Dive into the latest Clover Club episode as host Erika Audrey is joined by Atlanta's renowned street artist, Chris Veal! Discover the ins and outs of a working artist's life, from his beginnings to handling criticism. Join us for an interesting little chat about art, inspiration, and creativity.

Follow Chris at @caveal

Shop Hawkins & Clover here

. Welcome to Clover club.

2

I'm your host, Erica.

3

Wait, I fucked up.

4

I'm already fucking up.

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I'm gonna try this one more time.

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This is my last chance.

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, welcome to Clover club, a podcast about

curious conversations and stories and

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tended to make you laugh and learn.

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I'm your host, Erica.

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And I'm really, really excited for today's

episode because even if this guests name.

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May not ring a bell.

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I guarantee that you've seen

their work out in the world.

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So I'm really excited to be

joined by Chris veal, Chris.

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Hi.

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Hello.

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How are you?

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I'm doing good.

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Good.

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I'm glad to hear it.

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You just said hello.

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And you sounded exactly

like the Atlanta magnet man.

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Oh, Do you know that you have

like a very like similar.

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Um, I got it from him.

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I don't know being around him.

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I don't know.

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So Chris and Chris and the

Atlanta magnet, man work together.

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And, uh, you've worked

together for a little while.

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Um, but what's your, what's your

main, what's your main thing, Chris?

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Will you share with everybody what you do?

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Um, painting artists.

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Murals canvases so on.

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Yeah.

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Your work has a very

clear like pop RD, FID.

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Sometimes political vibe to it.

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, is there a more eloquent way

that you'd like to describe?

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Your style.

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Pretty much sums it up.

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Social commentary, pop art.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that about covers it.

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Awesome.

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So, has art always

been a passion of yours?

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Or how did you end up.

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It has ever since I was a little kid.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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, did you think that it would be like

a, a career or when did you decide

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it could be more than a hobby?

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I always wanted it to be.

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Um, since I was a little kid, I

wanted to make art for a living.

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That's all I really wanted to do.

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Oh, wow.

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But there was a time when it was

just like, ah, I don't know if

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it's going to work out, but you

know, It's the path of the artist.

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Yeah.

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, so I think a lot of parents

there's like a big chunk of time.

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, where their kids bring home artwork and

it's like, put this on the fridge mom.

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And it's like, oh God.

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, was your work always good?

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Um,

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No.

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I was better than most in my

class, but it wasn't like amazing

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when I was a kid or anything.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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You know, That was the kid.

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Everybody went to when they

needed something drawn or, you

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know, what school or for one.

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Or whatnot.

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Okay.

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That's cool.

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, , did you, did you go to school for it

or is it just, are you self-trained

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like, what, what was that path like?

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Uh, went to school for graphic

design because I thought that's

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how you made money in art.

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It was, you had to do graphic design.

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So I went to.

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Went to school.

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Got my degree.

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And then I got out and I was

sick of looking at computer.

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So I just went back to painting more.

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Okay.

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And just kept doing that.

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Where did you go to school?

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Uh, American Intercontinental

university in Buckhead.

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Okay.

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Did you grow up in Atlanta?

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Milledgeville Georgia.

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Ah, okay.

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Did you come into Atlanta for school

or Buckhead, but, you know, knock

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came up here because at the time

I was like partying a lot and.

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Just like Atlanta.

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It looks a lot better in my hometown as

far as like, you know, Well, you have fun.

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17.

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So it's just like, I'm

going to move to Atlanta.

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So.

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I wasn't going to go to Atlanta and

then, uh, um, I wasn't going to go

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to school when I first came here.

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But then, you know, after a few

years a party and I was like, oh,

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I got to do something with myself.

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So.

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Um, That was like, oh, go to school.

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I'll get a bunch of debt.

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So that was about it.

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The American dream.

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Oh, , okay.

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So you said you did a lot of

party and what type of scene?

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Like music.

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I would bounce around a lot.

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I would go to no.

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Wednesday's at MJQ and then

I'll go to raves on Saturday and

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then I would go to concerts and.

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I was kind of like a butterfly

bounce around to different scenes.

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Okay.

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Nice.

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, Are you still a part of

your, no, not really.

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What is your, what's your favorite way to

blow off steam and spend your free time?

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Um, Pain anymore.

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Really?

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Okay.

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I'm painting for myself or,

uh, I watch a lot of movies.

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Okay.

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That's kinda how I relax, I guess.

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Nice.

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, have you seen anything good lately?

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Um, Rewatching Tokyo vice right now is

pretty good show, but, uh, yeah, movies.

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I haven't seen anything amazing recently.

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Godzilla was.

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Um, Godzilla minus one was my

favorite movie of last year,

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but yeah, that's about it.

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It wasn't a Barbie.

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I didn't see it honestly.

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Really, I haven't seen it.

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I would think with all the

like, Pink and poppiness of it.

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I could see that being something, ah, At

the very least you'd want to make fun of.

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Nah, it was on my list to see for a bit.

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Um, and then I just got roped into

the scene, like Oppenheimer and bunch

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of other stuff I want to see, but.

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Um, I want to see it just for like the

colors and the sets and stuff like that.

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Yeah, but, uh, I haven't, I

haven't checked it out yet.

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Okay.

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Well, everyone who listened to

this podcast knows I hated Barbie.

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So you didn't miss anything.

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Okay, other than great sets.

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So watch it at home.

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You'll be all right.

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was way better.

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Nice.

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So, okay.

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A lot of your stuff is a.

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It seems like you're really good

about putting out something that's

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politically inspired or has like

a strong social commentary, , like

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in lockstep with real time.

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, will you walk me through kind of like, do

you just get like the strike of , oh my

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gosh, I've got to knock off this Michelin.

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Logo, , here's how I'm going to do it, or

is it something that brews for awhile?

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Like what's that.

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What's that process like.

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I kind of see what

people are talking about.

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Like, uh, I'll frequent, like Reddit and I

know the social media and stuff, and I'll

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see what people are talking about now.

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I think I can make

something funny out of it.

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You know, we'll so like, you know, Right

now I'm trying to figure out something

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for the Superbowl and Taylor swift and,

uh, you know, whatever people are like.

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Isn't.

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Pop culture at the time.

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Yeah, I like.

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If there's something I can

come up with, I'll try to.

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You know, come up with

it quick and get it out.

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Um, Sometimes, uh, you know, like,

oh, I want to do something for that.

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And that can't come up with anything good.

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I'm like, ah, it's been too long now.

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There's always something new to look at.

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That's fair.

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, have you ever gotten yourself into trouble

with something that you've put out?

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Um, trouble as with.

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Well, just maybe like blow back on line.

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Oh, yeah, plenty.

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Do you like it?

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Plenty of times.

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Um, I.

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Let's see, I'm trying to think

of some specific examples of.

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But, you know, like, The Trump piece.

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I did, obviously I got a lot of good.

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Feedback, but also got like a

lot of crazy feedback as well.

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Like.

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What was the Trump piece?

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Um, when Trump was, uh,

indicted here in Atlanta.

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Aye.

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New, the mugshot was coming.

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They announced when it

was going to come out.

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So I had paint and I was

waiting at a wall, like

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refreshing my phone, waiting on.

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Oh, wow.

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Waiting on the picture to get posted.

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As soon as it was posted, I

started immediately painting it.

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That's amazing.

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Um, Yeah.

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So that was a.

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That was the most recent one that I kinda

got some, I guess I got blow back on that

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from, uh, You know, a lot of Trump fans.

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I bet that it was like, okay.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Fox news and stuff.

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Post-it and then that really?

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Yeah.

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Kind of got a lot more

attention than I was expecting.

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So, but it also brought a lot

of, kind of negative attention to

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like people in my inbox and stuff.

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So really do you feel like the phrase

there's no such thing as bad press

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did not apply in that scenario?

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Um, I mean, I got a lot

of, got a lot of hope.

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You know, sold a lot of prints

of the piece afterwards.

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So I guess.

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Uh, I guess it went well.

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You know, Gained a bunch of new

followers and saw a bunch of new

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people, started looking at my work

and inboxing me so more bad than good.

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I mean more good than bad.

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Okay.

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Sure.

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We'll take it.

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We'll take it.

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Anything else controversial

or problematic?

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Um,

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Nothing, nothing too, nothing too bad.

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I'm trying to think.

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Uh, just can't.

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I can't pick it up off the top of my head.

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Yeah, nothing that really sticks

out that light where people, I mean,

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there's been like, you know, a couple

of things like I'll do like, um, like

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my traffic piece on, um, On Boulevard.

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I have a piece where there has

like, uh, you know, several girls

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to pick the crying and, uh, it says

this traffic I'll never get home.

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At rush hour three, then.

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Nine or whatever it says.

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Yeah.

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You know, I've had a couple of people

like message me and be like, why

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do you need to pick girls crying?

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It was just like out this,

you know, That's just how the

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image came out for that one.

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Cause they were crying because

they couldn't get home.

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But, uh, yeah, so I've gotten, you

know, a couple of messages like

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that, but uh, I think it's just

people misunderstand stuff, so yeah.

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They want men to be crying

and traffic as well.

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Yeah, I mean, , how do you receive.

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Criticism.

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How do I receive criticism?

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Um, Stuff used to bother me, but now

it doesn't really bother me anymore.

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Like I've, I've been at it so long.

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Like.

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When I first started painting

and people would pick stuff

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apart and be like, oh, the.

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The hand looks messed up or, you

know, whatever I'm like, wow, you.

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I like I would get off you.

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Anytime you put your art out there.

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You're going to have people critique

it and stuff, especially if you, when

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you start getting attention on it.

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So, yeah.

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At first.

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You know, it used to bother

me and I'm like, oh man.

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But then I'm over the over time.

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I realized that if you, um,

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It doesn't take a lot of.

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Comments to kind of bring you down.

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You know, you can get

like a thousand good.

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Good.

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The likes and comments and, oh, I love it.

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Love it.

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Love it.

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And then one comment

can cancel out all that.

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And then I was like, nah,

that's not a good ratio.

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You know, I'm like, it's true.

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It's not the only one, if only

1% of the people look at it and

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have something bad to say, then.

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I think I'm still doing pretty good.

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So.

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It doesn't bother me anymore.

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That's good.

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I think too, if you don't have

a couple heaters, you're boring.

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You're playing it too safe, right?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You need a little bit of that to

put some, some fuel in the tank.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it doesn't bother

me any more, but yeah.

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You know, like I said, when I was

first starting out, you know, it would

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stuff would keep me up at night, but.

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No.

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But yeah, we used to it now.

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Yeah, that's fair.

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That's fair.

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, do you have any advice for

people who are considering.

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Uh, art as a career.

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Um, yeah, skip that first

part that I just mentioned.

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Don't let this stuff bother you,

you know, the feeling, you know, if

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they're diving, if you dive into it

and you get some negative feedback.

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Yeah.

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Don't worry about it.

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Just keep painting.

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As long as you enjoy doing it.

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And, uh, Let's see other, other

advice, um, just work really hard.

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Everybody, you know, wants

to do what they love.

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And a lot of people love doing art.

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So yeah, if you want to, um, I hate

to spit a bunch of like, you know,

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hustle, culture, grind, set stuff,

but that's honestly what it takes to.

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Make it as an artist, you know,

unless you're extremely lucky.

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Yeah, well, and luck doesn't

come overnight, right?

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So it's like, you've got to grind

until it looks like you're just

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lucky and you can be super selective.

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It didn't for me.

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, so what does, will you walk us through,

like what's a typical day or week?

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Or like, what does that

hustle look like for you?

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In your world.

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Um, it changes week to week, um,

depending on what I've got going on.

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I mean, there's.

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I mean on some days I'll wake

up, you know, I'll get up at.

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Sometimes, you know, as early

as like five o'clock in the

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morning, four 30 in the morning.

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Get up.

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Go to the gym for a little bit.

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Um, From there.

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Go eat breakfast.

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Then I'll sit and draw sometimes

for, you know, hour or two.

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Relax a little bit.

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Get up.

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Check emails, respond to emails, go to

them, go to meetings, meet, look at walls.

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Um, go.

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Work on a fork on a

wall, work on a canvas.

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All day.

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And then at night, Yeah.

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Go get cleaned up, go to art show, stay at

art show until I'm ready to go to sleep.

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So nuts, uh, on weekends, that's

kinda how my week goes a lot.

334

Okay.

335

Cool.

336

So for people who are curious about

getting into the art scene, but

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maybe they're not artists, what are

some of your favorite galleries or

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art events that you like to attend?

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Um, here in Atlanta, ABV.

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Uh, gallery and Cadillac gallery.

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Are there two galleries?

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I showed him mostly at.

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Um, they have really, they

both have really great shows.

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Um, run by cool people.

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Go and kind of see a lot of

the same faces each time.

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Uh, that's the kind of

scenes that I hang out in.

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Um, yeah, the more street art, uh, Newer

younger kind of people in the art scene.

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I don't go to a lot of the, like

the fancier galleries that often.

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Okay.

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Cool.

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Same.

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, do you, uh, Like when you look back over

the last decade or two of your career.

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Are there like little benchmark

kind of like, oh, I really

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figured out hands in 2012.

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Yeah.

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I mean every year I try to I'm.

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I'm a big goal.

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Uh, person.

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So I'll, uh, I'll set goals at the

beginning of the year of things I want to

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work on and practice and get better at.

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Okay.

362

One year, it might be, oh, I'm going

to work on portraits this year.

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Hearing.

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Whenever I get free time, I'm

going to work on portraits.

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Okay.

366

Um, You know, sometimes it's, oh,

I want to work on the business side

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or more, or the capturing the stuff,

making sure I get, make, you know,

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cool videos or content or whatever.

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I'll work on trying to learn that stuff.

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So, you know, I go through.

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I go through my list and try to figure

out what I need to work on more.

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Yeah.

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Pretty regularly.

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But that's good.

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At the beginning of the year is

generally the first thing I do is make

376

a list of things I want to work on.

377

And then I'll periodically go through it

and change it and focus on those things.

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Yeah.

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Well, will you tell us

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Um, yeah.

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Let's see my list for 2024.

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I can pull it up.

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We want to know exactly what it is.

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I want to know.

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And sometimes it's not even art related.

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Sometimes it's just other

things I want to work on.

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But, uh,

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so this is always intriguing to me.

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I love a January kind of refresh.

390

Yeah.

391

I have multiple, um, multiple lists as

far as things to get done in my phone.

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So nice.

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Yeah, I keep some for, uh, Like for

this year, I want to go to the worst.

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That's my list.

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Uh, this is my short look.

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I have a short term school lists.

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Long-term school list.

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Um, you know, paint the biggest.

399

Sometimes they'll be like paint,

the biggest wall I've ever done.

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Like.

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That's my goal for that year

is I want to find the biggest

402

wall and paint the biggest wall.

403

What is the biggest wall

you've done thus far?

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Um, Uh, there's one on Memorial drive.

405

That's 230 feet long.

406

Yeah.

407

Um, so it's about 17 feet at

the high, and then it slopes

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down until about three feet.

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Um, but this year I have one.

410

Uh, plan to do one that's a little bigger.

411

How long does it take to

do something that big.

412

Um, that one took about a week

and a half, maybe two weeks.

413

Okay.

414

I have like solid 10 hour

days, like just grinding on it.

415

Yeah.

416

Damn.

417

And then square footage.

418

That's the longest, but square footage

was, um, I did a parking deck in Buckhead

419

where it was in the middle of COVID.

420

Um, I had a larger square footage and

had to use a lift and, you know, Navigate

421

the lifts around lights and stuff.

422

And, but I only had nine days to do it in.

423

So.

424

We were doing me and my assistant were

both working like 12 hour days every day.

425

And one day we worked price 16

hours or something until people

426

came and kicked us out and they

were like, y'all got to leave.

427

Oh wow.

428

People are sleeping.

429

It's like one in the morning.

430

I'll have to, I'll have to shut it down.

431

So.

432

But that's dedication.

433

That's the grind.

434

He was referring to everybody.

435

Yeah, I had plantar

fasciitis at the time, too.

436

Oh, I was hopping.

437

Like I could limping.

438

Like hardly walking out there, but

we only had nine days to get it done.

439

So.

440

It had to be done, had to get it done.

441

Do you know, the tennis ball trick.

442

Uh, yeah.

443

Um, no.

444

No.

445

The only thing that helped

my foot was, um, uh, soaking

446

it in ice every single night.

447

Um, and again, And a lot of stem cells.

448

Gotcha.

449

It's all shot in my foot and

that helped, but you're good now.

450

Yeah, I'm great.

451

Now.

452

Okay.

453

Yeah.

454

Wonderful.

455

Yep.

456

Um, Chris, you mentioned earlier, before

we started recording that you've broken a

457

ton of bones because you used to be a BMX.

458

Yep.

459

Yeah.

460

I rode BMX a lot.

461

Um,

462

As a kid going into my twenties and in

my, throughout my twenties, I rode a BMX.

463

Uh, many hours a day, probably four

or five hours a day, most days.

464

Oh, wow.

465

Okay.

466

Like competitively.

467

Um, yeah, I will travel and do I

competed expert class and I would

468

travel around and, you know, to BMX

contest and stuff with my friends

469

and cool and take road trips and.

470

You got a ride in other

cities and all that fun stuff.

471

What an awesome, like.

472

Vehicle to travel.

473

You know what I mean?

474

, yeah.

475

Yeah.

476

It kind of sucked, like,

cause you got to take a bike.

477

You know when you're.

478

Traveling on a plane, you know, you got to

break the bike apart and put it in a bag.

479

I hope security.

480

Doesn't find it and

charge you extra for it.

481

I mean, it was, uh, it was kind

of a hassle, but it was really

482

cool to like, get to travel around

and make friends in that scene.

483

And you know, this.

484

I'd see them in.

485

You know, Pennsylvania then I

don't see them in new Orleans.

486

It seemed in Tennessee and you'd

see all the same people like

487

gathered around in different cities.

488

So.

489

It's like a, I mean, it's much like the

art scene is big community and, but.

490

You know, everybody

kind of knew each other.

491

Yeah, I love that.

492

, okay.

493

So you're in the BMX community,

you're in the art community.

494

Are there any other like hobbies that have

led you into these wonderful communities?

495

Um, yeah, I actually got a lot,

uh, I got a bunch of hobbies.

496

And I, I pushed them hard when I,

when I get into something I like.

497

Yeah, I'm kind of obsessive about them.

498

Um, I love playing pool.

499

I play a lot of I'll play a lot of pool.

500

I grew up in a pool hall play pool.

501

Okay.

502

Uh, but art's kind of consumed.

503

Consumed me for the past, like

seven years, that's a, it's kind

504

of taken over everything, so.

505

Okay.

506

Do you find that the business side

of things came naturally to you?

507

Not really.

508

Um, but I did recognize pretty early on.

509

I'm like, okay, like, You can be

the best artists in the world.

510

And if you can't handle the

business side or the, you know,

511

Communicating your work to people,

then you're not going to get anywhere.

512

I know some groups.

513

Amazing artists that can't

really sell that much work.

514

Yeah.

515

And because they don't

know how to talk to people.

516

They don't know how to, you know,

get in those rooms and meet people

517

and, you know, just, they don't, I

don't even think most of them care.

518

They just they're true artists.

519

They like just.

520

Live to want to create the art

and that's all they care about.

521

But if your goal is to sell

art, it doesn't really.

522

Translate very well.

523

Like you have to have the social

side and you have to get out and meet

524

people and shake hands and stuff.

525

Yeah.

526

Cause otherwise it, you know, And I

know some people are terrible artists

527

that can sell a ton of work because

they're really good at talking to people.

528

Yeah.

529

Um, I try to balance and try to

get in the middle ground and.

530

You know, really focus on the art,

but also try to like, You know,

531

Handle the business

side stuff, things too.

532

And, you know, getting up

and getting those spaces.

533

Yeah.

534

Do you have any tips or resources

or like, were there any ahas.

535

Earlier in your career where

you were like, okay, fuck.

536

I got to like lock in on this.

537

I'm going to start doing things this way.

538

So I can really start making some money

off of this or was it kind of organic?

539

Um, I guess it was kind

of organic there's.

540

Um, I don't have any

like aha moments for me.

541

I mean, everybody seems to be different.

542

I've seen people dive in and.

543

Come on seem to come out of nowhere.

544

I mean, I've been in Atlanta painting

a long time, so I've kind of built it

545

over, you know, built my following over

time here and met people over time.

546

But, uh, and then some, sometimes

people will pop up there.

547

You know, a year later, they're

like where I w where I felt like I

548

was like, you know, 10 years later.

549

So, I don't think there's any, you

know, Just either try to be real or

550

that, you know, and don't like, uh,

Try to force your cell phone people.

551

So like, sometimes people

are like, come to me.

552

I'm like, oh, how do

I get in this gallery?

553

I've messaged them a hundred times.

554

I'm like, yeah.

555

That's, that's not how

you get in that gallery.

556

You don't.

557

You can't like cold call people.

558

That much.

559

Um, You know, Becomes an annoyance

and, and that's most galleries.

560

They want to already see

you doing stuff and see you.

561

You know, selling pieces because you

know, the, the goal of, of galleries.

562

It's to sell pieces.

563

So if they see you're making moves,

if they see you're selling work,

564

they'll, they'll come to you.

565

Okay.

566

That's great.

567

Good to know.

568

Is there anything that people

would be just like shocked to

569

learn either about you or about

just like the life of an artist?

570

I'm not, I don't want to

thinking things super shocking.

571

Uh, Um, kind of really a boring guy.

572

I paint a lot.

573

I, uh, I'm kind of a homebody.

574

I stay at home a lot now.

575

I paid.

576

Uh, and that's.

577

That's really all I do and all that.

578

I kind of think about most of the time

it's just like making work and, uh, And,

579

you know, whatever my next project or

current project I'm on, that's kind of

580

where my mind is, but, uh, all consuming.

581

Yeah.

582

It really is at this point and probably to

a, to a bad point, you know, like I, uh,

583

I started like really diving

in to art, like pretty heavily,

584

uh, about seven years ago.

585

Seven to eight years ago.

586

And at the time I did it as a

distraction now I'm like, okay.

587

Yeah.

588

And now it's just like routine, not just.

589

Paint a lot.

590

That's what I do.

591

Yeah, that's great though.

592

Yeah, you obviously enjoy it.

593

So, yeah, that's all the matters.

594

Well, Chris, will you let people know

where they can find you in your work?

595

Um, you can find me on

Instagram at CA veal.

596

Um, I actually don't have a website.

597

I don't use a website.

598

I don't use flyers.

599

That's a, that's on my list

of things to do actually is.

600

For this year.

601

Finally, maybe make a website.

602

So I might do that this year.

603

Perfect.

604

Um, but yeah, you can search Chris.

605

or, um, Or just see a bill on Instagram.

606

Okay.

607

Perfect.

608

, well, Chris, thank you

so much for your time.

609

, hopefully you guys learned a lot

about Chris and his artistic ways.

610

, as always, you get 10%

off@hawkinsandclover.com

611

with promo code Clover club.

612

And you can find us on

Instagram at Clover club pod.

613

And Chris, thank you so

much again for your time.

614

Really appreciate it.

615

Yeah, no problem.

616

Thank you.

617

Thank you.

618

Bye.

619

Yeah.

620

Yeah.

621

Easy.

622

Easy peasy.