Our guest is Roman LC Martinez

Roman is a professional illustrator and a filmmaker in LA. He's founded the Film Reframed studio, and he's also working with a program called the Unhoused Art Initiative. And we're going to talk about how he's working with this program for people who are experiencing homelessness in LA. And we also want to talk about his work, Roman, we want to talk about your projects and also some of the things that you're working on to support these unhoused artists. So we've got a lot to cover in our short time together, but we're going to get through it all. 

Prioritizing work

Roman jokingly thinks having ADHD is a driver for him, when he’s interested in something it's very easy for him to channel a lot of energy and passion towards that particular thing. And seeing that he has a diverse scope of projects and goals like contributing to the world, for him it helps if he hits a wall in one pursuit or maybe there's just a delay in something that he’s working on, for Roman, it’s very easy to shift over to the next one and to the next one. So each goal develops at its own pace.

His passion project: Unhoused Arts Initiative 

Roman tells the story of how he started working with the union rescue mission, which is one of the largest missions on skid row in Los Angeles, serving the unhoused population. He tells of how he wanted to help artists who don't have access to supplies or storage for their artwork, create art that communicated some of their experience. And after going without a real expectation of how it was going to go. Roman had an idea to bring gallery-quality supplies into a situation where there may be artists who want to create something, and to give them the space and the time and the attention to do that, then maybe it will yield beautiful results. 

Unhoused Arts initiative

Roman thinks that the interesting impact of the initiative frames this space that way because when you give people the opportunity to say what they want to say, you're really just providing an opportunity for them to be listened to. He believes that the unhoused population has so much to say that they're always sharing it with people and that the people that provide services for them sometimes start to tune that out, out of necessity for the volume that they go through. Roman tries to provide his full focused attention and just tries to hear what they had to say. 

The mindset, from artist and educator to gallery manager

Roman tells us about the challenges in working with unhoused artists. One of which is you don't have an address to locate them by or a consistent phone number. Roman says they’re not in a state of mind to even remember that they made the art and often times many of them will get up after the session and just walk out into the streets. So some of the artists you will lose complete track of after you've worked with them. Roman explains about being a manager for these artists, how there's really no way to control that force of nature in that situation, that the best that he could do is report everybody's name who came in and record the story they shared with him while they were working on the art. So for Roman, it was about cataloging that information and, and keeping it somewhere safe cause everything just happened in a brief moment.

Roman’s next steps...

Roman goes on to explain that for the Unhoused Arts the next step is to do a personal fundraiser to get a high-quality art book made of the art that was lost so that they can at least show people what there was. Roman explains that it won't be the same tangible experience of seeing it in a gallery. But the importance is that things have meaning. Roman believes that that is the way to help the artwork of the artists and the space they were in at that time live on and continue to make an impact and hopefully create more opportunities for future exhibitions.

As far as Romans’ personal projects go, he explains how he had 10 large-scale oil paintings of the work that he does which he calls the blind portrait series. He goes on to explain that he will sit down with subjects in person, and continue to ask them a question about life or something existential, or even something just very minimal, but he would ask with the intent to listen. 

Support the fundraiser

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/little-tokyo-small-business-relief-fund

Learn about Film Reframed online education project 

https://www.filmreframed.com/

Visit the Push and Pour Coffee Shop we mentioned

https://www.pushandpour.com/

auto generated transcript

Well, hi, welcome back friends to our podcast. Unlocking your world of creativity. I'm mark STinson. This is the podcast where we travel around the world, talking with creative artists and practitioners of all kinds about how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas, and most of all, how they gain the confidence and make the connections to launch their work out into the world. And I have a very special guest today, as we are going to go through a wide range of creative pursuits that our guest is working on, including some very meaningful, social and charitable projects that we want to get into. So let me introduce Roman LC Martinez, Roman, welcome to the program.

Thanks for having me. Well, Roman

Is a professional illustrator is a filmmaker in LA. He's founded the film reframed studio, and he's also working with a program called the unhoused art initiative. And we're going to talk about how he's working with this program for people who are experiencing homelessness in LA. And we also want to talk about his work, uh, Roman, we want to talk about your projects and also some of the things that you're working on to support these, uh, unhoused artists. So we've got a locked a lot to cover in our short time together, but we're going to get through it all.

That sounds great. I'm thankful for the opportunity. Yeah,

Well like a lot of creative people, you have so many creative pursuits and I'm sure you say, well, I'd like to be involved in this and I want to support women and Latin film makers, and I want to develop, uh, you know, courses that I want to do. I mean, how do you, how do you juggle it all? How do you prioritize what works for you in terms of an organizational approach?

Well, it's interesting. I think step one for that is, uh, having ADHD really helps bounce around between a number of projects. And, uh, you know, even though I do think that that's in some ways of joke, it's also very much a real driver, you know, of my life, my experience, when I'm interested in something, uh, it's very easy to channel a lot of energy and passion towards that particular thing. And seeing that I have a diverse scope of projects and things that I want to, uh, you know, contribute to the world and people I want to work with, it always helps me to, uh, if I hit a wall in one pursuit or maybe there's just a delay in something that I'm working on, it's very easy to shift over to the next one and to the next one. So it's, uh, you know, each sort of develops at its own pace. And I just try to make sure that you just keep all of them in the air that at least you worked, you've touched, you know, every project that you're working on, at least once within that month, just to keep it alive. Um, but it is, as you're saying, it's very difficult to navigate than, uh, uh, don't always do a good job, I think, uh, yeah, just that the effort and the passion for it, it helps to be excited about it. Yeah, indeed.

Well, and it comes through. So as a illustrator, as an artist yourself, uh, you've obviously decided to share this and as an educator then share the passion, but also the techniques and the specific, you know, uh, tools that one needs. And I'm really interested to delve into the unhoused arts initiative and how that came to be one of your passion projects.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so a couple of years ago I started working with the union rescue mission, which is one of the largest, uh, missions on skid row here in Los Angeles, serving the unhoused population. And, uh, I went in with the intention to help artists who don't have access to supplies or storage for their artwork, create art that communicated some of their experience. Uh, and so my, I went in without a, without a real expectation of how it was going to go. I just thought if I bring gallery quality supplies into a situation where there may be artists who want to create something and I give them the space and the time and the attention to do that, then maybe it will yield beautiful results. And, you know, that's the thing is you never know exactly what you're going to get, uh, in an unknown situation.

So, uh, I started going in on Saturdays and setting up a table in front of the, the, what they call the day room, which is where they allow people from the streets to come in during the day and have a roof over their head and participate in activities or, uh, work with, um, different health services. And so, uh, I went in and set up in the front and just yelled out to the room, you know, Hey, I'm Roman, I'm here. I've got art supplies. If you want to come make something or just watch or just talk, come up here and we'll spend some time together. And that started the process of, uh, a year long endeavor to, you know, every week go to the mission, meet somebody new, help them develop art that really spoke to them and not just give them a situation where we say today, we'll paint a tree or today we'll paint a fish, but instead to, uh, you know, let them express what they want to express and then, you know, give them an opportunity to have that artwork preserved and archive photographed and, uh, you know, taken back with me for the purpose of exhibiting it in a gallery setting.

So, so the overall idea was to, uh, give unhoused artists a path and mentorship to getting their artwork exhibited and taken seriously on the same level that you would take, uh, art, fine art in a modern art gallery seriously.

And what, what do you find to be the impact of that on the artist? I mean, what kind of response or, uh, you know, feedback did you get on that project like that?

Um, I'm sorry, can you, can you repeat that? I

Just thinking about, you know, when you said, uh, instead of saying this is instructional, it was meant to be, to let them express themselves. And I was just curious as to the, I guess, impact or the result, how did that make them feel that rather than being told what to do, we're simply literally providing you a canvas to tell your story, to express your thoughts.

Yeah, no, I think the impact is very interesting and that's why I wanted to frame this space that way, because when you give people the opportunity to say what they want to say, you're really just providing an opportunity for them to be listened to. And in a situation where a lot of people will, um, you know, be fatigued, trying to listen to a lot of the unhoused population either has so much to say that that they're, they're always sharing it with people and the people that, uh, provide services for them sometimes start to tune that out or just be sort of, uh, you know, out of necessity for the volume that they go through. But for me, uh, I was coming in for a limited amount of time and just providing my full focused attention and just trying to hear what they had to say.

So it was a good opportunity for them to share a story that they either, even if they shared that same story, you know, 20 times that day to have somebody, you know, not only be looking at them the whole time and processing it, but also giving them a chance to say, you know, or asking them the question of, well, how would you represent that? Or what would you want to, you know, show about that, uh, made space for a lot of really, really beautiful and interesting moments. Um, you'd have people come up who, you know, I had a woman come up and she sat down and was sort of saying that she didn't really want to paint, but she just wanted to be around because she liked, you know, artistic people. And so she was sitting there for awhile and then, because the paints are all there in front of her, as the session went on, she'd slowly, you know, start to dabble, get into something.

And eventually she started painting just a very simple rainbow, but midway through the rainbow, she just started sobbing. And you just wonder, you know, what's, you know, because I'm there and that, that's where my focused attention is. I can need to check in with her and say, Hey, you know, what's going on? How are you feeling? And then she started telling me that essentially her mother had just died two days prior and that your mother loved rainbows and that she was painting the rainbow for her mother, because that was what her mom said was the, the pathway into having was a rainbow. And so this whole, you know, this whole story comes from just a simple, um, I would say even maybe a subconscious dabbling on her part to just start, you know, approaching the art. And I think if you don't give people that space to think about what they want to do and really check in with themselves at the time, uh, then, uh, then you're going to miss opportunities like that.

And obviously this had an impact on you as well, uh, to hear the stories and you really thought, well, I'd love to share that and exhibit this work and, uh, put this on display. What were your thoughts there? Yeah,

My, my, uh, intention going into the situation was I really did suspect that because there are unhoused, people are such a, uh, small, but, uh, you know, uh, at the same time, large percentage of the population here in Los Angeles, they have a perspective on life. That's very different from the perspective that, uh, many of the other people in the population have, and that's just by the, uh, the environment of their, their life, the day-to-day that they experience is very different. And so I thought to me, well, they've likely hold a different, you know, puzzle piece in creating the whole picture of what it is to be a human and to be living, uh, here in the world. So I thought, well, there's, there's inherently an interesting perspective there, regardless of, uh, of who's coming to share that perspective. That is, that is something that a lot of people don't get to see.

And so in terms of thinking what's gallery worthy, what's worth putting on display and showing in a gallery it's often more to do with what the art speaks to about the human experience than the actual, like what you might call the technical achievement of the art like that. And, uh, as you probably know, outsider art is a movement that, uh, gained a lot of traction on the past couple of decades. And you think of a basket for instance, and you see that that not only is that style, um, something that compels people and makes them interested, but also, uh, it starting to be a bit invoke, uh, in terms of, uh, design and where, you know, fashion designers are pulling influence from, and, uh, what art is, uh, you know, being featured on album covers these days, things like that. It's trending towards that, uh, Basquiat style, which, um, you know, to me set up a perfect sort of environment for a renewed interest in art that looks like that, and a situation where people might come and actually take it, uh, very seriously.

And when you take something seriously, when you put, when you put a context of meaning around it, which is basically all the museum is, is saying this stuff's important in here. When you bring somebody into that environment and say, this stuff's important, you can really make a, uh, a deep connection to what that art is saying to you. And that was my way of thinking, well, this is how we could connect people to the unhoused experience. This is how we could share that, that part of life with people who have no experience with it is just get them to take it seriously. Yeah.

And it's interesting, you say, just having a piece of art in a museum gives it context and underscores, and we think this is important, but you're also adding, don't just judge it on its sort of technical or artistic merits itself, but the message and the meaning behind that story expressed in the art,

Especially since you know, the development of art over time, you know, there was definitely, if you look at our history, you see your progression in the, uh, you know, evolution of realism and getting more and more and more realistic in the way we can depict things because we've learned different techniques and those masters would teach their apprentices and so on and so forth. But, uh, you reach a certain point where, uh, you have artists that can paint to the level of detail and realism of a photograph, or even beyond a photograph, they call hyper realism, right? So we've reached a point in art where it's, it's hit its, uh, pinnacle of replicating reality. So once we were able to do that from a technical side, it starts to become difficult to judge the technical accomplishments of art. It starts to be hard to say, well, this is really technically well rendered because, uh, you know, if it's not just, if there's not a benchmark, you can compare it to, then you just have to see how it sits with you on an emotional level. You just have to see what you think of the interaction with it. And I think that's what opened the door for all these, you know, modern works of art or contemporary works of art to come in and, uh, change the metric arts being judged on. So in this case, uh, I really think it's more about having something meaningful and worthwhile to share about a real experience that's authentic than it is about, uh, accomplishing the art in a, you know, more technically achieved.

And I, I'm curious as to your creative approach now, you're, you've shifted from, I'll say instructor or at least giving the space to the unhoused artist to now you're thinking of an exhibit or you're thinking of a show, uh, is that a different mindset, you know, from being the, again, a different artists approach no longer are you the, the artist, but now you're the manager. Yeah,

It's interesting because, um, as you might suspect, there were a lot of challenges in working with unhoused artists. One of which is you don't have a address to locate them by may the boat, uh, have a reliable or consistent phone number. Some of them working in the space with me, we're not in a state of mind to even remember that they made the art and oftentimes many of them will get up after the session and just walk out into the streets. So some of the artists, you, you will lose complete track of, um, after you've worked with them. And so, uh, you know, in talking about being a manager for these artists, it's a little bit different. There's really no way to control that, that force of nature in that situation. So for me, I thought the best that I could do is report everybody's name, who came in record the story they shared with me while they were, um, working on the art.

So me just taking notes in a journal after the session to just respect, you know, basically it's like gathering an artist statement, right? Because whatever the person was talking about while they were making the art was informing the art that they were making. And so a lot of artists have trouble coming up with their own artists statements. Anyway. So in terms of being a manager for these artists, that was just my healthful way of saying like, this was the intent, this was the reason the person this, that day, this is what they were telling me about. That's the closest thing we're going to get to what the art's about and why it's there. So for me, it was just about, um, cataloging that information and, and keeping it somewhere because it was so, uh, you know, for lack of a better word, it's very a theorial or temporal, right. It just happened in a brief moment. And then that person might walk out the door or they might get in a fight with somebody immediately after and get pulled away by security, or they might have to go back to, uh, their hometown. And so then travel to get people who leave and go to Houston or whatever it is. So, uh, managing is a strong word, but I think, uh, maybe, um, being the preserver of the story might be a little more accurate.

That's good. Well, and then when you were planning the location and the sort of logistics of an exhibit like that, I'm sure there were some of those considerations that came in too. How will, how will we find a space, uh, to bring people together to view this and hear those stories?

Yeah, and it was very interesting. So, um, as I said, it started this few years back and the gallery partner that we had lined up was a new gallery. I was called the naked eye, uh, gallery, and it's a beautiful, beautiful space, um, just beyond and my whole vision for it was again, you have to make the work look and, and treat it like it's incredibly important. You have to treat it as though it's on the level of something you'd see at the LACMA or the Guggenheim or whatever. So we found this gallery space that was very new and they were looking to, um, start developing their reputation around town as being a place that productions in LA could come and, uh, you know, shoot, uh, cover photos for things like time magazine or Vogue or something like that, you know, a beautiful, beautiful gallery space that would also be used for, uh, you know, showcasing art or revolving exhibits.

And I went, uh, to meet with the owner and brought her a cup of coffee. And, uh, we started talking, ended up talking for two and a half hours and she was very, uh, excited and interested in the cause of what we were trying to do. So we were basically aligned with a gallery that would have cost an incredible amount of money to even consider doing one day of exhibiting at. And, uh, she had just immediately extended the offer to become our partner in doing that. So, uh, you know, the, I guess to summarize the responses, you know, the, I knew that the space had to be very beautiful and very high end in order to, again, just communicate the there's so many subliminal cues and imagery and in life that, that tell us as humans that, oh, this is important or, oh, this is beautiful or, oh, I need to dress up for this or, you know, whatever.

So I just knew that wherever it was taking place, it needed to really Excel beyond, uh, something that might feel like a coffee shop, art show or something that might feel like, oh, we're doing this in a warehouse somewhere. That's a little bit far away. Uh, but the other logistical concern was, of course, if we were going to do the exhibit and we were going to bring some of the unhoused artists into be present for the event, uh, how would we get them there? And so, uh, we had arranged for several transport buses from the rescue mission to be able to shuttle people to the gallery space, which was within a 10 minute drive. Right. So all those logistical concerns sort of came together and helped us land on the spot that we had decided on,

Well, bring yourself to date. Then earlier this summer at the little Tokyo art complex, uh, there was just a catastrophic fire, um, bring us up to date on the connection there.

Yeah. So, uh, this is where it gets to the hard part, I guess. Very difficult. Yeah. So, so the work of this year and a half of time working with artists at the, um, the rescue mission and, and having founded the unhoused arts initiative, you know, we spent tons of time collecting artwork and ultimately we had, uh, gotten to collect about 120 pieces, uh, created by the artists that were all ready to be exhibited. Uh, as we were turning the corner into, uh, the beginning of last year, we, of course hit COVID and, uh, with COVID, there was a, um, you know, there's a limitation on who you can, uh, see. And, uh, the rescue mission had certain policies about keeping things contained and quarantined. And, uh, so to be respectful through quarantine and keep everybody healthy, we put the project on hold, uh, and had planned to exhibit the work.

As soon as, uh, vaccines were wildly available, we were able to get people back in a physical space. Right. Um, but right as we started coming out of, uh, COVID the studio that housed all of these artworks, um, called the little Tokyo art complex, where I had intentionally placed a studio because it was in walking distance of skid row. It was right on the edge of little Tokyo, which is a, a beautiful and, uh, you know, uh, like arts, cultural hub in downtown, uh, that borders skid row. And so the studio was right on the edge between the two of them. And I thought, well, this is perfect if not just symbolic. Uh, and it was a space where we could maybe bring artists to come develop their work in a more private space too. So I had the studio for that year. I was paying rent on it through the duration of COVID just waiting for it to, you know, be able to be used with these artists and, uh, right at the edge of, uh, getting all the vaccines through and getting everybody ready to reenter society.

Uh, there was a explosion in the bottom level of the historic building that, uh, those art studio was on the second and third floor of, and, uh, the fire just completely consumed the building, uh, and burned, uh, not only my studio down, which housed all of the unhoused artists work, but additionally, uh, 19 other artists studios, uh, and all of their life's work were, were lost in that. I have friends who, uh, you know, six years of artwork, you know, gone, uh, because that was the place where everybody, um, looked to keep their art and supplies to keep them safe. You know, that was that's, that's the purpose of the studio, right? It's a place to come create. It's a place to store your equipment and just store your, your art. So, um, anyway, the, uh, the cause of the fire is still being worked out and officially determined, but it's suspected that it was a, uh, a wholesaler for vape supplies was in the first floor.

And some of their contents under pressure, uh, exploded in the middle of the night and, and burn the building down. They said it was a fire. They had over a hundred firefighters, fighting the fire, uh, through the evening to get it contained. Uh, and the building itself is considered to, uh, unstable to enter at this time. So we can't even, we haven't really been able to go see if anything survived or in what condition it might be in, because there's no way to get to that floor. And, uh, it does sound like that they're going to need to try to stabilize the building and then tear it down. And within that process, it's very likely that if anything survived, it's going to become destroyed through that process of stabilizing the building. So, uh, that's, that's the current time that's up to date?

Well, just, uh, just amazingly, just gut wrenching to hear this story. When you hear about that yourself though, Roman, what, what is your reaction both personally, you lost your own artwork and, you know, friends and colleagues and peers who lost theirs, but you've also sort of now,

Well, the,

The art, the passion project that you've put so much time in, what, what is your reaction when you hear that's coming down?

Well, um, to access my first reaction when I got the news, uh, it was just a total. It was, it was very sad feeling to recognize that so many of the experiences that I had worked through with these unhoused artists took place in environments where I was the only one who was bearing witness to that happening. So we were in a moment where maybe somebody wasn't mentally present enough to remember what's happening. I didn't have any assistance. The rescue mission itself just kind of set up the table for me and then walk away. So the, the whole experience of doing that was captured in these physical paintings and to lose those paintings really, to me gave me this feeling that the, the work that I had done for her, uh, years was now reduced to only an experience that I could, you know, play in my own mind.

And I started to question, you know, what's the value of something that's only visible to me, you know, at that point, it's like, I just dreamed it it's like it never even happened, uh, because I was the only one, therefore it, and so that feeling was really hard to work through and I'm still working through it. I mean, just to be perfectly honest, but yeah, but, but you know, the, the symbolic meaning of the whole situation is not lost on me either. And as we've spent more time processing the event, it is in a way ironic or, uh, you know, notably symbolic that, uh, I had spent a year and a half of time trying to preserve work by people whose lives are often just completely, you know, rebooted every day, you'll have your stuff stolen one night, or you have nowhere to lay your head.

You don't have anything everything's temporary in that homeless, uh, lifestyle and experience. And so for me to fight so hard to try to preserve something from that experience and to have that still be lost really, uh, just felt very connected and, you know, in a spiritual sense too, um, you know, everything is temporary and have to come to terms with that. So, um, it definitely, uh, it makes for a, a compelling element in not only my life story, but in everyone involves life story as well, the studio fire, you know, you have to draw meaning from the things that happen. And, uh, some people have said, you know, oh, I'm sure something good will come out of this, or, oh, you can look to the future. And maybe, maybe it will all be a good thing, uh, which, you know, my response to that would be, I'm not sure if it would be a good or better thing than what would have happened if we kept the studio, but I will say that nothing happens without, uh, a cause and effect of that cause, right. So, uh, some things will come out of this and they'll take us down new roads and I'm interested to know what they are, but, uh, it doesn't necessarily mean it would have been better than the gallery.

Well, that's right. Yeah. And I admire your resilience and even making that statement, because there would be people that would justify or try to find some silver lining, you know, but first you have to acknowledge, like you said, the symbolic nature of the event that I, I just really, uh, that strikes me, uh, that this idea that we're trying to hold onto something for people who really hit the restart button every day, as you said, well, as creative people, Roman, I'm curious because we all like to say, how can we help? Uh, but there must be some way that we can help and support the people and the artists. Uh, is there any sort of, I think there's fundraising or, uh, something that we could know about be a part of

Yes, absolutely. Well, uh, an organization called art share LA has been leading the charge on, uh, getting the, uh, the GoFund me up for the artists affected. So you can go on fund me and look for the little Tokyo arts complex, uh, fire relief fund. And it's essentially a fund that is built to, um, try to restore at least the, the monetary damage that the artists took during the, uh, the fire, because while the artwork itself will never be able to get back in the time period that we made it in, we'll never be able to get it back. Uh, many artists had their entire stash of supplies, including like for instance, a friend of mine, uh, Paul, he had, um, years worth of mural painting supplies in there. So he makes large-scale murals and the expensive and high quality paints that you need to make a, a mural that's going to stay beautiful for years. Uh, he had a huge stockpile of that, um, of those supplies. And so to have all that be burned up as well, not only does it make us lose the art we had, but it, uh, sets us back significantly in the art that we were going to make. So this art share LA GoFund me, um, is a way to help us recover, um, at least to get back to a baseline so we can start making work.

Yes. Well, we'll definitely check that out. And, uh, listeners, I've put the link in the show notes, our chair, LA a go fund me page for the little Tokyo art complex. Well, Roman, thanks for sharing that story. And I guess to turn the page on that is so difficult. I mean, it's like in a book, what we breached the climax of the story, but obviously that can't be the end, uh, because there's, there's a future to be had. Where, where do you see the next step of your own creative work and this endeavor specifically?

Uh, yeah, so to sort of answer that question in two different parts there, uh, where I see the next step going for, uh, the unhoused arts project is essentially that I documented all of the artwork that came through the program. So I took high resolution photos of it, archived it, you know, have the story set aside. So the next step that I see there is, um, doing a, a personal fundraiser to get a high quality art book made of the art that was lost so that we can at least show people what there was, it won't be the same tangible experience of seeing it in a gallery. But if, if again, you know, the importance of these subconscious signifiers of, uh, that things have meaning, you know, if we can make a very high quality art book, not just, uh, a little pamphlet or, or, uh, even a soft cover book, but if we make a very beautiful coffee table, you know, think of, we want to rival Taschen or something, right?

Like make a beautiful book, uh, of this artwork. I think that is the way to help the artwork of the artists and the space they were in at that time live on and continue to make an impact and hopefully create more opportunities for future exhibitions. And once we build up, you know, more artwork, uh, from the artists, so that's the next step that I see there as far as my own personal, uh, project. It is. Um, it's tough to say with my own art, but I did in the studio. Uh, I had 10 large scale oil paintings of the work that I do, which, uh, I call the blind portrait series, which is essentially, um, I will sit down with subjects in person. So for instance, if I was there in Boise with you, I'd sit down with you, I'd ask you a question about life or the something existential, or even something just very minimal, but I would ask you with the intent to listen.

And, uh, I would begin drawing you without looking down. So I'd have my Sharpie and hand to the Bristol board. And I just began drawing you as I see you talking about something that you're interested in or something that matters to you. And, uh, ultimately, uh, that experience lasts about five minutes. And then I have a, what we call the blind portrait, uh, of you. And in some ways it is similar to a blind contour drawing that you might think of, you know, having done an art school, but in the way that I do it, it's very different because, uh, I, I do pick up the pen. I don't make one continuous line. And the idea of the art is that it captures the very temporary experience of you answering the question I asked you while I'm drawing you. So it sort of informs the art.

So the paintings that I lost in the studio, they were large scale oil paintings of some of those portraits. And, uh, knowing that I lost those and how long it took me to get to that point of, of getting that many established, especially with my, you know, additional career in film production and figuring out, uh, the logistics of all these endeavors. I do think that the next step for that project is to just get back into the world now that were vaccinated and go meet more new people, listen to more stories and, and do more of these portraits, um, on a more regular basis so that I can get back into the, the flow of connecting to people and, and reminding myself that I do still have the, uh, I do still have the passion and energy for it, even though I lost the previous catalog. Uh, just a reminder of why I love it, I think is it's going to be that next step for me.

Yeah. Fantastic. Well, we'll have to welcome you to Boise and we'll have to go over to the push and pour coffee shop, where we have mutual friends over in garden city, literally right over the river from my neighborhood here. So it'd be great to have you at Roman. Awesome. I'd love that. Yeah. And tell us a, about some of the film projects you're working on how those are coming together.

Absolutely. Uh, yeah. So the thing that I'm most excited about is the business. My partner and I started called a film reframe, which is a, uh, online education platform for filmmakers around the world to learn, uh, visual storytelling and composition in cinema. So I've been a filmmaker for many, many years, and I come from a background of being an artist and illustrator. And, uh, so with that background in mind, illustrators, uh, learn techniques for how to tell an entire story and just one image, right? But filmmakers, we have many images throughout the duration of a film that need to be managed to tell a larger story and something that I think film students and film professionals don't learn in their education is how to tell a story within a single frame, rather than how to tell a story across an entire, uh, film. And that's very interesting to me because film is first and foremost, a very visual, medium, and so many of the best films can, you can understand the entire story and the entire meaning to the characters without having the sound on, you could watch it on mute and you would still understand everything that's happening.

So film reframed is our way of helping to spread the gospel of a composition and visual storytelling as a powerful tool, uh, to connect with audiences and, and change the world. So, uh, we've been doing that for the past year and, uh, we do all sorts of, uh, great classes from our core classes, which go through the essentials and how to apply a why behind your compositions, all the way to what we call our intensive series, which is sort of like all the electives you wish you had in film school, right? So we've, you know, we've got like a composition for action sequences where it's just two and a half hours talking about how to make better action sequences or composition for dance, film, and how to make better musical numbers. And, you know, so it's really a place for people who love film, people who make films, people who are aspiring filmmakers, or even industry professionals, who've been doing this forever to just come reconnect to why they love their form and, uh, to get a strong handle on a vocabulary that will help them communicate their ideas to their crew or, you know, to their collaborators and make better movies.

There you go.

And, you know, I'm so interested when you've talked about collaboration. That's a thread that goes through a lot of my podcast interviews that I do with creatives like you Roman, is that even though we, we imagined the creative artist of all mediums to be this individual practitioner, you know, we're in our basement, we're in our studio, we're out in the field doing our thing, and yet look how the team has to be built around us. Uh, is that your experience as well?

I think when there's a limit to how much a person can do in terms of the scale of their impact, and while, uh, let's say even the, you know, you think of like artistic geniuses or whatever, we can go the Picasso route or whatever you want to do, right. Uh, that person's contribution is still just one part of a much larger system. And so the only reason that we all benefit from Picasso's artwork is because he had people who sold his work. He had people who promoted his work. He had people who sat in the room with him and helped him clarify his ideas, even though I'm sure he wouldn't admit it. Uh, but you know, he had models that post for him. He had people who transported his artwork to the galleries. There were so many people involved in all of our lives, no matter what we're doing.

And so to think of an artist as a sort of like a silo off on their own is, uh, it's just not accurate. Um, and I think there's a lot of benefit to spending time in solitude to find your voice and, and figure out what you want to say. I think that there is always going to be a time where if you want a larger impact, you need to involve more people. And, uh, I know that very well through film production because, uh, you cannot make a movie with, you know, a small amount of people. It's you see the credits in a movie, you know, hundreds of names go by. And it just reminds me that to have that sort of large-scale impact, you need a lot of help. So, yeah,

I love that. And the visual imagery of the credits really underscores that. I mean, one, one name might be in bold print, but the hundreds that follow, uh, and you mentioned Bokassa, you know, you read the biographies of like a Frank Lloyd Wright or a DaVinci, you know, studios at people, desk galore, uh, people that I actually have execute the work. Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing all these stories and experiences with us, Roman listeners. My guest has been Roman LC Martinez, an artist, a filmmaker. He shared with us not only the creative craft and sort of the educational platform of teaching us the techniques. And I love the idea of vocabulary to express it to our collaborators, but also his passion projects, uh, like film reframed to share the visual storytelling. And most of all, the unhoused arts initiative, a program that will continue despite a catastrophic fire in a studio that housed the current artwork.

Uh, I'm glad to see that you're going to continue to pursue that and hopefully a future exhibits, but I love the idea of the coffee table book. And I'm glad you had the foresight to capture the art digitally. Uh, despite the fire is probably a lesson for all of us to capture our work in some way. So thanks for sharing the story and, and the lessons learned and the impact on you and, and your, uh, students. So I appreciate that, right, listeners, it's been a terrific conversation, be sure to connect with Roman. I'll have all the links in the show notes and come back again for our next episode, we'll continue our around the world. Well, virtual travels anyway, and we we've been from LA to Broadway. We've been from Nashville and Austin to talk about music. We've been to Oslo, Johannesburg. We've been to Sonora in Mexico. We've been all over the world, talking with creative practitioners about how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas. And most of all, making the connections and gaining the confidence to launch our work out into the world. And that's what it's all about. So for until next time, I'm Mark Stinson and we've been unlocking your world of creativity. We'll see you next time.