly, and Mount Holly is like You're taking a bus out. Taking a bus to the city, to the airport from there, and it that walk was crazy. Yeah, yeah. So doing that, and I was used to it already because I was doing it in California. Right. Because I didn't have my own car. So taking like almost three buses just to get to wherever.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

And yeah. So as I was like chilling, just kind of creating things back home, it just kind of clicked to me. I was like trying to find a way to connect with artists or just people in general. I I was creating like cover art, like doing drawings for a different artist. Like his name is King Kallas, but was King Kallis. Now it goes by Jamante. People like him and a lot of musicians in the city. I did like some early cover work for them. And it kind of transitioned to people at saying that I was a designer, like a graphic designer.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Which is cool because that's a part of my my skill set. Yeah. And I I went to school for for that and fine art, but I wanted to be recognized as an artist, like a fine artist. Yeah. And I didn't want because because when people say graphic design, they're they're gonna only think computers. Yeah, so immediately.

SPEAKER_05 21:08

Right, right. And so it's generally for for for pay. I mean, there's a few people that are doing some really creative graphic design on their own. Yeah. Generally, it's it's right. And I'll say they're freelance designer for like freelance decades. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

I did the freelance thing for a long time. I'm still kind of doing it on the side here and there, but that was a frustration, is between trying to get artists over the hump of the things that they don't understand or how to do because I always wanted to sh to know things, and I felt the frustration of not knowing where to go or who to go to. So I also wanted to find something physical to connect people with. Oh I'm a fan because like growing up, I was working on things with my hands, and I like physical things, I like to unpackage things, I like to put things together and all that. So I love the presentation.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Problem solving, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

All of those things are important to me. So that was the biggest thing that kind of made the word relax click. Because I was like, well, just you know, don't think about it. Chill. Like it's not about relaxing, it's not being chill, right? But it's like switch off it's letting it flow through. Exactly. So relax is and you said it earlier, you don't even realize it. You're let's say you're working on things, you're you're you're creating, you're in your zone, you're you're working on your craft, and let's say you you play music along the way when you're you're working on your things, and then you don't realize it, but everything stops. Everything's quiet now, but you're still working. It's that flow state. Yeah, that's relaxed. That's what painting does for me. That little sweet spot right there.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

And I don't I don't go there.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Stop. I don't be painting.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

It's just that's why I'm doing this because he be painting. Look, that's it. I be so fast-paced. I I got my Bachelor's of Fine Arts too. Yeah, but I'm so busy doing other things that I don't have time to slow down and paint.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

But that's because then you gotta say that you gotta settle over. It's also emotionally taxing. Bring it took for one of my good friends to finally see that. And she told me, she said, Oh wow, this is taxing. I didn't realize what it was doing, how what what kind of things it was drawing from to get that result. And but yeah, even like just back to what relaxes, the the another origin, a branch of what it came from. That that concept that I told you, that came later. That was able that that came after me being able to work in it and understand. But it was number one, the frustration of not having something physical to connect people with on art on art terms. And then I almost had it. I I feel like I'm losing it. Okay, so and back in college, I was I created his character and he's like a childlike. Blob look and character, and I used to draw them like graffiti on different areas. And that's when I was really inspired, heavily inspired by the graffiti artist. That is the the origins of that like scape culture. Graffiti, like anything rebellious, satirical. Yeah. All of that stuff really inspired my work. And it's never been like supposed it was never supposed to be tame. And I feel like Alone Way kind of got to that, but now I'm like getting back to my roots in that. Was it tamed out of necessity? I guess just because of different clients that I work with. Not to like not, I'm not changing my stuff for anybody, but it's just the the characters, the use of the characters changed. So it's not necessarily like them saying, okay, can you take this off? Or well, actually, that did happen in a way where there was things that I did recently where they was like, okay, just take some of the words off.

SPEAKER_05 24:30

Take the parts that you like. Yeah. And get rid of that word.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

There's certain words where like I did, I did use stuff that was for corporate places. Oh, gotcha. I was I was talking like say what you want to say. I mean, well, it wasn't nothing directly, it was just like, I think it was a school related thing I did for Lowe's. It was like based on like school stuff. So like I had like books and stuff, but it was the when I did the original design, it was like pimping one-on-one, like risk game, wrist game type stuff. Like I'm just thinking on another level. Yeah, and they're like the culture, and they turn out the you know, it's it's a different pimping on the colour.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

I can't put that on there.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

So you know, that's that's my thing. That's not like you're losing it. That's not that's what you're saying. It's just like, okay, so I just have to, you know, use that for something else. Yeah, we can we can move that somewhere else just to have that on a public display of somewhere. Right.

SPEAKER_05 25:16

So this is but creative for pay yeah does like whether you are selling out a compromise or any of that, like it, it it pulls some of that unabridged freedom out.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Like now, now like now you have to like now.

SPEAKER_05 25:29

I'm not speaking for myself, I'm speaking for these other people.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

That's what you gotta realize. You're you're being a a yeah, vessel. Right. It's a big thing because it leads right into the second question, right? But it is, it is, you're right. It's that man, I hate that. That's all I can say.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

Like, have you ever been at a struggling artist's point in your life?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Do you believe in that? Oh, I mean, yeah, the struggle's real.

SPEAKER_04 25:52

Yeah, it's a hustle.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

It's a business. I like the honesty. Yes, it's like I just I was just watching this podcast. Uh I think it's called something, something proof. I can't remember. I'll link it to you. But man, there was like 10 reasons to not be an entrepreneur. And I was like, I'm definitely clicking on this. So that there it was, it had a lot to do with reasons why you they were saying, hey, we encourage you to do this. If you listen to everything, all the pitfalls of being an entrepreneur and you still want to do this, then go for it. But if you don't, if you realize that these are like deal breakers for you, then don't do this. Right. But um, yeah, I'm trying to remember where we were with that because I'm thinking about all the things the struggling artists ain't right. Yeah, so that's that's the thing. Like being an entrepreneur, starting a business, being an artist, there's points where you just don't know where your next is coming from. Right. And then there's moments where everybody just hitting you.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

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SPEAKER_00 27:29

At one time, there's seasons of just being flooded, and I don't understand, I don't get it. I don't maybe it's some joke. I don't know, God is maybe he's like, hey, I'm just testing you. I don't know what it is, but it hasn't been consistent. It hasn't been consistent, but it's but when it comes, it comes in waves, but when it comes, it comes in waves.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

So now we get the whole idea of people talking about the wave and how important the wave is. Ride the wave, riding the wave, ride the wave, yeah. What actually makes sense? Right? That does make sense because now I understand the whole idea behind a surfing culture. Remember when people are trying to tie those two things together. Surf culture is really a culture of patience. And I used to wonder, like, what do y'all mean? I really wanted to swim. Be relaxed.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

You swim in the ocean, but I really want to.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

It teaches you a lesson on patience, and you'll learn. My problem is I didn't want to be in the deep water. Oh, you can't swim? Oh, I'm scared. I can swim. Here's the thing. I want to be able to swim and I can't free to go into the water.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

I learned a few things and then that was it. But yeah, I'm listening.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Yeah, I'm sure you get the idea about the wave and why you're supposed to, when it is in your favor, you take full advantage of that wave. Because, for instance, like, and this is a good lead-in to this, just speaking about being a struggling artist, but what motivates you to create daily? Is it your feel or is it the need to take care of yourself?

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Oh, it's all of that.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Yeah, but all together. I need I I like how you're being real. I like how you're real.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

No, it because I can't. I can't I can't, it's not even in me. You know. So so your question was, you said, is it a need daily?

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Is it is it is it the the daily motivator for you to create, is it because a need to access income, or is it a need to express yourself?

SPEAKER_00 29:14

And there's another one in there too. There's a little bit of ego. Okay. Definitely. Speak on it. Yeah, speak on it. Yeah, because and I but the thing is you need that to survive. Yeah. You you can't murder the ego, you just don't want it to live.

SPEAKER_05 29:27

God, I've been trying for so long. Then I just talked about the event. Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

That is in my uh, I have to go. I'm again, I'm diving back into my characters and everything and everything what everything means, but I have balloons, and you see that a lot. Sometimes in the early, early work, you'll see like three of them, and that's basically just my fascination with like mental state and your just like ethereal things, and then like between just all this metaphysical, weird, sciencey, all that stuff. And it's three of them. It's three, it's it, ego, super ego. There you go. Okay, okay. It's the id, the ego, and the superego. It's like a part of part of your mental state, it's part of your psyche or whatever. And they are present, but they're not there in the physical, but people hold on to them like they are, and they're and that's the more prominent one. Is there a dominates the physical existence?

SPEAKER_05 30:20

Oh, I think it's a good idea. You hold on to it.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

So the most recent thing that I did. Oh, this is young.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

This is Carl Young.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

This is yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Go ahead. You know what I'm talking about? Uh maybe. I don't know. You're speaking it properly. Okay. Continue though. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, no, this is where I that was my origin, like with those characters, because I wanted to create a physical manifestation of those, those, that psyche, and I also want to do it in a new way that will be coming soon too, like where they actually kind of become a person. I think another inspiration lately that has been doing that for me is between uh anime like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, where there's characters that have like they're present, but they're not there. Yeah. And then also another one is American Gods. Because I love that show. I gotta catch up. But it's it's amazing. Like, I I've got to a point where there's new episodes. I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_05 31:13

What are they about to do?

SPEAKER_00 31:14

No, they're just like, see, I saw that first episode with a Nazi, and I was sold. I was like, oh, if you can just do that like every once in a while, I'm good. I'm not a Nazi on the ship. What's the Nazi on the ship? A Nazi on the ship.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:29

We might not we might not be able to do this on air. But I want I want to have a conversation on that one. We yeah, you baggy ones. I got some, oh man. Okay. It's very interesting to hear you talking about these characters that you're creating and whatnot. Because it like it. We be talking about some weird shit down the rabbit hole on occasion. Shoot them up, shoot them up. One of the things that we don't talk about in this in this culture, in this Western world, is like, you know, the idea of deities in other parts of the world was not that there's a whole bunch of these people sitting on top of Mount Olympus looking down on you. Exactly. It was that you created this thing in your mind that was like all the masculine energy, all the feminine energy, all the warrior energy, all the-right, people did. Yeah, we did. We used that as a tool to hop us into the state that we needed to be in. So if you were going to war, like it got Carla Aries, right? Right, Carla Aries, you focused on that art of what that is is pretty much lost. Now with a f uh with you know, I mean, this is some new age folks, and there's still some yogis, and and you know, there's there's just still a few out there. But what you're talking about is essentially like make an archetype, like creating energetic forms or lectic forms of emotional energy and then making an existence.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

That's why Doom is also one of my top artists, uh, MF Doom. So that's why that's why you're saying that's that's like I admire that because I want to be the person where you don't know where I will be. And I and I in in in ways I am that because I'm chill. But I'm also when I tell people that I'm like really hyper and I'm like, yeah, I'm also energetic. And then we see that like in in more intimate settings, and they're like, oh wow, you really are like, or you're really funny, or you're really animated and or energetic. And I'm like, yeah, that's that's because I have layers and you can't like you can't penetrate the gate. I'll say them layers. No, I can tell those gates.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

I can tell what you I know what you mean by that, especially as a creative part of it, is you have to kind of guide, I mean, not guide, but guard yourself in order to give you a chance to expose yourself. And this is a weird thing to think about, but sometimes, and I always tease, anytime you create anything, it's like you're birthing, going through birthing process.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

That's what I was thinking when you were talking earlier. You give birth to the creative process.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

You don't want to labor when you talk about labor. And I love how you said what you said about all those things. That's creating that's exactly that's wild. Yeah. Oh, well, that's what we're doing, right? That's what you hear. That's what you hear today.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

Oh, it's just a character. No, it's not just a character. It's got a whole existence on itself. And then when you give it to somebody else, you share it with somebody else, it becomes a t-shirt or an icon or whatever. Now it becomes its own thing.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Your baby goes out there and it loses life.

SPEAKER_05 34:33

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Do you ever feel do you ever feel worried about the judgment of your children? Always all the teeth on the Yeah, that's your art. Your art is your child.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

All the time. How do you deal with it? Well, okay, so the first character I made was the guy. There's this a shirt that I made. And well, first of all, I started with wristbands and then and then stickers, and it was just a quote and it said, relax. And people were like, I get it. Yeah. And I was like, for real? Okay.

SPEAKER_05 35:03

I don't know that you do, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

I'll take it. And I was handing them out at parties at wherever I went, and my friends gravitated to it, like the people at my job rep, like those were my first customers where Pete, like, how are you making these?

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Where were you producing this stuff at? How are you getting it produced?

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Well, I mean, online.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

You can just like order, you know, order your printful kind of thing. Tell them. So tell the audience how you're getting that how you're getting that stuff printed up. We need some stickers. Yeah, we always tease because especially it's big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, you can't do what I'm trying to tell you.

SPEAKER_05 35:36

Yeah, this is what I'm trying to tell you. Tell us how you create this man's staring in the face.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Yeah. How do you create these things? Because I mean part of our podcast is, of course, learning how to adult. And part of learning how to adult is we know that growing up, for a lot of us, we weren't given certain roadmaps to tell us how to do things. We've had to figure these things out by ourselves, like what you're explaining to our folks. So when we come across certain information and we glean certain ideas or concepts, I always think it's fruitful for us to be able to express that and explain it to the folk behind us or people who are listening to us. So they don't just see you say, Hey, I created something, blah, blah, blah. You say, Well, this is company that I went through to make sure that I can have this stuff produced. Because then now somebody having that same idea and that same issue.

SPEAKER_04 36:16

Like, how do I make all of this? Especially being a creative. It's hard. We don't got no guidance.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

We ain't got no guidance. And you know, Roman, don't try to ask people. I mean, yeah, people just there's people that will tell you, but also there's this like gatekeeping thing with spraying. Spray. Even when it comes to spray painting, like I was in Atlanta and I was at this like weird exclusive party with like a lot of the really popular artists in the city. My good friend Jasmine, she just knows a lot of people. She's just like that cool of a person where she don't even have to be create creative, but she's a good amazing person photographer. Gotcha. But but also like she doesn't even work a lot to just to be at where she's at, where she could just like, oh my, let me hit up, you know, this tattoo artist. He knows, like he's got he's got a stu uh studio, studio out there in Node. Yeah, she knows everybody. Yep. She knows everybody. She's like, oh yeah, he got time today, so just like pull up. And I'm like, everybody don't get to do this. Nah. Everybody don't get to meet people in this this way, and we having like these intimate conversations and stuff. But yeah, basically, I guess I don't know where I was going because I I'm thinking about two different things. Yeah. And one of them was with where I started with the like the shirt and the character, and then the fear of the of your children being taking the page. Okay, so basically, I made those things, and then I made shirts, and the the character was the image of a guy doing this, right? So it's the fingers to the head, and it's like I just put a flip on it and just saying that he has a dangerous mind. He's one of those characters that does whatever he wants to do. He goes for whatever he wants, and he's not afraid to like to actually chase his dream. So that I was afraid, I didn't know how it would be received because of the imagery, and a lot of people would ask, like, so what does that mean? And I was I I'd explain, like I had to do this like 20, 11 times over and over and over and over again. And it's what's crazy is I recently, for the past like three, four years, I've been vending in Asheville, and I would do like uh like art shows out there, and I had a table set up and I would sell my shirts, and the people like old and young were grabbing the stuff like buying hats. I literally I sold the hat off my head, and I I've never done that in Charlotte yet. I'm waiting for the day, and I can do that in Charlotte, but I guess it's just a different thing out there.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

It's a different vibe out there, it's a different vibe out there, and like they appreciate art.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

You know, I guess they say a prophet is not welcome in his own home. Yeah, whatever it's about that, whatever that's about, I don't know. Yeah, but basically, they was always asking about the logo, the image, and literally, I have a picture of this grandma, this old lady, and this old white lady in a wheelchair who like they got the motor wheelchair. She pulls up and she sees one of my shirts with this going on, and she picks it up. She's like, Okay. All right, and then she sees another color and she sees a blue and says, Okay. And grabs the biggest one she finds. Can I get this one? I'm like, oh yeah. Grandma Down. That's what's up.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Grandma is down. Grandma's down.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

And then I saw her again like two years later when I did it again, and she saw my lots because I had grown it out and it was like super long. She was like, Now remember what I told you? Don't ever cut your hair. I'm like, what do you who remember? She remembered.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Yeah, she definitely remembered.

SPEAKER_05 39:27

See, that's a different, like, that's a different kind of interaction with your audience than we experienced today because we're all talking about eStores and Prentful and set your WooCommerce shop up. And but you're actually, you know, seeing people. Hand in hand comment. I do that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

But and see, that's my frustration. I wish that you could get that same level of engagement. Now, right, I'm I'm not trying to downplay myself, but also I know that I'm my name is not Pharrell Williams yet. Yeah. So, you know, he's puts out a project and then he's like, oh, pre-order. Then, you know, he's gonna say it's gonna sell out the day it dropped. But it the online presence thing, that's a little bit more difficult. But yeah, the physical is nothing like it. That's one thing I learned over the years is you know, you you have it right here, right here now, and they they'll get it now.

SPEAKER_05 40:12

You about to start sculpting?

SPEAKER_00 40:15

I want to, yeah. Like 3D. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:19

It just just the vibe I got because you keep talking about going physical with the things.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Yeah. I think that is literally the last thing. Like when I tell you, I feel like I've checked off all my my boxes of like my bucket list as an artist. And it's still so much more to do, but like between my like a very like I'm I'm definitely gonna spend a lot of money on this, but like my solo show. But what's included in this solo show has to be toys with my characters. Wow. When I can do that, then I I can say I need it. I'm coming. Yo, you have toys with your characters. I know I have to.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

You do you uh have you ever painted live?

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Oh, live paint? Like just like uh that's what that's that's where I got my start. Like the connection with the music and art scene is so wild in Charlotte. The early scene that I remember, it was a thing where you always had someone painting somewhere or someone setting up different types of uh trinkets or installations or whatever. So you got a whole set list of music artists playing for three hours, and then I'm just over here in the cut, you know, painting and selling, selling drawings, trying to insurance.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

You know, you get it done.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Right. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, you're very talented.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Right. I was looking at your work like I like everything.

SPEAKER_04 41:33

I like that, I like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

I appreciate the man.

SPEAKER_04 41:36

It looks good.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

I I will say this, man, and I'm telling you, man, don't lose it, man. You're very humble. And that now, you being humble like that is actually that's a breath of fresh air. It's always cool to see that. Don't don't lose that thing, keep that humbleness because as you get success in whatever facet or however you want it to keep your soul while doing it is important. So I'm gonna move on to this next question before we get hit up on time. But I have to ask this. I feel like, hey, put this question. Oftentimes we hear that being creative can save your life or introduce you to your passion and purpose. This girl, serious. How important is it for you to cultivate creativity in others, especially children? And do you enjoy seeing them create works of art?

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Yes, to all of the above. Yes, it's all necessary, and yes, that happens. So, not in that order how I said it, but yes, basically, yes, art and specifically music saved my life. Man, I need it a lot because it it gets me through. And it's just like that's my day-to-day. That's also something I'm just really connected to. Like how I'm connected to food, how I'm connected to my music. I take it seriously, and it it feeds me, it gives me what I need, whether it's drawn from the persona or whether it's just I mean, any of those things. I enjoy taking the things that people get confused about and kind of closing that gap. Bringing clarity. Yeah, bringing clarity. Bridging that gap, yeah. Yeah, something I don't know what it is, but kids gravitate to me and I don't I I didn't ask for it, but I appreciate it and I'm here for it. So let's do it. You ready? That's a good sign. You want speed dollars? You like video games? Yeah. Okay, you like, you know, I find I find the connections. Like when I was teaching at a Laurian, I think it was interesting doing that for the first time, like actually teaching kids. And it's also like a structured environment. Yeah, I mean, yeah, in a structured environment. Like it's a it's a it's not necessarily in CMS, like actual class where I have like a year-long thing. So it's a summer program. So it's a little bit more leeway to to create a curriculum for that. But at the time, you know, I was doing like two classes. It was drawing and then another one was design, illustration. So graph digital illustration and like actual design. So it was doing all of those things, and I just enjoyed even like the times, the sidebars, the conversations the kids were having about shows, because I could chime in too. You know, we're talking about stranger things, we're talking about you know different anime they like. And I'm like, what do you know about that? I was watching that when you were not even able to watch TV.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yeah. They said, no, that's hip now. We like that.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Yeah, it's crazy. Now, now I'm watching my stories, which is Cowboy Bebop. You know, those are my stories now.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

It's so wild to hear out loud, to say out loud that what I used to watch is now somebody's kind of like, oh man, this is retro. This is retro.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Yeah, this is whole discovered this to show this on the television.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

That's the way it was where it had a big boo.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

It had a lot of fuzzy stuff. You called it a filter, right? It's got an Instagram filter on YouTube.

SPEAKER_05 44:34

Why did they do it like that?

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Why is it so rainy? Yeah. They didn't want us to be able to see us. Like, no, that's just a big thing. They didn't understand perfection. No, no, no. You understand how to chase that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

How do you tell kids to not be a perfectionist in their work, in their artwork?

SPEAKER_00 44:49

I think I had this conversation yesterday, and I was like, I what was it about? But it was the topic was perfectionist. And yeah, I how you saying, how do I explain that to them?

SPEAKER_04 45:01

Like everything doesn't have to be perfect as an artist. You're always evolving.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Just through instruction, like as we're talking, and I'm I'm showing them the process, and I don't want it to seem like and it's hard to push that across without just saying that, but showing them through the process of them working out their problem solving in the creation process, just showing them, okay, no, you're good here. It doesn't have to be this way, how I created on my display, how you're looking on screen. No, just I just want you to see the project through and understanding the difference between not a perfect work, but a finished work.

SPEAKER_04 45:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

That's the yeah. Just the fact of completing it. Yeah. Right, complete it. Just finish, finish things. That's that's the motto. And the last thing I'll say is I got it from Margaret Kilg. Allen. She's a part of a crew called The Beautiful Losers. It's a whole documentary, and you can find it on YouTube, Beautiful Losers. It's amazing. My art director from AT put me on to that. And he showed all of me and my friends. And as we saw it, we realized, oh, we're them. And it was so wild. It was inspirational because he I knew he saw something in us. And he showed us that documentary. Basically, you got all these guys who are being playful and like childlike, like throughout the whole documentary, they have like a weird sense of wonder. And I use that into my work, into my psyche, into my like my process. And what she said was there's something about the imperfection in the line. And the way that she said it, it was like admiration for her own work. And it was very influential to me not chasing the perfectionism. Even though being a graphic designer and tapping into that along the way, my instructors kind of instilling that into me. It snapped. And I had to send an email to my teacher because everybody hated her. They was like, they immediately like, they just did not connect with her at all. But she was so anal about everything, all the details and all the margins and the everything design-wise. You need that. And once I got it, because I was doing flyers for uh for my school, for like for the the gallery, and they had like a thing with the students. So it's like that connection started early with doing things like for a student show, creating like promotional materials for that. So they had me do that. But yeah, basically, long story short, I got I got it and it clicked, and I never saw the world the same way again. I'm over here looking at newscasts, lower thirds, and I'm like, nah, that's weird.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

Why the hell your shit ain't lying?

SPEAKER_00 47:16

You know what we know with the reason, the science. I sent her I sent her a thank you letter, and I don't know if she got it, but it's whatever. But I sent it, it's out there in the world in the internets.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Man, that's extra dope.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Well, we're gonna wrap up right now, man. Okay. Pleasure having you here today with us at the Middle Top Club. Yeah, we got to have you again. We're gonna continue this conversation.

SPEAKER_05 47:34

Tell us about what you got going on, the projects, and how we contact you and support you and throw money at you.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

Yes, please, throw all the money. Please, please. So you need to hurry up and do this one. I just had an art show almost two weeks ago at Petra's, and uh Petra's is over in Plasma Middle. It's a bar. So if you're under 18 or under 21, then you'll need to uh just go like an hour before it opens. Gotcha. So they'll they'll allow you to like look at it, everything. But basically, I packed out the show. They had a whole, like I had two artists performing, and then I had a gallery in the in the back where there's artists from like seasoned artists, like the best of the best in Charlotte. And then you got the people who never done a show before, and then the people who are a little bit in between. So check that out. That's at Petra's right now. Currently, I'm trying to revamp my brand as a whole. Not trying, but I am, and it's like it's just a thing where, like we were talking about before about the reinventing yourself, doing that. God, it's a pain in the butt, isn't it? I don't know, because I'm actually I'm actually excited right now. This is actually really exciting because uh to to start over, yeah, to feel like it's it's really refreshing. Like I feel like to be a new, it just because I've done, I've created all the things I wanted to create physically with the work, uh like the the image with the uh the designs and everything. So now I'm like I've done that now. So look, what's next? And I don't want to take it. So yeah. Um still thinking about everything else. I guess a lot more animations, more like how do I put it? Intentional projects with that. I do create comics. So yeah, there that link should be a link in there. If not, then I'll put that up in my link tree in the today or tomorrow.

unknown 49:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

And how do we get to the link tree? It's in my Instagram, what is relaxed? So W-H-A-T-R-E-L-A-X. What is relaxed? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Any other social media drops for the people?

SPEAKER_00 49:19

No, that's it. You can use that. And then that's my Gmail, what is relax at Gmail. So hit me up there too.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

See, that's one thing I do like. Yeah, all simple and concise. Well, I want to thank you, of course, for joining us on the Hilltop Glove podcast today. Tama my co-host, Tamaya, Mike, skipping the other room. We want to thank you for joining us, man. It's been a pleasure to have a conversation with today. We will have you back again. And real quick before I get off, just a shout out to Asylum Digital Recording and Mixing Studio. Our man Scott Slago allowed us to come in here today and have a good time communicating with our folks. If you're in the need for some recording or assistance with mixing, please call 704-492-9289. Um here in Charlotte. We'll heal the ticket take good care of you. I mean, we're sitting in a beautiful studio. It's a beautiful studio.

SPEAKER_05 50:03

We're having a great time here today.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Yeah, it's very relaxed, very comfortable, and calm. So shout out to everybody. I just want to make sure I was always saying, man, be nice to somebody out there that you know and tell everybody around them that you love them. Peace.