January 19, 2023 • 47 mins
Ally sits down with artist and author Timothy Goodman to discuss his come-up from Cleveland to New York, advocating for inclusivity in the art world, working with Kevin Durant to design the Nike KD15 ‘Brooklyn Courts’ sneaker, and more.
Pre-order Timothy’s graphic memoir “I Always Think It’s Forever” wherever books are sold.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today's podcast is sponsored by Sea Geek. If you didn't know,
see Geek is the official ticketing partner of the Brooklyn
Whether you're trying to go to a Nets game, Liberty Game, concert,
or any other event at Barclay Center, you really only
need Sea Geek. Welcome to Courtside Conversation. I'm your girl,
(00:31):
Ali Love. After years on the hardwood as the in
arena host for the Brooklyn Nets, It's time for me
to take a courtside. We're here with artists, athletes, and
all of our favorite people to break down the game
called life. We're getting real about the grow up and
the glow up. So let's take a seat. What's up everyone,
(00:58):
It's your girl, Ali Love. Welcome to Courtside Conversation. I
have a special guest taking a courtside seed with me,
Timothy Goodman. Timothy is a designer, illustrator, muralists and author
from New York City who recently designed the newest KAT
fifteen sneakers. Now I know Timothy. As we take this
seat courtside, we're going to discuss the four quarters of
your life, and so I want to jump right in.
(01:18):
While you are claiming New York City, you are actually
from Ohio. I am. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, Lebron Country
and uh, but I've lived in New York City for
almost nineteen years at this point. I moved here to
go to art school. But you know, it was one
of those things like I like, I felt like I
always belonged here, way way before I ever even visited,
(01:41):
you know, and I and my instinct was right the
minute I got here, it was like, this is home.
It's gonna be home for the rest of my life.
So I think I share that with you for sure,
Like the rhythm of New York provided with me right away. Miami,
Florida came up here every summer between high school for dance,
and I would come up and do, like, you know,
some programs for dance. And as soon as I came
up with the first time, I was like, this is
(02:02):
where I need to live. I knew at fourteen years old,
this is where I need to live. You and I
fourteen I knew, um, but you are in New York City.
And the reason I say that is because we're going
to get in obviously to the sneaker design with Kevin Durant.
I'm we're going to talk about you know, the basketball courts.
But what I want to take it back to is
like knowing, you know, a little guy in Cleveland, Ohio,
(02:25):
knowing that potentially this could have been an outlet for you.
How did you find art or did art find you? So? Yeah,
I mean you're right, little guy, the kid from Cleveland,
as I would say, a little dust kicker. Um, So
art found me at an early age because my grandmother
(02:46):
as an artist, and so I would see her. She
was you know, she was a painter. She she everything
she did had an artistry to it. She would even
make her own like handmade like jel Lee and jam
and then the labels she would make her The penmanship
was so beautiful, and she there was so great care
(03:06):
in like the storytelling, and she would write these she
would go on travel, she would travel and she would
write these incredible like you know kind of journals with
her beautiful penmanship and drawings and postcards all to tell
the story. So I was always around that, seeing that
with my grandparents. But of course you're not kind of
rebelled against it. I was a horrible high school student,
(03:28):
really bad teenager, drugs, sex, rock and roll, like just
did not barely graduated high school, did not want anything
to do with being an artist of any sort. Of
played a lot of basketball, hung out with the wrong crowd,
the whole thing, um and so. But it was always
in the back somewhere, you know. And by the time
I started getting my act together when I was like one,
(03:51):
and I started taking community college classes in Cleveland, shout
out trying see Kyle Hogga community College. Um, okay, okay.
It came back to me as I started losing all
those those bad friends, those friends that were bad for me,
as I was like really starting to question who I
was in this world and what I wanted out of
this life. Uh, it was really I don't know, it
(04:14):
came really definitive to me that I was an expressionist.
I needed to express myself in any way possible. I
always admire I grew up without a father, all my
father figures growing up, where all the people all these
like Gemini, like the Two PACs and the Kanye like,
all these people just shouting about what they what mattered
to them, you know, Bob Dylan, Like they were all geminizes,
(04:35):
wild and constantly kind of recreating themselves as artists. And
so I just saw and I that I just realized
that that's what I wanted. So I started taking all
these art classes at community college, and one thing led
to another. I was like, I'm not gonna if I'm
gonna do this in New York is where I gotta
do it. If I'm gonna fail, I'll fail in New York.
If I'm gonna succeed, I gotta succeed in New York.
(04:57):
Whatever it is, it's wild, how right like you just
it just you some for some people in New York
just really goes with it unlocked some things. It unlocked
some things. Well in this first quarter. Take me back
to what you mentioned. You said there was a turning point, right.
We all have those formative days we're in school, whether
you were trying to be a perfectionist because like your
(05:18):
parents said, you need to get all a's and this
is the only way to be successful, or again you
had that rebellious phase where you're just like, now I'm good,
I'm figuring out who I am. You mentioned the turning
point post high school into community college. What was the catalyst?
What what did that turning point look like, and how
did it happen and who was around you? M M.
I mean, honestly, the turning point was a lot of
(05:39):
a lot of frustration with my life at that point,
a lot of tears, a lot of looking in the mirror,
and sometimes you know, especially for men in this country,
straight sis, men who you know kind of where I
grew up, you know, we didn't grow up with any money.
We I didn't have a father in the house. I
didn't have you know, like a lot of like like
(06:00):
kind of I was always searching for mentors and I
was always looking the wrong places, and I think at
some point I had to deal with myself, you know,
I had to look in the mirror and be like,
why am I like this? Why am I wasting my
week ads a way that my weeks do hanging with
these people are doing like I was. Honestly, I was
doing a lot of drugs when I was a teenager,
Like I was cutting classes and I was like, you know,
(06:20):
and it was like just hard looking in the mirror
and questioning about what what am I trying to do?
You know, what am I getting out of this life?
And so that was like it wasn't like a definitive
like moment, but it was like a gradual like over there.
So and then I was painting houses. I started when
I graduated high school. All my friends went away to
(06:41):
college and went to like Ohio State or Michigan or
oh you and all these and I stayed because I
had like at one point seven g p A, couldn't
even I didn't even want to get I didn't even
want to go to college. But if I did, I
couldn't have gotten into anything. That's that's a fun fact.
I'm not even mad at that, Like that's a fun fact,
just like it's like, yeah, and but you know, it's funny.
(07:03):
So so when I started, I was painting houses for
this guy who had this really he had a high
end home improvement company. We worked in We worked in
like basketball players, houses like mansions and stuff in Cleveland.
He had an incredible clientele. And I started learning this
trade and these skills hanging wallpaper, painting houses, painting would work,
you know, stripping wallpapers, laying tile. You know. I learned
(07:27):
all these tools. Um, but I really just learned what
it meant to like be passionate about something the field
that kind of have like some sort of meaning about
what you were doing. And he really confronted me a
lot because in the beginning I was not serious about it.
He should have fired me eight hundred times over again,
but he didn't. He saw he saw potential with me.
He kept me around, and eventually something clicked, you know.
(07:51):
And then that's when I started taking community college classes
and I started like gravitating towards the different teachers and
mentors who I felt like, uh, could teach me something
about not just the skill, but but what it meant
to like live like a decent life, you know, and
a life of meaning or something. And so you know,
(08:11):
it was it was a really like profound a couple
of years. As we get into the second quarter of
the fourth quarter of games, Um, what was this guy's name?
A lot of what we talked about two on quart
our conversation is because we see everybody from the outside, right,
we see you in the small aperture called social media,
or your book coming out, or we see your art,
we see the seekers, and it's like, wow, this guy
has it all together. And what we uncover when we
(08:32):
sit courtside is that while we're looking at the spectacle
and the game that we love, it's it's actually like
there's a lot behind it. There's a story from the beginning,
there's some turning points, there's some adversity, and there's some assists.
And so what you just called out was homeboy on
the painting company. What was his name, because that was
a major life what's the name, Dave Suster. So we're
in the courtside conversation shoutout to Dave says, which is important, right,
(08:55):
like having that assist. So in the second quarter, that's
what we talked about, is this adversity in and and
those assists. And I think something you mentioned earlier and
I want to kind of unlock as well. Obviously you're
now in community college, along in this story, along in
this game, and this is where you're learning to express yourself. Right.
These are moments of of nonverbal communication, which is always
(09:16):
a really important part of communication because we always think
communication is tell me how you feel. And sometimes I
can tell you. As an individual as much as I talk,
I can articulate all the time how I feel. And
for me, dance was that I can move how I feel.
For you were like I can give you an expression
of how I feel, you know, a tangible expression of
how I feel. Um, But in this moment, you talked
about toxic masculinity, and you've been really outspoken about that.
(09:40):
Like when did you kind of uncover that and did
it come through this the community college where you're learning
about art and this self expression? It really did, because
I was always gravitating towards writing poetry, like when I
was a teenager, but something always kind of like I
would do it, but then I would stop, or I
would like, you know, when people would like make fun
(10:01):
of like men who expressed themselves with words, right, And
that's a major problem in our communities, you know, the
way we like think, the way we kind of box
men in to think like, well, you can't be masculine
and also fill in the blank right poetry, go to therapy,
cry whatever you can. But we it's not binary. We
(10:21):
can accode, we can exist and always you can be
the most masculine person and also care about things deeply
and cry and show emotion and talk about how you feel.
This ship is not binary. So it was when I
started going to community Causes that I really kind of
I leaned in. You know, I was like I saw
I was I was always looking at like the people,
(10:42):
you know, I mentioned Tupac or something like that like
he obviously like insane amount of toxic masculine and ego
happening at all times. But the way like at that time,
the way I saw like, oh, any but he could
write a song about his mom, or he can write
a song about black women in general, how he feels
about them or whatever, you know, and like of the Road, Yeah,
the road all his post you're when he was a
(11:04):
teenager as wild, So it's like but he I also
saw how he tried that. He started asking that when
as he got more famous too, so that was interesting.
But you see that a lot. That story is told
a lot of times, and any true artist is gonna
you gotta confront yourself, you know, because for me, I
always felt a responsibility as an artist to talk about
(11:25):
what's happened in the world, to talk about my own privileges,
to talk about the you know, injustices of the world.
That's part of the game for me as an artist,
to reflect that back out and make people think differently
about things. It's not just making some pretty pictures or whatever,
you know what I mean. It's about to talk. It's
about talking about the hardship, whether that is politics, whether
it is masculine and whether as love, heartbreak, all of it,
(11:47):
you know, Um, communities giving back. Um that that is
like one and one with me, you know, Like so
I don't know, I just kind of started making more
sense at that moment, you know, so I I just
kept leaning in. You have people of craftsmanships when you're
you highlight like artists of color, right, which is incredible.
We talked about and touched on the toxic masculinity. You
have the newest book I always think, it's Forever, which
(12:10):
is about falling in love in Paris and tackling that trauma.
There we go, let them know, let them know what
you're gonna be. We're gonna talk. We're gonna talk about
that a little bit more in depth. Um, but in
this second quarter of adversity before we go into half
time where we have a little fun. Are you ever met?
And I don't want to say have you ever when
you are met? Because I assume, let me be presumptuous,
that you've been met with some resistance of speaking out right,
(12:32):
Every artist has some resistance in either what their art
is about what they are speaking about individually. Um, how
do you handle that? Because again I think a lot
of us identify with the fact that there's so much
inside of us and we just want to be ourselves
all the time. But sometimes we don't have a sense
of belonging. Sometimes we aren't as creative as you and
(12:52):
can and put it on a canvas or put it
in a book. Um. But we what we desire that
ability to belong and to be ourselves and to express ourselves.
But the reason we don't do that is because we
know that adversity comes back in the form of quote
unquote feedback. But really it's judgment. How do you deal
with that quote unquote feedback that can be judgment? It's
(13:13):
a good question. I think there's two different ways to
look at this though. We could talk about what it
means to be an artist and just put yourself out
there with your art, you know, just in a more
general sense. That is always scary. It's never not going
to be scary. You know, there's always butterflies that come
with that, and there's always this doubt about whether or
not people will connect or like it or see it, um.
(13:34):
And so that's always real of course. And also side no,
you can't tell me that why, Like you think about
the most highly creative people in the world, so many
of them struggle with mental health issues in one way
or the other, right, And you can't tell me that
putting yourself out there for five, ten, twenty years plus,
putting yourself and your heart out there, that doesn't have
(13:55):
like you're constantly met with criticism, and that obviously will
play into your site heat and the way you deal
with things in your mental health. And so I just
think I would, you know, I think it's an important
thing to know. But then there's the other side of
this where it's like, okay, being outspoken, like for me, right,
like talking about you know, maybe some things that would
(14:17):
be deemed controversial in the sense of like whether I
am talking about politics and how you know, in progressive
values are talking about you know, those who are um,
you know, who are dealing with injustices in this country,
in this world. You know, I just think that, like,
of course I'm gonna be met with criticism for that,
(14:39):
but it's my job to talk about this stuff. I
am at the high I am a white cis straight man, right, So,
like I was, so, I'm scared of white people coming
at like white conservatives who are pissed at me saying
whatever because I'm talking about Black lives matter, I'm talking
about you know, gay right or whatever, you know what
I mean. So like do I care? And Okay, I'm
(15:01):
gonna lose a brand partnership because I am sticking up
for what I believe is right in the world, you
know what I mean. Like that's just the least of
my concerns, and so I don't I don't care about
that kind of stuff. Now. Of course, there are times
like I've done some some ship that's just kind of
like me whileing out, Like one time I posted a
video of me spray painting a Trump sign in someone's yard,
(15:25):
and you know, people, even like people that I respect,
are like, yo, like that's you know, and I'm kind
of just like it's a five out or yard sign.
You know, there's like black people losing their lives and
at the cost of this, you know, so what's the
Like we're gonna be mad about it. But I also
understand at times, you know, it could be performative. I
gotta check myself, you know. I think that's important thing
(15:48):
to have conversations with people. But that's also just me
at times you're just not thinking he's like I'm just
gonna spray this thing, post it and then you reel
it back in, you know, and that's fine, it's not
I don't know. I don't I don't struggle with it
in any real way. You know. Today's podcast is sponsored
by seat Geek. If you didn't know, seat geek is
(16:09):
the official ticketing partner of the Brooklyn Nets. Unlike any
other apps, seat geek makes buying tickets super simple. Whether
you're trying to go to a Nets game, Liberty game, concert,
or any other event at Barclay Center, you really only
need seat geeks. Seek Geek puts tickets from all over
the web in one place to make buying simple. So
(16:33):
one of the things that you touched on, and I
will say, I wish I could be like you in
the sense of like when I can't use the term
I don't care because I gotta be completely transplated as
someone yeah, as someone who you know, I get. I
teach Peloton. We have seven million members, and I am
all about inclusivity. I sent on those principles of like
everyone can show up to my class, whether it's Sunday's
with Love or the hardest hitting class like to bottle,
(16:55):
like I want you to feel like you have a
sense of belonging and that there's an unlike that occurs
in your live on your terms, right, Like I can't
deem what your terms are, um, and so I just
think everyone should have a seat at the table. It's
not my job to like exclude them. Which is similar
to what you believe. And as much as I want
to say like and I encourage folks for sure in
my rhetoric all the time, like YO, show up and
be yourself, be you, like that's how we love you
(17:15):
and that's why we love you. But it's almost like
it is really challenging, and it can be it can
be taxing, you know, as someone who is encouraging folks
to show up, ast themselves, as someone who's trying to
show best themselves, it can be taxing. And so I
know that while there is a balance, or I would
say harmony, I don't like the word balance, but there's
a harmony and figuring that out in the journey of
where you are in life, how much you can tear
(17:38):
and how much you Also, you're a woman, you gotta
deal with harassment online in different ways than me, you know,
I mean, like this stuff is in that cup. So
it's important for someone like me, I can acknowledge my
proviage that I don't care and know that that's coming
from a very privileged place, right. But it's also I think,
as someone who holds so much privilege, like I should
like I should be as an artist, I want to
(18:00):
talk about these things. We need more people look at
like me to talk about this stuff. We need to
be talking to each other about this stuff. We need
to be calling each other about this stuff. We needed
to call your racist uncle out of Thanksgiving or your
dad or whatever, you know, and have these difficult conversations
you know. Um, yeah, So that leads me to ask
you before we get into like the halftime moment. That
leads me to ask you, how do you again, whether
(18:23):
you're on the spectrum of I care a lot or
I don't care at all, somewhere in between, because there's
no right place to where, there's no right place to
be on that spectrum. It's just as long as you're
aware of where you are and what you need, how
do you protect or um care for yourself? Like, what
does that self care look like in terms of your
mental checks, your physical and your spiritual check, like, what
does that look like on a data basis, Because I
(18:43):
do think as someone who went to New York School
the Arts arts art student, I went for dance. You know,
we have four hundred kids who were all artists in
their own way and in their own right. We never
really talked about at that time what it looked like
to take what self care and mental health looked like,
or mental well being. I will say, look like when
you are an artist, when people are judging your work,
(19:03):
which is a reflection of you. Right, So what does
that self care look like for you? For those artists
out there or those folks that are into or starting
their journey as an artist, so that they know, like
I might need to check in with myself. Yeah, I
mean it's a it's a hard question, right, Like since
college I've dealt with a major like kind of I
always get a deep depression after I have finished a
(19:24):
big project. So back then, I would like turn in
my portfolio at the end of the year and put
all this like work into it and blood, sweat and
tears and sleepless nights and coffee and like staying up forever,
like and then you turn it in and I'll get real,
like like mad existential about it, Like why do I
just do all that? You know, like what does it
actually matter? Like we're all gonna die anyway. It's kind
(19:45):
of a thing. And I still feel traces of that
every time I like do a big project where I
like put so much in my heart into it, because
as an artist, you're always going to struggle with this
doubt about what where you where you fit in it?
What's your place in the world is, you know, like
does anyone does your voice matter? All these kind of things,
(20:06):
you know, And I would just say that first of all,
you gotta have a good support system around you, you
know what, kind of like who's on your team? I
want to talk to make it a game that like
who's on the bench, who's who's starting five with you?
You know, it's like you gotta that's really important, you know,
to have people who support you, who encourage you, who
inspire you, who also call you out about stuff. You know,
(20:27):
like to have that that kind of like love um
is really important. So I'm lucky, you know, to have
that first and foremost um. But also you know, I
think listen, I'm an advocate for therapy for everybody. You know,
it's a privilege if you can't afford it. There's other
there's cheaper ways, you know, rather than like in there
in person therapy. There's online therapy. There's text therapy now,
(20:50):
which is much cheaper and much more cost effective. Communities,
there's like community therapists at like different like kind of
health centers now. Like I think have in uh, like
an unconscious bias of someone that doesn't know anybody in
your life that you can talk to about what's going
on is so important. Your friends aren't your therapist, Your
partner is not your therapist, you know, like people try
(21:13):
to do that, but it's not that's not what they're for,
you know. So therapy um, and then it's really just
about I don't know, you know, I think it's a
it's a trial error for me still figuring out like Okay,
what do I need, you know, Like what do I need?
A whole weekend where I just sit in my up,
like I don't leave the apartment because I need to reset.
(21:35):
No emails, no calls, just me watching movies, just chilling
like you know, like sometimes you just need that reset.
So each person had whether that could be just doing
something nice for yourself. It could be a bubble bath,
could be just taking yourself off for stick dinner, you know,
like I don't know, you know, it's just like and
then sometimes it might be the other way. If you
might need to go dance all night. You know, we
need to go party, let loose. You know, you gotta
(21:57):
listen to your body. You know, our bodies having its
collegence that like our minds can't understand, so you gotta
like just believe in that instinct. Sometimes I love that.
So like the self care recap, like you said, a
support system, a support system that tells you that is
honest with you and you're honest with them. And then
again it's like this idea of therapy, like whatever that
(22:17):
can look like for you. It doesn't have to be
mono the where you have to sit down with someone
one on one. It's sex therapy, which I appreciate you
uncovering and providing contextualizing some of that for the listeners.
But then also which I will say, um that you said,
it's like you gotta figure out what works for you.
So today I'm gonna tell you a story. I don't
think I didn't plan to tell this story. So don't
joke me on it, but it's really funny. So I'm
(22:38):
getting ready for a class this morning. I'm teaching. It's
about a class and then this um pop punk class, right,
and I'm like, it's early in the morning, it's like
six thirty, and I'm doing my hair and I finished
my makeup and I'm all dressed, and I look in
the mirror, and for some strange reason this is going
to sound outrageous, maybe too many of you. I just
like looking and and I talked to myself. I do.
I'm like, okay, get that. Do that like I do
(22:59):
talk to myself when I'm by myself. I think it's
very healthy. And so in the mirror, I look at
myself because I'm checking to make sure my makeup looks
to my hair's done. You know this is the right outfit.
I have Peloton like all this stuff, right, You're doing
my little mental check. And I'm like, and I said
something like to the effect of okay, love, Like to myself,
I'm like, okay, look yeah, like as if like I
was thinking to have everything. And I know my last
(23:21):
name is love, but I don't. I don't call myself love.
But I started in that moment, I like smiled. I
kind of got embarrassed in this small, little danity room
by myself because I'm like, did I just call myself love?
And then I said, wait, why am I judging? How
did that feel? And I was like, it felt good.
It didn't feel vain, it didn't feel like, you know,
any of those things. It actually felt good. And that
was a moment where I felt like, to me, it
(23:43):
uncovered a moment where I was like, oh, this is so,
this is me taking care of me, Like sometimes I
might have to say, you know, you're okay, love, you
look good, Love like you know that. And then also
on the other side of things sometimes so much of
this is also just accepting yourself wherever you are, if
you feel like ship, if you're so there's a difference
between sadness and depression. So it's important to uncover that
(24:04):
and unpack that for anybody. But if you're feeling sad,
let yourself feel sad. You don't need to always put
a band aid over this ship, you know, you know,
like let yourself feel however you feel. That's saying like
it's okay not to be okay, you know, like like
live in it. You know, like for me, sometimes that
ship is the most like feeling so raw. It makes
(24:25):
me feel closer to being to the idea of what
it means to be human, you know. And sometimes that's
where my best writing comes from, my best art when
I'm in those kind of those spaces where I'm gloomy
or melancholy or whatever, and I need to play some
sad music or watch that movie that's gonna make me,
you know, just like live in that area. Sometimes you know,
(24:46):
that's okay, and and then you know, so my therapist
us to said, like, all right, allow yourself one night,
do it all, like just lean in, go hard, and
then wake up and then you know, start a new day,
you know. And I think that if you just allow
yourself to space to feel like that instead of just
trying to because so much that everything we do is
(25:07):
just a reaction, you know, it's just and then you know,
like we talked about my journey, right and then so
much of coming to New York and wanted to like
be quote unquote successful and like being an artist that
people would know. It took me like ten years later
while I was here, like realizing being like, oh all
(25:28):
of that was in reaction to like trying to prove
people from my high school like that I could be
someone because I was nothing in high school, you know.
And so you so realizing that I have to come
to facts like do I want to continue my life
to be a reaction to like these people ten years ago? No,
So I gotta do some work. I gotta get proactive
about myself and like what I actually want, you know. So, yeah,
(25:50):
I love this. Let's so we're gonna talk about the
shiny thing. But before we do, let's get into halftime.
Half time. Is it just a short little like this
or that little little rapid fire moment and whatever comes
to your mind comes to your heart? Study a long study, wrong,
is what my mom says, So make it quick. All right,
here we go, So sharpie or paintbrush? Um? I mean honestly,
(26:11):
at this point, I might go with paintbrush. Oh we're
gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about that. Beach
or mountains? Mountains? What was it? Mountains mountains? Okay? Morning
or evening? Oh? Morning? For sure? You're a morning person. Yeah,
I've grown into a morning person. I love like this.
(26:34):
I don't always do it, but if I can wake
up at like six am and like get ready and
like go to the studio like the world's sleeve and
like get catch up. Like I love it. You feel closer.
I feel closer to a truth in the morning, some
sort of truth. I don't know. I gotta think about
that. That That one thought provoking. I'm here for it. I
put a pin in that. Um, okay, TV show or
(26:57):
movie movie. All the sneaker or slides sneaker shorts are
long pants long pants. Home cooking or night out like
dinner out. I mean I eat out way too much
because I'm a New Yorker, so I'm gonna have to
(27:17):
go home cooking. Okay, okay, home cooking. And then my
last question, which I will say, um, many of my
close friends, including my husband, hates this question. But if
you could only eat one thing forever, this is one
thing forever. What would that be? Peanut butter and jelly
crunchy peanut butter. I want that old school that wonder
(27:38):
bread with a glass of milk. I love that for you, though,
Peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and jelly time. Just
taking it back, taking it back. Cleveland, High East, Cleveland
and Ohio all right, let's step into the third quarter.
We're talking about some of the things that many of
the folks that tuned in want to hear about. They've
(28:00):
learned more about you. Right, Sitting courtside doesn't always mean
like it's all shiny and everything's perfect. It's like getting
the backstory and then saying, hey, here's where we are
now and where you are now? Is that one of
the most recent things that I got a privilege of
introducing actually in the arena, Like someone won these sneakers.
It was Kevin Durant fifteen sneakers and it was actually
Timothy Goodman like Nike Kevin Durant sneakers like Katie fifteen. Uh,
(28:21):
how did how do you know Katie? First off, let
me ask that, like, how did you get to know
him or come into contact to be able to have
this type of relationship because you've worked together a couple
of times a court sneaker Now, yeah, yeah, I mean, well,
so just to take it back, you know, because everything
comes from something um In two thousand eighteen, I did
(28:42):
a mural, uh permanent mural installation at the offices of
Bleacher Report in New York City, and basically that mural
that I did, which I pitched to them. I knew
a guy who worked creative there. I wanted to create
this long mural the greatest NBA team teams, Uh, my favorite,
(29:02):
you know, greatest NBA teams. I'm a huge NBA fan,
And so I did this mural got all it got
this mural from left or right which honored these twenty
five teams. And then I would say a year and
a half later, I started talking to Katie's charity foundation. Um,
(29:22):
a great guy there, Jose, and we started They saw
that mural, um, and they told me about the initiative Kevin,
Kevin Durant I've been doing, which was, you know, kind
of refurbishing these basketball courts all around the country, and
they thought, you know, they were going to be doing
one in Brooklyn. Um. Uh, you know, they were partnering
(29:44):
with this organization Trust for Public Land, and they thought
I would be a great artist for that. You know,
I'm considering my love of NBA and Kevin and my
love of community and my love of New York and
so you know, that was kind of like the early talks.
And then maybe that was two nineteen and so it
took a while, but then we we ended up they
(30:06):
doing that that basketball court. I created and drew all
over this basketball court. It was during the pandemic, early
pandemic days, like the summer of um I. You know,
I had access to this court. So before that though,
I did workshops with the students. This is like maybe
a month before like the pandemic happened, and I did
workshops with all the students at the school UM when
(30:29):
I did art workshops with them, which is one of
my favorite things to do. And basically I kind of
asked them what they wanted me to draw on their
basketball court, and so they kind of they drew all
the things that they wanted me to kind of draw
or be inspired by. And so they were part of
that that story from the beginning. And that's really what
it's about for me, these kind of things, you know,
(30:50):
doing this basketball court, it go. You know, I think
all great arts should be for communities. When once you
leave it, the art is no longer mine. It's the students,
you know, it's the communities. They get to say they
have a sense of ownership over this court. They get
to tell people, I got the dopest basketball court you've
ever seen. Come play you know what I mean. So
(31:11):
there's a pride and an authorship and our ownership over
the art, over the court that is no longer mine,
it's theirs, you know. And so that was beautiful. I
think we we knocked it out of the park with
the whole thing. So that just led to the nights
of the Katie fifteens. So everyone was so happy with
with the court. And the way I know it is
(31:31):
that Kevin told when it came to talking about, you know,
launching the Katie fifteens, they were talking the early talks,
he said, why don't you should get Timothy the guy
did this basketball court. And to Kevin's credit, to Nike's credit.
You know, one of the major problems in my work
in my industry as a commercial artist is that so
(31:52):
many you know, billion dollar corporations and conglomerates are always
like hijacking and um, you know really kind of like
uh taking other people's you know, art that they've created,
you know, and they're they're co opting independent artists work.
They're the visual identities that you know, independent artists such
(32:15):
as myself are creating and putting out in the zeit
geist in the world. Congomerates you know, they're taking this
like the internal teams are just like you know, co
opting and being inspired by that, and we're doing it
internally and that hurts my industry tremendously. And so to
their credit, they actually came to me, the artists, when
they could have just maybe you know, done a bad
version internally and just you know, like, but they said, no,
(32:37):
let's get the artists to do this. And it was incredible,
you know, like, I'm one of the only visual artists
that has independent visual artists has that has ever done
like a basketball who um, you know, for Nike when
I'm not like working internally for the Nike teams. So well,
give us insights of what that like email and or call,
like you getting word that this is an opportunity and
(32:58):
for those of us, especially folks that listen to quick
side conversation like we love basketball and we don't we
love sports, but we love basketball. We love basketball players
and Katie being one of the greatest players to grace
before the fact that you not only get to work
with a brand that's iconic like Nike, but you get
to work with it in in connection to Kevin Durant,
which is his own brand, that will and and a
(33:19):
legacy that will live on. Right, So take us again,
give us like visibility of like was it a call,
was it an email? And how did you feel it
was an email from the Nike team. At first, I
couldn't believe it, I thought, because you know, I get
a lot of like there's a just I always get
a lot of emails and things and a lot of
things fall through whatever. I thought it was fake at first.
(33:39):
My manager was going wild. He was like this is real,
and I was like, all right, we'll see though, you know,
everybody it was a sign. It was pretty much a
go from the beginning. You know, once they got kind
of signed off on the direction and that I would
be doing it, you know, it pretty much was a go.
And there were just a lot of conversations for a
while that was is kind of like about what I
(34:01):
would do, but we couldn't do anything until they got
the die cuts of like what the shoe would be, Um,
what the actual like when you look at it, Yeah,
when you look at like a shoe and how it
like tapers, you know, it goes around like basically you
have it has to be flat as a file because
then they wrap it so I get like basically I
(34:23):
get files that show where the sea mind cuts are
and stuff like that, so I gotta like make the
art fit into that um and so yeah, so I couldn't.
I couldn't do anything until all that stuff was kind
of like signed off and that was that was like
super down to the wire. So then I when I
actually had to make the art, I knew what I
needed to do. I knew what I was gonna draw,
(34:45):
but I had like I did it all in like
a week or something. You know, there's any like sketches
for them to approve it, to like revise everything. It
all happened like within a week after like a year
and a half of talking or something. So it was wild.
How do you decide what tools do use? Because I
(35:07):
know you also do like Sharpie art workshops, Like a
lot of what you do is like like you said,
you have poetry that's written on campus that's in like
painting or painting or Sharpie's like this idea, But how
do you decide which raw material was going to grace
the shoe? Well, for this you know digital thing, it's
a digital thing. Basically, I'll do it on iPad. I'm procreate.
(35:28):
So yeah, yeah, so so much of it, you know,
is done that way and then I kind of I
like rework it in like Adobe illustrator. So yeah, and
then they take that and then they digitally printed. Okay,
and then they take that and then well technically but
yes as it isn't and then they take that and printed.
Now the shoe gets released and you get to see
(35:49):
it in real time and you get to see the
public reaction because yeah, what was that? Like? Well, one
of the things is funny about this whole experience is
that I'm not I don't fancy myself as a sneaker
head at all, you know, which I think also freed
me up in this process because I was able to
come into it not not kind of. I think anytime
you're in any world, you you come with some sort
of quot unquote expertise, right, but that also can like
(36:12):
weigh you down, you know. Like, So the fact that
I was coming into this not even thinking about I
just wanted to. I said to my friend, I was like,
I want to try to make the dopes NBA shoe
I've ever seen, because so much of them these days
are just trash. Most NBA sneakers are ugly. You're like
(36:32):
most of them, come on, you agree, right, I'm not
how they're They're not beautiful for the court, but they
don't translate to real life. I think for me what
they don't have a personality. I think sometimes some of
the sneakers don't have personality. And I think what we're
(36:52):
accustomed to now that sports has we've identified sports as individuals,
that sometimes we lose that individuality in the shoes. You
get to take a little more liberties because think about it,
like steal that from you, you did anything you want.
But four season ago, if you think about it, they
had to wear the same color as their uniforms. So
whatever your team colors are, you had to actually wear
(37:13):
sneakers that matched that. That was a rule in the NBA,
and then you know the association maybe it was four
seasons ago. Don't quote me four or five, because I
feel like once we hit COVID, like time either slowed
down and speed up at the same time, but it
was but it wasn't too far off, and that you
had to wear sneakers that were aligned with the colors.
And then the players associations are like listen, like we
know rules, since to makes sense and now you can
(37:34):
express yourself. So I think again this concept of when
you see a sneaker, you're like, man, this is your
moment to not only needs to be functional, but you
get to show a sense of style since of personality
on the court. And I get what you're saying, like,
where's the you know, where's the personality? A little Yeah,
sometimes you want a little more. Some were just too
so clunky, you know, they're like space boots. It's just
(37:56):
it's a lot, you know, for the court. But I
want people that like that don't play basketball. Criticized we
were clothes. We wear tennis shoes, so we can. Yeah,
I'm with you. I think functionalist and I'll compromise style,
and I think we're at the place where we have
raw materials and artists such as yourself to make sure
that we're capitalizing on it. And so when you see
the KAT fifteen, you're just like, Okay, Timothy Goodman came
(38:17):
through because this is a form of expression and its
personality on the court. So I am totally with you
on that. Yeah, I just wanted to listen. I wanted
to make something that I thought obviously had to fit
you know, had to honor Kevin and his values along
with Brooklyn and what Brooklyn you know, is and about
in the values that Brooklyn and what you know, it's
(38:40):
really a value driven shoe. Man. It's about community, and
it's about dedication, and you know, it's about you know,
really about I don't know, just about the spirit of
in the heart of people of Brooklyn and New York,
you know, so that no matter where you are, you've
got a piece of Brooklyn on your feet. And so
just wanted to, you know, to honor that. And I
(39:01):
wanted to look beautiful on the court, of course, and
for it to stand out and be unique, but I
also wanted to translate to people wearing it with their
favorite fit, you know, like and something that you would
want to wear on the streets and for people to
stop you be like, damn, what's that shoe? Where do
you get that from? You know? And that's what I
was trying to go. So the fact that I wasn't
a sneaker head in any real way, I think freed
(39:22):
me up from thinking about like what expectations I think,
you know, should should be or whatever. So yeah, so
moving away from the sneaker canvas. We talked and you
showed the books, So let's let's talk about that for
a little bit. Comes out at the end of this month.
I always think it's Forever and again it talks about
these concepts that we touched on earlier. Is like this
idea of past trauma but also love and uncovering these things.
(39:43):
You've done something like the Forty Days of Dating, which
kind of ties into like always expressing yourself. That is
option for Netflix. So you've got a little bit of
of things that are in the works. And obviously being
such a creative in the industry, you got the shoe,
the murals. You've worked with brands, you know, whether it's
like Apple, like you've worked with some of the biggest
brands on the planet. But you also have something that
(40:04):
you created as an author, right, Like that is like
to your point, like you're putting things out there in
a big way, But this is your story. Tell me
why this story, of all the stories that you have,
why was this a story to express in this capacity?
I mean this story was born out of a year. Basically,
I had a year in like two thousand and eighteen
where I was so burned out from work and all
(40:26):
the expectations of like thinking of like who I was
and should be, you know, on a work career level.
And I went and I also went through a like
you know, there was just a lot of things happening,
and I went through a lot of depression that year
in two thousand and eighteen, and it was my first
It was the first time I really ever like I
felt like I had to like I came out of
that and be like, I want to do something for
(40:48):
me finally, you know, not for my career, not for
someone else, not for some impossible facade. I want to
do something for me. And what that looked like at
the time is I wanted to go to Paris always.
I never had money in school to go and do
like some sort of like you know, um, you know,
uh study abroad program or something. So I was like, now,
as an adult in my thirties, like what does it
(41:09):
look like to go to Paris to learn French, to
do things for me as an artist and as a human.
And you know, so I kind of kind of planned
over the course of a couple of months and on
how I would do that and go to Paris. Um
and I did it, you know, and it was like
very like, you know, E pray love in this way,
(41:29):
but I really, you know, I wanted to just do
something for myself. Um, And so I went and I
fell in love with this Parisian woman there, and it
tells the story of what it meant to like leave
my life go to Paris and then you know, kind
of find all the wonder of what it means to
be in a foreign country like this and all of
that and learning the language and how difficult that is,
(41:51):
but also falling in love. And that love story is
kind of the catalyst of the whole book over the
course of a year, because it goes I take you
through all the stages of love and then the breakup
and the grieving process that I went through, and like
for someone like me who does have like attachment issues
and abandonment issues, and how I dealt with that and
how I fell into the same trap I felt in
(42:12):
I've fallen in and other breakups, but like this time
I really showed up for myself in a bigger way
and dealt with it in a more healthy, proactive way. UM.
So it really chronicles all of that. But you know,
there's also just so much for everybody, whether it's about
what it means to be single and dating, apps and
(42:32):
love and heartbreak and healing and family trauma and all
these things. You know. It really encapsulates all that. So
it was the perfect It was the only story for
me to tell in a in a way because I
think through the end of that, I really, like I said,
I showed up for myself, and I hope everybody can
kind of come to a place where they can have,
you know, kind of show up and and you know,
(42:54):
be healthy tours themselves and proactive about what they need
to do, uh, to to heal, you know, and to
go for it. You know. It's about it's a case
study about going after love unapologetically and sometimes that ship
doesn't work out and that's okay, you know. It's about
the it's about the risk, you know. Um So yeah,
that's that's one hell of a pitch. I gotta tell you.
(43:16):
I always think it's I think it's forever comes out
the end of January. Where can I get this book?
It will be you can pre order now, uh, but
I don't know if by the time this comes out,
but we got January thirty one should be in any
of your local bookstores. You can get on Amazon, you
can get Barns on Oval or whatever. Um, you can
go to t Goodman dot com slash books. Uh, it's
(43:39):
a pre order or order online. And it's told it's
I want to be clear, though it's a graphic memoir.
It's told through poetry that I write through graphs and
charts and art in a really fun way that I
think is you know, there's something for everybody in it.
So all right, so let's roll into this fourth quarter
and close out the conversation with this today I think
(44:01):
it was today. Yeah, Time magazine. You are you've literally
like designed the cover of Time Magazine. I mean, how
does it feel? And I guess the reason I asked
how does it feel? So I ask the question and
say why why I'm asking how does it feel? How
does it feel to kind of wake up and know
that you're a form of expression, You're a piece of yourself,
and your are even though once you've given it away
(44:22):
to the community, it's there's but a piece of yourself
is now being so is so public to so many people.
And the reason I asked how does that feel? Is
because I would assume that no even you know, out
the course of my life. It's it doesn't get old, right,
And I think the feelings very at what stages you
are in your life. So at this point in your career,
how does it feel to wake up and say I
know that even if you know what's coming out and
(44:42):
you know when it's coming out, like when the show drop,
you said, wow, Like, what does it feel like? How
does that feel? I just feel blessed, you know, Like
I never take any of this ship for granted. Like
we talked about earlier in my life, I used the
hall buckets wallpaper glue upstairs for fifty hours a day,
and I thought that was going to be journey forever
at that time. And so I don't take any of
(45:03):
it for granted, you know, like everything is a blessing.
Everything is beautiful. I'm so privileged and honored, um, and
I just you know, I'm not a person who's like
constantly can't like I really I can appreciate all the moments.
Of course, we always want more no matter where we're at.
We want to keep striving. But it's important to appreciate
wherever we're at, you know, because everything I have now
(45:26):
is everything I always wanted, you know, And why would
I not like honor that? Um and so you know,
I just you gotta honor the younger the For me,
it's the younger boy and me the teenager boy, the
that like whiling out, like I gotta honor him too,
you know, like all the all the versions of ourselves. Um.
So it's just um, it's beautiful, you know, so, and
(45:50):
the good and the bad that comes along with everything.
You gotta just I gotta. I gotta take it like
the weather, you know, Yeah, take it like the weather. Right,
let's get this def quite last thing, last thing, and
we'll leave it here is the folks that are listening,
what are some words could be advice? But what are
some words that you said to yourself to get you
not just through, but to kind of like motivate you
(46:11):
in moments of your life right now? It's a good question.
I don't know, you know, sometimes I don't. It's not
even about my words. It's about trying to find It's
about looking for other people's words that will help. You know.
I've been reading a lot of Tony Morrison lately, and okay,
you know she's she said something like, um, in order
(46:33):
to fly, you gotta like let go of the ship
that weighs you down. And I was just like, you know,
so it's like this transformation about like you know, being
able to look within to you know, self analyzed to
see what is or who is holding you down in
different ways, um and thinking about just so I don't know, so,
(46:54):
I don't know. I love that. I think that that's it.
Like somebody the thing is like, yeah, somebody needs to
of that, like let go of some of the ship
that's weighing you down right like and we want you
to fly. So on that note, Timothy Goodman, thank you
so much for your time. Thank you for grabbing us
with me courtside when the four quarters of this game
called Your Life and giving us an inside look to
what that is. It was. It was informative, it was inspiring,
(47:16):
and I mean it definitely made us laugh this at
one point something g p A. I was like, look,
this is amazing. That is that is a dinner story.
I love that for you. I love that for you.
So thank you once again for sitting courtside with me
and having this conversation. Thank you
Today's podcast is sponsored by Sea Geek. If you didn't know,
see Geek is the official ticketing partner of the Brooklyn
Whether you're trying to go to a Nets game, Liberty Game, concert,
or any other event at Barclay Center, you really only
need Sea Geek. Welcome to Courtside Conversation. I'm your girl,
(00:31):
Ali Love. After years on the hardwood as the in
arena host for the Brooklyn Nets, It's time for me
to take a courtside. We're here with artists, athletes, and
all of our favorite people to break down the game
called life. We're getting real about the grow up and
the glow up. So let's take a seat. What's up everyone,
(00:58):
It's your girl, Ali Love. Welcome to Courtside Conversation. I
have a special guest taking a courtside seed with me,
Timothy Goodman. Timothy is a designer, illustrator, muralists and author
from New York City who recently designed the newest KAT
fifteen sneakers. Now I know Timothy. As we take this
seat courtside, we're going to discuss the four quarters of
your life, and so I want to jump right in.
(01:18):
While you are claiming New York City, you are actually
from Ohio. I am. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, Lebron Country
and uh, but I've lived in New York City for
almost nineteen years at this point. I moved here to
go to art school. But you know, it was one
of those things like I like, I felt like I
always belonged here, way way before I ever even visited,
(01:41):
you know, and I and my instinct was right the
minute I got here, it was like, this is home.
It's gonna be home for the rest of my life.
So I think I share that with you for sure,
Like the rhythm of New York provided with me right away. Miami,
Florida came up here every summer between high school for dance,
and I would come up and do, like, you know,
some programs for dance. And as soon as I came
up with the first time, I was like, this is
(02:02):
where I need to live. I knew at fourteen years old,
this is where I need to live. You and I
fourteen I knew, um, but you are in New York City.
And the reason I say that is because we're going
to get in obviously to the sneaker design with Kevin Durant.
I'm we're going to talk about you know, the basketball courts.
But what I want to take it back to is
like knowing, you know, a little guy in Cleveland, Ohio,
(02:25):
knowing that potentially this could have been an outlet for you.
How did you find art or did art find you? So? Yeah,
I mean you're right, little guy, the kid from Cleveland,
as I would say, a little dust kicker. Um, So
art found me at an early age because my grandmother
(02:46):
as an artist, and so I would see her. She
was you know, she was a painter. She she everything
she did had an artistry to it. She would even
make her own like handmade like jel Lee and jam
and then the labels she would make her The penmanship
was so beautiful, and she there was so great care
(03:06):
in like the storytelling, and she would write these she
would go on travel, she would travel and she would
write these incredible like you know kind of journals with
her beautiful penmanship and drawings and postcards all to tell
the story. So I was always around that, seeing that
with my grandparents. But of course you're not kind of
rebelled against it. I was a horrible high school student,
(03:28):
really bad teenager, drugs, sex, rock and roll, like just
did not barely graduated high school, did not want anything
to do with being an artist of any sort. Of
played a lot of basketball, hung out with the wrong crowd,
the whole thing, um and so. But it was always
in the back somewhere, you know. And by the time
I started getting my act together when I was like one,
(03:51):
and I started taking community college classes in Cleveland, shout
out trying see Kyle Hogga community College. Um, okay, okay.
It came back to me as I started losing all
those those bad friends, those friends that were bad for me,
as I was like really starting to question who I
was in this world and what I wanted out of
this life. Uh, it was really I don't know, it
(04:14):
came really definitive to me that I was an expressionist.
I needed to express myself in any way possible. I
always admire I grew up without a father, all my
father figures growing up, where all the people all these
like Gemini, like the Two PACs and the Kanye like,
all these people just shouting about what they what mattered
to them, you know, Bob Dylan, Like they were all geminizes,
(04:35):
wild and constantly kind of recreating themselves as artists. And
so I just saw and I that I just realized
that that's what I wanted. So I started taking all
these art classes at community college, and one thing led
to another. I was like, I'm not gonna if I'm
gonna do this in New York is where I gotta
do it. If I'm gonna fail, I'll fail in New York.
If I'm gonna succeed, I gotta succeed in New York.
(04:57):
Whatever it is, it's wild, how right like you just
it just you some for some people in New York
just really goes with it unlocked some things. It unlocked
some things. Well in this first quarter. Take me back
to what you mentioned. You said there was a turning point, right.
We all have those formative days we're in school, whether
you were trying to be a perfectionist because like your
(05:18):
parents said, you need to get all a's and this
is the only way to be successful, or again you
had that rebellious phase where you're just like, now I'm good,
I'm figuring out who I am. You mentioned the turning
point post high school into community college. What was the catalyst?
What what did that turning point look like, and how
did it happen and who was around you? M M.
I mean, honestly, the turning point was a lot of
(05:39):
a lot of frustration with my life at that point,
a lot of tears, a lot of looking in the mirror,
and sometimes you know, especially for men in this country,
straight sis, men who you know kind of where I
grew up, you know, we didn't grow up with any money.
We I didn't have a father in the house. I
didn't have you know, like a lot of like like
(06:00):
kind of I was always searching for mentors and I
was always looking the wrong places, and I think at
some point I had to deal with myself, you know,
I had to look in the mirror and be like,
why am I like this? Why am I wasting my
week ads a way that my weeks do hanging with
these people are doing like I was. Honestly, I was
doing a lot of drugs when I was a teenager,
Like I was cutting classes and I was like, you know,
(06:20):
and it was like just hard looking in the mirror
and questioning about what what am I trying to do?
You know, what am I getting out of this life?
And so that was like it wasn't like a definitive
like moment, but it was like a gradual like over there.
So and then I was painting houses. I started when
I graduated high school. All my friends went away to
(06:41):
college and went to like Ohio State or Michigan or
oh you and all these and I stayed because I
had like at one point seven g p A, couldn't
even I didn't even want to get I didn't even
want to go to college. But if I did, I
couldn't have gotten into anything. That's that's a fun fact.
I'm not even mad at that, Like that's a fun fact,
just like it's like, yeah, and but you know, it's funny.
(07:03):
So so when I started, I was painting houses for
this guy who had this really he had a high
end home improvement company. We worked in We worked in
like basketball players, houses like mansions and stuff in Cleveland.
He had an incredible clientele. And I started learning this
trade and these skills hanging wallpaper, painting houses, painting would work,
you know, stripping wallpapers, laying tile. You know. I learned
(07:27):
all these tools. Um, but I really just learned what
it meant to like be passionate about something the field
that kind of have like some sort of meaning about
what you were doing. And he really confronted me a
lot because in the beginning I was not serious about it.
He should have fired me eight hundred times over again,
but he didn't. He saw he saw potential with me.
He kept me around, and eventually something clicked, you know.
(07:51):
And then that's when I started taking community college classes
and I started like gravitating towards the different teachers and
mentors who I felt like, uh, could teach me something
about not just the skill, but but what it meant
to like live like a decent life, you know, and
a life of meaning or something. And so you know,
(08:11):
it was it was a really like profound a couple
of years. As we get into the second quarter of
the fourth quarter of games, Um, what was this guy's name?
A lot of what we talked about two on quart
our conversation is because we see everybody from the outside, right,
we see you in the small aperture called social media,
or your book coming out, or we see your art,
we see the seekers, and it's like, wow, this guy
has it all together. And what we uncover when we
(08:32):
sit courtside is that while we're looking at the spectacle
and the game that we love, it's it's actually like
there's a lot behind it. There's a story from the beginning,
there's some turning points, there's some adversity, and there's some assists.
And so what you just called out was homeboy on
the painting company. What was his name, because that was
a major life what's the name, Dave Suster. So we're
in the courtside conversation shoutout to Dave says, which is important, right,
(08:55):
like having that assist. So in the second quarter, that's
what we talked about, is this adversity in and and
those assists. And I think something you mentioned earlier and
I want to kind of unlock as well. Obviously you're
now in community college, along in this story, along in
this game, and this is where you're learning to express yourself. Right.
These are moments of of nonverbal communication, which is always
(09:16):
a really important part of communication because we always think
communication is tell me how you feel. And sometimes I
can tell you. As an individual as much as I talk,
I can articulate all the time how I feel. And
for me, dance was that I can move how I feel.
For you were like I can give you an expression
of how I feel, you know, a tangible expression of
how I feel. Um, But in this moment, you talked
about toxic masculinity, and you've been really outspoken about that.
(09:40):
Like when did you kind of uncover that and did
it come through this the community college where you're learning
about art and this self expression? It really did, because
I was always gravitating towards writing poetry, like when I
was a teenager, but something always kind of like I
would do it, but then I would stop, or I
would like, you know, when people would like make fun
(10:01):
of like men who expressed themselves with words, right, And
that's a major problem in our communities, you know, the
way we like think, the way we kind of box
men in to think like, well, you can't be masculine
and also fill in the blank right poetry, go to therapy,
cry whatever you can. But we it's not binary. We
(10:21):
can accode, we can exist and always you can be
the most masculine person and also care about things deeply
and cry and show emotion and talk about how you feel.
This ship is not binary. So it was when I
started going to community Causes that I really kind of
I leaned in. You know, I was like I saw
I was I was always looking at like the people,
(10:42):
you know, I mentioned Tupac or something like that like
he obviously like insane amount of toxic masculine and ego
happening at all times. But the way like at that time,
the way I saw like, oh, any but he could
write a song about his mom, or he can write
a song about black women in general, how he feels
about them or whatever, you know, and like of the Road, Yeah,
the road all his post you're when he was a
(11:04):
teenager as wild, So it's like but he I also
saw how he tried that. He started asking that when
as he got more famous too, so that was interesting.
But you see that a lot. That story is told
a lot of times, and any true artist is gonna
you gotta confront yourself, you know, because for me, I
always felt a responsibility as an artist to talk about
(11:25):
what's happened in the world, to talk about my own privileges,
to talk about the you know, injustices of the world.
That's part of the game for me as an artist,
to reflect that back out and make people think differently
about things. It's not just making some pretty pictures or whatever,
you know what I mean. It's about to talk. It's
about talking about the hardship, whether that is politics, whether
it is masculine and whether as love, heartbreak, all of it,
(11:47):
you know, Um, communities giving back. Um that that is
like one and one with me, you know, Like so
I don't know, I just kind of started making more
sense at that moment, you know, so I I just
kept leaning in. You have people of craftsmanships when you're
you highlight like artists of color, right, which is incredible.
We talked about and touched on the toxic masculinity. You
have the newest book I always think, it's Forever, which
(12:10):
is about falling in love in Paris and tackling that trauma.
There we go, let them know, let them know what
you're gonna be. We're gonna talk. We're gonna talk about
that a little bit more in depth. Um, but in
this second quarter of adversity before we go into half
time where we have a little fun. Are you ever met?
And I don't want to say have you ever when
you are met? Because I assume, let me be presumptuous,
that you've been met with some resistance of speaking out right,
(12:32):
Every artist has some resistance in either what their art
is about what they are speaking about individually. Um, how
do you handle that? Because again I think a lot
of us identify with the fact that there's so much
inside of us and we just want to be ourselves
all the time. But sometimes we don't have a sense
of belonging. Sometimes we aren't as creative as you and
(12:52):
can and put it on a canvas or put it
in a book. Um. But we what we desire that
ability to belong and to be ourselves and to express ourselves.
But the reason we don't do that is because we
know that adversity comes back in the form of quote
unquote feedback. But really it's judgment. How do you deal
with that quote unquote feedback that can be judgment? It's
(13:13):
a good question. I think there's two different ways to
look at this though. We could talk about what it
means to be an artist and just put yourself out
there with your art, you know, just in a more
general sense. That is always scary. It's never not going
to be scary. You know, there's always butterflies that come
with that, and there's always this doubt about whether or
not people will connect or like it or see it, um.
(13:34):
And so that's always real of course. And also side no,
you can't tell me that why, Like you think about
the most highly creative people in the world, so many
of them struggle with mental health issues in one way
or the other, right, And you can't tell me that
putting yourself out there for five, ten, twenty years plus,
putting yourself and your heart out there, that doesn't have
(13:55):
like you're constantly met with criticism, and that obviously will
play into your site heat and the way you deal
with things in your mental health. And so I just
think I would, you know, I think it's an important
thing to know. But then there's the other side of
this where it's like, okay, being outspoken, like for me, right,
like talking about you know, maybe some things that would
(14:17):
be deemed controversial in the sense of like whether I
am talking about politics and how you know, in progressive
values are talking about you know, those who are um,
you know, who are dealing with injustices in this country,
in this world. You know, I just think that, like,
of course I'm gonna be met with criticism for that,
(14:39):
but it's my job to talk about this stuff. I
am at the high I am a white cis straight man, right, So,
like I was, so, I'm scared of white people coming
at like white conservatives who are pissed at me saying
whatever because I'm talking about Black lives matter, I'm talking
about you know, gay right or whatever, you know what
I mean. So like do I care? And Okay, I'm
(15:01):
gonna lose a brand partnership because I am sticking up
for what I believe is right in the world, you
know what I mean. Like that's just the least of
my concerns, and so I don't I don't care about
that kind of stuff. Now. Of course, there are times
like I've done some some ship that's just kind of
like me whileing out, Like one time I posted a
video of me spray painting a Trump sign in someone's yard,
(15:25):
and you know, people, even like people that I respect,
are like, yo, like that's you know, and I'm kind
of just like it's a five out or yard sign.
You know, there's like black people losing their lives and
at the cost of this, you know, so what's the
Like we're gonna be mad about it. But I also
understand at times, you know, it could be performative. I
gotta check myself, you know. I think that's important thing
(15:48):
to have conversations with people. But that's also just me
at times you're just not thinking he's like I'm just
gonna spray this thing, post it and then you reel
it back in, you know, and that's fine, it's not
I don't know. I don't I don't struggle with it
in any real way. You know. Today's podcast is sponsored
by seat Geek. If you didn't know, seat geek is
(16:09):
the official ticketing partner of the Brooklyn Nets. Unlike any
other apps, seat geek makes buying tickets super simple. Whether
you're trying to go to a Nets game, Liberty game, concert,
or any other event at Barclay Center, you really only
need seat geeks. Seek Geek puts tickets from all over
the web in one place to make buying simple. So
(16:33):
one of the things that you touched on, and I
will say, I wish I could be like you in
the sense of like when I can't use the term
I don't care because I gotta be completely transplated as
someone yeah, as someone who you know, I get. I
teach Peloton. We have seven million members, and I am
all about inclusivity. I sent on those principles of like
everyone can show up to my class, whether it's Sunday's
with Love or the hardest hitting class like to bottle,
(16:55):
like I want you to feel like you have a
sense of belonging and that there's an unlike that occurs
in your live on your terms, right, Like I can't
deem what your terms are, um, and so I just
think everyone should have a seat at the table. It's
not my job to like exclude them. Which is similar
to what you believe. And as much as I want
to say like and I encourage folks for sure in
my rhetoric all the time, like YO, show up and
be yourself, be you, like that's how we love you
(17:15):
and that's why we love you. But it's almost like
it is really challenging, and it can be it can
be taxing, you know, as someone who is encouraging folks
to show up, ast themselves, as someone who's trying to
show best themselves, it can be taxing. And so I
know that while there is a balance, or I would
say harmony, I don't like the word balance, but there's
a harmony and figuring that out in the journey of
where you are in life, how much you can tear
(17:38):
and how much you Also, you're a woman, you gotta
deal with harassment online in different ways than me, you know,
I mean, like this stuff is in that cup. So
it's important for someone like me, I can acknowledge my
proviage that I don't care and know that that's coming
from a very privileged place, right. But it's also I think,
as someone who holds so much privilege, like I should
like I should be as an artist, I want to
(18:00):
talk about these things. We need more people look at
like me to talk about this stuff. We need to
be talking to each other about this stuff. We need
to be calling each other about this stuff. We needed
to call your racist uncle out of Thanksgiving or your
dad or whatever, you know, and have these difficult conversations
you know. Um, yeah, So that leads me to ask
you before we get into like the halftime moment. That
leads me to ask you, how do you again, whether
(18:23):
you're on the spectrum of I care a lot or
I don't care at all, somewhere in between, because there's
no right place to where, there's no right place to
be on that spectrum. It's just as long as you're
aware of where you are and what you need, how
do you protect or um care for yourself? Like, what
does that self care look like in terms of your
mental checks, your physical and your spiritual check, like, what
does that look like on a data basis, Because I
(18:43):
do think as someone who went to New York School
the Arts arts art student, I went for dance. You know,
we have four hundred kids who were all artists in
their own way and in their own right. We never
really talked about at that time what it looked like
to take what self care and mental health looked like,
or mental well being. I will say, look like when
you are an artist, when people are judging your work,
(19:03):
which is a reflection of you. Right, So what does
that self care look like for you? For those artists
out there or those folks that are into or starting
their journey as an artist, so that they know, like
I might need to check in with myself. Yeah, I
mean it's a it's a hard question, right, Like since
college I've dealt with a major like kind of I
always get a deep depression after I have finished a
(19:24):
big project. So back then, I would like turn in
my portfolio at the end of the year and put
all this like work into it and blood, sweat and
tears and sleepless nights and coffee and like staying up forever,
like and then you turn it in and I'll get real,
like like mad existential about it, Like why do I
just do all that? You know, like what does it
actually matter? Like we're all gonna die anyway. It's kind
(19:45):
of a thing. And I still feel traces of that
every time I like do a big project where I
like put so much in my heart into it, because
as an artist, you're always going to struggle with this
doubt about what where you where you fit in it?
What's your place in the world is, you know, like
does anyone does your voice matter? All these kind of things,
(20:06):
you know, And I would just say that first of all,
you gotta have a good support system around you, you
know what, kind of like who's on your team? I
want to talk to make it a game that like
who's on the bench, who's who's starting five with you?
You know, it's like you gotta that's really important, you know,
to have people who support you, who encourage you, who
inspire you, who also call you out about stuff. You know,
(20:27):
like to have that that kind of like love um
is really important. So I'm lucky, you know, to have
that first and foremost um. But also you know, I
think listen, I'm an advocate for therapy for everybody. You know,
it's a privilege if you can't afford it. There's other
there's cheaper ways, you know, rather than like in there
in person therapy. There's online therapy. There's text therapy now,
(20:50):
which is much cheaper and much more cost effective. Communities,
there's like community therapists at like different like kind of
health centers now. Like I think have in uh, like
an unconscious bias of someone that doesn't know anybody in
your life that you can talk to about what's going
on is so important. Your friends aren't your therapist, Your
partner is not your therapist, you know, like people try
(21:13):
to do that, but it's not that's not what they're for,
you know. So therapy um, and then it's really just
about I don't know, you know, I think it's a
it's a trial error for me still figuring out like Okay,
what do I need, you know, Like what do I need?
A whole weekend where I just sit in my up,
like I don't leave the apartment because I need to reset.
(21:35):
No emails, no calls, just me watching movies, just chilling
like you know, like sometimes you just need that reset.
So each person had whether that could be just doing
something nice for yourself. It could be a bubble bath,
could be just taking yourself off for stick dinner, you know,
like I don't know, you know, it's just like and
then sometimes it might be the other way. If you
might need to go dance all night. You know, we
need to go party, let loose. You know, you gotta
(21:57):
listen to your body. You know, our bodies having its
collegence that like our minds can't understand, so you gotta
like just believe in that instinct. Sometimes I love that.
So like the self care recap, like you said, a
support system, a support system that tells you that is
honest with you and you're honest with them. And then
again it's like this idea of therapy, like whatever that
(22:17):
can look like for you. It doesn't have to be
mono the where you have to sit down with someone
one on one. It's sex therapy, which I appreciate you
uncovering and providing contextualizing some of that for the listeners.
But then also which I will say, um that you said,
it's like you gotta figure out what works for you.
So today I'm gonna tell you a story. I don't
think I didn't plan to tell this story. So don't
joke me on it, but it's really funny. So I'm
(22:38):
getting ready for a class this morning. I'm teaching. It's
about a class and then this um pop punk class, right,
and I'm like, it's early in the morning, it's like
six thirty, and I'm doing my hair and I finished
my makeup and I'm all dressed, and I look in
the mirror, and for some strange reason this is going
to sound outrageous, maybe too many of you. I just
like looking and and I talked to myself. I do.
I'm like, okay, get that. Do that like I do
(22:59):
talk to myself when I'm by myself. I think it's
very healthy. And so in the mirror, I look at
myself because I'm checking to make sure my makeup looks
to my hair's done. You know this is the right outfit.
I have Peloton like all this stuff, right, You're doing
my little mental check. And I'm like, and I said
something like to the effect of okay, love, Like to myself,
I'm like, okay, look yeah, like as if like I
was thinking to have everything. And I know my last
(23:21):
name is love, but I don't. I don't call myself love.
But I started in that moment, I like smiled. I
kind of got embarrassed in this small, little danity room
by myself because I'm like, did I just call myself love?
And then I said, wait, why am I judging? How
did that feel? And I was like, it felt good.
It didn't feel vain, it didn't feel like, you know,
any of those things. It actually felt good. And that
was a moment where I felt like, to me, it
(23:43):
uncovered a moment where I was like, oh, this is so,
this is me taking care of me, Like sometimes I
might have to say, you know, you're okay, love, you
look good, Love like you know that. And then also
on the other side of things sometimes so much of
this is also just accepting yourself wherever you are, if
you feel like ship, if you're so there's a difference
between sadness and depression. So it's important to uncover that
(24:04):
and unpack that for anybody. But if you're feeling sad,
let yourself feel sad. You don't need to always put
a band aid over this ship, you know, you know,
like let yourself feel however you feel. That's saying like
it's okay not to be okay, you know, like like
live in it. You know, like for me, sometimes that
ship is the most like feeling so raw. It makes
(24:25):
me feel closer to being to the idea of what
it means to be human, you know. And sometimes that's
where my best writing comes from, my best art when
I'm in those kind of those spaces where I'm gloomy
or melancholy or whatever, and I need to play some
sad music or watch that movie that's gonna make me,
you know, just like live in that area. Sometimes you know,
(24:46):
that's okay, and and then you know, so my therapist
us to said, like, all right, allow yourself one night,
do it all, like just lean in, go hard, and
then wake up and then you know, start a new day,
you know. And I think that if you just allow
yourself to space to feel like that instead of just
trying to because so much that everything we do is
(25:07):
just a reaction, you know, it's just and then you know,
like we talked about my journey, right and then so
much of coming to New York and wanted to like
be quote unquote successful and like being an artist that
people would know. It took me like ten years later
while I was here, like realizing being like, oh all
(25:28):
of that was in reaction to like trying to prove
people from my high school like that I could be
someone because I was nothing in high school, you know.
And so you so realizing that I have to come
to facts like do I want to continue my life
to be a reaction to like these people ten years ago? No,
So I gotta do some work. I gotta get proactive
about myself and like what I actually want, you know. So, yeah,
(25:50):
I love this. Let's so we're gonna talk about the
shiny thing. But before we do, let's get into halftime.
Half time. Is it just a short little like this
or that little little rapid fire moment and whatever comes
to your mind comes to your heart? Study a long study, wrong,
is what my mom says, So make it quick. All right,
here we go, So sharpie or paintbrush? Um? I mean honestly,
(26:11):
at this point, I might go with paintbrush. Oh we're
gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about that. Beach
or mountains? Mountains? What was it? Mountains mountains? Okay? Morning
or evening? Oh? Morning? For sure? You're a morning person. Yeah,
I've grown into a morning person. I love like this.
(26:34):
I don't always do it, but if I can wake
up at like six am and like get ready and
like go to the studio like the world's sleeve and
like get catch up. Like I love it. You feel closer.
I feel closer to a truth in the morning, some
sort of truth. I don't know. I gotta think about
that. That That one thought provoking. I'm here for it. I
put a pin in that. Um, okay, TV show or
(26:57):
movie movie. All the sneaker or slides sneaker shorts are
long pants long pants. Home cooking or night out like
dinner out. I mean I eat out way too much
because I'm a New Yorker, so I'm gonna have to
(27:17):
go home cooking. Okay, okay, home cooking. And then my
last question, which I will say, um, many of my
close friends, including my husband, hates this question. But if
you could only eat one thing forever, this is one
thing forever. What would that be? Peanut butter and jelly
crunchy peanut butter. I want that old school that wonder
(27:38):
bread with a glass of milk. I love that for you, though,
Peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and jelly time. Just
taking it back, taking it back. Cleveland, High East, Cleveland
and Ohio all right, let's step into the third quarter.
We're talking about some of the things that many of
the folks that tuned in want to hear about. They've
(28:00):
learned more about you. Right, Sitting courtside doesn't always mean
like it's all shiny and everything's perfect. It's like getting
the backstory and then saying, hey, here's where we are
now and where you are now? Is that one of
the most recent things that I got a privilege of
introducing actually in the arena, Like someone won these sneakers.
It was Kevin Durant fifteen sneakers and it was actually
Timothy Goodman like Nike Kevin Durant sneakers like Katie fifteen. Uh,
(28:21):
how did how do you know Katie? First off, let
me ask that, like, how did you get to know
him or come into contact to be able to have
this type of relationship because you've worked together a couple
of times a court sneaker Now, yeah, yeah, I mean, well,
so just to take it back, you know, because everything
comes from something um In two thousand eighteen, I did
(28:42):
a mural, uh permanent mural installation at the offices of
Bleacher Report in New York City, and basically that mural
that I did, which I pitched to them. I knew
a guy who worked creative there. I wanted to create
this long mural the greatest NBA team teams, Uh, my favorite,
(29:02):
you know, greatest NBA teams. I'm a huge NBA fan,
And so I did this mural got all it got
this mural from left or right which honored these twenty
five teams. And then I would say a year and
a half later, I started talking to Katie's charity foundation. Um,
(29:22):
a great guy there, Jose, and we started They saw
that mural, um, and they told me about the initiative Kevin,
Kevin Durant I've been doing, which was, you know, kind
of refurbishing these basketball courts all around the country, and
they thought, you know, they were going to be doing
one in Brooklyn. Um. Uh, you know, they were partnering
(29:44):
with this organization Trust for Public Land, and they thought
I would be a great artist for that. You know,
I'm considering my love of NBA and Kevin and my
love of community and my love of New York and
so you know, that was kind of like the early talks.
And then maybe that was two nineteen and so it
took a while, but then we we ended up they
(30:06):
doing that that basketball court. I created and drew all
over this basketball court. It was during the pandemic, early
pandemic days, like the summer of um I. You know,
I had access to this court. So before that though,
I did workshops with the students. This is like maybe
a month before like the pandemic happened, and I did
workshops with all the students at the school UM when
(30:29):
I did art workshops with them, which is one of
my favorite things to do. And basically I kind of
asked them what they wanted me to draw on their
basketball court, and so they kind of they drew all
the things that they wanted me to kind of draw
or be inspired by. And so they were part of
that that story from the beginning. And that's really what
it's about for me, these kind of things, you know,
(30:50):
doing this basketball court, it go. You know, I think
all great arts should be for communities. When once you
leave it, the art is no longer mine. It's the students,
you know, it's the communities. They get to say they
have a sense of ownership over this court. They get
to tell people, I got the dopest basketball court you've
ever seen. Come play you know what I mean. So
(31:11):
there's a pride and an authorship and our ownership over
the art, over the court that is no longer mine,
it's theirs, you know. And so that was beautiful. I
think we we knocked it out of the park with
the whole thing. So that just led to the nights
of the Katie fifteens. So everyone was so happy with
with the court. And the way I know it is
(31:31):
that Kevin told when it came to talking about, you know,
launching the Katie fifteens, they were talking the early talks,
he said, why don't you should get Timothy the guy
did this basketball court. And to Kevin's credit, to Nike's credit.
You know, one of the major problems in my work
in my industry as a commercial artist is that so
(31:52):
many you know, billion dollar corporations and conglomerates are always
like hijacking and um, you know really kind of like
uh taking other people's you know, art that they've created,
you know, and they're they're co opting independent artists work.
They're the visual identities that you know, independent artists such
(32:15):
as myself are creating and putting out in the zeit
geist in the world. Congomerates you know, they're taking this
like the internal teams are just like you know, co
opting and being inspired by that, and we're doing it
internally and that hurts my industry tremendously. And so to
their credit, they actually came to me, the artists, when
they could have just maybe you know, done a bad
version internally and just you know, like, but they said, no,
(32:37):
let's get the artists to do this. And it was incredible,
you know, like, I'm one of the only visual artists
that has independent visual artists has that has ever done
like a basketball who um, you know, for Nike when
I'm not like working internally for the Nike teams. So well,
give us insights of what that like email and or call,
like you getting word that this is an opportunity and
(32:58):
for those of us, especially folks that listen to quick
side conversation like we love basketball and we don't we
love sports, but we love basketball. We love basketball players
and Katie being one of the greatest players to grace
before the fact that you not only get to work
with a brand that's iconic like Nike, but you get
to work with it in in connection to Kevin Durant,
which is his own brand, that will and and a
(33:19):
legacy that will live on. Right, So take us again,
give us like visibility of like was it a call,
was it an email? And how did you feel it
was an email from the Nike team. At first, I
couldn't believe it, I thought, because you know, I get
a lot of like there's a just I always get
a lot of emails and things and a lot of
things fall through whatever. I thought it was fake at first.
(33:39):
My manager was going wild. He was like this is real,
and I was like, all right, we'll see though, you know,
everybody it was a sign. It was pretty much a
go from the beginning. You know, once they got kind
of signed off on the direction and that I would
be doing it, you know, it pretty much was a go.
And there were just a lot of conversations for a
while that was is kind of like about what I
(34:01):
would do, but we couldn't do anything until they got
the die cuts of like what the shoe would be, Um,
what the actual like when you look at it, Yeah,
when you look at like a shoe and how it
like tapers, you know, it goes around like basically you
have it has to be flat as a file because
then they wrap it so I get like basically I
(34:23):
get files that show where the sea mind cuts are
and stuff like that, so I gotta like make the
art fit into that um and so yeah, so I couldn't.
I couldn't do anything until all that stuff was kind
of like signed off and that was that was like
super down to the wire. So then I when I
actually had to make the art, I knew what I
needed to do. I knew what I was gonna draw,
(34:45):
but I had like I did it all in like
a week or something. You know, there's any like sketches
for them to approve it, to like revise everything. It
all happened like within a week after like a year
and a half of talking or something. So it was wild.
How do you decide what tools do use? Because I
(35:07):
know you also do like Sharpie art workshops, Like a
lot of what you do is like like you said,
you have poetry that's written on campus that's in like
painting or painting or Sharpie's like this idea, But how
do you decide which raw material was going to grace
the shoe? Well, for this you know digital thing, it's
a digital thing. Basically, I'll do it on iPad. I'm procreate.
(35:28):
So yeah, yeah, so so much of it, you know,
is done that way and then I kind of I
like rework it in like Adobe illustrator. So yeah, and
then they take that and then they digitally printed. Okay,
and then they take that and then well technically but
yes as it isn't and then they take that and printed.
Now the shoe gets released and you get to see
(35:49):
it in real time and you get to see the
public reaction because yeah, what was that? Like? Well, one
of the things is funny about this whole experience is
that I'm not I don't fancy myself as a sneaker
head at all, you know, which I think also freed
me up in this process because I was able to
come into it not not kind of. I think anytime
you're in any world, you you come with some sort
of quot unquote expertise, right, but that also can like
(36:12):
weigh you down, you know. Like, So the fact that
I was coming into this not even thinking about I
just wanted to. I said to my friend, I was like,
I want to try to make the dopes NBA shoe
I've ever seen, because so much of them these days
are just trash. Most NBA sneakers are ugly. You're like
(36:32):
most of them, come on, you agree, right, I'm not
how they're They're not beautiful for the court, but they
don't translate to real life. I think for me what
they don't have a personality. I think sometimes some of
the sneakers don't have personality. And I think what we're
(36:52):
accustomed to now that sports has we've identified sports as individuals,
that sometimes we lose that individuality in the shoes. You
get to take a little more liberties because think about it,
like steal that from you, you did anything you want.
But four season ago, if you think about it, they
had to wear the same color as their uniforms. So
whatever your team colors are, you had to actually wear
(37:13):
sneakers that matched that. That was a rule in the NBA,
and then you know the association maybe it was four
seasons ago. Don't quote me four or five, because I
feel like once we hit COVID, like time either slowed
down and speed up at the same time, but it
was but it wasn't too far off, and that you
had to wear sneakers that were aligned with the colors.
And then the players associations are like listen, like we
know rules, since to makes sense and now you can
(37:34):
express yourself. So I think again this concept of when
you see a sneaker, you're like, man, this is your
moment to not only needs to be functional, but you
get to show a sense of style since of personality
on the court. And I get what you're saying, like,
where's the you know, where's the personality? A little Yeah,
sometimes you want a little more. Some were just too
so clunky, you know, they're like space boots. It's just
(37:56):
it's a lot, you know, for the court. But I
want people that like that don't play basketball. Criticized we
were clothes. We wear tennis shoes, so we can. Yeah,
I'm with you. I think functionalist and I'll compromise style,
and I think we're at the place where we have
raw materials and artists such as yourself to make sure
that we're capitalizing on it. And so when you see
the KAT fifteen, you're just like, Okay, Timothy Goodman came
(38:17):
through because this is a form of expression and its
personality on the court. So I am totally with you
on that. Yeah, I just wanted to listen. I wanted
to make something that I thought obviously had to fit
you know, had to honor Kevin and his values along
with Brooklyn and what Brooklyn you know, is and about
in the values that Brooklyn and what you know, it's
(38:40):
really a value driven shoe. Man. It's about community, and
it's about dedication, and you know, it's about you know,
really about I don't know, just about the spirit of
in the heart of people of Brooklyn and New York,
you know, so that no matter where you are, you've
got a piece of Brooklyn on your feet. And so
just wanted to, you know, to honor that. And I
(39:01):
wanted to look beautiful on the court, of course, and
for it to stand out and be unique, but I
also wanted to translate to people wearing it with their
favorite fit, you know, like and something that you would
want to wear on the streets and for people to
stop you be like, damn, what's that shoe? Where do
you get that from? You know? And that's what I
was trying to go. So the fact that I wasn't
a sneaker head in any real way, I think freed
(39:22):
me up from thinking about like what expectations I think,
you know, should should be or whatever. So yeah, so
moving away from the sneaker canvas. We talked and you
showed the books, So let's let's talk about that for
a little bit. Comes out at the end of this month.
I always think it's Forever and again it talks about
these concepts that we touched on earlier. Is like this
idea of past trauma but also love and uncovering these things.
(39:43):
You've done something like the Forty Days of Dating, which
kind of ties into like always expressing yourself. That is
option for Netflix. So you've got a little bit of
of things that are in the works. And obviously being
such a creative in the industry, you got the shoe,
the murals. You've worked with brands, you know, whether it's
like Apple, like you've worked with some of the biggest
brands on the planet. But you also have something that
(40:04):
you created as an author, right, Like that is like
to your point, like you're putting things out there in
a big way, But this is your story. Tell me
why this story, of all the stories that you have,
why was this a story to express in this capacity?
I mean this story was born out of a year. Basically,
I had a year in like two thousand and eighteen
where I was so burned out from work and all
(40:26):
the expectations of like thinking of like who I was
and should be, you know, on a work career level.
And I went and I also went through a like
you know, there was just a lot of things happening,
and I went through a lot of depression that year
in two thousand and eighteen, and it was my first
It was the first time I really ever like I
felt like I had to like I came out of
that and be like, I want to do something for
(40:48):
me finally, you know, not for my career, not for
someone else, not for some impossible facade. I want to
do something for me. And what that looked like at
the time is I wanted to go to Paris always.
I never had money in school to go and do
like some sort of like you know, um, you know,
uh study abroad program or something. So I was like, now,
as an adult in my thirties, like what does it
(41:09):
look like to go to Paris to learn French, to
do things for me as an artist and as a human.
And you know, so I kind of kind of planned
over the course of a couple of months and on
how I would do that and go to Paris. Um
and I did it, you know, and it was like
very like, you know, E pray love in this way,
(41:29):
but I really, you know, I wanted to just do
something for myself. Um, And so I went and I
fell in love with this Parisian woman there, and it
tells the story of what it meant to like leave
my life go to Paris and then you know, kind
of find all the wonder of what it means to
be in a foreign country like this and all of
that and learning the language and how difficult that is,
(41:51):
but also falling in love. And that love story is
kind of the catalyst of the whole book over the
course of a year, because it goes I take you
through all the stages of love and then the breakup
and the grieving process that I went through, and like
for someone like me who does have like attachment issues
and abandonment issues, and how I dealt with that and
how I fell into the same trap I felt in
(42:12):
I've fallen in and other breakups, but like this time
I really showed up for myself in a bigger way
and dealt with it in a more healthy, proactive way. UM.
So it really chronicles all of that. But you know,
there's also just so much for everybody, whether it's about
what it means to be single and dating, apps and
(42:32):
love and heartbreak and healing and family trauma and all
these things. You know. It really encapsulates all that. So
it was the perfect It was the only story for
me to tell in a in a way because I
think through the end of that, I really, like I said,
I showed up for myself, and I hope everybody can
kind of come to a place where they can have,
you know, kind of show up and and you know,
(42:54):
be healthy tours themselves and proactive about what they need
to do, uh, to to heal, you know, and to
go for it. You know. It's about it's a case
study about going after love unapologetically and sometimes that ship
doesn't work out and that's okay, you know. It's about
the it's about the risk, you know. Um So yeah,
that's that's one hell of a pitch. I gotta tell you.
(43:16):
I always think it's I think it's forever comes out
the end of January. Where can I get this book?
It will be you can pre order now, uh, but
I don't know if by the time this comes out,
but we got January thirty one should be in any
of your local bookstores. You can get on Amazon, you
can get Barns on Oval or whatever. Um, you can
go to t Goodman dot com slash books. Uh, it's
(43:39):
a pre order or order online. And it's told it's
I want to be clear, though it's a graphic memoir.
It's told through poetry that I write through graphs and
charts and art in a really fun way that I
think is you know, there's something for everybody in it.
So all right, so let's roll into this fourth quarter
and close out the conversation with this today I think
(44:01):
it was today. Yeah, Time magazine. You are you've literally
like designed the cover of Time Magazine. I mean, how
does it feel? And I guess the reason I asked
how does it feel? So I ask the question and
say why why I'm asking how does it feel? How
does it feel to kind of wake up and know
that you're a form of expression, You're a piece of yourself,
and your are even though once you've given it away
(44:22):
to the community, it's there's but a piece of yourself
is now being so is so public to so many people.
And the reason I asked how does that feel? Is
because I would assume that no even you know, out
the course of my life. It's it doesn't get old, right,
And I think the feelings very at what stages you
are in your life. So at this point in your career,
how does it feel to wake up and say I
know that even if you know what's coming out and
(44:42):
you know when it's coming out, like when the show drop,
you said, wow, Like, what does it feel like? How
does that feel? I just feel blessed, you know, Like
I never take any of this ship for granted. Like
we talked about earlier in my life, I used the
hall buckets wallpaper glue upstairs for fifty hours a day,
and I thought that was going to be journey forever
at that time. And so I don't take any of
(45:03):
it for granted, you know, like everything is a blessing.
Everything is beautiful. I'm so privileged and honored, um, and
I just you know, I'm not a person who's like
constantly can't like I really I can appreciate all the moments.
Of course, we always want more no matter where we're at.
We want to keep striving. But it's important to appreciate
wherever we're at, you know, because everything I have now
(45:26):
is everything I always wanted, you know, And why would
I not like honor that? Um and so you know,
I just you gotta honor the younger the For me,
it's the younger boy and me the teenager boy, the
that like whiling out, like I gotta honor him too,
you know, like all the all the versions of ourselves. Um.
So it's just um, it's beautiful, you know, so, and
(45:50):
the good and the bad that comes along with everything.
You gotta just I gotta. I gotta take it like
the weather, you know, Yeah, take it like the weather. Right,
let's get this def quite last thing, last thing, and
we'll leave it here is the folks that are listening,
what are some words could be advice? But what are
some words that you said to yourself to get you
not just through, but to kind of like motivate you
(46:11):
in moments of your life right now? It's a good question.
I don't know, you know, sometimes I don't. It's not
even about my words. It's about trying to find It's
about looking for other people's words that will help. You know.
I've been reading a lot of Tony Morrison lately, and okay,
you know she's she said something like, um, in order
(46:33):
to fly, you gotta like let go of the ship
that weighs you down. And I was just like, you know,
so it's like this transformation about like you know, being
able to look within to you know, self analyzed to
see what is or who is holding you down in
different ways, um and thinking about just so I don't know, so,
(46:54):
I don't know. I love that. I think that that's it.
Like somebody the thing is like, yeah, somebody needs to
of that, like let go of some of the ship
that's weighing you down right like and we want you
to fly. So on that note, Timothy Goodman, thank you
so much for your time. Thank you for grabbing us
with me courtside when the four quarters of this game
called Your Life and giving us an inside look to
what that is. It was. It was informative, it was inspiring,
(47:16):
and I mean it definitely made us laugh this at
one point something g p A. I was like, look,
this is amazing. That is that is a dinner story.
I love that for you. I love that for you.
So thank you once again for sitting courtside with me
and having this conversation. Thank you
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.