Salon 65 // Revolution

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome everyone to our 65th Techspressionism Virtual Salon. I am your moderator this evening or morning or late evening, wherever you're at in the world for the salon. Joining me is a slew of wonderful seasoned artists and newer artists like myself. Today's topic is revolution, which I think that's been on a lot of people's minds for quite a bit in a lot of capacities, especially in this country, the United States, where many of us are based, but also kind of around the world. There's kind of unrest and a lot of change that needs to happen in a lot of areas of the world, a lot of different countries. And, you know, revolution is kind of the natural upshot of that. It's when people kind of reach the tipping point and say, enough is enough. Let's do something about it.

Davonte Bradley - VA USA

Or when people just decide, hey, the way things currently are just needs to be shaken up a bit, see where it goes. And that's definitely happened in the art world several times over. Kind of the spirit of what we do here with Techspressionism. Abstract Expressionism was kind of more or less a revolution in terms of revolution. Kind of deviating from, you know, well, abstract art in general was a deviation from realism and, you know, that kind of stuff.

Davonte Bradley - VA USA

That being said, if you are new here, the general format is that, you know, we have presenters that will talk about their work or whatever themes are related. I'm sorry. The work that relates to the current theme that they have going on. And we'll have a little discussion about that. And we'll move on to the next presenter and so on and so forth until we're talked each other to death.

Davonte Bradley - VA USA

All right. I asked you that while the presentations are going on that please keep yourself muted so that you're not interrupting the presenter as they're talking. If you would like to present if you're in the chat currently, please do raise your hand. Use the little Zoom emoji down here. We're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you.

Davonte Bradley - VA USA

So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. So and we're going to have a three-character question and answer for you. We appreciate it. Also, the recording generally stops at around 7 will probably stop around 705, because we started 5 min late, as is the tradition. And after the recording ends, we will have a community building session slash advisory board slash after party, where we usually pick the topic for the next salon. So all are welcome. Yeah.

Davonte Bradley - VA USA

All right. And with that being said, I guess we can go ahead and get started.

Tommy, I believe you had your hand up first. Are you ready or distracted? Looks like you're trying to. I don't know. Can you hear me? Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks, Davo. This is awesome. Sixty five. What a number. Yeah. And what? What a revolution, right? Like 1965 was right before that sort of revolutionary period. I don't know. So pre associating here. I was thinking about revolutions in terms of time. Right. This sort of idea of both the cycles, the revolving of things and also, yeah, the change that's inherent in these revolutions.

Tommy Mintz

These changes that we witness, if you will. So that's, I think, what I'm thinking about in my work. Where I have I'm trying to get to me. I'm going to turn around and walk closely to these pictures a little bit. So here we are. I do on the studio. Some Jen Lee and I are here. Hi. Hi. And in this beautiful gallery space hanging six kind of large prints, you can't see, I think, the whole of this. But the idea is instead of having a single moment of time. That photography classically describes the revolution that I'm describing. I need to walk closer. I'm trying to pinch to zoom again is describing many moments of time. Taking that revolution of time and repeating it back on itself and see and comparing it to the moment before seeing what's changed and drawing our attention to that in ways that.

Tommy Mintz

I don't know. Allow us to spend time watching it unfold. So these prints are on a variety of fabrics. I'm going to torture you and touch silk. People aren't feeling of things. But I'm really into the fabrics that we have hanging here and we hung them so that the fabric quality is kind of evident in there.

Tommy Mintz

And maybe the most fabric is this one. And maybe this really is about revolution. It's about the revolution of what I'm talking about. The sun and the moon and the planets. And here this is photographs of sun blurring shine. A play at Hudson Guild Theatre. And yeah, it's a couple of moments where these actors were walking around carrying these wild props. And you get to see the same person a couple of times as they revolved. I'm going to now touch this lovely velour and tempt you to come to 1010 44th Avenue.

Tommy Mintz

And Jaime is coming on Saturday. So join him. Here's the last print that I'm going to show you. This is on a leatherette. This is a nice contrast to the velour. So anyway, the revolution I'm describing, Davo, I guess, is changing how we think about what the photographs are. And how the medium has changed what the message is, if you will. And that's a major revolution in digital versus analog.

Tommy Mintz

Compared to analog, not versus. I think we're still undergoing that revolution. AI, et cetera. Just that next step of that. Well, thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you for your presentation. And if I was in New York, I would totally be down to come up there and see things. But unfortunately, I'm in plain old Richmond, Virginia.

Tommy Mintz

Well, it's not so plain, but it's not as happening. Right. Just hop on the train. I was thinking about it, actually. Not this week, but, you know, eventually. Thank you so much, Sami. All right. Does anyone have any questions? Comments? Praise? We do that here still, I believe. Right? I do. I have great praise. I love your work, Tommy. And you mentioned several different kinds of fabric. Do you choose the fabric to fit the image or vice versa? How do you decide what fabric? Thank you, Sherry. That's a fantastic question. Well, I did choose the fabric specifically of the play images. The letters. The letterette. And the velour. Specifically for those pictures. Because I thought they expressed that sensibility the play was talking about. The silks and cottons, I'm kind of experimenting with right now.

Tommy Mintz

So trying to find a printing material that, you know, gives a certain fabric sense. That, you know, holds enough light. Has a little bit of translucency. So these are all experiments right now. So the answer is yes. And the answer is kind of no. I haven't yet really started matching images to fabrics. But that's something I'm thinking about. And also, just to continue, I am going to use these as more entries on the spreadsheet that I was sharing. And I will continue to share. And maybe we'll figure out another place to share that. Documentation of printing resources. You know, places that I've printed. And the prices and the quality and my experience. So, yeah, I'm happy to share that.

Tommy Mintz

But I think it's going to be a little bit more complicated. All right. Thank you, Sherry. Anybody else? Also, if you don't feel like talking, you can always go to the chat box and put your questions and comments there. Because that's what it's there for. Hey, Tommy. When you get a chance, shoot me a link to that spreadsheet and I'll add it to the resources page on the Expressionism site. I'll do that. Thanks. I have a question for Tommy. Yeah, go for it. I'm curious about the space and the other people who are showing in the space. Does Sungjin have work up?

Tommy Mintz

Yeah. Right now, there are three people, artists showing their work. So, actually, I'm the organizer here. I'm always looking for, like, artists. I'm always looking for anyone to show any kind of work. Like, you know, it's like a gallery and, like, a studio. So, like, it's more like two or three artists, like, going to come to show more. And we're going to, like, trying to have a lot of events, like, game party and, like, group tours, like, has fun, like, DJ party, whatever. Like, is we going to do, like, maybe, like, digital and other, like, same Expressionism, like, concept, like, events? Like, doing basically local, like,. But, like, I don't know. Like, maybe it's going to be more future. It's going to be more fun, fun place. I'm trying to think. Great. Thank you. Yeah. So, anyone who wants to use this studio, just let me know or, like, tell me.

Tommy Mintz

Yeah, put in your website right here in the chat. I think you can find everything about Digiana. Yeah. Digianagroup.com. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Sure. Sure. I have a question for Tommy. Tommy, how do you print the material, these prints that you do with the materials? How do you print that up? Hello? So, these are printed by an outfit called Bags of Love.

Tommy Mintz

Oh. Love.com. They're in the UK. And I found them. I was doing a lot of research trying to find, you know, good ones. And I found these really good printers of fabric. And actually, I don't know if Talia Cloven's on today, but she's been posting some really extraordinary looking fabric prints generated on Long Island. So, there might be somebody with the same technology, this direct to fabric high resolution printing technology that Bags of Love has. It's a, you know, some, I don't know, $100,000 printer or $200,000, whatever it is, right? We might have one more locally than Bags of Love. But they just had a, you know, a great swatch sample set they sent out. And I was tempted to just, you know, try as many as I could. I had a grant. I had a grant to fund, you know, the printing. So, you know, this is all for science.

Tommy Mintz

Wow. And Tommy? Can you tell me? I mean, in looking at them in reality, if I was actually there, I would probably want to touch them also. Yeah. Yeah. Well. Yeah. Tommy? Tommy, what time is the best time to visit your gallery? Saturday? On Saturday. Anytime is good. In the afternoon, I will stop by there. Yeah, sure. Saturday afternoon? Super. Great. I'll try to come by too. Thank you. I don't know if it has a play.

Tommy Mintz

Thank you. Or before. I have a question for Tom. So, Tommy, so was there like a certain moment when you started incorporating code into your photographic practice? Because I know your images are based on Python scripts, right, that you wrote. And I'm curious, you know, how that transition happened. Like, you know, what did you have an interest in coding prior to starting to work with these automated digital photo collage ideas?

Tommy Mintz

I resisted. I resisted. I was learning to code for as long as I could. And then I had a show that I was offered a show in 2013. And that coincided with, I think, the release of the Raspberry Pi. It was maybe a year before that. And there's a lot of community support for Python as a programming language. I had conceptualized this idea, this, you know, I had written the pseudocode 10 years earlier, 2004 or 5.

Tommy Mintz

And I had to do it in graduate school. I actually did a project for a public art class with Cynthia Carlson, one of the great Queens College. And, you know, the idea sat until 2013. I decided just to do it. I read a 900 page book on Python and started to code. You know, I was sort of like, oh, I got to do it. But all too coded. We're too busy.

Tommy Mintz

Inevitably. Right? So, yeah. It was I learned through making this project. And actually I have a variety of versions of the automated digital photo collage Python code up on GitHub for anybody who's interested. You're welcome to. And I know Lee Schnaiberg, I think, has actually forked the code and been using it himself and doing all sorts of interesting things with it. So, yeah, the code, gosh, is 200 lines long. So it's not very big. And it's the only program I've written. I don't consider myself a programmer. I consider myself a photographer using code to photograph the technology of digital photography. You know, underlying that is code. So I feel like I'm in the dark room of the digital, which is where I like to be.

Tommy Mintz

I'll keep talking. I'll keep talking. I'll keep talking, everybody. Who's next? Thank you. That's awesome. Like an artist. You know, absolutely. In their element. Who's. Does that. It's another question. I'm sorry. I see Susan's hand is up. I'm going to mute it here. Susan is actually in the queue to be a presenter. So I don't think she has any questions for you. I could be wrong.

Tommy Mintz

Oh, see, there you go. All right. If that's going to be it for Tommy, I think we can move right along. All right. So I'm going to move on to our next presenter. So thank you so much, Tommy. And thank you for your time. All right. And next up, we have Cheryl. I have a heater guy coming today. He just rang the door. Take someone else. Okay. All right. I will definitely keep you in mind.

Tommy Mintz

All right. That means Susan,

You're up. All right. Thank you. So I have an associate. I associated in my mind. The. Acts of aggression. With. And response. To be related to revolution. And. Because. I believe that's. Partly what's happens. In society that. We like to see everybody. We. Have. People come towards us aggressively.

Susan Detroy

And we respond and sometimes that leads to. People revolting or are responding to. The acts of aggression. And so I'm going to share my screen because I had. Some work I created. A while ago. Not super long, but within. A couple of years. Whenever the aggression towards Ukraine happened. And I created these pieces. In that period of time.

Susan Detroy

To like a reaction of my own feelings. And. Trying to comprehend what

Was happening. So. I'm going to attempt. To. Show those. So. I'm assuming everything's going all right. And that you can see. The. The work. I did. What happened is in my experience was. I noticed that. There was the iconic. Image of the sunflower. And I remembered that there were. Images that I had taken. From the local.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

School community garden. So I looked for those. And pulled those out of my. Files. My photo files. And I. Created this piece. And. During that time, I was also. Starting to. Learn more about. Video. Video editing. And. I created. This. Let's see if I can make it. Stop. For no. One. Mother nature. I don't. Know. Know. That. I don't know. That. I was. Again using. Older. Images.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

That. Had. Some. Flowers. Associated with it. From my.!!!! Woman series. And. I. Dedicated that. Creation. In. A. Homage. To. Ukraine. So that. I did that. Last year. And. This. Then. This. Was. The. One. That. I thought. Was. The. Most. Successful. In. My. Life. But. I. Didn't. Know. That. Was. In. Didn't. Know. Successful. And. My. Life.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

Was. Successful. Life. So. I. Think. Was. One. My. And. I. Think. Successful. In. My. Life. And. That. Was. Salon because it gives me an opportunity to look into my work that I've done that I haven't looked at in a while and sort of relive that have a new experience see where I was about a year ago a little bit more than a year ago and understand how have a perspective to what I'm doing now because I'm using video and editing a lot in my work. And in terms of what editing, all the work I make is, has its first gen, is photographic based and has its. Place starts with the iPhone image everything oops my calendar's alerting me starts with an iPhone image and then I manipulate that on my iPad usually as you can see with the first sunflower and then currently I'm putting most everything into a video editing in some way like motion leap or video leap or cap cut or those are my main tools that I'm using and I have those pieces I have been they haven't been selected yet the one that you're using is the ukraine one it's kind of dated but I still think it has relevance so okay I think that's it unless people have some questions let me just see if I yeah that's it thank you all right thank you so much Susan all right does anyone have any questions comments or praise for Susan I'm sure you do who wants to be first I'm now don't be shy I know I know there's a bunch of introverts in here because that's most of us but it's all right it's okay we people don't bite I'm gonna get to the chat real quick Cynthia DiDonato say it was a wonderful tribute to Ukraine oh sorry we have two Cynthia's the Dean Donato said that thanks Cynthia I wanted to say one other thing too I know Susan how much you use nature and florals to convey your feelings and I think you did a beautiful job with doing that again for Ukraine certainly the symbolism of the flower the sunflower is there and I think that final piece is very successful yeah thank you thank you yeah there's a Ukrainian before the pandemic what it what in near where I live there's a very strong Ukrainian community that when I was a kind of more regular photographer and doing documentation and coverage of journalistic coverage I went to the celebration more than once and always was so drawn to the costuming and the floral headdresses and the folk dancing and singing singing mostly and so I'm remembering that when I think about Ukraine yeah so we it's not revolt exactly they weren't revolting but they kind of have to now but it's not revolting exactly they weren't revolting but they kind of have to now yeah okay thank you anyone else okay well I'm good I'm just going to imagine that most people are in their own heads right now that's why they're not saying anything but it's okay it's fine but thank you so much for your presentation Susan appreciate it and your art is as wonderful as ever thank you All right.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

It looks like Cheryl has come back. Are you ready to present now or should we wait a little bit? Oh, you're still muted, by the way. Still muted, unfortunately. I'm muted. I'm talking to myself. I need that information. Okay. So let's see what happens when I share content. All right. Okay. Photos. That would help.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

Oh, here it is. Can you see it? Yes. It's not very good, but... That's a subjective feeling. It's my first attempt on Procreate. Only because... I've been through one lesson and half of another. I need to watch them about four or five times before I can understand them. And this... Explain this thing.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

I'm learning the layers and I made a mistake already and erased something I didn't want to erase. So now every single thing that I do gets on its own layer. And... So that's my thing. Now, the other thing is that I don't know enough about it to do what I want it to do. But anyway, it's fun trying and I'll learn it eventually, I guess. Yeah. I mean, some of us have been at this for years and some of us aren't actually all that tech savvy. I know Roz here. She is self-proclaimed low-tech.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

Though she does try and to great success because she just keeps trying. But yeah, I mean, it's always a learning experience. You got to start somewhere. Yeah, I did have a long time ago, I had a couple of classes in animation. But I didn't get a chance to really develop it. But that's the fact that I'm also into... I'm into analog painting.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

And I can't do one over the other. I'm like Picasso. I have to do it all. But I mean, I've limited it because I used to do printmaking. I used to do etching, lithography, monoprint, all that. But I've kind of not done that lately. And I'm not interested right now. There's a lot of things you can do, but I get a focus somehow. And it's hard to do. It's hard for me because I'm naturally... I guess I'm ADD.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

And it's really hard. It's always the best new, the next new thing. I want it. I have to have it. Shiny object syndrome. We call that. Yeah, exactly. Glitter. I love it. Well, let me just say about this crazy mess of a thing here is... I'm not sure. It's trying to be a broken city in Ukraine. And this gray thing that you're looking at is supposed to be a truck. And the word 200 means... I don't know what exactly it means or how they came about this. But this is the truck that brings the bodies back to the place that they're going to be buried.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

They bury everybody there. And it just... I don't know. It just grabbed my heart, that whole thing. And, of course, you see the flags. Well, the flags are... What I want the flags to be is there was a day a while ago, I guess maybe this month, where... Yeah. I think it was the 8th. Yeah. And they had the anniversary... Or was it February? Can't remember now.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

They had the anniversary of the first day of the war. And a lot of cities put the flag over some of their monuments. And I really didn't have very good luck except for the parish down there in the lower right getting them. But I wanted them to be in the flag. So that's something I have to learn. And anyway, that's my thing. There's nothing... I have nothing else about it, about that. But I don't know. I see war as a revolution, I guess. Yeah? Yeah. I mean, it is a revolution. It's... You know, they're trying to make Ukraine communist and Ukraine is trying to be free. That's kind of two ideas against each other. Mm-hmm.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

So... Anyway, it was my idea to come up with the war thing and then it evolved into a revolution. So... They are very much... I wouldn't even say two sides of the same coin. But the coin kind of has revolution and conflict kind of inherent in it. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll stop sharing so the next person can go. All right. Well, thank you so much, Cheryl. Oh, you're welcome. My pleasure. And keep up the work with practice and everything. You'll get to where you want to be. You just have to keep going. Yeah.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

All right. Does anyone have any questions or questions? Or comments, praise for Cheryl? Yes, no, maybe so. Cynthia, the other Cynthia that we have, Cynthia Beth Rubin, she says great depth in that image. Also, she's waving at you. Oh, this is also kind of a general note to everyone. The tools that we use, it's a perpetual learning process. You never stop learning. Like, you just keep going.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

There is a good enough, but you're always trying to be better than that good enough, I feel. Or at least that's for me anyway. But I think that speaks to a lot of other people as well where, you know, you're in a constant state of progression and growth and even change with your practice in art. So, yeah.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

So, with Cheryl, you're transitioning to more digital. You're starting to learn more digital mediums. That's great. And I'm rooting for you. Thank you. Yeah. I have a lot of other digital things, but I'll show them at another time. Gotcha. Because they don't relate to the subject. Gotcha. All right. Well, thanks so much. Thank you.

Cheryl Audet-Lavoie

All right. Moving along. Jaime, did you have a question or were you wanting to present? Also, you're currently muted. Yeah. I was just talking to Tommy because I went to his gallery. And because I couldn't interact. So, that was the bottom line. Okay. Got it. Other than that, no. I'm planning to have next time something, but I'm not ready yet. Gotcha. Yeah. All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks a bunch.

Colin, did you want to present? Your hand is up. Yeah. I thought, you know, it seems a little bit like slim pickings here tonight. I mean, I could go next. You know, I figured I dug something out from the archives that I think kind of fits the bill. Let me just share my screen here. So, actually, you know what? I need to share the audio, too. Give me a second. Share sound. Okay.

Colin Goldberg

So, this is a video piece that I made back in 2006. The description is an audio visual work using video samples from Google Video and audio from archive.org. This has nothing to do with the Bohemian Grove or the Illuminati, really. So, this was made during the COVID pandemic. This is from the Iraq War, and that's sort of something that, you know, inspired and formed the piece. Also, I was watching a lot of videos on YouTube about the Bohemian Grove. If you've never heard of it, it's something that you could Google. Anyway, I'm just going to play this.

Colin Goldberg

Spoken to the ages, spoken to the ages, first off, I'm afraid. Despicable acts of terror. I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Despicable acts of terror. Terrible sadness. And on behalf of the American people, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Despicable acts Acts of terror. Acts of terror.

Colin Goldberg

Spoken to the ages in Psalm 23. That's it. Nice I managed to work 23 into it even back then nice oh man I have to ask the significance of the owls I was trying to parse that out but I don't think I quite got it so bohemian grove if you if you ever that up, the sort of mascot of that organization is the owl.

Colin Goldberg

And it's kind of a, well, let's just see, I hear some weird audio in the background. I don't know if that's me. I don't think it is. Is it? No, I don't hear anything. Oh, okay. Nevermind. I had the browser open. Yeah, the Bohemian Grove is sort of this, it's actually started as an artist society on the West Coast. And it's this sort of private club where many of the presidents were sort of groomed.

Colin Goldberg

Supposedly, you know, Ron Reagan was introduced to all sorts of politicians there. When he was, you know, an actor. And it's, you know, a men's club, apparently, that all these industry types, you know, kind of would meet up at. And there's a lot of conspiracy theories around it. Our friend Alex Jones actually snuck onto the grounds of Bohemian Grove before he turned into who he is now. And I kind of got some fame from that whole episode. But, you know, I think there's a lot of. Sort of mythology around it. I'm not sure how much of it is really true, but it's pretty interesting from a like a cultural standpoint.

Colin Goldberg

But, yeah, they're all the owl is, you know, a big part of their sort of iconography. So that's where it comes from. And good old W is never he never fails to entertain. Oh, God. I think I think speaking of W from that time. I want to say that there was actually a sculpture. That was a monument to the shoe that was thrown at him while he was on air. Like that was that was the thing that happened. So, yeah.

Colin Goldberg

Now he looks pretty tame. He does. And he himself has gotten into art. He's been doing portraiture for the past decade or so, or even like maybe 15 years. That's right. That's right. Yeah. So some people are like, maybe he should have just done that all along. Yeah. Maybe not. Not gotten into politics.

Colin Goldberg

Maybe another famous individual probably should have done the same. I'm not going to mention him, though. His dad was a lot more, I think, you know, influential and nefarious, you know, his head of the CIA, I believe, before he was president. George Bush senior. Right. I think so. Yeah. I think a lot probably a bit more studious as well.

Colin Goldberg

But anyway. Thank you so much for that. At some point, I would like to get into video and audio work as well. But I don't know when that day will be. Someday. Yeah. Does anyone have any questions, comments for Colin? Yes. No. Maybe so. Still processing. I loved it. I thought it was beautifully done.

Colin Goldberg

It was very interesting. Thank you, Colin. Thank you. All right. Thank you. It was actually done for a graduate video art class or it was actually an undergraduate class that I audited and just got to play around mostly. And it was mostly done in Final Cut and like that whole suite that I don't think it exists anymore.

Colin Goldberg

Motion and Soundtrack Pro. There was a bunch of Apple apps that all work together. Colin, I was thinking of the OWL. I was thinking of the OWL as in quotes. The OWL represents wiseness and always showed up in front of Bush. Yeah. That's also interesting. A satirical touch. Yeah. I believe he was a member of Bohemian Grove. Pretty, pretty sure he was. Many of the presidents were and sort of a lot of it had to do with sort of maintenance of secrecy.

Colin Goldberg

You know, as far as what went on. Yeah. You know, there was a lot of stuff there, you know, at the camp. The many skull and crossbones societies that we apparently have interspersed with the world. Not just this country, but yeah. The private clubs. Anybody else have anything? Yay? Nay? Maybe? If you want to get off on these subjects of politics and what they're saying. This morning, I was listening to Amenpour and company.

Colin Goldberg

And, in fact, I listened to her for my news. She brings in the best people. They were kind of reviewing a book. And the book was, I forget the name, it doesn't really matter, but apparently the humanities is gone out of style. Style big time our colleges aren't teaching it anymore the kids don't want to take it they just talk about the old guys the old the old dead white guys that used to write poetry and you know theology you know you name it can confirm as a former philosophy major yep that's that is that is what I did but you know I mean it's the best thing to learn so today I was telling my sister well about this program and I said you know what so it occurred to me that politicians should take more of these courses and she immediately came and said ethics yes I wonder how many politicians know that word even probably not a whole lot not enough anyway I rest my case yeah as much as the humanities are not!

Colin Goldberg

They're not viewed as necessarily marketable for the for the job market unfortunately and there's also a lot of confusion I remember right after graduating I encountered my first instance of my degree being a problem because when I said I majored in philosophy they thought I was talking about psychology the two are not the same and it took maybe 10 minutes to explain to them that these are two completely different ideas and yeah the interview didn't go well after that unfortunately but anyway

Cynthia were you wanting to present next or well like colin said you know we probably could use a few more speakers I have a few things I can show and so That's what I thought I'd do. All right. And I guess I'll go after you because I don't think there's too many other people. I think I scrounged up some stuff. All right. But I will share.

Cynthia DiDonato

Okay. Can you see my screen? Yep. Great. I, too, when thinking about revolution, I think about war. And it brings to mind my participation in the early 70s and the, protests against the Vietnam War. And I was always interested in protesting against the government's policy, not against the troops. And here now we are again involved in war. But this time I'm supportive of this war because I think that Ukraine should have its sovereignty, especially since it's been invaded and invaded. So cruelly. So my only way that I've been able to protest what's happening there was to do some art at that time. And so I will start with the first. What I did was I was seeing all of these things on television. And so I began taking photographs of the television screen. And so the first piece I did was to take, of course, the Ukrainian colors.

Cynthia DiDonato

And I was, I was very impressed by the pictures of the Ukrainian soldiers and of course, the early bombings. As you can see, these buildings are pretty intact. Then I began seeing shots, aerial shots of what was done to buildings and neighborhoods. And I began to take these photographs and again manipulate them in some of the software apps that I have to, again, show my feelings. And so I began to take these photographs of the Ukrainian soldiers and their buildings and their buildings and show them how terrible this has been for them.

Cynthia DiDonato

Again, here's another television shot. As you can say in the, see in the left hand corner here, part of the news lineup mentions Ukraine. And again, I decided to add some color to what was a very dreary scene and make it more electric, if you will, for the fact that it is so terrible. Then I began, again, taking photographs. In fact, I think the background I ran through an AI app called Wombo and then began to manipulate another scene that I had from television to create almost a sense of the bombing that occurred.

Cynthia DiDonato

Here's another scene that I had taken from the I had taken a photograph of from the television set and then began manipulating and adding color to. Again, it shows the devastation. And that's the end. All right. Thank you so much, Cynthia. You're welcome. And those look amazing, actually. All right. Does anyone have any questions? Any questions? Well, the other Cynthia says, wow.

Cynthia DiDonato

Anyone have any questions or comments? Yes, maybe. I would have a question about the kind of how you see the meaning of this process of the imagery, like what you're adding to or how your how's that translation work for you? Of taking the photo and working working over them? Well, I think for me, it's somewhat cathartic. And I also get a chance to express something about the devastation that I watch on television very often.

Cynthia DiDonato

So to, I suppose, assimilate it or to come to grips with it. I think that. This is what I do. It's my I guess my own form of protest. It's something that I've put on Instagram occasionally. And the thing I feel bad about is I haven't been doing that recently. And yet the war is over a year old and it's almost we've become immune to it.

Cynthia DiDonato

And so I think it's you know, it's something maybe I should revisit. Just to get that feeling out there of how I feel about it. There is another Techspressionist and I can't think of his name right now. Every so often he puts something out about Ukraine to remind to remind the people on social media. I think his name is Robert trips.

Cynthia DiDonato

And he always ends his comments with, you know, peace in Ukraine. Or he mentions other revolutions that are going on right now, like in Iran, regarding women. And so I salute these people who decide to continually beat the drum and, you know, make it clear that this is still going on. And it is an atrocity. People are dying every day. And so I guess working with the images, Andrea, to get back to your question. Is in some way, I guess for me, a form of protest.

Cynthia DiDonato

Thanks. I want to relate to Cynthia's comments. I appreciate that what you said, because I feel very similarly and I think I noticed the person's post in Instagram and I make. I make a concerted statement. I think it's very important. And I appreciate your effort to follow artists or people commentators that are speakers or image makers for a variety of locations in the world where people are being impacted by aggression. Put it by war and aggression. So. I appreciate your comment that. And I do feel that. A lot of the, a lot of the work I do is.

Cynthia DiDonato

Always not so particularly exactly from in. Like there's not a linear. There's not a line like this happens and then I make this. But a lot. So much of the work is that I do is in response to my personal. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. Experience in watching what happens to other people in the world. I'll just leave it at that. So. Thanks for your comment. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you too, Susan.

Cynthia DiDonato

Anything else for Cynthia. Yeah. Hi, it's Leila Pinto and I just wanted to add something. Cynthia. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. I think it was very beautiful. And, you know, I think expressing solidarity. For the people over in Ukraine or wherever it is parts of the world where. You know, there's strife and suffering and for us to do something. Through our art, I think is very meaningful. And I just wanted to share one thing that I had done. Very early on.

Cynthia DiDonato

When, you know, the Ukraine news hit. So there were. A group of us artists who mobilized and, you know, we created. Paintings artwork in those yellow and blue. You know, the Ukraine flag colors. And. The one thing was we wanted to do something, but we didn't know. How to. Mobilize because this was, this was. When was it? One year ago? Or last year was it a year and a half ago? And so there were a couple of artists who actually found the address of the government of Ukraine. It was the NFT or the blockchain address. And so we ended up minting our pieces on the blockchain. And there was this big event that was held in the metaverse. There was a gallery and it was very, it was really very nice but I just wanted to share that's what I think there were about 50 artists from around the world we got together and you know we were also very concerned that if we were raising money we were donating our paintings for this war effort we wanted to make sure that the money was not going into the wrong hands like to fund weapons or something like that and so I just wanted to say it ended up working out really nicely because you know the people who found out the address of the government of Ukraine wallet ended up helping all of us and then we donated our paintings the money was raised and it went to again, it was a small thing, you know, because it was, you know, 50 people and clearly they need billions of dollars.

Cynthia DiDonato

But anyway, I just wanted to share that story. And that's one way where using NFTs and using the blockchain, we can, you know, each do our part, especially in times like this. So anyway, thank you. I just wanted to share that. That sounds like a wonderful project, Laila. And I know, like you said, it's... Seem like a lot, but it's an expression. And that's what matters.

Cynthia DiDonato

Right. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, thank you, Lila. I wanted to add to that, because there's also a way to do that for the earthquake. Victims, I was going to test quake aid or something like that. One of the pieces I made, the proceeds go to that. And there, I'm hoping that on the NFT blockchain, there'll be more ways to do that, because I find that an effective, an effective, possibly effective way to divert funds that, that we might have, as people that have a bit more than other to, to places that, that could use the resources. So thanks for bringing that up about the NFTs.

Cynthia DiDonato

Right. Thank you so much. I guess

It might be my turn now. So I guess you can't really have a discussion about revolution and not have some, input from one of the few, my Black minorities in the group. A great deal of, of my thoughts and feelings actually on a daily basis, probably tie back to some sort of revolution or revolutionary thoughts, thinking. My work doesn't always reflect that fact, but, when it does, I tend to kind of waffle between two ideas because I'm a Black artist that is Black. Sometimes there's almost an expectation that I, people like us are supposed to have our art be about those things. And kind of, there's a friction there's like, I do and I don't, but I don't want to feel obligated to have my work solely be about this. So, ah, you're a Black artist. Why doesn't your art feature, Black imagery?

Davonte Bradley

Are people, Black people specifically so much? It's very abstract. That kind of thing happens. But over the past couple of years, since I've really been, you know, re-exploring the ideas of being an artist and the kind of artist I want to be, I definitely kind of touched on, you know, the ideas of revolution and history, within like, as, as, as my lived experience of a Black person. So this, the first couple of works that you'll see, this expands, this is, was it made as, this is like a collection. This is kind of just like me digging through my stuff as time's gone on. It's kind of a reflection of my thoughts and feelings around those specific time periods.

Davonte Bradley

And let me go ahead and do, do. So I'm gonna start with, I'm actually gonna give you guys titles this time, because that's not something I always do. All right. You guys seeing, see this red kind of flower thing. All right, cool. There's a lot of images here, but I'm gonna actually give you titles for the first time. Really? This one is called encroaching.

Davonte Bradley

I made this one, I think around November of 20, 2020, yeah, November 4th, 2020, is when I created this. This was right in the, heat of the election cycle that we had. The, I personally feel the symbolism is more or less clear, but you know, you have the red kind of encroaching upon the blue, which to this perspective of our two political parties, right? That one's a little more blatant.

Davonte Bradley

Then next stuff. This one's called with Liberty and this is kind of me poking fun at the libertarian ideology, here in this country with, and how it kind of mixes in with a lot of right wing conservative ideas and that there's often a mismatch that libertarians don't readily realize. And that's what that one was about. The next one, this is called the politic.

Davonte Bradley

And there's various colors here that you can see. You have blue, red, this purple, purple region here, and they have on the fringes, which is kind of perspective of what happens, you know, your libertarian thoughts, your green party, your actual, like communist ideas that are kind of on the fringes of the main kind of focus, which happens to Ben Red and blue here.

Davonte Bradley

And then next, one of the few pieces of mine that actually features texts. I don't use texts a whole lot. This one may double check. I created this one January 13th of 2021. So this is right on the heels of the January 6th event. And there was a lot of feelings regarding that. You can see the Maga being kind of highlighted in red here. Certain phrases, make us a great, you against us, all lives matter.

Davonte Bradley

What else there's, there's, I wrote a lot in here. There's, there's a lot of details within this one. But it was called, this one's title. It's not all the same. Following that you have another kind of text-based piece. This is called the blue. This was, actually excerpts from, Joe Biden's inaugural speech.

Davonte Bradley

And then to contrast that you had excerpts from Trump's last speech to the public while he was in office. And I've highlighted, you can see back and forth. There's various pieces are highlighted. Zoom in, but I guess that might be later when we have more time. And then there was, a piece I created that was a combination of the two. That is called, Believe in Hope Again.

Davonte Bradley

And it's, that's kind of the primary text here is that I just want to believe in hope again. Because at that time it was very, there was a very dissolution feeling that I was going through with our political structure and it's, it was a different kind of dissolution meant that, that I guess I had experienced before because, you know, it was, you know, right after January 6th. And it's like things seem to be crashing in a way that they hadn't quite crashed before.

Davonte Bradley

So, yeah, that was what that was about. And then moving along from this, on the heels of January 6th and those events, then we had Black History Month. I didn't necessarily tie Black History Month to, you know, the previous works. But this is another piece features, you know, the Pan-African or the Garvey, the Garvey colors, the Black Power Fist.

Davonte Bradley

The text on the side is kind of more or less talking about my feelings about, kind of being Black in this country and what's my ties to it and what my experiences have been. Some of these lines are literally from the heart. It's like, I wonder the way I look and the way I speak, the way they resemble those that oppressed our people. Do I belong? Things like that. So I'm also big on the poetry if you've seen my book of poems.

Davonte Bradley

And then there was a series. So I also worked after that. That was kind of in the spirit of the, you know, the Garvey colors. So the red representing the blood of the ancestors, which is what this was called. The green of the Falag, which represents the bountiful land that's in Africa. And then the black that is representative of the diaspora as a whole. Like the disparate people from Africa that have found themselves all over the world. You know, the ones that ended up in the Americas after the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The ones that were forced to leave and go elsewhere and ended up in parts of Asia. That kind of thing.

Davonte Bradley

And another Pan-African piece. I wish I had more to say about this one. I can't quite remember what the thought process was when it comes to this one. I called this one Transport. I want to say it was kind of about the idea of the idea of, you know, potentially how things were shared and went back and forth between, you know, the land of Africa, which, you know, the green here.

Davonte Bradley

And the blood and, you know, how that all mixed together to form the diaspora itself, which is in the center here. Another same kind of concepts. This one is titled Disconnected. Which is more respective of my feelings about being a Black person and not necessarily feeling connected to the community. Mostly because of my appearance. It's interesting being an exceptionally fair skinned Black person in this country.

Davonte Bradley

I don't think it's something that's readily spoken about. But people like me do exist. And a kind of a flux space. Where, because even light skinned Black people, like there are light skinned Black people, like my older sister. She's darker than me, but she has a kind of different social status than me.

Davonte Bradley

And where I'm at, it's more akin to people that are actually mixed race. Somebody that has a Black and white parent, even though both of my parents are dark skinned Black people. So I'm outside of the two boxes that people would want to place me in. And it puts me in a kind of weird spot in relation to Black community as a whole.

Davonte Bradley

This one was, title's right there, The Dream Remains a Dream. This was also, again, going on during, you know, the time of the Black Lives Matter protests that were going on. And that was also kind of the backdrop of these images being made. Which very much is a revolution in its own right. Started not in 2020, but you can find it more or less being a continuation of ideas and thoughts and feelings from the Civil Rights Movement. That have never truly gone away.

Davonte Bradley

And speaking of that, this one was actually called Back the Blue. Yeah. Can't wait. The imagery here, I can't quite recall what that was about. But the title was Back the Blue for this one. And this one wasn't necessarily about revolution, but it was kind of a satire of at the time there was a gas crisis that was going on. If you all remember. And I entitled this one American Exceptionalism.

Davonte Bradley

Those are gas cans. And then there's more imagery here. Kind of about the clash of between our two dominant parties here. This one was titled Constrained. You can see here it's like almost as though the red is strangling the blue here. This was called an impossible task. The impossible task being trying to make some sort of cohesive bridge between the two ideologies. And it just being flimsy, not very substantial. Like seemingly very superficial.

Davonte Bradley

This here is called Lip Service. Which speaks to kind of the idea that oftentimes it's the case that the Democratic Party likes to claim that it is on the side of minorities. Black people. And, you know, the working class. But in practice it doesn't seem like that's the case for the majority of them, unfortunately. So it feels like empty words more often than not.

Davonte Bradley

This one's called The Wall. Which was a play on Trump's idea of, you know, the wall being built and just how uncomfortable that whole idea is. Okay. This was about, this is called We Know Fear and Use It. So this is more about the Republican Party, or at least not even necessarily the Republican Party so much as a lot of right wing conservative media seems to pride itself and use fear as a motivator more so than a connector of any kind. Recently, we know that Fox News itself actually came out and talked about, you know, how they spread lies on purpose, because they wanted viewership and that's what people were looking for. So they weren't going to listen to more radical right wing places so they played into that whole idea so that this one is kind of prescient on that because this was made before the whole.

Davonte Bradley

That whole defamation suit came out. This was made back in what? 2021. So June, summer 2021. And then we have here, kind of me poking fun at the back the blue flag and making it into like the Pan African flag. Similarly, same kind of concept went into my thinking with this one. Two kind of symbols are two ideas that often get used by people that like to criticize. The Black Lives Matter movement or civil rights movements that kind of thing.

Davonte Bradley

This one, the first one here sorry. This one was titled back the black, and this one is entitled Southern Heritage. It's kind of tongue in cheek. And then we have some more recent works of mine that the work is less about the art. On. It's less about the arts, and more about the message that I'm trying to convey here.

Davonte Bradley

There's mostly just text here. But the revolution or conflict of race as an idea is something that is on my mind a lot. Because if you think about the history of race so you know about the history of race, not just in this context. But how we've seen this country but globally, and then look at this country after knowing that. And how the idea of things like black and white developed here. You realize that was a major deviation to how the world had been before, like the way that the United States did race. It's very different than even how Britain was currently doing race.

Davonte Bradley

And so there was a series of works I was working on that was kind of pointing out the absurdity of the ideas of race. And how black and white was really the main reason why black and white was so important in the history of race in the United States. So this one was taught. This one I got a little bit more creative with the titles. I had fun with the titles. This one was his titles we didn't make the game or the rules, but we have no choice but to play.

Davonte Bradley

If I if I need to elaborate on that further I will. This one is called real patriots fighting to make America great. These are excerpts from various news clippings from when the 15th Amendment was passed to, you know, events that transpired. Shortly after that happening and kind of that contrast of I we made it. But at the same time these atrocities are still happening. So you have the news up here.

Davonte Bradley

And it the irony of the calling it shame when it was kind of that was how things were. It's like it's you can't really call something shame that the majority of a group was more or less okay with. And I say it's a wills a majority of the times because you didn't really necessarily see too much of a pushback against it's like they were talking about it was like nothing was actually done with this shameful access being this one was titled one of these is apparently more offensive than the other.

Davonte Bradley

And I also threw in that famous quote from Trump. Good people on both sides. Kind of that's a difference there. And this is a piece of history here. So during World War Two, actual Nazis that were prisoner of war here actually had more rights than black Americans, black veterans here in the United States and that was kind of a jab at that, because these Nazi prisoners of war could actually go see movie theaters in public. And so, you know, the white movie theaters by people could not enter those buildings. So it was that kind of that idea that there was a different status even for some of the people that historically we've deemed as the most deplorable individuals, and they still got better treatment than black people so it's like, ha, about that.

Davonte Bradley

This one is called. My ancestors were unprofessional. If you did not know. It was not until very recently that black people's hair was deemed, not something you could discriminate over in hiring practices. So there was, there's a whole history of black people and they have it necessarily need to be straightened in order to fit in and look professional in order to get jobs or be afford the same kind of respect and all the places.

Davonte Bradley

Yeah. There's a lot there and my own here I'm sure this is that my hair currently being the way it is but still make some sort of some people that are hired musicians like apprehensive, because a lot of our here is still even though legally they're not allowed to discriminate against it legality and what people actually do aren't necessarily the same thing. It's like discrimination can still happen they'll just say it's something else. It's like, oh, I'm not. It's not that we don't like your hair. We just don't think you'd be a good fit. But in their back their mind it's like, no, I didn't like this person because I didn't think they fit the image that I'm looking at.

Davonte Bradley

This one is called if we took the one drop rule as seriously as apparently. It's a long title. If we took the one drop rule as seriously as apparently, many of us would. You would be fucked. And that's kind of pointing at the absurdity of the one drop rule about being being black in this country, and how that whole notion was just an exceptionally absurd practice because you can't measure how black somebody is you can't just be like, Oh yeah, you're half black. Well what does that mean, or your three quarters back. What does that mean. Because if you look at a person's ancestry you'll see that it's mixed with a whole lot of different things and it's just.

Davonte Bradley

Yeah. And so the idea here is that apparently one drop of a black person's blood into a sea of white jeans, makes that person black. But the same can't be said in reverse, what a person that is whites that you know has a child with somebody that isn't white. But the same can't be said in reverse, what a person that is whites that you know has a child with somebody that isn't white. That other person doesn't get the same status as a white person. That's not a thing they are more they more the class of the other person right.

Davonte Bradley

This one. No text on this one but this was this is called gotta make it good enough for the white gaze, which speaks to the history of blackface in this country. And how black people in entertainment weren't really a thing until the menstrual shows started and white people started getting blackface. People started donning blackface but what people don't know is that there were actually black people that were donning blackface in order to get the right to be able to perform on stages and do music and dance because that's what white people were expecting but like expecting performance-wise so these people weren't even allowed there were black people that weren't even allowed to perform unless they were in blackface which is yeah that not very good so that's where that idea comes from this one is titled both of these cards apparently are bad apparently and people keep both of these cards are bad apparently and people keep coming for one of them and this is more about me specifically because I have often at times found myself people trying to get me to prove my blackness but also at the same time not willing to accept that some things are different because I'm black and will accuse me of pulling the race card so I have these two cards that apparently I'm not allowed to use then we have this which is this one is called blackface this one's called black man by law only kind of and this is kind of pointing at the legal or just highlighting the legal definition of what race is in the united states the designation of persons by race color national origin is required following destination of the use black not of hispanic origin a person having origins in any black racial groups of africa what is a black racial group and then white is somebody having origins in any of the original peoples of europe who exactly are the original peoples of europe that's it as you could like it's a very on its nose it's like oh yeah that makes sense but when you really think about it beyond that surface level it's like that doesn't actually mean anything like this is a very flimsy kind of nonsensical definition!

Davonte Bradley

And this was this is called black coded but you talk light and this was kind of about the fact that there was a lot of laws that still are on the books that are literally racially motivated or have initial motivations when they're created that's the whole idea about what systemic racism is and the that bias we kind of have these old walls that were in the books that were racially motivated that yeah they're still there still dealing with them trying to like deal with that and then there's kind of some programming humor here if you are a programmer of any kind the bottom out here is c out racism that's kind of the code for when you want to display an output visually and see and then up here you have the double hash here that's a comment so the comment is negro blood question mark which when we actually had things called black codes at one point that was part of the jim crow era and that's kind of what also the double play of black coded is talking about too so you had layers here like an onion or an ogre and then another I think this is the last one yeah this is the last one the pointing out the absurdity of the idea of biracial when you look up or try to find out the idea of what my racial is person or parents have ancestors from different racial ethnic backgrounds or concerning members of two racial groups but like we're if you actually think about it like your parent like I was saying before you don't have neatly in most cases at least with black people in this country anyway we don't neatly have like a strictly binary ancestry like they're like I could probably find native american german all sorts of ethnic groups that are within me and are the reason why I look the way I do so the I do this so this is the kind of our own world is not like it's not like it's not of even biracial kind of doesn't make sense and mixed race is again speaking to that like you just it's more accurate to say that but at the same time what we understand race at least in this country it doesn't make sense and then this was just a little joke the swirl is kind of a euphemism for what happens when what you call black people white people getting together it's called the swirl and I've spoken far too long so that's that you stop sharing yeah I know that was a lot and I like spent the entire like 20 so minutes going through that but there was a lot thank you yeah thanks tava yeah that's kind of what I've been up to or some of the stuff I've been working on in and out over the past I guess three years at this point because some of those go back to 2020.

Davonte Bradley

It was awesome but it's also very unfair for someone to say to you oh where's your show me why your art is black or where is that your blackness or your heritage in your art people don't I would go as far as to say that's racist people don't go to a white person and say show me the whiteness in your art so to go to an art artist and say your heritage is x so we need to see something from your heritage in there is it's I can see why it would happen but it's not really thinking things through and your art is you and it's wonderful so I'm gonna shut up it's all right thank you I think that was an amazing almost well I can't quite describe it but so intuitive of you and so worked out a lot of knowledge I really appreciate that and I can understand very well why you were why you were concerned yeah that's like actually you should have two two race groups to belong to instead of you thinking you have one or none you have two definitely have two at least from my point of view it's a it is a social construct and what we know about social constructs is that oftentimes they seem arbitrary but they do end up serving a purpose but at the same time maybe adjust how we how we understand it.

Davonte Bradley

All right. Have you, have you read Sapiens? Not yet. I think that is on my list. Yeah. Make it top for your list. You're really going to love it. It's a great book. So I just want to say the text, the use of text was really powerful. And I felt that because the gestures, the movement, you know, you can almost feel like when you said, well, this is a swirl, but in fact, that kind of motion was happening in different ways or gestures were happening in the imagery all the way through. And then the juxtaposition with the text was really amazing. I mean, you just explored having gestural text and then having type text and different ways of putting that together.

Davonte Bradley

And I think there's such a rich exploration. I hate to say rich because people that's kind of a trait way. And I'm multi-layered. I can't come up with the right thing. There's just a lot of different ways of expressing those juxtapositions and the way that they work together. So I found that really powerful and inspiring.

Davonte Bradley

Are you putting these into a book or are you thinking them as single or whatever? I did notice by the way, before I let you answer, the colors that you used are colors that are not easily printable, the red and blue. So, Yep. I'm aware. Yeah. So they have to be works that are best seen online. And this was a great viewing experience for us. Okay. So I'm going to shut up and let you answer. Oh, it's all right. Whether or not I'm going to put it in the book. I'm not sure the last 10 that you saw the ones that were all black that had the text and stuff written on it. Those are the first 10 of a series of about 20 that I'm going to be doing.

Davonte Bradley

The next 10 will focus more on the imagery more so than the text. But what I'm going to do with it after that, I, I have no idea. I have no idea yet. It's just, it, it was coming out as a result of a conversation I had with a friend of mine where we were talking about those same kind of subjects. And he was like, you should, you should do an art series about that. And I was like, maybe I will. And that's, that's how that happened.

Davonte Bradley

This could be in a book that's used in language arts classes because, because it's stuff you can talk about. You, you can, you can, you can see and feel the art. And then with the text in it and an explanation, you can understand it more and people can talk about it and your experience and your journey. Yep. This would make a great book. I think it, I will definitely keep that in mind. Lila? Lila. Lila. Sorry. Yeah. I wanted to say that was really very beautiful and very moving.

Davonte Bradley

I too thought that the, the, your, your use of text really helped explain a lot, but then of course your hearing you was the best part because we could hear kind of your personal experience. And I have to say as an artist myself, I often do not like to you know, I hate doing video. I, I, I just, I'm getting better about speaking about my art, but now when I see what you're doing, it's it just brings the whole thing to life. And I was very moved by that. So it was also inspiring and encouraging for someone like myself. And the funny thing is I'm very extroverted. Colin has met me at the South Hampton Art Center. I'm very extroverted in real life, but it's just when it comes to being on video or talking about my art or myself, I can talk up a storm if it's something else, but if it's being about myself, my experience, whatever, it's just related to art.

Davonte Bradley

I just have a hard time. So thank you for, for doing this. And maybe one of these days I'll, I'll talk about my experience. I will say two things probably helped me in that regard. Yes. Going to therapy because you have to talk about yourself in therapy. So you have to get comfortable talking about yourself, but also streaming in general, like doing live broadcasts on social media, that can also help you get comfortable with, you know, speaking with, there might not even necessarily be an audience, but you get in the habit of just being able to speak in front of the camera. Thank you. So actually I've been on Twitter spaces a little bit lately, to share, to talk about my NFTs. And that has been really good practice. Because just audio and, you know, people are very supportive.

Davonte Bradley

But on, on a side note, I just, I just wanted to share, you know, back to your story, something that is making the news in media right now. I don't know how many of you have been following the collapse of Silicon Valley bank. Yep. Right. So the most outrageous thing that I read other than everything else, and I'll just give you 30 seconds about my background. So I have a finance background. So I'm very much out there in terms of like in the public, I can, I can talk, like I said, you know, I'm in sales, so I'm very comfortable in the real world. And then again, I'm selling the product of my firm, not myself. So it's very different, but I'm also just showing my art and on Instagram. I'm very comfortable doing that, but back to the Silicon Valley. And I've been following that story, obviously because of my finance background, but the wall street journal, the journalist, his last name is Kessler.

Davonte Bradley

He stated something outrageous. He said that the reason. For the banks. Fall decline was because of diversity. Oh yeah. Yeah. I saw that. That is the most outrageous thing. It's mismanagement. It's so many things, but not because of a diverse board. Like, so I just wanted to share that. So that is the most ludicrous thing. And the ex Goldman Sachs CEO just was on the news lately. And he also said, this is like ridiculous that, that someone like the wall street journal would write something like this, but I just wanted to share that with you. So this, this level of ludicrousness about color and race and gender. I mean, it's just, it's like we're in this day and age. Come on. This is 2023 and this nonsense is still occurring. This is unacceptable. Acceptable like we're all intelligent well-read individuals like what is going on well I can say that when you when you get down to it like there's a reason for everything and some of those reasons can definitely be traced back to money unfortunately things being the way they are is still more profitable than trying to fix it so that's kind of where we are yeah but anyway with the wall street journal editor like writer stating something like that was just you know just shows the depths of what should I say lack of awareness and, and everything else, you know, it's so systemic.

Davonte Bradley

Yep. Yeah. And he, he was talking about, I didn't go into all the details, but I think it was, there was one LGBTQ person on the board. There was, there was women that were, so it was across the board. He was like, so anyway, enough said, but just wanted to pass that along. Anyway, I have to jump, but thank you so much. Yeah. For hosting this and really such a pleasure and goodbye to everyone. And thanks for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. You're welcome.

Davonte Bradley

And on that note, actually, we should probably be wrapping up anyway because we are past the time because I talked too much. So I want to thank everyone for coming and being in attendance and sitting through my long spiel about my work. Probably the longest I've probably talked about in a minute. And I want to also thank you for giving, you know, time and appreciation to the other presenters here, not just myself because I'm not selfish.

Davonte Bradley

And, you know, just for making this community, but also for being able to be what it is and, you know, as welcoming as kind and supportive as it is. So thank you again for that as well. And with that, I guess we can go ahead and sign off. So. And thank you Davo for moderating and it's great to have you back as a moderator and also sharing your work. So, you know, awesome, awesome to see and always, you know, enjoyable and definitely get a lot out of it. So, you know, and.

Davonte Bradley

It's just. It's what you're doing. So the first thing I want to say and the last thing I want to say and. And, you know, and the other thing I want to say is I'm not on the same page that you And. And, you know, I'm not that kind of an actual person. And I'm not the kind of person that you're going to have to go and talk to the same time. And, you know, I'm not the kind of person that you're going to have to go and work with. And.

Davonte Bradley

And, you know, I'm not the kind of person that you're going to have to go and work with. And. And, you know, I'm not the kind of person that you're going to have to go and work with. To hang out afterwards we will definitely be picking a topic for next salon which is in two weeks I actually will not be present because I'll be traveling but I'll leave it to all you good folks to keep the show going so yeah you want to kind of stand all right and we are signing off in five four three two one and that's a wrap