How would you describe yourself?
John: That is very hard to answer, professionally I would say I’m an artist, I make
artwork, I think the way we describe ourselves is occupationally. I also work a lot at the
winery. I’m a ceramic artist that’s my goal, my background is in ceramics and I’m also
passionate about science and physics. When I did my undergraduate degree, I did a
double major. I did material sciences and ceramic fine art. The engineering had an
emphasis in physics and ceramics at Arizona State. At Arizona State I studied with Kurt
Weiser, Sam Chung, and Susan Beiner. Describing yourself by your education is the
easiest for a young person. I finished graduate studies at Penn State, and I studied with
Chris Staley, Shannon Goff and Tom Lauerman and Chris Grey was also there at the
time. Describing yourself by your education is really the easiest way to go about it for a
young person.
Right from the get-go it seems like you had an affinity for sculpture and looking at things
in a 3-dimensional world, was that just an instinctive for you?
John: Yah, again it is so hard to look at this and say that it is just one influence or
another. All of these are super intertwined. I grew up in a very tactile environment in a
sense. I grew up in a greenhouse, working a lot with my grandfather on anything you
can imagine, tractors, mechanics and all those things are really hands on. This is how
this works, we did a lot of work like that, or even gardening, labor, just a lot of hands-on
things. I was never somebody that could be satisfied very long. At the time I grew up
video games were really rolling out. Real video games, not like pong but things that are
far more engaging in a different way. My siblings had a higher affinity for that where it
couldn’t hold my attention long enough because I guess I am just a more tactile person.
I guess there is some personal bias towards 3-dimensional work. It feels intuitive.
Because if I could be a musician, God I love music I play guitar poorly, I love to toy with
that but it’s not intuitive in the same sense to me I love learning about music theory but
it’s hard, I don’t get it as quick as I get how to translate something in clay. I just think the
3-dimensional world, especially in clay has felt accessible for a long time.
What has been your biggest challenge?
John: I think there are lots of personal challenges in life that come up. Everything from a
pandemic to personal things that can happen that slow you down and you must work
through. I think what may be most useful to talk about is one of the bigger challenges
I’ve had with my artwork in distinguishing what is genuine versus what feels like is
expected. I say this because when you go through the university system you spend a lot
of time becoming an insecure person in a lot of ways. Because you are given all these
expectations for what your work is supposed to do, based on the community you’re
existing in which is the academic world. You start to feel like your work needs to make a
statement on something, your work needs to address a social issue. Often you start
thinking in that way. You feel defensive. it’s common for a university system to push
students to approach the critique issue as if it is a defense and not a moment of
constructive feedback. And mentally that has been something I disagree with but
something that has been hard to shake as an artist. Because you leave the university
system. Which again, I have all these opinions about art, given that art is not well
defined, and it is in a very insecure place. It is constantly trying to defend itself, even if
you are the head of department, you’re trying to defend why your department should
have funding especially if it is in the arts. So, you have insecure faculty insecure
students, everyone is trying to defend why this has value, you’re trying to tie it to a
social issue because maybe if your art says something provocative then it’s valuable.
That mentality was super damaging and I think it hit me hard in grad school. Grad school
is this really great opportunity for a lot of things and building primarily a community of
people I can rely on, and there were good critiques and there were some good things,
but it also made me feel like a god damn lawyer I had to come in and defend why this
thing had value and why it should exist. There is something to be said for that, it is an
academic setting, and you should have some academic rigor I just don’t think that is the
right way to do it. It’s not the university system structure that I envisioned to be the
most productive. And so, you leave school and I left at a strange time, I didn’t have a
thesis because Covid hit, most of my work was abandoned, it was just a mess. So, you
leave and then you’re like well? I was dealing with these things while I was in grad
school but once I got out it just really hit. You start to realize it’s so important if you are
going to make good artwork that it be genuine first that you’re not trying to make some
shit because you feel obligated to address some social cause. You can’t go into artwork
asking how do I defend this? You must make it because you believe in it, and you think it
should be something that exists in the world if you do then it becomes this personal
thing about you and all though it seems like that will make it more isolating it makes far
more universal artwork. It makes things that more people can relate to because it’s real
it’s about a human and more people can see that maybe they’re not going to get the
same narrative that you intended if it’s not some didactic thing like, here’s a dead fish
and some bleached coral, which again I’m not trying to offend and I hope that there is
not an artist making something that I’m going to offend because there are ways that you
can address social issues in art work and have it be genuinely good I’m not saying that
art can’t address social issues but if your artwork is being done in a way because you
feel you need to do this or you feel you have to follow some school then it never makes
good artwork and I’ve made a lot of bad artwork in that line of thinking. And it’s still a
struggle. There is so much going on in the world that sometimes you just want to make
something that seems like the appropriate thing and it just becomes this disingenuous
piece of crap because you’re caught up doing what you think you should and social
media is only going to exasperate that problem because you see what everybody else is
doing and you see what is popular according to other people and all social media makes
you even more insecure and now you just want to build some ego or build some false
self and say Oh I’m making this work and it fits in line with whatever. It’s great and you
know that’s one thing but often it makes work that’s not very good, it makes work that’s
disingenuous and not what art should be about in my opinion. It shouldn’t be about ego;
it shouldn’t be about this false image of what’s good based on what everyone else
thinks are good. If you make genuine artwork, then it is going to be good. Because it will
inherently be relatable because it will be you and you’re a person and there are traces
that are relatable to everybody. So, how can we make genuine art? That is always a
challenge. How do I make things, I’m making this because I believe in it versus, I’m
making this because I’m hopping on the band wagon of thinking that I’m following and
then you’re not being an independent creator you’re just making some shit? Again it’s
so nuanced I say this but as a beginning student one of the best things you can do is
copy people’s work because you don’t have a language and your just trying to learn and
it’s not even about copying people’s work it’s just that there are different stages in
everyone’s life where they are figuring out what they’re doing and if you’re young you
copying something because you want to know how to do it. That still is like a genuine
academic pursuit so it’s not just about making something similar or doing something
with a similar ideology because sometimes that is genuine. People make similar work
that’s fine and if it looks similar that’s fine and both people can be good depending if it’s
a genuine thing and artwork within a school or within a certain language are similar, so
it’s not about how similar the artwork is at the end of the day. Is it genuine? And I think
as a person who views a lot of art and is interested in a lot of artworks it can be easy to
see that. Right now goopy glazes are popular, there are a lot of people making goopy
glazed things and there’s good goopy glazed things and there’s bad goopy glazed things
and it’s really easy to see and I can see this person exploring this and it feels like it’s
genuine and then you can see another example of it and it feels like somebody who’s
doing this thing because they think that is the right thing to be doing right now. And that
I guess is how I’m looking at it and if it’s genuine work that’s how it comes through. Is
that challenging to do? Very.
We talked a little about it but what’s on your horizon, what’s coming up for you?
John: Right now, the big things I’m looking at are the nonprofit I’m starting called La
Serra Collective that’s a huge part of my daily mentality the whole point of that is all the
art accessibility and how we can really change the way the culture perceives and
experiences art. So, I’m doing a lot for that and that’s a big thing. Beyond that I still
maintain my own studio practice and that’s always challenging. I feel like I have a full-
time job. The nonprofit is an important thing to me and it’s high on the priority list, but I
also help a lot in my family’s winery and that is what financially sustains me. So, I need
to do that and I’m remodeling the house, I’ve got all these projects that take up a lot of
time so balancing time is hard but I my art practice is still important. I feel like more so
because if I’m not doing that then I find myself just getting angry in daily life my
emotional status suffers. And so, the art practice is important. Right now, I’m still
making work, I’ve got a sculpture that’s wet, now that I’m working on it, I’ll have a little
time for this featured artist thing, I just shipped a little cup to LA, a cup being held by
two hands. A piece for a cup shows to a gallery my friend is starting that I’m excited for
and I have a show at Harvard Ceramics with my friend Andrew Casanada that I’m very
excited for that my friend set up and that is at the end of August. And, at the beginning
of August I have a big wood fire in the big kiln I have here in Denver and that wood fire
will also be tied into the nonprofit. Those things are kind of anytime you can do anything
in your life where you can overlap projects that’s when I’m happiest because wow, I can
get a few things done with the same amount of energy.
If you were to give advice to an artist just starting out, what would you tell them?
John: I think I would tell them three different things. And they are the three things that
have kind of been guiding me through tough times lately. I have a lot of shit I could tell
them, I guess I would say I have a lot of opinions about the university system and
whether that would be healthy or detrimental depending on their situation. The three
main things I think I would try to communicate to them is you are who you need to be.
No matter who you are you are who you need to be. Acknowledging your self value is
important and acknowledging that whoever you are you have the skill set you need
even if it doesn’t feel like it and it’s not time to surrender and say, I can’t do anything.
Because it’s not saying you’re perfect the way you are, you should always have to work
to do things to improve and to grow and to learn. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong
with where you are or who you are, so I think that is the first thing, you as a person is
valid and you have potential and there are things you can do with that as an artist or as
any kind of member of society. The second thing is you are where you need to be. I
think a lot of times we feel like I can’t do this because I don’t have this yet. You know we
build a lot of these excuses, and we do these things, like I need to move out of this city
because there’s nothing for me here. And that no matter where you go as a person your
problems follow you changing location never does anything and yes there is always
something you can do where you are. Again, it’s not to say you should stay put and give
up. It’s more so you should surrender to the idea that you have agency as a person
there are things, I can do here and there are things I can do in my body as a person it’s
kind of similar these things kind of overlap, but you know really establishing that in a
young artist is important no matter where you are there’s something you can do. There
are things you can do, and you can be OK with it you don’t have to feel like why I look all
around, and I see that this person is at this residency doing this shit you just got to let it
go and I’m here and who I need to be and where I need to be. I guess the final thing I
Would say is at the end of the day, don’t put too much wait on any of it. You are who
you need to be and where you need to be and at the end of the day the most important
thing is no matter where you are or what you are doing you care, you love, and you are
good to the people around you.
So I know that your family and your family business is a large part of your daily activities. Does that influence your ceramic work at all is there some relationship between what you do in the winery and being around your family most of the time that influences your ceramic work?
Yah, I think, yes but it’s not so much , the esthetics of the work , I’m interested in a lot of different thing but I think primary thing, all that I’m interested in is what ways does art play a role in human lives and what is our connection to art? And that’s the fundamental thing I’m interested in exploring. And you know, that said, there are all these other social issues percolating at times like climate change or what’s environmentally friendly. That is my work, I don’t want it to be some didactic statements on any of that. I want it to be nuanced and explorative and interpretive and interesting the way where it’s really, I’m a human making a thing because I think it should exist. So the ways that my family and the place I grew up, bleed into that. some of the ways I’ve already said, your raised in a way that all the obscure influences start to manifest in your views in how art is appreciated and the same goes for like the winery is a great example. Because Wine has everything so many things in common with art, it is , I have a very expanded idea of what art is, this is just a different practice of how we are going to be expressing this. Wine has a lot of the same problems too. In the wine world there is a lot pretention like there is in the art world there is the same kind of nuance too though you can have wine where this wine is worth $300 and this piece is worth $300 and they can both be a piece of shit and that is irrespective of their nominal value. But they are worth that much because we have a strange value system. But also like really good wine to me represents all these really interesting things. Wine is amazing because it is this fruit that you’re able to crush that naturally ferments it will just start fermenting because grapes have a high enough acid and sugar content to not rot in a way and with natural juice around them they will go into a fermentation and that is how wine is made. So it’s like you have this fruit that you are able to preserve for many years but even if you drink that bottle one or ten years down the line you know if it is made in a real wholesome way the artistic style like the way I admire, then it represents a time and a place, what was the weather like in the vineyard that year, how does that influence the wine and who was the human that organized all of these elements in such a way that it highlights that. That is the whole concept of terroir. It is a time, it is a place a moment and that is what humanity is, we can do shit like this and it’s beautiful and now not only that but I get to share that with people, I’m going to open this bottle of wine I’m going to drink it with friends and there is alcohol involved so there is this kind of social lubricant you might say side to it but there is also all this beautiful nuance and at the end of the day even if you don’t pay attention to any of that just like in the arts, if you’re not looking at any of that beautiful nuance it should be good. It’s good wine or it’s beautiful thing to look at so at the very base level it is engaging your senses in this basic way.
And so a lot of that has come from my family and from my cousin who was the first person in my family to really engage with wine in that intense of a way, he and my brother did ,my grandfather has always loved wine but more so in the thing that this brings the family together and we like wine with food but it wasn’t quite as in depth of a pursuit in all of what wine could be. Mason and Raymond really took that to the next level. Raymond is my brother and Mason is my cousin and so like watching that further expanded the way that I looked at art. You know like it can do all of this and it’s great because the thing that art like that has wine or visual things have say mathematics doesn’t is that it engages one of the senses. There is beauty in Mathematics you can go down that road and the way that that logic works can be equally as engaging and it still like a human language, it is the same kind of behaviors same kind of thought processes that make good art work and the decisions they make, it’s not like everything is fact and fiction, when you are on cutting edge science with cutting edge mathematics it is nuance it is exploration, we often times like to boil this shit down to where you know it, like it’s this or it’s this, but that’s not true it’s inventive. Humans are inventing new languages and new ways of thinking to interpret experiences. Which is what art is, you’re inventing a thing to interpret your experience the same as mathematics and the sciences. So but the problem with them is that math doesn’t engage your senses in the same sense it’s far more cerebral right which is why it is not a good way to understand what I’m saying, in my opinion, not the best way to understand this really human moment or these concepts of beauty because you really need a high barrier of entry to engage with it you need a lot of prerequisite it’s a very cerebral engagement, whereas good wine It’s Does it taste good? Like engagement is low, taste or your smell or your eyes, music it is auditory these forms of art that very much engage one of the senses are the lowest barriers of entry for people to begin to understand what art can be. Which is again, why I’m so interested in those things. There’s many other ways my family has influenced me, they have an unbelievable work ethic my mom and my grandma, they are a very unique thing and if you’ve ever, and you have, you have visited the winery and the place where we are trying to build this nonprofit. There is a strange energy about that place which engages people, they are very passionate people and they live is such a way that is exuberant far beyond their economic level. My family has never been a family with money we struggled, but they live in such a way that if they were going to spend money they would spend it on something they truly valued which were things may not. Food is a big deal at my house, always has been and we didn’t travel much, but every Sunday we make pasta and it is handmade and every Sunday, they do not miss. We get the family together and we do that dinner they really value other humans and they have that value system and because of that it has all definitely influenced my work and the way that I’m approaching the world the way I would like to see the world go.
Just as an outsider, it seems like the property where you have your studio, the winery, the restaurant and your family. It all circles around love and so it’s all about you can be a complete strange but you’re accepted there because they love you as a human being. You get to come in there and be sort of nurtured just by being at that space. That’s a credit to your family that they have made that space carry that energy. It’s pervasive in everything that is going out there.
I think a large part of my artistic practice is just trying to articulate that experience I have there. That’s the exploration of the art work, when I say when I want to explore art value or explore humanity that is just me trying to articulate these experiences that they have really established and provided to so many people. To me that’s what art is and they embody it in so many ways that and they live is a place that is esthetically beautiful in many ways. Because of my uncle’s art work, because of my artwork and the artwork of they a have collected all of these layers all of these things contextually layer, so it’s not just we have really great people also when you are at this space it is a sensory overload, There’s a lot of shit going on, between the interaction of the people we are in the shadow of a giant power plant, we are in a weird space it’s off putting, It takes you out of your comfort zone to be there but then it is welcoming and it’s safe.
Yes, it is like a novel unfolding. When you get there you are like “what the heck” you know, it is disarming at first, did I turn on the wrong road? That’s awesome. When you think about your connection with clay do you think of yourself as a continuation of a long line of potters or because of your diverse background and the way you approached it, scientifically and in practice do you think of yourself as someone just going forward and not looking back.
No, I mean again to appreciate all of what we have been talking about right to appreciate that essence of that humanity is, you cannot look at for all that it is, I’m a third generation Italian immigrant, that made a Japanese style of kiln, anagama in an industrial area, there’s all these weird elements. I don’t just look at it like I’m not going to pay homage to the huge influence of Japanese art that has been always in my mind and manifesting the way in which I’m approaching esthetics. I’m definitely just one piece in a long lineage of things and my uncle is an artist and that work influenced me I think it is hard but I think it is unhealthy to think you’re somehow this really novel new thing as a person or an artist in any way. You’re the continuation of what it means to be human as an artist you are carrying on all these unique attributes and unique qualities and it builds in the same sense that like that’s what science does. Every time you have a new scientist that person doesn’t just reinvent and act like they discovered the world in a way or reinvented a structure to understand the world, the idea of discovery is funny, it’s not so much discovery it’s more like an invention that works really well with reality. When it comes to scientific concepts that’s the way I have always looked at it and it’s like no, they build on what is known and what is knowledge. And that’s exactly what I see myself doing as an artist I have my experiences, how do I add on to this narrative in a way that’s constructive and brings beauty and quality in the ways I see fit. Hopefully I’m bringing new things but I’m not ignoring what the past has done other people have done.
I see you as pretty innovative, so it’s hard to know if the lineage is just a continuation or you are just completely bursting free.
That’s very flattering but I think it’s more so just I think it’s just a continuation. When we have something novel it’s not so much to me that someone has invented something totally crazy but more so that someone made some connections that weren’t previously made. So some of the things I’m doing may seem pretty innovative but it’s because of my background I’m building off of schools of thought that aren’t so linear. So your bringing together different ideas but it’s not that I’m miraculously just building all this there is a huge structure and resource pool that I’m will always feed of. The things that make us unique and things that make the idiosyncrasies in someone’s work I think is that we all get to build our own pool or our own well. I just have strange well because I have a strange background but that doesn’t make me unique in the sense that I’m any more innovative than anybody else.
What has kind of stopped you and you felt, this is challenging?
I think there is lots of challenges like personal in life that come up. Everything from a pandemic to personal things that can happen that can slow you have to work through. I think what may be most useful to talk about is one of the bigger challenges I’ve had with my art work is distinguishing what is genuine versus what feels like is expected. I say this because when you go through the university system you spend a lot of time becoming a really insecure person in a lot of ways. Because you are put on all these expectations for what your work is supposed to do based on the community your existing in which is the academic world so you start to feel like well my work needs to make a statement on something, my work needs to address a social issue often times and you start thinking in that way and you also think is a really defensive way where it’s common for a university system to push students to approach the critique issue as if it is a defense and not a moment of constructive feedback. And so that mentally has been something I disagree with but something that has been hard to shake as an artist. Because you leave the university system which again I have all these opinions about art given that art is not well defined it is in a very insecure place it is constantly trying to defend itself, even if you are the head of department your trying to defend why your department should have funding especially if it is in the arts. So you have insecure faculty insecure students, everyone is trying to defend why this has value, you trying to tie it to a social issue art because maybe if your art says something provocative then it’s valuable. That mentality was super damaging and I think it hit me really hard in grad school. Grad school is this really great opportunity for a lot of things and building primarily community of people I can rely on, and there was good critiques and there was some good things but it also did a thing it made me feel like a god damn lawyer I had to come in and defend why this thing had value and why it should exist. There is something to be said for that, it is an academic setting and you should have some academic rigor I just don’t think that is the right way to do it. It’s not the university system structure that I envisioned to be the most productive. And so you leave school and I left at a strange time, I didn’t have a theses because Covid hit most of my work was abandoned it was just a mess. So You leave and then you’re like well? I was dealing with these things while I was in grad school but once I got out it just really hit. You start to realize it’s so important if you are going to make good art work that it be genuine first that you’re not trying to make some shit because you feel obligated to address some social cause you can’t go into art work being How do I defend this, you got to make it because you believe in it and you think it should be something that exists in the world if you do then it becomes this personal thing about you and all though it seems like that will make it more isolating it makes far more universal art work. It makes things that more people can relate to because it’s real it’s about a human and more people can see that maybe they’re not going to get the same narrative that you intended if it’s not some didactic thing where it’s like here’s a dead fish and some bleached coral, and which again I’m not trying to I hope that there is not an artist making something that I’m going to offend because there are ways that you can address social issues in art work and have it be genuinely good I’m not saying that art can’t address social issues but if your art work is being done in a way because you feel you need to do this or you feel you have to follow some school then it never makes good art work and I’ve made a lot of bad art work in that line of thinking. And it’s still a struggle. There is so much going on in the world that sometimes you just want to make something that seems like the appropriate thing and it just becomes this disingenuous piece of crap because you’re caught up doing what you think you should and social media is only going to exasperate that problem because you see what everybody else is doing and you see what is popular according to other people and all social media makes you even more insecure and now you just want to build some ego or build some false self and say Oh I’m making this work and it fits in line with whatever you know, It’s great and you know that’s one thing but often times it makes work that’s not very good, it makes work that’s disingenuous you know and it’s like that’s not what art should be about in my opinion. It shouldn’t be about ego, it shouldn’t be about this false image of what’s good based on what everyone else thinks is good. If you make really genuine art work that is going to be good. Because it will inherently be relatable because it will be you and you’re a person and there are traces that are relatable to everybody. So, How can we make really genuine art? So that is always a challenge. How do I make things, I’m making this because I believe in it versus I’m making this because I’m hopping on the band wagon of thinking that I’m following and then you’re not being an independent creator you’re just making some shit because, but again it’s so nuanced I say this but as a beginning student one of the best things you can do is copy people’s work because you don’t have a language and your just trying to learn and not even about copying people’s work it’s just there are different stages in everyone’s life where they are figuring out what they’re doing and if you’re young you copying something because you want to know how to do it that still is like a genuine academic pursuit so it’s not just about make something similar or doing something with a similar ideology cause sometimes that is genuine people make similar work that’s fine and if it looks similar that’s fine and both people can be good depending if it’s a genuine thing and artwork within a school or within a certain language are similar so it’s not about how similar the artwork is at the end of the day is it genuine. And I think as a person who views a lot of art and is interested in a lot of art work it can be really easy to see that. Right now goopy glazes are popular, there are a lot of people making goopy glazed things and there’s good goopy glazed things and there’s bad goopy glazed things and it’s really easy to see and I can see this person exploring this and it feels like it’s genuine and then you can see of it and it’s it this feels like somebody who’s doing this thing because they think tht is the right thing to be doing right now. And that’s I guess how I’m looking at it and if it’s genuine work that’s how it comes through. Is that challenging to do? Very.
I think you have to tell the truth and the truth is very difficult to tell, it makes you completely and absolutely vulnerable and it makes you completely and absolutely afraid and It is one of the most courageous things that you can do and if you are copying somebody’s work tell the truth about that and that’s good.
Yeah and it’s honest and if you love the work you are making and it looks like someone else’s, then it’s just in that school of work and it’s a continuation of that conversation. Again, who’s the judge of whether you’re doing something genuine or not? Only you can be. But at the end of the day there is something about the work that is produced as a consumer or a person that’s looking at it, something comes through or it doesn’t. It’s either going to make that connection or it’s not . For me, when I see people even if their making similar work to somebody else if you talk to them, you interact with them the work that I like, any time I interact with that person I’m like oh this makes sense why I like your work and the work that I don’t like and I’ll sometimes interact with those people and I’ll I don’t really get it why I don’t like this? Like you actually are totally in line with what I thought would be my experience here. I don’t who’s the arbiter of that or who judges that but I think being true and genuine to yourself and not doing things for others validation on line or others validation or your own ego thinking you need to address some issue or something because you think that is the right thing to do versus what you truly believe that’s something that’s always hard to navigate in our practice.
I think that’s one of the hardest things you know to just to that. We talked a little about it but what’s on your horizon, what’s coming up for you?
Right now, the big things I’m looking at the nonprofit I’m starting called La Serra Collective that’s a huge part of my daily mentality the whole point of that is all the art accessibility and how we can really change the way the culture perceives and experiences art. So I’m doing a lot for that and that’s a big thing. Beyond that I still maintain my own studio practice and that’s always challenges I feel like I have a full time job. The nonprofit is an important thing to me and it’s really high on the priority list but I also help a lot in my families winery and that is what financially sustains me. So I need to do that and I’m remodeling the house, I’ve got all these projects that take up a lot of time so balancing time is really but I my art practice is still really important. I feel like more so because if I’m not doing that then I find myself just getting angry in daily life my emotional status suffers. And so the art practice is really important. Right now, I’m still making work, I’ve got a sculpture that’s wet, now that I’m working on it I’ll have a little time for this featured artist thing, I just shipped a little cup to LA a cup being held by two hands a piece for a cup show to a gallery my friend is starting that I’m excited for and I have a show at Harvard Ceramics with my friend Andrew Casanada that I’m very excited for that my friend set up and that is at the end of August. And, at the beginning of August I have a big wood fire in the big kiln I have here in Denver and that wood fire will also be tied into the nonprofit. Those things are kind of anytime you can do anything in your life where you can overlap projects that’s when I’m happiest because wow, I can get a few things done with the same amount of energy.
If you were to give advice to an artist just starting out, what would you tell them?
Mmm, I think I would tell them three different things. And they are the three things that have kind of been guiding me through tough times lately. I have a lot of shit I could tell them, I guess I would say I have a lot of opinions about the university system and whether that would be healthy or detrimental depending on their situation. The three main things I think I would try to communicate to them is You are who you need to be. No matter who you are you are who you need to be. Acknowledging your self value is really important and acknowledging that whoever you are you have the skill set you need even if it doesn’t feel like it and that’s not time to surrender and say, I can’t do anything. Because it’s not saying you’re perfect the way you are, you should always have to work to do things to improve and to grow and to learn. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with where you are or who you are, so I think that is the first thing, you as a person is valid and you have potential and there are things you can do with that as an artist or as any kind of member of society. The second thing is you are where you need to be. I think a lot of times we feel like I can’t do this because I don’t have this yet. You know we build a lot of these excuses and we do these things, like I need to move out of this city because there’s nothing for me here. And that no matter where you go as a person you problems follow you changing location never does anything and yes there is always something you can do where you are. Again, it’s not to say you should stay put and give up. It’s more so you should surrender to the idea that you have agency as a person there are things I can do here and there are things I can do in my body as a person it’s kind of similar these things kind of overlap but you know really establishing that in a young artist is really important no matter where you are there’s something you can do. There are things you can do and you can be OK with it you don’t have to feel like why I look all around and I see that this person is at this residency doing this shit you just got to let it go and I’m here and who I need to be and where I need to be. I guess the final thing I Would say is at the end of the day, don’t put too much wait on any of it. You are who you need to be and where you need to be and at the end of the day the most important thing is no matter where you are or what you are doing you care, you love and you are good to the people around you.
I think those are really good things. My last question is, if you could is there anything you would change from your past? And what would that be?
My quick answer is no, because to go down that road is really heart breaking and hard. I find it really hard, I often times get in the mind of what I could have done about anything, be it my career, personal things or whatever and to do so takes me out of the moment I’m living in and usually makes me feel bad. I’m never like woo I’m glad I didn’t do that It’s usually wish I would have done this and where I do fall into the lines of thinking it really can be heart breaking and just stop me in my tracks to do that. No there’s nothing I would do differently because I can’t, I’m not there.
Yeah that’s how I feel too, that’s a super power I don’t have.
Right, I can talk about trivial things like “man I wish didn’t bump into that mail box with my car, that’s something I wish I had done differently” but that’s also kind of like it’s trivial, whether I hit that mail box or not means very little in my life but the big things that actually would change my life, I don’t even want to touch that with this kind of 20|20 vision I have to be right now and I have to live in the whatever right now.
I’m just going to follow up, I know I said that was the last question I do feel like that’s a gift that artists have that maybe not everyone has we do have to live in the moment because it’s what you’re doing right now, right this instant that where you are what you’re what you’re doing that makes things possible. That may be true for everyone but I know it is true in the arts.
Yes, I think it is true for everyone I just think that people that are in a thing that they are really passionate about which if you are in the arts you are really passionate about it but also if you are in any other career field that you truly have passion for and you’re not doing it for money you’re doing it because you are passionate about, you are doing it because you love it, then you are living in a way where you are really genuine to yourself and to be genuine and to be genuine and to be honest and to love one’s self makes it really hard to live a life of regret living a life of regret you carry a lot of resentment and when you are carrying that resentment it’s really hard to be genuine. I think it’s just to really be passionate about what you are doing is to be really genuine about what you’re doing and to be really genuine makes it hard to live in other time frames. Because to do that would require a lot of beating up on yourself, which don’t get me wrong I’ve done plenty of that those aren’t the times I’m proud of, that’s not what I want to be doing. I want to living in the moment, I want to be engaged with the things I’m passionate about I want to be making artwork I want to be pushing my nonprofit I want to be doing these things that I see as high quality in this world. Yeah I think it happens with artists but it’s not exclusive to them.
Thank you John.
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