#67 | Charles Ligocky

[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's going on, y'all? Corpus Christi Originals back at it again. Coming to you live from the Produce Sound Studios downtown Corpus Christi, Texas. And yeah, we got here today. Charles Ligocky. What's going on, man? [00:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah, how you doing, man? Thank you for having me on. [00:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Cool. So you knew, you knew some people that came through the podcast. That's how we got. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Yes. [00:00:17] Speaker A: Linked up. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Yes, yes, of course. Scuba Steve, Chris Ambriz, Mayra Zamora. She was like one of the very first that you had interviewed very long time ago. So I honestly, I thought, you know, I kind of been hiding in the dark for a while. So I was like, let me. Let me go on. Let me message you, see if you'd want to have me on. And we're here. [00:00:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And you found my email address. [00:00:42] Speaker B: I found you. I am old school. I like to live behind my email address. If I don't have to go out in public, if I can be behind my email, like, that's awesome because everybody I work with, they live behind an email, right. So I just. I'm old school. Yeah, I like to be behind the email. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Yeah, right on you. You'll be. I think you'll be the one of the first ones to email us to come on the show, which is cool, man. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Your inbox made a notification. I surprised you even got an email. You even noticed it came up. [00:01:15] Speaker A: It's like, oh, shoot, I got an email. And then, yeah. And you will find out. You were an artist. I was like, oh, yeah, I like talking to artists just kind of learning from what they do. Like even talking to Myra, just learning the type of stuff that she does. And we were talking earlier about like street art and stuff like that, how you got to go through the trenches or whatever. [00:01:31] Speaker B: You have to go through the trenches. [00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So you were into that type of stuff, right? I guess when you started out, like. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, when I started out. [00:01:38] Speaker A: What do you say, graffiti or spray paint? [00:01:40] Speaker B: Same thing. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Same thing, right? [00:01:42] Speaker B: Same thing. Some same terminology. Yeah. It was about 20, 2011, and we were in San Antonio and there was a gentleman downtown by the Alamo. He was painting and he was making these planetary solar paintings with spray paint. And that just blew my mind. I had never decided to go down a creative avenue before then. And I saw that and I thought, well, let me go back, let me try this out. And I tried it out. I liked it. And then it just gradually grew. Before that, I was, you know, painting. Then I would start painting on canvas panel, picked up the spray can, you know, did the street stuff for a little bit, and then started painting larger canvases and just continued from there. [00:02:26] Speaker A: That's cool. So you experiment with. Experimented with different canvases. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah. That's interesting. And, you know, then you found one that you liked, or how does. How does that come about you as an artist? Like, you do acrylic. Right. So is it the same type of canvas that you paint on? You know what I'm saying? [00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's a hundred. I like to use 100% duck cotton. I'm very, you know, you can use linens or, you know, like, a cotton mixture of a canvas. I like to use 100% duck cotton. [00:02:57] Speaker A: All right. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Or 100% pure cotton. And then, so I'll get, like, a gesso, which is kind of a primer. Like, if you're gonna prime the walls of your house before you go and you put a paint. Paint color on, it's the same concept. You just. You have a. You know, if you have a two by two canvas that you want to paint, you have it the canvas stretched over the stretcher bar, which is the wooden frame behind it, and then you just stretch that over, and then you layer it with a primer. [00:03:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Of gesso. And then you let that dry, and then you go on, you do another layer. If you want, you can sand it down to make it as smooth as you want, and then you can just start painting from there. [00:03:32] Speaker A: That's so cool, man. Awesome. Cpl. Ziggy music Charles in the house. This is Anthony Diaz. What's up? Anthony Diaz, appreciate you, Mandev. Anthony, appreciate you being here. Lisa Ligosky, also Mikora son. [00:03:45] Speaker B: She says my mother. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That's interesting to me how artists can, like, you find your canvas and. Yeah. Duck cotton. Like, how do you. Obviously, guys, seems like you got to keep learning stuff as an artist. Like, stuff like that. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Yes. Always. Always learning. It's the materials that we can use to make art with, or endless. So, you know, you. There are collage artists or artists that only do watercolor. There are artists that use oils. I like to use acrylics. You know, there's just a plethora of materials that we can use. [00:04:21] Speaker A: It's pretty cool. Wow. So you grew. You were born in corpus. [00:04:25] Speaker B: Yes. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Grew up in Uvalde. Can you share your, I guess, your journey from growing up in Uvalde to becoming, I guess, internationally recognized artist because you have stuff everywhere. [00:04:37] Speaker B: That's what the paper says. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Okay. Right, right. [00:04:40] Speaker B: No, yeah. Growing up in Uvalde, it was, you know, it's a small town. You know, at the time when we were living there, probably had maybe about 30, 40,000 people. It's very close knit town. Everybody knows everybody. You know, your neighbor knows your neighbor. You know, if you go to the store, you know, everybody knows your mom and your dad. And it was nice going to school that way because a lot of friends that we had were, you know, mutual friends. We had some friends that knew our parents and our parents knew them. So it was real easy to make friends and, you know, just be a kid. And painting was kind of not the thing to be looked upon in Uvalde because, you know, I was a very farming, industrial, oil, oil rich town where there's people that work hard. We don't have time to be creative. [00:05:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:05:40] Speaker B: But the school system, they had a little art program, and there was a teacher there where it was 7th grade, 7th grade. Her name was Sandra Hopper. And she, I would not follow her curriculum. I would kind of go off and do my own thing. And she noticed that I wasn't following her curriculum. I wasn't doing the assignments like the way she wanted me to do them. And so we kind of veered and we started creating other projects for me to do so that way I could still get a grade. So we would do certain projects and then I would take the projects home with me and they just lived on my walls. And then we had done some, a mural in the art wing. And so that's basically how I got to pass art class. [00:06:26] Speaker A: Wow, crazy. [00:06:27] Speaker B: Because I wasn't, I was a terrible student going to school. I was terrible student. But that was the only way she could get me to pass art class. But she was also the one big, you know, person to, you know, push me to, you know, be more creative and, you know, adventure out and, you know, broaden my horizon to exploring with different mediums and working on different things. So, you know, I give her a lot of credit for pushing me. [00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:53] Speaker B: To be, be creative. [00:06:56] Speaker A: How does that, how does you being creative and artistic, does it, do you find that it helps out other areas of your life and not just. [00:07:04] Speaker B: Yes, yes. You know, being creative, it allows me to think more intuitively. You know, I'm able to focus more on something. I'm very meticulous. If I have one project that I'm working on, you know, I like to focus on this one project, but sometimes I can also scatter out and I can have twelve, you know, 14 other projects that I'm working on. So it's just like, I finished this project. Project. Move on to the next one. Move on to the next one, and then by the time I'm almost done, I've already started, you know, 14 more. It's a never ending cycle of just projects. [00:07:39] Speaker A: Do you ever, like, do you ever, like, start a project and, like, like, don't finish it, or do you. Yeah, yeah, that's, yeah, like, I hear you on that one. [00:07:48] Speaker B: I have some projects that are on the back burner that I'm just, I have not, I haven't touched them yet. I'm gonna get to them, but I'm not there yet. [00:07:56] Speaker A: Is it hard, is it hard for you to, like, go back to there to finish it? Like, does it take a lot for you to go back there and finish it? [00:08:02] Speaker B: No, it takes a lot of mental will for me to go back and do it. But once I'm there, sitting, sitting or, you know, working on the canvas or making the drawing or whatever I'm doing, it's, it's easy to, it's easy to work once I have it in front of me. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:15] Speaker B: But if it lives on, like, a shelf or in a cabinet somewhere that I know where it is, I'm just like, I'm not gonna touch you. [00:08:21] Speaker A: Just pass by it again. [00:08:23] Speaker B: By it for the 15th time today. I know it's there, but I'll come back to it. [00:08:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Karina Gomez says, shut up, miss Hopper. It's awesome, man. Yeah. So we were talking on messaging, and you were mentioning, like, dark themes and that type of stuff. So what draws you to those types of subjects? I guess is that part of outside of your art or your art? [00:08:47] Speaker B: You know, I think, you know, a lot of, a lot of the work that I do is I like dark themes. So I like, you know, hearing about cults, I like hearing about, you know, the murderers, the serial killers, you know, the paranormal. And just growing up, you know, I would be with my mom and we would always watch horror movies growing up. So, you know, the Jeepers Creepers, the Michael Myers, the, you know, all the old school horror movies. You know, growing up, I was just accustomed to always watching a horror movie. Like, it was just something that was ingrained in me. So naturally creating work, you know, I had a periods where I would just make flower paintings or I would produce, you know, brightly colored works, abstract works. I think it was just a transition. I had to go through certain areas to finally get to where I am, which is, you know, a painting. Dark thematic paintings. It's what I like it's where I've transitioned myself into, and I find it comforting to be able to make these. Make these works. [00:09:52] Speaker A: So when that. When the. That that stuff happened in Uvalde, was it easy for you to, like, make a painting for it? Did you feel like you have to make a painting in relation to that? [00:10:03] Speaker B: It was hard. It was hard. I did not make the painting till six months after the incident. I felt that there was a need for me to make a painting. I just didn't know what it was. And I sat on it for about six months. I couldn't think of an idea of what to do. I didn't know what to paint. And normally, where I draw inspiration from his, I find pictures or something. There's some paintings that I have that are photographs of crime scenes. So there are some paintings that are taken from the crime scene photographs, like the heaven's gate cult that was taken from the crime scene photo. After everybody had, you know, off themselves and had the cops that came in took pictures, I had found some of the crime scene photos, and I took those, and I made the heavens gate cult painting. So when I did the Uvalde painting, it was a lot of digging, and I ended up finding security camera footage. [00:11:09] Speaker A: Wow. [00:11:09] Speaker B: And so I took the security camera footage, and I just transferred it onto a canvas, and I just made the painting from there. And we worked with a. We show. We exhibited. I exhibited the painting at produce 2023. And then I worked with a friend who's an artist, who. He's a mexican artist, Gustavo Ramos Rivera. He's starting the museum in Acuna and working through him and the exhibition team. We're going to donate the painting to go and be cataloged into the museum. They're going to create a very great educational program for the children that live in Acuna. He's very philanthropic. He wants to teach children the values of art and art history. So I think including the painting in the collection will be a great piece to have there for educational purposes for the children of Acuna and for people around the world. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool, man. So is he one of your mentors or one of the artists that had influenced your work? [00:12:23] Speaker B: No, I met him. I met him by pure chance. My first solo exhibition I had was in Uvalde, Texas. It was by a gentleman. He was a professor at the junior college there. Abel, of course, the Acosta Ortiz. And he had started a gallery. And it took me about a year to get an exhibition with him. You know, of course, I brought, you know, I was 16 at the time, I brought, you know, my terrible paintings to a gallery establishment, and he told me that it wasn't going to work out for me to come back in a year. And so I took that, and I went back. I painted some more. I came back. He said, yeah, you can have a show now. And he met. He had a friend who owned a gallery in Del Rio, Adrian Jesus Fargo. And he invited me to have a show at his gallery. And I went. Had made some paintings for the show. I think I made about ten paintings for that show. Then we had the show in Del Rio, and then this little frail, the man comes in, and Adrian brings the man over to me, and he introduces me. He goes, this is Gustavo Ramos Rivera. I didn't know who he was at the time. And he introduced me. I introduced myself to him, and he told me, he goes, just come to my house in Mexico. Come to a party. I was like, okay, sure. And then he just turns around, and he walks out. And then Adrian told me he was, well, you're gonna go to the party now? I was like, I'm going to the party now. And we had had another friend who owned a chain of hotels down there in Del Rio. And the party had come around. Are you gonna go to Gustavo's party? And I said, I don't know who he is. And they said, well, he's an international. He's a worldwide renowned mexican painter. I was like, I didn't know that. So I started looking him up. I was like, oh, wow, this guy, he really is. He does shows in Switzerland, California, all over the world. He's been in art basel. He's been in all the big art fairs. I was like, well, now I'm going to go meet this man. I didn't have a passport. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. [00:14:42] Speaker B: So they said, don't worry about it. I didn't worry about it. I went. I went to Mexico, and we went to the party. I met Gustavo, and we're in here. It's. He renovated his parents house in Acuna, and it's just real nice contemporary home. The walls are glass walls, and then you turn around. As soon as you walk in, there are these humongous Diego Rivera paintings on the wall. And I'm just like, I don't belong here. [00:15:09] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:15:10] Speaker B: You know, like, I'm 17. I buy paint. Chicken scratch. And I'm looking at a Diego Rivera painting in a international renowned artist's home. I like, I don't belong here. But that's just where I was placed. [00:15:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:23] Speaker B: And, um, then the party had, um, began, and professors, politicians, a bunch of other people started coming in. I'm like, I have no idea who these people are. I'm not fluent in Spanish, so you can only imagine, like, how out of place I felt the entire night. Wow. [00:15:41] Speaker A: Crazy. [00:15:42] Speaker B: We had, um. We had dinner. We had a great time. They had a meeting about how they were going to form the museum. And at the end is when they all found out I didn't have a passport. And all the eyes lit up. And so we were loading all the stuff up to come back over to Del Rio, Texas. And Gustavo comes to the window where my friend is driving. It's my friend, me. I'm in the passenger seat, and then Adrian. And he goes, if he doesn't go back, call me. We'll get him back. I was like, I don't belong here. So we go and we drive up to the border checkpoint. She does not believe me. She does not believe me. I had my school id. I was still in school. I went as far as to get my birth certificate. I didn't have a passport. This is my first time. And they had just said, come on, it's fine. So I thought, okay, yeah, sure. I'm gonna go. She doesn't believe me. And she is questioning the driver. She's questioning me. This really big, butch polish lady. Oh, wow. She doesn't believe me. I'm an american. She doesn't believe me. And I look behind the van that we're in, and there were border patrol agents with their assault rifles and their canines. They surrounded the van, and, like, they don't believe me. I'm not going back. And she let me off with a warning, and she said, next time, you come back, have your passport. And I told her, yes, ma'am. And next time, when I went back, I had my passport. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. Wow, man. That's crazy, man. I like that little button you got there. It's like a gave plant or something. [00:17:27] Speaker B: My sister gave it to me. It's an agave plant. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Right on, man. Digging the jacket, too, man. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. [00:17:32] Speaker A: Nice jacket, bro. Wow. So you're. So that. That was at 17? [00:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that was. I was 17. I just got into. Just into the art scene. That was. I had just had two shows. [00:17:45] Speaker A: What was it like having your exhibition at that? Like, it's. [00:17:53] Speaker B: I want to say it's, um. You get, like, a serotonin release. [00:17:57] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:17:58] Speaker B: But it's, um. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel real. I still feel like I didn't do it. I did crazy. But it was. It was just. It was nice to have the camaraderie of all the people there. You know, we. It was a packed house, you know, everybody showed up, family, friends, acquaintances, and there was a lot of people that, you know, I had made connections with. I think what I enjoyed most about having the first, very beginning shows was the camaraderie and, you know, being able to make connections with different people. I think that was the, that was the best part. That was the best part. Rather than seeing the paintings on the wall, granted, seeing the paintings on the wall was. That's. That's the best feeling you'll get as an artist to see your work physically in a gallery setting while people are walking around viewing the work, as opposed to you just staying at home. You know, you made the paintings, and you're looking at these paintings 24, 24/7 you know, year round. It's nice to actually see somebody view the work and, you know, enjoy it for themselves. [00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I was looking at your website, and there was images, like, like digital pictures, but then there was another pictures where you could see them hanging on the wall. Like some of, like the one with the. With the lady with the face. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Yes. [00:19:10] Speaker A: It's in somebody's, like, dining room or something. [00:19:13] Speaker B: When I was a collector, they had. They had purchased that painting after we had the. That was also exhibited in produce. Somebody had approached me and it purchased a painting after the show and. Yeah, and, yeah, we took it over there. We hung it up. We had. Originally, he had put it in multiple places in his home, and I think now it was originally in the dining room, but now I think he has it in his home office. [00:19:39] Speaker A: Nice. [00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's. It's just real nice to be able to see the work, you know, hanging in collectors homes, you know, people that enjoy the paintings. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Actually get to live with the pieces as opposed to me trying to figure out what to do with them and keeping them in storage rooms all over the place. [00:19:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I can imagine. And how they can stack up. You got so many different works and stuff like that. Does that, that particular painting, does it have a story? [00:20:03] Speaker B: It does. [00:20:03] Speaker A: Do all your paintings have stories? [00:20:05] Speaker B: They do. [00:20:06] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:20:07] Speaker B: When we start, in the very beginning, when I start working, I make a lot of abstract work that's more of a me trying to give an expression of, I want you to create a story for yourself. And then I think what happened was I had got a, um, exhausted with telling people to create your own story for yourself. And because I felt like it was too engaging. I feel like maybe it would be better if I gave you a narrative story. And there's a lot of stories that I have, so I figured I might as well start making narrative paintings. [00:20:42] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:20:42] Speaker B: So the lady with the longy gated face. I was a kid. We lived on a 400 acre farm that was owned on my father's side. And there was a house on that farm that had been moved from. I believe it's Victoria or Portland. My grandfather had purchased the house, moved it to Uvalde, and, you know, neighborhood kids and stuff would come in, sneak into the house, vandalize the house, you know, do a bunch of. Do a bunch of stuff to it. They basically ransacked the house. It used to be a really beautiful house. There was one night where we were all outside, and you could see cop cars swarming the farm that we lived on. And they were all driving down to where the house was. The house was down an embankment, through a creek, and it was behind a forest, so you couldn't see the house from where we were living, but you knew that the house was over there. So cops were just driving. They were going down there. They were going down there. And border patrol showed up. And my mom runs outside, my dad runs outside. They don't know what's going on. And so I follow my mother, and I'm probably about eight, nine, and I get out into where our property meets the field where we would grow corn and watermelons and stuff like. Stuff like that. And I look up, and I look into the distance where I know the house is. And I see this woman in a white dress walking out of the embankment, and she's coming up onto. To the floor level, and I. And then the cops pull up right in front of her. And then they take her, and they arrest her, and they put her in the back of the car, and then they take off. And later come to find out they were pushing illicit drugs through the house. So the woman with the elongated face, that's where that painting comes from. It's just that memory of just looking at her in the distance, and she's just in this white, you know, see through dressed. And it just burned an image into my mind. I can't get it out of my head. [00:23:10] Speaker A: No, it's cool. And your writings, are they like poems, or is it just like a. Like a. Because I looked at a few of them. [00:23:20] Speaker B: I sent you a lot. [00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you sent me a lot. But, yeah, I kind of just kind of skimmed through them to be honest. But I was just, like, at the beginning, I'm not a reader to begin with. I'm more. I watch videos just to be honest. That's just how I. My brain is. And mad props to the people that actually read a whole entire book, like, in a week or in a day or whatever. It takes me months or whatever just to try to finish one. But anyway, do you, are your narrative stories, are they like poems or they just, like, however you guys decide to write it, because it seems like, kind of poemish, the ones that you kind of. [00:23:59] Speaker B: Some of them have a poem, poetic motifs to it, but most of it is just narrative stories, like where we're living right now. I don't have enough room to make the work that I want to work, but my brain still wants to be creative. So I've started just doing the stories just out of need to want to do something creative. [00:24:20] Speaker A: Yeah, keep the juice, keep it flowing. That's cool. Who we got? Kaylee Ru. She said, oh, hi, exhibitions and project. So you had your first solo, so Romania. We talked about that earlier, and you had. So a recent group exhibition in Romania. And can you talk about the recent exhibition in Romania and its connection to the Ukraine conflict? [00:24:49] Speaker B: So the exhibition. Well, the exhibition in Romania didn't necessarily have a connection with the Ukraine conflict. There was a curator that was seeking out artists to participate in a group exhibition, and Romania just happens to be on the border of Moldova, which is on the border of Ukraine, which borders Ukraine. And they were seeking artists to be a part of an exhibition. And I sent some stuff in, and before, I didn't hear anything back, it was like two months, and I thought, I'm not gonna be in the show, you know, so we go on, do other works, you know, make other projects. I get an email out of nowhere with a certification from an art dealer and art critic saying, thank you for participating in this exhibition. I was like, an exhibition? [00:25:43] Speaker A: Wow. [00:25:44] Speaker B: And that's how that just happened there. There really was no interesting thing behind that. It was just, there was a show going on. I submitted some work, and I didn't even know I got selected, like, three or four months after. No, I got a certification saying, thank you for participating. I didn't even know what happened. [00:26:07] Speaker A: How did you find that? I guess, when to send that, send out your work. How did you come across that, that one? [00:26:15] Speaker B: There are multiple websites. I think that there's one site called Art Rabbit, where curators, like people that are hosting exhibitions and are seeking artists to partake in exhibitions. They put a call out that they're seeking artists. You can either seek artists from where you live or you can seek international artists. And you just wait for people to send in submissions. And then you feed through, you see which works are going to fit the criteria of the show that you're going to put on. And then you go from there. [00:26:45] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:26:46] Speaker B: And then you will gather your artists. Maybe you're 1015 and you'll email them back saying you are going to participate. Here's when we need the work by, here's the dimensions. Then they do the commission rates and stuff like that. And you'll either. Now it's been interesting since COVID is because we're doing everything electronically. We're not physically having to send work, which before we were physically having to really wrap up paintings, put them in shipping tubes, which is. It's awesome because you still have to have the physical work there. But a lot. I like to also partake in the show's work. We can just do a digital copy. Oh, you know, I still get to partake in it. I don't physically have to expend a lot of money to ship work internationally. And I can still participate and it's able to go into smaller venues. I think, like the one in Romania was a real small art gallery. It was probably about the. A little bit smaller than the studio that you're in. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Wow. [00:27:43] Speaker B: And they didn't have, they had brick wall, so they didn't have a way to hang the works. So they had just kind of like framed all the little pictures and they had them on like tables all over the gallery. So it's real cool to be able to work with curators and especially work with curators when you don't even know that you're in the show. [00:28:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Yeah, we were talking about that earlier, curators. I was asking you, what's a curator? Interesting term, but how do you so. And you were curating up an exhibition, weren't you? Did you say that? [00:28:15] Speaker B: I curated early on through the art gallery that was in Uvalde, which is art lab contemporary. I curated some shows. There was a show I curated with Maeda Zamora's work. And there was a few other little shows that I curated. And I kind of stepped out of curating shows I liked more working with the curator for, you know, my own shows. Yeah, it's. It's easier for me to just focus on what I'm doing as opposed to figuring out all the logistics. And now I got to find artists. Now I got to bring in artists, I have to also take care of their work. I'm also responsible for their work. You know, if I focus on myself, if something happens to one of my paintings, it's. It's okay. I would feel terrible if, in the logistical process, something happened to, you know, your painting, and then I would. I would feel terrible about it. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Wow, man. What does it feel like when somebody purchases your painting? [00:29:08] Speaker B: It's interesting. It's, it feels reassuring that people like this. I'm not just crazy. I'm not just the crazy guy sitting in my dark room with a candle, baking paintings. People actually like this, and they want to live with it because I live with it all the time. You can ask my wife. We have paintings all over the place. It gets maddening sometimes. So when somebody buys something, I'm like, yes, I don't have to figure out where I'm going to put this now or what storage room does this go into now, or. It's nice that people want to have these things with them, to be able to live with them in their own places. And it's. It's nice. It's comforting. [00:29:48] Speaker A: Yeah. How did you, how did you land on the style that you landed on? I guess your own style, cuz, uh, it's not like, like the faces are different. Like that one you were, you sent me. It was like, on a, on this type of paper, the ruled paper. Like those faces. [00:30:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:30:05] Speaker A: You know what I'm saying? [00:30:05] Speaker B: Notebook drawings. [00:30:06] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. [00:30:07] Speaker B: I was bored at work, and I. I was not working. I was drawing most of the time. I had the liberty to have a desk job, so I just would draw. [00:30:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:20] Speaker B: And I think it was just out of, I guess, necessity to change. I think that's what happened. I think that's where the paintings. Where I'm painting now. I think it was just a. I hadn't painted for probably almost eight months. I hadn't made a single painting. And the heavens Gate cult was the first painting I had made in, like, eight months. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Heaven's gate colt. That was something that happened. [00:30:47] Speaker B: That was in the eighties. Oh, I could be, my timing could be wrong. I believe it was eighties or the early nineties in California, where the mothership was gonna come down. And we were all, if you were a part of the cult, the mothership was gonna come down, you were gonna ascend, and you were gonna go to the higher place, and I. Whoa. But before then, you had to put on, you know, your black Nikes. Your black Nikes put on black jumpsuits. You had to hop in bed. Like Nike black. Nike. [00:31:13] Speaker A: What? [00:31:14] Speaker B: And you had to like Cortez Nikes. No, the black ones with the. The white check mark. And the sole was the whole souls. White. [00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the Cortez is like those. Yeah. Like you're describing. It's white. Okay. Decades. 1997. Anthony says 1997. [00:31:36] Speaker B: Thank you, Anthony. [00:31:36] Speaker A: So they got away. The nikes you gotta wear. What else? [00:31:38] Speaker B: Yeah, you had to wear all black jumpsuit and then you had to lay in bed. You had to put a sheet over your head and you had to take some pills. And then the. And then the mothership was gonna come down and y'all were going to ascend. [00:31:50] Speaker A: No way. [00:31:51] Speaker B: And it's just the. The. The mentality behind it was the one thing that intrigued me. I'm like, there's. Here's a. Here's a guy who created his own cult and he's able to convince people to bring them in. They were a bunch of computer. Computer people. They worked on computer programs, they created websites. They did a bunch of stuff. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Programs. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah, computer programs. And they. To bring in money. And they lived in a very luxurious house. And I don't want to give too much of it away. If nobody has heard of the heavens Gate cult. It's just a real interesting dive to get into. [00:32:34] Speaker A: No, I mean, I'm interested. I like that type stuff too. Like, I mean, I watch videos like that on YouTube. Like, like cults, murders, like investigations. And I'm into like that. That's why I'm asking. It sounds pretty cool too. So you made a painting off of. [00:32:51] Speaker B: That or off of the crime scene? [00:32:53] Speaker A: The after. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:32:55] Speaker B: The aftermath. [00:32:56] Speaker A: The aftermath. [00:32:58] Speaker B: I think the aftermath is more intriguing because we're able to have a snapshot of where there's nobody here in this picture anymore. They can tell us what happened. [00:33:12] Speaker A: That's so crazy. [00:33:13] Speaker B: And so to have it encased in a painting, I think is a. It's a. The. A beautiful thing. I can take something tragic and I can encase it in a painting and it'll live forever is a reminder of things that have happened and where we. Where we should not go. [00:33:36] Speaker A: Like. Like a footprint. Like footprint. [00:33:39] Speaker B: A tragic footprint. [00:33:41] Speaker A: Tragic footprint. Yeah, for sure. So we're talking. You're talking about like doing it digitally or whatever exhibitions, right? How do you feel about the. I guess the importance of digital art and maybe nfts? Have you considered exploring these mediums? [00:33:58] Speaker B: No, no, not nfts. I'm not too aware of how the NFT works. It doesn't intrigue me. I wish it did. You know, it seems interesting, but it's just, for me, if I can't physically create a painting with my hands, I don't feel like it's something that I would ever venture into. It's just not my cup of tea. [00:34:27] Speaker A: To actually own it physically. [00:34:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:29] Speaker A: It's kind of like. Like we have. I have Amazon prime and I buy movies on there, and I remember when we had actually owned disc, you know, the dvd or whatever it was. Now we don't own or even tapes. Remember tapes? Yeah. [00:34:41] Speaker B: You don't own it anymore. It's the same concept. You know, you don't own. It's just, you don't own this piece of art. You can't put it on your wall. You know, you can't. You can't physically hold it. [00:34:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:52] Speaker B: So that's just not something that I think I would ever do. I need to physically. I need to be able to physically grab my painting and throw it out the window if I want. [00:35:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Right on. So you're currently working with the zine collaboration. Is it zine? [00:35:05] Speaker B: Zine. [00:35:06] Speaker A: Zine collaboration with female artists from New Zealand? [00:35:10] Speaker B: Yes, the. [00:35:11] Speaker A: Wow. [00:35:11] Speaker B: Pantybag collective. They're a group of four female artists. They live in New Zealand and they take them. I don't. I don't know if you're familiar with the. The gold. The gold children books where they had the gold spine and, you know, it was a. They go around and they find, I guess New Zealand just has a plethora of these books and thrift shops, and they get the books and they prime them, they gesso them, and then they start doing a collages on them. So we. I had reached out and we had made a connection and we talked for a little while, and we had decided, you know, we're gonna work on a collaboration. So they sent me a book, and I'm still currently working on it. Like I said in the beginning, it's one of those 15 projects that I walk by every day. I'm going. I'm going to finish it. But, yeah, it's just, we're worried. It's not quite done yet. And then when we get it all, mail it back to them. [00:36:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:09] Speaker B: And then they'll make a high definition scan of the book, and then they'll mass produce it into little zines that are probably about maybe five by six inches. [00:36:18] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:36:19] Speaker B: And then we'll distribute them. [00:36:21] Speaker A: And zine is, like, short for magazine. [00:36:23] Speaker B: Zine is. It's. It's mag, it's like a shorter version of a magazine. And a lot of artists and, like, punk rock bands would create them as, like, advertisements or, you know, flyers for events and stuff. If artists wanted to, you know, get their work across a bunch of people, but they didn't have, you know, a lot of money to mass produce their work. You could take a couple of your drawings and go down to Kinko's, because in the eighties and the nineties, it was prominent for artists to just be stuck at a Kinko's making, you know, Xerox copies of all their work, and they would combine it into a booklet, and then they would just hand it out to people in the streets, and that's how you would be able to get your work across. [00:37:02] Speaker A: Wow. Is there a difference? Have you noticed a difference in collaborating with people from different cultures? [00:37:08] Speaker B: It's interesting to see some of the way that they produce their work. A lot of other people that I've worked with, they are very more focused on the figuration as opposed to me, I like to focus on color. So it's just interesting to see the styles mix with each other. You know, if an artist focuses a lot on figuration, then I have to figure out how am I going to fit the color around this? And there really was, this is actually really probably the only second collaboration that I've done. I worked with a fashion group out of ad Borg, Sweden. We did a lookbook. So they had sent me some clothes and we had made some painting backdrops and stuff like that. We had created a photo shoot and we created a lookbook for them for, I think it was like their winter edition or something like that. So this is actually my only real second project working with other artists. And it's just, it's freeing, you know, there's no criteria that we have to meet. You know, we just create what we create, send it back. If we need to tweak it, we tweak it. If not, we roll with it and we push on to publishing it. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Crazy. Yeah. Do you feel that? I guess in that ice, in every community, there's always, like, people saying stuff about others, art or even music or whatever. I don't like country music or whatever. Do people say that about your art specifically? Okay, as you know what I mean? How do you. [00:38:42] Speaker B: I've never had anybody, you know, deliberately tell me, like, hey, I don't like your paintings. You know, I've just had people that, you know, you, you, you can see that they don't get it. They don't understand it. And some of them, you know, they'll ask me, you know, what does this mean? Or, you know, what does it represent? I'll be able to tell them. And either they like it or they don't. I mean, everybody has their own, you know, niche, their thing that they like. You know, some people like country, some people like rock. It's the same thing with paintings. [00:39:10] Speaker A: Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. The, like, myra stuff is. I was talking to Myra. Her stuff is different. And she bases her stuff around, like, color, and she. We were get. I was talking to her about that, which was interesting. Like, this color means this, and this color means that there's a lot of theory and stuff behind certain art pieces. And rather than just, oh, that looks nice. You know, people don't. Some people don't go deep into that part of art. You know what I mean? There's just kind of surface level, you know what I mean? And to be able to understand. Go, like, just looking at your stuff, I'm like, oh, that's got a story. And then I looked at your website like I knew it had a story. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So. So your website is legacy or ligosky. Sorry. I kept on saying lgaki. [00:39:56] Speaker B: Legoski. Studio.com. [00:39:58] Speaker A: Is that. That's your dad's last name? [00:39:59] Speaker B: That's my dad's. [00:40:00] Speaker A: No way. That's. And that. Legosky. There you go. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah, there it is. [00:40:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So that. This one here is, like, on the. On the very first page of your website, and it's facial expression. There's actually have, like, three or four of those, don't you? [00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah. That's part of a series I'm working on. It's called go to work, Maya. [00:40:21] Speaker A: On the left hand side. [00:40:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it's in work. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Is that first. That. [00:40:26] Speaker B: It's called the. [00:40:27] Speaker A: You can click on that first picture, and it'll take you to all the ones that look like it. [00:40:31] Speaker B: Yeah. The horrors within the old. [00:40:33] Speaker A: Dude, that one right there. The very first picture under the horrors within the. I love the color on that one, dude. [00:40:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:42] Speaker A: And this. Yeah. [00:40:43] Speaker B: I once heard a story of the deserts of New Mexico. Yeah. So there's about. There's gonna be 20 paintings in this series. I think right now on the website, there's about 13. So I'm still working through it. I'm trying. The. The problem is I'm trying to keep them all the same format so they're all, like, 16 and a half by 20 inches. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Why is that? [00:41:04] Speaker B: I just. I'm just critical of it. I just want them all to be the same size. [00:41:08] Speaker A: Oh, cool. [00:41:09] Speaker B: I just want them all to be the same size. [00:41:10] Speaker A: Yeah. You're the artist. Of course. [00:41:11] Speaker B: Yeah. There's no reason why that one's cool right there. That's actually a portrait of my dad. [00:41:17] Speaker A: No way. [00:41:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:19] Speaker A: Digging the hat, too. [00:41:21] Speaker B: Yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't wear cowboy hats. He wears a baseball cap. I gave him a cowboy hat, so. [00:41:25] Speaker A: 16.5 by 20. Yeah. What's that one there? Saw that? I was like, oh, shoot. On top of his mouth. Hush. And do. I saw. Oh, yeah, it's. [00:41:37] Speaker B: It's. That one's a little bit more of a darker topic. There's, um. [00:41:45] Speaker A: Nice. [00:41:46] Speaker B: And I think with. Crawling under the floorboard. We stop right there. [00:41:50] Speaker A: That's cool. And. And so you put. Do. How do people. Do people purchase these from your website, or how do you go about, like, selling your. Your works? [00:42:00] Speaker B: We do shows, or I'll partake in group exhibitions, or I'll host my own shows. We'll sell the works there. Or there is a contact page where if you want to buy a painting, you could just send me an email and we'll work it out. [00:42:13] Speaker A: Email. There we go. [00:42:14] Speaker B: Just send me an email. I don't work with a gallery right now, so I'm not held to a contract. So, like, there's no gallery that sells my work for me. I'm just kind of on my own, so. [00:42:26] Speaker A: So is that. I guess that's. That could be one of your goals. One of the goals as an artist to. To be, I guess, commissioned by a gallery. [00:42:33] Speaker B: In the beginning, it was, you know, to be commissioned by a gallery. But at this point, I kind of like where I'm at, you know, like I said, I like being the man on the mountain and staying in my little house. Yeah. [00:42:44] Speaker A: What is that? [00:42:46] Speaker B: I like staying in my little cabin on the mountain and making my work while everybody kind of, you know, everybody lives their life below the mountain, and I'm up top and I get to just create and I get to work on it. And if people see my work, they see it. If they don't, they don't. I'm not on social media. I have just the website. You know, I used to be on Instagram and stuff, which was a good way to connect with a lot of different artists, and. But now it's just strictly a website. You know, you have to go find my work if you want to look at it. And I like that. You know, it's. It's it's a journey, you know, it's, um. It makes you want to see the work, so that's why there's only a website. [00:43:27] Speaker A: All right, cool. That's cool. Thanks. Thanks, Maya, for putting that up there. Wow. Yeah. Is there any pieces that you want to talk about? Oh, dude, look at that one. [00:43:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Elmer Foot. [00:43:37] Speaker A: Elmer Fudd. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a. There's going to be a series of five works in this one. It's going to go over World War two. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:43:46] Speaker B: So we're gonna have all of our, you know, all of our main characters fighting in World War two. [00:43:53] Speaker A: Warning images. Oh, which one's this one? Paintings 19 through 23. [00:43:58] Speaker B: Yeah. About 2019 to 2023. These were painted you. [00:44:02] Speaker A: I see. I noticed you use that. That kind of, I don't know, like magenta or whatever color that. [00:44:07] Speaker B: It's a very. It's a pink that I like to make as prominent in all my paintings. I just like using it. When I started working, it was a very pastel pink, and now it's kind of worked its way into a magenta. Yeah. That is a brokeback mountain. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Brokeback Mountain. Sometimes I wish the waves would shift and the earth would fall apart. [00:44:29] Speaker B: Wow. [00:44:30] Speaker A: You like, you like that movie? Nice. [00:44:33] Speaker B: It had. It has an end. It has an ending that I was not expecting. [00:44:37] Speaker A: Really. [00:44:37] Speaker B: A very sad movie. [00:44:39] Speaker A: Oh, no. Wow, there's. There's the Uvalde one right there. [00:44:42] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So this is the one that will be at the Maka museum in a Ciudad Acuna once the museum is built. [00:44:49] Speaker A: Nice. That's cool. And the one from, the one that you were talking about. Hey, there's the one from the Ukraine. Wouldn't go down that one there, right? [00:45:01] Speaker B: Yes. Putin looking through the. The brick wall of the school that they bombed and they did the first invasion of Ukraine. [00:45:11] Speaker A: That one was interesting. The father, dearest, Ohio. [00:45:14] Speaker B: Billy. [00:45:15] Speaker A: Like the faces melting, right? [00:45:17] Speaker B: No, there's. So there was a. [00:45:20] Speaker A: Down there, Ma. [00:45:21] Speaker B: There was a Ohio university serial killer. He would go around and he would attack women. He had a tragic childhood. Tragic childhood. It kind of. When you. There's a documentary, and when I find the documentary, I'll send it to you. There's one documentary on him. His name is Billy Mulligan, and his dad was. His stepfather was very abusive to him, and so his stepfather would make Billy dig his own grave. [00:45:52] Speaker A: Whoa. [00:45:52] Speaker B: And he would stick a pipe over Billy's head and he would urinate down the pipe. [00:45:57] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:45:58] Speaker B: So that's where that painting comes from. And it kind of makes you understand why some people would turn to do. To do so dark, dark, dark things. [00:46:09] Speaker A: Wow. Very interesting. Michael J. Barrera says, sending love from Houston. [00:46:15] Speaker B: Nice. [00:46:16] Speaker A: Karina Gomez says, so cool. Can't wait till it's done. I guess they were talking about one of the other projects. Yeah, going cool. Might keep scrolling, Maya. Wow. That's so crazy how you can. Oh, this do? That's the one, right? [00:46:31] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a heaven's gate painting. [00:46:33] Speaker A: I was wondering about the Nikes, the things we talk about. Dude, how do you come up with the titles for these? Is it like a. [00:46:42] Speaker B: It's a. It's a hit or miss. And I literally walk around my house thinking up these titles in my head. So my poor wife heard her. [00:46:52] Speaker A: I was gonna. [00:46:52] Speaker B: Crazy. Her crazy husband is walking around. [00:46:55] Speaker A: I was gonna. [00:46:55] Speaker B: So you're newlyweds things. But it's. I'm coming up with titles for paintings. I say them out loud or I say them in my head. [00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:03] Speaker B: And it usually. So the title process begins before I make the painting. [00:47:08] Speaker A: No, really? [00:47:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think all these things prior to when I make the painting. [00:47:13] Speaker A: Wow. [00:47:13] Speaker B: And so what I'm doing is I create a title, and then I try to find a story that would match the title. So the things we talk about in the dark was a title I had heard, and I had found it, and it resonated with me. I was like, I need to find something that can correlate with it. And so when I found the crime scene for the Heavens Gate crime scene photo, that resonated with me. I was like, this. This image belongs with the title. [00:47:40] Speaker A: Wow. [00:47:40] Speaker B: So that's usually how a lot of the work starts. [00:47:43] Speaker A: I can't imagine walking into that scene. Like, if you're investigating or wherever, just. Man, that would be crazy. Go ahead and keep scrolling. Madhouse. Yeah, that's the is. That's. That's the one that was in that dining room, right? Mm hmm. [00:47:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:58] Speaker B: Like that Lorraine and a white nightgown. [00:48:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I was looking at that one, too. Yeah, I started. Leave it there. My. I was starting to, like, look through your website. I was like, dude, this is. There's got to be some stories to these. And I was like, what is this about? [00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think, you know, I think a lot of people, you know, we've had our bouts of depression and stuff. You know, I suffer from depression and anxiety, and, you know, I've through, you know, my wife, you know, I've been able to go to find therapy and find help and you know, is that working for you? I mean, it is. It's working wonders. You know, before, I was a very angry person. [00:48:34] Speaker A: Really? [00:48:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I was angry at, you know, God and everybody. I was angry at myself. I was angry at a bunch of people. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Do you think it's because the way you were raised or. I mean, you know. [00:48:43] Speaker B: You know, I'm not gonna say that. You know, growing up, I had a wonderful childhood, but it has a lot of different factors. Growing up, social environments, friends, other family members, your own family. I think we all have our own struggles that we deal with. So growing up and getting older, finding help and therapy has been a very good thing for me also, creating paintings also helps me as a form of therapy, to be able to get something out of my head. I need to encapsulate it. I need to paint it. Let's put it on a canvas, and normally it kind of dissipates. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. [00:49:27] Speaker B: It's. It's very relaxing. It's very therapeutic. [00:49:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. And so all this. So you're talking about, like, anger and all this stuff, like, when you. When you were in the process of dating your wife and then eventually becoming married, is this something that you were. I know it's not something that you want to talk about, right, when you're dating somebody. Right. But did you feel like, oh, shoot, I should probably say something about this, or. [00:49:51] Speaker B: No. She brought it up to me, and she brought it up to me, and I was very. I was, you know, very naive. I was very unaware of where my mental state was. And she helped me a lot to find out, you know, I needed help, you know? Wow, this is. You know, this is not right. You know, my outburst or anger or my depression or my anxiety. I don't have to feel this way. [00:50:11] Speaker A: No. [00:50:11] Speaker B: So, through her, I was able to find a help, and it's. It's been wonderful. [00:50:16] Speaker A: Did it get to the point where it. You might have done something to her? [00:50:20] Speaker B: No. [00:50:21] Speaker A: No. Wow. No, some people. I mean. Oh, yeah, I can imagine. [00:50:25] Speaker B: Like, you know, there are some. There were some. There were some relationships that should. People should not be together, and my. My parents were those people. They should have not. Yeah. [00:50:38] Speaker A: Oh, man, this is some good stuff here, man. I like your paintings. Go ahead and keep scrolling. So this, uh, this is to. This is already completed, this. This particular section of work. [00:50:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:49] Speaker A: Okay. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Yeah. These are paintings that were just made between 2019 and 2023. You know, they weren't specifically for a series. They were just paintings that I had made. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that one where the ground has different. Different lines to it. Go ahead and go up. Yeah, that one right there. No, up one more right there. Yeah, that's pretty cool. And then the house is on fire. Yeah, I was. Then I heard the black goat sing. Wow, man, this is good. This is a good show, man. Thanks for coming on. Is there anything you want to share? [00:51:26] Speaker B: No, I think, you know, we've, um. We've covered a lot of topics. Um, any particular questions you have? [00:51:34] Speaker A: Um, not really. I mean, I got some questions. Uh, arthem. Art as a medium of social commentary. Yeah. Explore how your opinions address current events, society issue. We kind of went over that, such as your piece on Vladimir Putin invasion of Ukraine. How do you see your role of. How do you see the role of artists in the current political climate and social movements? [00:52:01] Speaker B: That's a good question. Right now, I believe that artists, we should be using what's going on right now and our talents and our mediums to be able to encapsulate what's happening on all fronts, you know, on, you know, the political side, on the social side, on personal sides. I think it's a good thing for us to be able to catalog what is going on in the world. [00:52:28] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:52:28] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, like the Uvalde piece or I, you know, the Vladimir Putin painting. You know, it's something that needs to be catalogued so we don't forget, you know, where we can go as a society if we let things get out of hand. [00:52:42] Speaker A: Wow. So, like a form of journalism or. [00:52:45] Speaker B: A form of journalism more. More in a visual, pictorial way, you know, I think that that's the beauty of it. We can. We can catalog and journal what's going on. And I think having a visual image is, you know, very impactful. So people can, you know, understand that this is where we do not need to go or we don't want to go here again. [00:53:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you consider pictures like art? [00:53:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I consider photographs art. I don't partake in photography, but I like it. It's a very nice medium, and I love journalistic photography. Of course, that's where a lot of the. A lot of the inspiration comes from, our journalistic photographs. You know, photographs of war, photographs of crime scenes and stuff like that. [00:53:30] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a movie, I think it's called Civil War. [00:53:32] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:53:33] Speaker A: That it reminded me of that movie. I just watched it, and. Very awesome, interesting movie, how they're just kind of trying to make it to watch DC, and they get, you know, caught in these, you know, gunfires and all this other stuff. And in the meantime, they're journaling. [00:53:48] Speaker B: They're journaling pictures. Yeah. [00:53:50] Speaker A: It's so crazy. Well, the intersection of art and community. Talk about the importance of community in your work or from local exhibitions to in eval day to international collaborations. Did we touch on that? [00:54:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we touched. We touched on it. I think the biggest takeaway is that I think communities as a whole need a place where we can bring, you know, children, young adults, adults, people together to view art in a. In a place where we can all have open discussions about it. So that way we can understand that art is just not something that is seen as high brow or, you know, for the elite or, you know, for people with money. You know, art is for everybody, whether it's, you know, murals, paintings. If you. There's a place where we can all come together to have, you know, time to talk about what's going on, especially like, what happens with art walk. You know, a lot of people come down here to corpus to go to the art galleries and partake. That's beautiful. That's exactly what the mission is for driving art and community is to make everybody whole and one with the art so we can all have a open conversation, meet friends, not be, you know, secluded, not have a closed mind, have the ability to talk about what we want to as a whole and have art be able to help us along the way in educating people and enlightening us. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Ronnie Martinez, thank you for joining. Karina. Appreciate you all for the comments. Yeah, that's interesting to me because growing up, you really don't like your art class is the actual introduction to actual art. [00:55:39] Speaker B: Yeah, for everybody. You know, you go to your, you go to your generic art class, you take your generic art course. That's your introduction. And some people, you know, some children like, for me, we grew up in a small town. Our art course was very limited to what we could do as opposed to where. If we were going to school in New York, our art course would have been way more extravagant. But I think for people to be able to partake in art walks, going to art galleries, especially taking your children to museums at young ages, impactful, very impressionable, especially on the young mind. When they see art, it doesn't mean that they have to grow up to be a painter or writer. It just under, it helps them understand that I can be creative in any field and I can use my creativity, whatever it is, to better myself. And it's a very good learning tool. And I think that as community, we should help in strive to want to have that connection with art. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, definitely. And like, and I think like here in south Texas, I mean, cuz you have like Hispanics or whatever, some people, some families may be like, well, don't do art, you need to actually work. You know what I mean? There's a more, there's less of an importance on that and more just like, you know what I mean? Like just bringing income in. Yeah. And stuff like that. And it's like, well, why are you wasting your time on this? Or whatever, whatever, you know what I mean? So I think for a young kid, just telling them, like even just you being inspired by your teacher, like, no, go ahead and try it out, you know, do it, you know what I mean? It's encouraging, you know? [00:57:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, you know, growing up, you know, my family was kind of the same, you know, ideology. They were very open and very encouraging of my creative practice, but they had grown up so long to be, you know, you have to work to make money to pay the bills and stuff like that. It was very, it was very freeing and very nice of my parents to say, just be creative. Just do what you want to do. You know, there wasn't a, you got to work, you got to do this, you have to make money, you have to go to school, this is what you have to do to proceed in life. They were just like, no, be creative, do whatever you want. And so they just let me run around and paint and be creative. And naturally, of course, you know, working and stuff, if it falls into place. Being able to be creative when I was younger, it's helped me out a lot as I got older. [00:57:58] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely, man. I think should have some fun for even. It's not selling it, just some form of art, picking up a guitar, whatever, you know, like this, this little drawing that you did here. I mean, it's just, you know, just a little sketch, you know, you can just do stuff like that and it helps your, your mind, your brain, you. [00:58:16] Speaker B: Know, overall, the one thing I would like to say is, you know, there's no, if you're gonna go into art for, you know, the monetary value, then you're doing it wrong. You're going in it the wrong way. Be yourself. Do it because you want to do it, don't do it because you think that there's a monetary value or some fame attached to it, you know, just do it for yourself. Be honest and be open with yourself creatively in whatever field it is you do. [00:58:42] Speaker A: Yes, sir. Thanks for coming on the show. Charles. Yes, sir. We got another show coming up here in a few minutes. Thanks for coming on the show. Is there, so we find you. Ligosky.com or is it lgoski studio.com? legoski Studio ligockystudio.com. we'll leave a link in the description. Is there anything else you want to share before we go? [00:59:05] Speaker B: Thank you for having me on. It's wonderful. I love what you are doing. Keep it up. It's beautiful. [00:59:10] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot. You guys stay tuned. We got a run high podcast in the next hour, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, see you guys later.