December 6, 2024 • 43 mins
Trey and Brian read the signs to learn how big success can grow from the smallest creations with certified Good Human and miniature sign artist Chris Raley.
Chris Raley is a professional artist and miniaturist from Fresno, CA. Since 2018 he has created more than 300 miniature signs ranging from a small diner sign from Waterloo, New York to the iconic neon signs of the Las Vegas strip. His motto is “No Sign is Gone Forever” and his mission is to preserve not only the memories associated with these signs but to honor the artists and businesses that brought them to life in the first place.
Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
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Chris Raley is a professional artist and miniaturist from Fresno, CA. Since 2018 he has created more than 300 miniature signs ranging from a small diner sign from Waterloo, New York to the iconic neon signs of the Las Vegas strip. His motto is “No Sign is Gone Forever” and his mission is to preserve not only the memories associated with these signs but to honor the artists and businesses that brought them to life in the first place.
Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
___________________________________
Make sure to follow us on social media at:
begoodhumanspodcast.com
instagram.com
tiktok.com
threads.net
facebook.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I probably know the answer to this already, but Chris
doesn't look this pixelated in our actual broadcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yes, okay, good.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
I wish I was pixelated.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'd look a lot better. I am kind of slightly pixelated.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
I'm going to San Francisco this weekend, and I plan
on being very pixelated, if you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Yes, good humans, be good humans.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Be good humans, or we will think you sucked good
or we will thank you suck.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Welcome in everybody. We are broadcasting live from the Rumber
Room in Boca Raton, Florida. Nice to have you here.
Thank you so much. Join us. This is That'd Be
Good Humans.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Podcast is indeed. Wow, you're so good with those openings
all just well, I mean I really draw them in,
really do you do?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
You know why?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Know why?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Because you, Brian Phelps, are an artist. An artist.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You are an artist. That's where you put the E
on and you make it fancy wow artists? Yes, what
makes you say that?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Because I want to talk about art?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Oh great, all right, let's talk about art because you
know me personally, I know a lot about art, but
I don't know what I like.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You don't are you an art fan? Are you an
art lover?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I am. I am an art lover. I by no
means no, I go deep into the artist.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You don't catalog. I don't have to be an expert,
but like, you know what you like?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Honestly, yeah I do.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How do you skew? Are you like contemporary? Classic? What
kinds of art do you like?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
The way I enjoy music, I'm pretty eclectic. If it
touches me, if it if it affects me, you know,
then I love it. You've been to my house. I
don't have a great deal of art on the walls,
but I do if I appreciate the things that really
touched me. Like I went to the Loop. I took
my girlfriend to Paris.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's a good place to get moved by art.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And I was.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I was rubber nicking the whole time.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It's like, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Look, yeah, we saw them on Lisa, of course, and
what everybody says when when they see it for the
first time, it's so small, that's it, that's it. I
just loved it. I stood there and just stared at it.
But then we I wanted to go to the sculpture
Wing and that is where I was really just just
(02:26):
just it was almost too much. Yes, So I'm kind
of looking around and I'm backing up slowly and just
kind of looking at different things. I back up and
I bump into somebody. Yeah, And I turn around and
it wasn't to somebody. It was the Venus de Milo.
I'm not kidding you. I bumped in to the v
They should rope that sculpture off. I mean, this is
(02:48):
probably why she lost her arms.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
This is also probably why your photos and why she
lost her arms.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Exactly why she lost her arms and why your photos
on the wall at the Louver Security office.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Right, So that was great.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I have a friend, dear friend, who I'm going to
talk about because she's kind of connected to our upcoming guest. Franny,
my personal assistant. She's been with me for over twenty
five years and I have no idea to a why,
because she's ten times smarter than me.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
But I'm lucky, very.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Lucky that she's in my life. But she turned me
on to a local artist who happens to be one
of the rare artists who was alive. To appreciate still
is to appreciate and to enjoy his success.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh, who are we talking about? Ed Edward? Oh you
know it?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh my god, he's so amazing. Yeah, Like Spago used
to have ed Rusche's all over and I jokingly said
to Wolfgang one time, I said, can I have one
of those? And no print? I get this is ridiculous.
They cost a lot of money. Well, I tried to
buy an ed Rusche print for my for my assistant
(03:56):
Franny for one Christmas eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah for a print. Yeah, even the Prince I mean.
But here's the thing, Like you said, I'm happy that
he's around to enjoy his success. But he is considered
to be one of the most iconic LA artists.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And he's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
He's super cool. He was friends with my late father
in law. I never got a chance to meet him,
but I love his work.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So that's about as far as you go as far
as a fan of certain except for our upcoming guests. Again,
I keep teasing that, okay, but I always like the
Vargas girls in Playboy magazine.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Those are very I bet you're a fan of the
Patrick Nagel too, like that, Yeah, right, Duran, Duran that stuff. Yeah, Yeah,
I like paintings definitely, I'm a big Hopper fan. And no, no, no, no,
I'm I'm I'm a hop I mean some photographs, but
but not not paintings. But I'm a Hopper fan and
(04:46):
a Serrat fan. But like you and and the Venus
de Milo, like sculpture is my jam so like the
first artist I fell in love with as a kid. Actually,
in Oklahoma City there is a giant sculpture that is
iconic that. Yeah, I'm sure everyone here is seen if
they don't know, the name of which is called End
of the Trail by James Earl.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
For sure. Yes, this is the Native.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
American on horseback with his spear tilted down and it's
very somber. It was very moving, even for me as
a ten year old. Yeah, but my favorite sculptor. This
is a crazy story. So this is a guy named
Franzevier Mesher Schmidt.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Okay, and from the airplane Messer Schmidt.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No, no, no, this is a German Austrian sculptor from
the seventeen hundreds. Okay, Oh, show and tell, yes, show
and tell so well, at least for those who are
in the viewing audience. But perhaps you can describe. These
are little miniature bust reproductions of some of his famous busts. Now,
do you notice anything odd about these.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Sculptures that they all three look like three of the
diners are there's putt?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, they're all making very bizarre expressions for classical, classically
sculpted busts. Right, Normally, like a sculpt a sculpted bust
is very you know, very serious. And these are like
a guy yawning or screaming, a guy sticking his lips
out and making an ugly face.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Another guy who looks like he might be sobbing.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
That's my favorite one.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, right, And these are just miniature versions of the
actual life size bust. But this is the thing about
this artist, Franz Abra Messerschmidt. He's a German Austrian sculptor
and he was so good that he was commissioned by
the Empress of Austria to do all of these serious
royal busts like you would imagine would be normally busted,
(06:36):
I mean, sculpted in marble and and the like. And
he was super super talented, but also pretty much like
every other artist ourselves included, if we can refer to
ourselves with that word a little bit nuts, right, and
we can right. And then when Messerschmidt took it a
step further and actually started to hallucinate on a daily basis, which,
(06:58):
by the.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Way, on drug.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
According to the historical record, it was actually due to
some relatively common health issues that today could have been
easily fixed. But back in the seventeen hundreds they didn't
have tumbs for acid indigestion. But he started to hallucinate,
and because of that he got passed over for this
important professorship at this Austrian art academy, right, and that
(07:24):
forced him to start putting all of his bitterness into
sculpting these bizarre bus And he put windows on his
studio facing out to the public, and he would fill
the windows with these creepy, crazy faces to basically tell
the world and specifically the art world, how he felt
about them. And he would look at himself in the
(07:44):
mirror pinch himself so hard that he would elicitate make
a face, and then that would be the face that
he would go and sculpt and stunt. So anyway, I
love that kind of stuff. There's a big collection of
his stuff at the Belvidere in Vienna and also here
at the Getty in La if anybody's local and wants
to check it out out.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Do you remember the first time you saw the David
Oh my.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
God in Florence, Florence.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, isn't it amazing?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's extraordinary, It's breathtaking, And it's one of those things
unlike the Mona Lisa where maybe it's just because you
fight the crowds to see it, Like the David is,
like you are genuinely.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Awestruck, right, I stood there for half an hour. Yeah,
and just you know how old is that? That's going
to be over twenty years old.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
This is where we need an ex right, yeah, this
is where we're ill suited to even be doing this show.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
But things like that, things like I said that that
kind of just moved me.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, And artists, I think I would have no problem
making this argument with you. Are are some of the
most important good humans in our lives because they basically
speak a universal language, right, This is they speak to
all of us in some way, because art usually reflects
all of us in some way. And I think, and
(08:50):
you know me and the quotes. But Edgar Degas once
said that art is not what you see, it's what
you make others see.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And and so I think that's that's a good place
for us to maybe ramp into our guests, because all right.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Well let's do that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Then we.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Are gonna take a little break, and when we come back,
we're going to meet an artist who didn't even know
he was an artist, who was actually an aircraft engineer, okay,
until life took him in a few unexpected directions and
he decided to follow the signs toward a whole new
artistic way of moving people. You know what I just did?
(09:32):
You know what just happened there?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Like a large mouth bass.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
You just hooked me that. But also foreshadowing, follow the signs.
That's foreshadowing. I foreshadowed it. It's foreshadowing.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Please do follow those signs and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Foreshadowing.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Know it, live it, love it.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
Of a bigger Kieri.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
We will take you, suck and welcome back to be
good humans. Joining us today is a guy named Chris Railey.
Let me tell you about Chris Railey. Chris Railey is
a deeply gifted Fresno, California based artist who makes extraordinary
miniature versions of classic Signs and Brian. Since twenty eighteen,
(10:33):
he has created more than three hundred faithful reproductions of
incredible signs really from all over the planet, everything from
roadside diners too iconic Las Vegas casinos. They might be
signs that still exist, they might be signs that have
been gone for years. But Chris has this amazing motto
(10:54):
that no sign is gone forever.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's true. And I've got to say he is highly
sought after, Yes he is. He's turning turning people away.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yes, and that is because because.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Of you and your relationship with Chris. He did a huge,
huge favor for me, And we'll get to that later.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
But Chris, yes, welcome to the show. Show.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Thank you for having me. I'm honored that you would
even consider me for something like this. I was really
excited when the podcast started. I was one of the
first people to hear about it, I'm sure, And just
a couple of weeks later, Trey reached out and asked
about me being on. So yeah, I'm I'm not worthy.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh You're more than worthy.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
But see, here's the thing about Chris and knowing you, Chris,
you you are clearly as humble as you are talented.
So I know that all this talk about you as
a as a high falutant artist, because we've been talking
about art, probably has your head spinning. But before we
talk about your art, let's talk a little bit about
your earlier identity as an Air Force veteran to this
(11:54):
day obviously and a skilled aircraft engineer. So tell us
more about that of yourself. Where were you stationed, what
kinds of things did you used to do?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Well, let's go back a little bit before that, because
there's a reason I went into the military as a
As a small kid, I was really into space. I
wasn't into Star Wars or Star Trek. I was into NASA.
I was in real stuff. This Space Shuttle was. I
was born in seventy one, so when the Shuttle started
(12:24):
flying in the early eighties, I was, you know, fifth grade,
and that was my That was kind of my goal.
I thought, oh, I want to be an astronaut one
of these days. And then I started getting more into
kind of the hardware aspect of it. I loved the
space ship, and I realized that at a young age, socially,
with really bad vision that I had growing up, that
probably would never be an astronaut, but I always loved
(12:47):
the hardware, and so graduated high school, kind of bounced
around for a few years, and in nineteen ninety three,
I decided, well, I'm if I'm going, well, I'm sorry,
I'm back up. Out of high school. I earned my
aircraft mechanic's license. I completely skipped over that. I was
nineteen when I earned it, which is very young, a
certified aircraft mechanic, and couldn't find a job anywhere because
(13:11):
nobody would hire me because I was a nineteen year
old kid with you know, no experience. And so I
went to the military nineteen ninety three and I got
a guaranteed job as an aircraft mechanic to kind of
pad my skills and my experience to go with my license.
I had planned on serving for four years and getting out.
(13:31):
I wound up enjoying it and I did ended up
doing two tours from ninety three to one. But what
I did as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force,
it was called we were called crew chiefs, and we
were responsible for the day to day upkeep of our airplanes.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So wow, it's a big responsibility.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Tire changes, refuels, servicing engine oils all. You know, if
there's a problem in the flight when we land, we
take care of it between flights.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Things like that, making sure if the rubber band is
twisted enough, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
We have these giant we have these giant cheeter bars
that we would use and just guy, we just just
crank and you know, for those trans Pacific flights, and
we'd be winding that thing for like five hours.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I bet I can't imagine.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Right, And you know what was hard is is when
it was a tanker, it was a refeeling plane. So
we had to go out in flight and that plane
would come up behind us to refeel and we'd be
out there on the wink tip winding up the ruands on.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I see, he's gonna run with your Joe. This is good.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
You never do.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
He's a much better partner than I have. Right.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
But here's the thing. You're so, you're an aircraft mechanic.
You are literally tasked with, you know, keeping the brave
men and women who serve alongside you safely in the air.
This is a very important job, a very high responsibility,
but it also feels like it's one hundred and eighty
degrees away from what you do now it is, so
(14:56):
can you try and help us turn a corner and
talk to us about what happened in your life to
make you pivot into a completely new career as an artist.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Okay, well, buckle up. So I got out of the
Air Force with the intention of going to work for
the airlines. So I was stationed up at Yasworo, stationed
a little bit in North Carolina, but the majority of
my time in the Air Force was at Travis Air
Force Base in the Northern Bay Area between San Francisco
and Sacramento up in there. And I got out in
(15:29):
January of o one, and I went straight to work
for American Airlines, which was my ultimate goal was to
get experience and work for the airlines. Well, we all
know what happened in September of two thousand and one,
and especially with American Airlines and United Airlines, and so
shortly after all of that chaos for those not following
(15:51):
nine to eleven of course what I'm talking about, But
I lost my job. I had the job I've been
working for for eight years. I only worked at it
for about nine and a half months, and so I
was previously married at the time wound up moving back
to moving to Fresno, kind of in the area where
I grew up, and then got another job working on
(16:13):
airplanes for Allegiant Air, which if you're familiar with Las Vegas,
you've heard of Allegiant Stadium with rats play. I was part.
I was part of the team that set up Allegiant
Air in Las Vegas. I was their senior mechanic. I
moved with them from Fresno to Las Vegas, and I
was the senior mechanic for Allegian Air in two thousand
and four. And what I didn't know is there was
(16:34):
What I didn't know is there was a divorce coming.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I have no.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Idea, and threw me for a loop, threw my whole
world upside down. It felt like everything was falling apart.
But looking back on it, it wasn't my world falling apart.
It was all the pieces of my life falling into
place where they actually needed to be. Wound up being
the best thing that ever happened to me, because later
(17:01):
on that year, I reconnected with a childhood friend. Her
name was Angelica, a young girl that I had not well.
She was a young girl in someone I'd known since
the third grade. We were friends as kids. We had
a shared love of the Beatles, had we both you know,
I thought I knew more about the Beatles, and I
(17:21):
was kind of arrogant, and she still schools me on
Beatles stuff. But so we reconnected and the rest is
kind of history, not the gloss over the last eighteen
nineteen years. But we got together and we got married
in two thousand and five. And our son, Matthew, who
(17:43):
just started his senior year of high school yesterday. Matthew
was born in two thousand and seven. Okay, so one
of the things that so I in two thousand and four,
I gave up my air of craft career, like the
divorced living will cause all that to end, and I
kind of said that that's it for me. I've moving
back to Forresno. There's not a whole lot of work
(18:05):
to be had in aviation.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So got to find a new path, right.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
I was looking for other things to do. And my
wife is a teacher. She's a career teacher, been teaching
for now, I think twenty nine years, but back then
she had been teaching for ten or twelve. And she
talked me into going back to school and getting my
teaching credentials, so she have we could have summers off
and maybe even work together and together like like some couples. Ye.
(18:30):
And so while all of this is going on, our son,
Matthew was on the way. And Matthew was born in
two thousand and seven, and about a year after he
was born, we started noticing some things about Matthew that
just worn adding people meeting his goals. He was meeting
(18:51):
his milestones, and sure enough we found out by the
time he was about a year and a half old
that he was on the path of being diagnosed with autism.
They wouldn't officially, they wouldn't officially diagnose him until he
was three years old, right, but at a year and
a half we kind of started to know. And so
(19:12):
what I did, instead of going to work as a teacher,
I hold two teaching credentials in the state of California.
I have a special ed credential and a case six
general ed credential. But instead of working as a teacher,
we made the decision that one of us needed to
stay home and take care of our son because he
needs to twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, I mean taking care of the kids with special
needs is obviously a full time job of its own,
so you not only had to be there, but I'm
imagining you also at that point were kind of racking
your brains over how to be there for your family
but also how to help provide for them.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Well, you know the providing part. Thank goodness, my wife
is an amazing woman that she's an amazing spouse, and
she has been teaching for a long time and she
has worked her way over on her you know how
it's like a pay scale, and the more the longer
you're at something, the more you do. So we were
we struggled. We did struggle, but she is the one
(20:08):
who was providing for the family, and I'm you know,
I have absolutely no qualms about being in the supporting.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Role to my life.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
She's incredible at what she does.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So you're staying home taking care of your son, and
you know he travels a lot in your earlier days,
and so you've found a way to kind of travel
sitting on the couch, and that is online trips. And
this is a term I'd never heard before until he
started preparing for his interview. Online vacation online trips where
(20:44):
you're kind of viewing the world on your computer.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
And one of the things that I was starting to
do well being raising Matthew and taking care of him
and being the one who's with him in the middle
of the night so that my wife can rest because
she has to wrestle twenty kindergarteners every day. I would
do a lot of kind of just surfing the web,
some virtual road trips, a lot of Google Maps. Even
to this day, Google Maps, I love it. But I
(21:08):
started I just started kind of just kind of tinkering,
and to be honest, the thing that got me down
this path I me back up a little bit. I
decided I was going to make kind of a man cave.
I don't like this phrase man cave, but I was
gonna make a little room, like with my drum set
and just kind of some artwork and just have a
little nice little spot. And I started looking for some
(21:31):
art that I could create. I had been making Auto
Mornings jewelry for my son and selling it on Etsy.
So I have a laser cutter and a three D printer,
and I know how to do some things.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Obviously some creative impulses there. So it's you know, you've
got you've got the engineering background, but you've got some
creative skills, so you're making some jewelry, but you're also
doing this CouchSurfing the little Google Earth online vacationing.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Right, and I started coming across these, and I so
for decorating the room, I wanted it to be kind
of a little mid century modern, little little room, right,
And it ended up taking a turn. It went from
mid century modern room to kind of mid century NASA breakroom.
It's kind of what it looked like a big tanker desk.
(22:14):
I made a saturn, five pieces of art art. But
I started I started looking at I started looking at online.
I started coming across these amazing Neon signs that were
space themed, and I thought, oh, that would be really
cool to make some waal art to put up on
the wall in my room, just to decorate it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Chris, like back in the sixties, the fifties, sixties when
that was the thing.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, kind of like the moon Motel sign we can
see over his shoulders.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, well well.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That specifically that sign specifically. Let me hold it up here.
This one's rather large. This is the sign. Go ahead,
I'll hold it up so you can see it. This
is the sign that made me want to make signs.
I saw this online and my jaw just dropped, just
fell in lovely.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
If you're listening to us now, this is a clearly
classic nostalgic motel sign for an establishment called the Moon Motel. Uh,
there's a there's you can see the earth. You can
see this beautiful crescent moon. You know it's it's It
could not in a rocket. It could not be any
more inviting to especially a kid in the sixties, in
(23:26):
the middle of the space race. So so you start
seeing those signs and and and it inspires you in
some way.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
It does. I thought, you know what, I want to start?
I wonder I when I first saw it, I thought, oh,
I would love to make something like that. But I
have no idea what I'm doing. I wouldn't even know
where to start. So I started, I'm going to grab
it right now. It's right now on the shelf. I started.
I found another space theme sign from it's in Minnesota,
from a place called Apollo Liquors. And now this was
(23:54):
a liquor store.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Oh look at that.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
There was a Greek immigrant came to the US in
the nineteen sixties and he opened up a little liquor store,
and he wanted to celebrate both his Greek and his
new American heritage. So Apollo obviously, ye God the Apollo
Command service module from the Apollo program that was currently happening, Red,
(24:16):
white and blue. So this sign right here was another
one that caught my eye, and I thought, well, this
one will be a little bit easier to make, and
it's it's very dusty and it's very simple. This took
me about a month to make, but this was the
first I completed sign that I that I made for
my collection. So there between this one and the Moon Moontal,
there's about four years between the two.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
As far as experience, you start making these, you're enjoying
creating these. Basically it was just to you know, put
in your NASA break room, which is awesome. When did
how did it go from that to being one of
the most sought after artists?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Ever, I set up I set up an Instagram. I
had already had a personal Instagram account, but I set
up a new Instagram account and I didn't even know
what it was going to be at the time. I
didn't have a good name for it. It was the
first name I had for it was small You later
instead I Smallulator, which I stole from the show Silicon
(25:18):
Valley a few years ago. But I wound up nine
is my lucky number, and I just I came up
with Route nine signs and I started my Instagram page.
And what's funny is I didn't have any intention to
sell anything, to commission anything. It was just a little thing,
fun thing for me to do. And within about two months,
(25:40):
I had like four orders for signs. And it was
scary because I didn't know what I was doing. I
had no idea how I was going to fill these orders,
but I knew that people wanted them, and that was
it really took off in the beginning of twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty, when everybody was on lockdown and nobody was
going anywhere. That was That was the year that really
it blew up for me because people were I had
(26:01):
a lot of people say, you know what, we can't
We can't go to Disneyland and we can't go to
our favorite place. But can you, you know, can you
instead of us, We have the money to go, but
we're not going to. Can you make us a sign
at very least so we can have a little bit.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Of it, and not just private, not just private parties.
You're you're also doing these for companies, aren't you?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
All kinds of commissions.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, I've done I've done pieces. I've done a
few pieces for companies. But I did a in Las Vegas.
There's a foundation the family that used to own the
Imperial Palace, the Casino in Las Vegas, they now have
a charitable foundation and they commissioned a sign for me.
But most of my pieces are in private collections.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Brian, if you don't mind bringing up that photo, that
first photo, we can share with our viewers and kind
of describe to our listeners a little bit. I mean,
his signs run the gamut. You can see, you know
when you mentioned Disneyland. You know, for example, their original
disney landmark. There's a miniature perfect version of the Disneyland sign,
or the Eldorado Hotel, Musso and Frank and Frank we've
(27:03):
been actually the old Fisherman's Wharf sign in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I mean, he's done so many of these and.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
These are spot on two scale. Yes, Yes, that's his
passion and getting them just right.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
That little one in the upper in corner is is
another version of the moon Motel sign that I actually
sent to Australia last year and it was part of
an exhibit with some of the top miniature artists in
the world. And it's much like being on this podcast.
I have no idea how I wound up in that group,
but they asked me to participate. So that little moon
Motel if that tells you anything I've made, I've made
(27:36):
the moon Motel three or four times.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Now here's the thing signs. Signs have, as evidenced by
these photos and hearing you talk about them, signs have
all kinds of nostalgia attached to them. Often just like
one that sort of brought you first into Chris's orbit.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Well, yeah, I will tell you this, that Instagram account
you started, Chris that brought me to you through Trey
and the story goes, and I talked about Franni earlier
in the show. She comes up from her office one
time and she mentions that she saw a post of
an artist she follows on Instagram, and of course it
(28:15):
was this photo of this built to scale recreation perfection
of the iconic Las Vegas Dudes Hotel Casado Marquis the Dunes,
and she also mentioned she told me this because she
knew you, and she said, Trey follows this artist as well.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Funny.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So then she shares this beautiful story, and I mean
beautiful story of how when she was around six years old,
her dad mom started taking her to Vegas every year
and they would stay at the dunes because Franny's dad,
whose name was Frank, used to take care of the
owner of the dune, Sid Wyman, whenever mister Wyman stayed
(28:54):
at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel here in town, where Frank
was the room service manager. Okay, so they got to
go every year, and she said those trips were some
of her fondest family memories.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
There's a real sentimental history for her.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Something clicks in my head. Yeah, she mentioned that you
follow the guy too. So I get on the phone
with you and tell you that you and Franny are
following the same artists. Well, you kind of got excited
about that, and you tell me that you know him personally,
and you started giving me a bit of his history,
which was absolutely captivating. Yes, so I asked you, I said,
(29:29):
does this guy Because again I have that little thing
in my head because she was so emotional when she
talked about, of course these vacations. I said, does this
guy do private commissions for you know? And and at
that point you said, he's pretty busy. I don't know,
but I can hook you guys up. So we get
in touch with each other. I think I called him
(29:49):
and we chat on the phone for a bit and
I share Franny's story with him.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
He was touched.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I mean, you could tell the kind.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Of guy he is.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
He was immediately touched, and he agreed to do another
Dune's marquee that I would give Franny as a surprise
for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Okay, Ryan, you got to bring up our first photo here,
so at least our viewers of a montage check this out.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So if you're listening, Uh, this is an incredible sort
of classic version of the Dunes casino sign.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Uh. It's with real cars driving underneath, by the way,
cars underneath. It's little envelope with a little cars.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
It's got a big bass sign that advertises their popular
show Casino de Paris or Pari.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Uh. And uh is it Viva Last Girls?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's just.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Like the real acts that were there, yeah, back in
the sixties. So he agreed to let me commission to
do this. And I want to say this about the
man we're talking to today. He was wonderful to work with.
You can tell by listening to him. He's just down
to earth and it's really sweet. He would call or
text me without dates and send me photos every few days.
(31:02):
And it was during one of these conversations, and this
is what moved me, This is what touched me. During
one of these conversations, I asked him if kind of
kind of through the side door, Hey, do you ever
get requests to customize a project? Now, this is an
incredibly successful artist.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, that could have gone either way, that could have
gone ray.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
That holds true to every detail see in these pictures.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
You don't want to get in the way of an
artist process.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
But he didn't seem to mind me going there, and
he just simply said, rarely do I get that request.
But then he said the magic words, what did you
have in mind? Kind of just like that, So he
told him what I was thinking about, and he very
kindly agreed. So, Ryan, if you could punch up the
next picture, this is a zoom in of the one
(31:52):
we were showing. Now, if you could look down at
the bottom of the Marquee.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yes, it says top of the strip, Russ Morgan and
his orchestra, and then it says Frank and Franny nightly
at the Sultan's table.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Oh, oh man, I mean that that's the kind of
guy he is. That's the kind of just giving, giving guy.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
So so this is the kind of thing where we're
talking about. You know, this is not just miniature sign reproductions.
This is tapping directly. This is how art moves people, right,
and in this case it's using nostalgia, but it obviously
flooded Franny with all kinds of positive memories about her father.
Can you tell us, Chris, about a sign or signs
that move you in some particular way?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
And and and why I'm.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Glad you brought that up, Brian, because I had to
be honest, I had forgotten that little detail. I was thinking,
where's he going with it? And then oh, that that's right.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
But in my work, you know, it's it's not something
that I'm going to keep. It's something that that somebody
wants and if they want to, if they want to
make it that little extra special, you know, why not.
I'm not you know, you you talk about Oh, he's busy,
and he's that. I'm just a dude working at home
in my spare time, taking care of taking care of
(33:04):
dogs and cats and taking care of my son and
not getting any sleep. But you know, it's if I
can do something, if like that and it's meaningful, of
course I'm going to do it. You know what's funny,
And I have a couple of stories. But I've made
the I made the most iconic sign from of Las
Vegas history not too long ago. You have a little
(33:26):
tiny version of it in your photo. I've recreated the
startus sign, right, and I took it back. I took
it back to the original location, to the ground where
it used to stand, and I set it down.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You were actually profiled by the Las Vegas Review Journal
about this particular sign reproduction that you donated to the
Neon Museum in Vegas. So yeah, tell us more about
that experience. Because I love that he keeps getting up
to go grab sign out. I just love that. I mean,
the sign is extraordinary.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
It really is. It really is.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
I mean because in this modern day, being on the
cover of a newspaper, and that's that's newspapers themselves are rare,
but here's here's one of my ten copies of them.
You can see me right there at the location of
the original startup.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
That's so so.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
I had had people who whose families worked there, people
who visit there, much like Franny, people who visited their kids,
reaching out thanking me, you know, asking about having one made.
And so I'm losing your your your question was.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Well and it was literally just are there signs in
particular that have moved you? And maybe the stardust is
one of them.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
There's there are a couple of signs. There was a
sign for a place called Connie's Diner back east. I
couldn't tell you exactly where where it is, but I
have a fellow reach out and ask me, hey, can
you make this sign? And it's just a little small
diner on the side of a road, you know, And
I said, yeah, sure, you know. And he said that
(34:59):
his mother, the man who commissioned it, that was his mother,
had passed away and that was the lot. That was
where they would go and they would meet up kind
of in the middle and eat at Connie's. And that
was the last place that he had seen her. It
was a Connie's giant and so he asked me to
recreate that sign for him in memory of his mom.
(35:20):
And so, you know, I mean, I'm getting half choked
up just thinking that someone would ask me to do that.
Another one not as not as emotional for me, But
there was a sign. And I'm looking to my left
because I have a wall of photos. It's helping me
refresh my memory. But there was so I've made this giant,
(35:42):
massive the startup sign. But there was a launder maat
back east called lovely coin lovely laundry coin on and
that's all it said was lovely laundry coin op is
for a launder maat. And I believe as a hurricane
blew the sign over. And there was there was a
man who loved that sign so much he drove past
it every single day. And then one day he drove
(36:03):
by it and it was and it was destroyed, coupled
over and they tore down, and he asked me if
I could recreate that. So I put as much love
and care into a recreation of a of a laundromat
sign as I do to something like the startist sign,
because it is a there's so much of an emotional
attachment you know the startus signed the Las Vegas there's
(36:28):
a little bit of a connection there that that that
we hadn't talked about. And if you if you saw
that article, you'd see it. But I mentioned earlier that
I had lived in Las Vegas briefly, and so I
saw the startups signed with my own eyes. But I
didn't appreciate it. I did, it didn't mean much to me.
I was busy working. I was busy trying to uh
(36:50):
trying to uh, you know, do my job. And but
I I saw some of these gigantic, these massive signs
back in the day, and I did not appreciate it.
And now they're they're gone. But I had no idea
driving down the Strip in two thousand and two when
I was house hunting and seeing that sign, what a
major part of my life, that particular like that startup
(37:13):
sign was going to be there you go. And so
when I left Las Vegas, I had a little bit
of a it was. It was not the greatest situation,
like I said I was, I was getting getting divorced.
I left Las Vegas feeling kind of defeated, feeling like
I had failed. And so now to be able to
not only make signs from Las Vegas, not not only
(37:36):
take the signs to the original spot, but to to
get something like this twenty years later, to return to
return to the scene of what I considered one of
my one of my kind of darkest moments. And now
it's just it's it's I have an incredible relationship.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Look what happened? Hey, do you guys this might have
been a Midwestern thing, But do you guys remember a
chain called Made Rights Made Rights? No? Okay, they were
loose meat sandwiches. Okay, and my pairing in my aunts,
my uncles loved it. I think it was local. I
think maybe they had five or six stores. But for me,
in my mind, and I don't know why, but that
(38:18):
sign outside, the Maide Rights sign, the color of the red,
the font, the letters, everything was just so amazingly branded
into my head.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Okay, well, I smell another commission coming on, but I better.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Find it as long as I can include the words
loose meat sandwich.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Before.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Look, here's the bottom line. Although you although your artistic
specialty uh is in miniature form, this story feels like
such a full scale demonstration of how art and artists
not only inspire people all over the world, but also
how their work inspires them, and and and so here's
(38:58):
to you and your work as you are most definitely
a very talented and very good human.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
If people listening or or watching would.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Like to see more of your work and and maybe
even try to to take a number and get in
your long line of potential commissions. Where's the best place
for them to do that? Would it be your website?
Speaker 4 (39:17):
I'm going to you know what, I share most of
my stuff. You see that break their Route nine signs
on Instagram?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Yeah, you look me up.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yes, that's that's my main.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Okay, so that's at that's at Root nine signs on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
And then I think and then also say route or Root.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
I say Route.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
I don't know what was happening?
Speaker 4 (39:34):
I say Root.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Okay, so the artist is Rue.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
Okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
From now?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
So Root like Root sixty six right, uh so at
Root nine signs on Instagram. Also Root nine Signs dot
Com is a website and we can drop the link
to that on our Big Good Humans podcast.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
Start saying, okay, fine, my email if you want to
go straight straight to the source. My email is Chris
A Root nine Signs dot Com. And one of the
things I wanted to bring up and I would be
remiss without bringing this up, is that, you know, I
had talked about my son, Matthew. Sure, my my teenage
son has autism and epilepsy. None of this happens without him.
(40:13):
None of this happens without were he typically developing. I
would be I'd probably be a you know, a third
grade teacher, which no shame in that. Teachers are are
some of the most important people in our in our world,
and we need to we need to look out for
our teachers. We need to protect our teachers on Thursday
and I need to take a drink here. We need
(40:33):
to look out for our teachers. So but I would
be I would just be another you know, working, working teacher.
And again there's no shame in that. But life is through,
you know, in the span of a few years, through
me about three or four major curve balls. And the
art that I've created is the result of my son
(40:57):
needing me to be at home and needing me to
be healthy and happy and well and not feel like
it's all doom and gloom all the time. So this
is something that has really helped me lift myself up.
It gives me the strength to carry on with Matthew
and take care of him and so that my wife
(41:19):
can do what she does. But it has also opened
up my world to some of the most amazing people.
And I'm looking at two of them right now on
the screen.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Well I don't know about that, but right right there, Chris,
right there, that's what this show is all about. We
get to meet people. We get to go kind of
deep into these people that discover something in themselves to
make the world a better place for them, and many, many, many.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
No question.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
So here is to you, Chris, Here is to artists
all over the world. Here is to Matthew, your son,
and your amazing wife Angelica.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
We know you've got some traveling coming up, Chris, but
when you get back, maybe we can all go out
and get truly pixelated.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yes, let's do that.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
There we are that will be in your neck of
the woods.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Fairly fantastic, fantastic, my friend. Thank you for making the
time to join us today. Thank you for being such
a good human.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Thanks for having me a biger. We will thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Suck five tigns in for we're signs blocking up the
seat room. Hey hey, welcome back Humans Podcast nice.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
He was so cool, so.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Great, and you felt the heart in the guy so humble.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
No, that is the definitely the heart of an artist.
And like we said, we will will drop a link
to his website on our Begod Humans podcast site. Please
go there. Tell us about the good humans in your lives.
Give us some pointers on how to be a good human.
We're always open to those. Also, thank you for following
us on the socials and Facebook and Instagram and all
of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
I just want to say, this guy's so talented, Chris,
that he has every right to be snooty.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
I really enjoyed that. Well, that's going to do it
for our show. Have you said everything you needed to say?
Speaker 2 (43:11):
That's everything we needed to share.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Friend, We'll see you next time on the Begod Humans podcast.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Hey, be good Humans, Be good humans.
Speaker 5 (43:20):
Be good humans, Be good humans, or we will thank
you suck.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Be Good Humans is executive produced by Brian Phelps, Trey Callaway,
and Grant Anderson, with associate producers Sean Fitzgerald and Clementine Callaway,
and partnership with straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Please like, follow, and subscribe, and remember, Be Good Humans
I probably know the answer to this already, but Chris
doesn't look this pixelated in our actual broadcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yes, okay, good.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
I wish I was pixelated.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'd look a lot better. I am kind of slightly pixelated.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
I'm going to San Francisco this weekend, and I plan
on being very pixelated, if you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Yes, good humans, be good humans.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Be good humans, or we will think you sucked good
or we will thank you suck.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Welcome in everybody. We are broadcasting live from the Rumber
Room in Boca Raton, Florida. Nice to have you here.
Thank you so much. Join us. This is That'd Be
Good Humans.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Podcast is indeed. Wow, you're so good with those openings
all just well, I mean I really draw them in,
really do you do?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
You know why?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Know why?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Because you, Brian Phelps, are an artist. An artist.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You are an artist. That's where you put the E
on and you make it fancy wow artists? Yes, what
makes you say that?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Because I want to talk about art?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Oh great, all right, let's talk about art because you
know me personally, I know a lot about art, but
I don't know what I like.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You don't are you an art fan? Are you an
art lover?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I am. I am an art lover. I by no
means no, I go deep into the artist.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You don't catalog. I don't have to be an expert,
but like, you know what you like?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Honestly, yeah I do.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How do you skew? Are you like contemporary? Classic? What
kinds of art do you like?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
The way I enjoy music, I'm pretty eclectic. If it
touches me, if it if it affects me, you know,
then I love it. You've been to my house. I
don't have a great deal of art on the walls,
but I do if I appreciate the things that really
touched me. Like I went to the Loop. I took
my girlfriend to Paris.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's a good place to get moved by art.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And I was.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I was rubber nicking the whole time.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It's like, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Look, yeah, we saw them on Lisa, of course, and
what everybody says when when they see it for the
first time, it's so small, that's it, that's it. I
just loved it. I stood there and just stared at it.
But then we I wanted to go to the sculpture
Wing and that is where I was really just just
(02:26):
just it was almost too much. Yes, So I'm kind
of looking around and I'm backing up slowly and just
kind of looking at different things. I back up and
I bump into somebody. Yeah, And I turn around and
it wasn't to somebody. It was the Venus de Milo.
I'm not kidding you. I bumped in to the v
They should rope that sculpture off. I mean, this is
(02:48):
probably why she lost her arms.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
This is also probably why your photos and why she
lost her arms.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Exactly why she lost her arms and why your photos
on the wall at the Louver Security office.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Right, So that was great.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I have a friend, dear friend, who I'm going to
talk about because she's kind of connected to our upcoming guest. Franny,
my personal assistant. She's been with me for over twenty
five years and I have no idea to a why,
because she's ten times smarter than me.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
But I'm lucky, very.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Lucky that she's in my life. But she turned me
on to a local artist who happens to be one
of the rare artists who was alive. To appreciate still
is to appreciate and to enjoy his success.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh, who are we talking about? Ed Edward? Oh you
know it?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh my god, he's so amazing. Yeah, Like Spago used
to have ed Rusche's all over and I jokingly said
to Wolfgang one time, I said, can I have one
of those? And no print? I get this is ridiculous.
They cost a lot of money. Well, I tried to
buy an ed Rusche print for my for my assistant
(03:56):
Franny for one Christmas eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah for a print. Yeah, even the Prince I mean.
But here's the thing, Like you said, I'm happy that
he's around to enjoy his success. But he is considered
to be one of the most iconic LA artists.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And he's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
He's super cool. He was friends with my late father
in law. I never got a chance to meet him,
but I love his work.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So that's about as far as you go as far
as a fan of certain except for our upcoming guests. Again,
I keep teasing that, okay, but I always like the
Vargas girls in Playboy magazine.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Those are very I bet you're a fan of the
Patrick Nagel too, like that, Yeah, right, Duran, Duran that stuff. Yeah, Yeah,
I like paintings definitely, I'm a big Hopper fan. And no, no, no, no,
I'm I'm I'm a hop I mean some photographs, but
but not not paintings. But I'm a Hopper fan and
(04:46):
a Serrat fan. But like you and and the Venus
de Milo, like sculpture is my jam so like the
first artist I fell in love with as a kid. Actually,
in Oklahoma City there is a giant sculpture that is
iconic that. Yeah, I'm sure everyone here is seen if
they don't know, the name of which is called End
of the Trail by James Earl.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
For sure. Yes, this is the Native.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
American on horseback with his spear tilted down and it's
very somber. It was very moving, even for me as
a ten year old. Yeah, but my favorite sculptor. This
is a crazy story. So this is a guy named
Franzevier Mesher Schmidt.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Okay, and from the airplane Messer Schmidt.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No, no, no, this is a German Austrian sculptor from
the seventeen hundreds. Okay, Oh, show and tell, yes, show
and tell so well, at least for those who are
in the viewing audience. But perhaps you can describe. These
are little miniature bust reproductions of some of his famous busts. Now,
do you notice anything odd about these.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Sculptures that they all three look like three of the
diners are there's putt?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, they're all making very bizarre expressions for classical, classically
sculpted busts. Right, Normally, like a sculpt a sculpted bust
is very you know, very serious. And these are like
a guy yawning or screaming, a guy sticking his lips
out and making an ugly face.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Another guy who looks like he might be sobbing.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
That's my favorite one.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, right, And these are just miniature versions of the
actual life size bust. But this is the thing about
this artist, Franz Abra Messerschmidt. He's a German Austrian sculptor
and he was so good that he was commissioned by
the Empress of Austria to do all of these serious
royal busts like you would imagine would be normally busted,
(06:36):
I mean, sculpted in marble and and the like. And
he was super super talented, but also pretty much like
every other artist ourselves included, if we can refer to
ourselves with that word a little bit nuts, right, and
we can right. And then when Messerschmidt took it a
step further and actually started to hallucinate on a daily basis, which,
(06:58):
by the.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Way, on drug.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
According to the historical record, it was actually due to
some relatively common health issues that today could have been
easily fixed. But back in the seventeen hundreds they didn't
have tumbs for acid indigestion. But he started to hallucinate,
and because of that he got passed over for this
important professorship at this Austrian art academy, right, and that
(07:24):
forced him to start putting all of his bitterness into
sculpting these bizarre bus And he put windows on his
studio facing out to the public, and he would fill
the windows with these creepy, crazy faces to basically tell
the world and specifically the art world, how he felt
about them. And he would look at himself in the
(07:44):
mirror pinch himself so hard that he would elicitate make
a face, and then that would be the face that
he would go and sculpt and stunt. So anyway, I
love that kind of stuff. There's a big collection of
his stuff at the Belvidere in Vienna and also here
at the Getty in La if anybody's local and wants
to check it out out.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Do you remember the first time you saw the David
Oh my.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
God in Florence, Florence.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, isn't it amazing?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's extraordinary, It's breathtaking, And it's one of those things
unlike the Mona Lisa where maybe it's just because you
fight the crowds to see it, Like the David is,
like you are genuinely.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Awestruck, right, I stood there for half an hour. Yeah,
and just you know how old is that? That's going
to be over twenty years old.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
This is where we need an ex right, yeah, this
is where we're ill suited to even be doing this show.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
But things like that, things like I said that that
kind of just moved me.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, And artists, I think I would have no problem
making this argument with you. Are are some of the
most important good humans in our lives because they basically
speak a universal language, right, This is they speak to
all of us in some way, because art usually reflects
all of us in some way. And I think, and
(08:50):
you know me and the quotes. But Edgar Degas once
said that art is not what you see, it's what
you make others see.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And and so I think that's that's a good place
for us to maybe ramp into our guests, because all right.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Well let's do that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Then we.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Are gonna take a little break, and when we come back,
we're going to meet an artist who didn't even know
he was an artist, who was actually an aircraft engineer, okay,
until life took him in a few unexpected directions and
he decided to follow the signs toward a whole new
artistic way of moving people. You know what I just did?
(09:32):
You know what just happened there?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Like a large mouth bass.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
You just hooked me that. But also foreshadowing, follow the signs.
That's foreshadowing. I foreshadowed it. It's foreshadowing.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Please do follow those signs and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Foreshadowing.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Know it, live it, love it.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
Of a bigger Kieri.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
We will take you, suck and welcome back to be
good humans. Joining us today is a guy named Chris Railey.
Let me tell you about Chris Railey. Chris Railey is
a deeply gifted Fresno, California based artist who makes extraordinary
miniature versions of classic Signs and Brian. Since twenty eighteen,
(10:33):
he has created more than three hundred faithful reproductions of
incredible signs really from all over the planet, everything from
roadside diners too iconic Las Vegas casinos. They might be
signs that still exist, they might be signs that have
been gone for years. But Chris has this amazing motto
(10:54):
that no sign is gone forever.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's true. And I've got to say he is highly
sought after, Yes he is. He's turning turning people away.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yes, and that is because because.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Of you and your relationship with Chris. He did a huge,
huge favor for me, And we'll get to that later.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
But Chris, yes, welcome to the show. Show.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Thank you for having me. I'm honored that you would
even consider me for something like this. I was really
excited when the podcast started. I was one of the
first people to hear about it, I'm sure, And just
a couple of weeks later, Trey reached out and asked
about me being on. So yeah, I'm I'm not worthy.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh You're more than worthy.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
But see, here's the thing about Chris and knowing you, Chris,
you you are clearly as humble as you are talented.
So I know that all this talk about you as
a as a high falutant artist, because we've been talking
about art, probably has your head spinning. But before we
talk about your art, let's talk a little bit about
your earlier identity as an Air Force veteran to this
(11:54):
day obviously and a skilled aircraft engineer. So tell us
more about that of yourself. Where were you stationed, what
kinds of things did you used to do?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Well, let's go back a little bit before that, because
there's a reason I went into the military as a
As a small kid, I was really into space. I
wasn't into Star Wars or Star Trek. I was into NASA.
I was in real stuff. This Space Shuttle was. I
was born in seventy one, so when the Shuttle started
(12:24):
flying in the early eighties, I was, you know, fifth grade,
and that was my That was kind of my goal.
I thought, oh, I want to be an astronaut one
of these days. And then I started getting more into
kind of the hardware aspect of it. I loved the
space ship, and I realized that at a young age, socially,
with really bad vision that I had growing up, that
probably would never be an astronaut, but I always loved
(12:47):
the hardware, and so graduated high school, kind of bounced
around for a few years, and in nineteen ninety three,
I decided, well, I'm if I'm going, well, I'm sorry,
I'm back up. Out of high school. I earned my
aircraft mechanic's license. I completely skipped over that. I was
nineteen when I earned it, which is very young, a
certified aircraft mechanic, and couldn't find a job anywhere because
(13:11):
nobody would hire me because I was a nineteen year
old kid with you know, no experience. And so I
went to the military nineteen ninety three and I got
a guaranteed job as an aircraft mechanic to kind of
pad my skills and my experience to go with my license.
I had planned on serving for four years and getting out.
(13:31):
I wound up enjoying it and I did ended up
doing two tours from ninety three to one. But what
I did as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force,
it was called we were called crew chiefs, and we
were responsible for the day to day upkeep of our airplanes.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So wow, it's a big responsibility.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Tire changes, refuels, servicing engine oils all. You know, if
there's a problem in the flight when we land, we
take care of it between flights.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Things like that, making sure if the rubber band is
twisted enough, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
We have these giant we have these giant cheeter bars
that we would use and just guy, we just just
crank and you know, for those trans Pacific flights, and
we'd be winding that thing for like five hours.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I bet I can't imagine.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Right, And you know what was hard is is when
it was a tanker, it was a refeeling plane. So
we had to go out in flight and that plane
would come up behind us to refeel and we'd be
out there on the wink tip winding up the ruands on.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I see, he's gonna run with your Joe. This is good.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
You never do.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
He's a much better partner than I have. Right.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
But here's the thing. You're so, you're an aircraft mechanic.
You are literally tasked with, you know, keeping the brave
men and women who serve alongside you safely in the air.
This is a very important job, a very high responsibility,
but it also feels like it's one hundred and eighty
degrees away from what you do now it is, so
(14:56):
can you try and help us turn a corner and
talk to us about what happened in your life to
make you pivot into a completely new career as an artist.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Okay, well, buckle up. So I got out of the
Air Force with the intention of going to work for
the airlines. So I was stationed up at Yasworo, stationed
a little bit in North Carolina, but the majority of
my time in the Air Force was at Travis Air
Force Base in the Northern Bay Area between San Francisco
and Sacramento up in there. And I got out in
(15:29):
January of o one, and I went straight to work
for American Airlines, which was my ultimate goal was to
get experience and work for the airlines. Well, we all
know what happened in September of two thousand and one,
and especially with American Airlines and United Airlines, and so
shortly after all of that chaos for those not following
(15:51):
nine to eleven of course what I'm talking about, But
I lost my job. I had the job I've been
working for for eight years. I only worked at it
for about nine and a half months, and so I
was previously married at the time wound up moving back
to moving to Fresno, kind of in the area where
I grew up, and then got another job working on
(16:13):
airplanes for Allegiant Air, which if you're familiar with Las Vegas,
you've heard of Allegiant Stadium with rats play. I was part.
I was part of the team that set up Allegiant
Air in Las Vegas. I was their senior mechanic. I
moved with them from Fresno to Las Vegas, and I
was the senior mechanic for Allegian Air in two thousand
and four. And what I didn't know is there was
(16:34):
What I didn't know is there was a divorce coming.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I have no.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Idea, and threw me for a loop, threw my whole
world upside down. It felt like everything was falling apart.
But looking back on it, it wasn't my world falling apart.
It was all the pieces of my life falling into
place where they actually needed to be. Wound up being
the best thing that ever happened to me, because later
(17:01):
on that year, I reconnected with a childhood friend. Her
name was Angelica, a young girl that I had not well.
She was a young girl in someone I'd known since
the third grade. We were friends as kids. We had
a shared love of the Beatles, had we both you know,
I thought I knew more about the Beatles, and I
(17:21):
was kind of arrogant, and she still schools me on
Beatles stuff. But so we reconnected and the rest is
kind of history, not the gloss over the last eighteen
nineteen years. But we got together and we got married
in two thousand and five. And our son, Matthew, who
(17:43):
just started his senior year of high school yesterday. Matthew
was born in two thousand and seven. Okay, so one
of the things that so I in two thousand and four,
I gave up my air of craft career, like the
divorced living will cause all that to end, and I
kind of said that that's it for me. I've moving
back to Forresno. There's not a whole lot of work
(18:05):
to be had in aviation.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So got to find a new path, right.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
I was looking for other things to do. And my
wife is a teacher. She's a career teacher, been teaching
for now, I think twenty nine years, but back then
she had been teaching for ten or twelve. And she
talked me into going back to school and getting my
teaching credentials, so she have we could have summers off
and maybe even work together and together like like some couples. Ye.
(18:30):
And so while all of this is going on, our son,
Matthew was on the way. And Matthew was born in
two thousand and seven, and about a year after he
was born, we started noticing some things about Matthew that
just worn adding people meeting his goals. He was meeting
(18:51):
his milestones, and sure enough we found out by the
time he was about a year and a half old
that he was on the path of being diagnosed with autism.
They wouldn't officially, they wouldn't officially diagnose him until he
was three years old, right, but at a year and
a half we kind of started to know. And so
(19:12):
what I did, instead of going to work as a teacher,
I hold two teaching credentials in the state of California.
I have a special ed credential and a case six
general ed credential. But instead of working as a teacher,
we made the decision that one of us needed to
stay home and take care of our son because he
needs to twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, I mean taking care of the kids with special
needs is obviously a full time job of its own,
so you not only had to be there, but I'm
imagining you also at that point were kind of racking
your brains over how to be there for your family
but also how to help provide for them.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Well, you know the providing part. Thank goodness, my wife
is an amazing woman that she's an amazing spouse, and
she has been teaching for a long time and she
has worked her way over on her you know how
it's like a pay scale, and the more the longer
you're at something, the more you do. So we were
we struggled. We did struggle, but she is the one
(20:08):
who was providing for the family, and I'm you know,
I have absolutely no qualms about being in the supporting.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Role to my life.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
She's incredible at what she does.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So you're staying home taking care of your son, and
you know he travels a lot in your earlier days,
and so you've found a way to kind of travel
sitting on the couch, and that is online trips. And
this is a term I'd never heard before until he
started preparing for his interview. Online vacation online trips where
(20:44):
you're kind of viewing the world on your computer.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
And one of the things that I was starting to
do well being raising Matthew and taking care of him
and being the one who's with him in the middle
of the night so that my wife can rest because
she has to wrestle twenty kindergarteners every day. I would
do a lot of kind of just surfing the web,
some virtual road trips, a lot of Google Maps. Even
to this day, Google Maps, I love it. But I
(21:08):
started I just started kind of just kind of tinkering,
and to be honest, the thing that got me down
this path I me back up a little bit. I
decided I was going to make kind of a man cave.
I don't like this phrase man cave, but I was
gonna make a little room, like with my drum set
and just kind of some artwork and just have a
little nice little spot. And I started looking for some
(21:31):
art that I could create. I had been making Auto
Mornings jewelry for my son and selling it on Etsy.
So I have a laser cutter and a three D printer,
and I know how to do some things.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Obviously some creative impulses there. So it's you know, you've
got you've got the engineering background, but you've got some
creative skills, so you're making some jewelry, but you're also
doing this CouchSurfing the little Google Earth online vacationing.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Right, and I started coming across these, and I so
for decorating the room, I wanted it to be kind
of a little mid century modern, little little room, right,
And it ended up taking a turn. It went from
mid century modern room to kind of mid century NASA breakroom.
It's kind of what it looked like a big tanker desk.
(22:14):
I made a saturn, five pieces of art art. But
I started I started looking at I started looking at online.
I started coming across these amazing Neon signs that were
space themed, and I thought, oh, that would be really
cool to make some waal art to put up on
the wall in my room, just to decorate it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Chris, like back in the sixties, the fifties, sixties when
that was the thing.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, kind of like the moon Motel sign we can
see over his shoulders.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, well well.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That specifically that sign specifically. Let me hold it up here.
This one's rather large. This is the sign. Go ahead,
I'll hold it up so you can see it. This
is the sign that made me want to make signs.
I saw this online and my jaw just dropped, just
fell in lovely.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
If you're listening to us now, this is a clearly
classic nostalgic motel sign for an establishment called the Moon Motel. Uh,
there's a there's you can see the earth. You can
see this beautiful crescent moon. You know it's it's It
could not in a rocket. It could not be any
more inviting to especially a kid in the sixties, in
(23:26):
the middle of the space race. So so you start
seeing those signs and and and it inspires you in
some way.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
It does. I thought, you know what, I want to start?
I wonder I when I first saw it, I thought, oh,
I would love to make something like that. But I
have no idea what I'm doing. I wouldn't even know
where to start. So I started, I'm going to grab
it right now. It's right now on the shelf. I started.
I found another space theme sign from it's in Minnesota,
from a place called Apollo Liquors. And now this was
(23:54):
a liquor store.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Oh look at that.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
There was a Greek immigrant came to the US in
the nineteen sixties and he opened up a little liquor store,
and he wanted to celebrate both his Greek and his
new American heritage. So Apollo obviously, ye God the Apollo
Command service module from the Apollo program that was currently happening, Red,
(24:16):
white and blue. So this sign right here was another
one that caught my eye, and I thought, well, this
one will be a little bit easier to make, and
it's it's very dusty and it's very simple. This took
me about a month to make, but this was the
first I completed sign that I that I made for
my collection. So there between this one and the Moon Moontal,
there's about four years between the two.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
As far as experience, you start making these, you're enjoying
creating these. Basically it was just to you know, put
in your NASA break room, which is awesome. When did
how did it go from that to being one of
the most sought after artists?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Ever, I set up I set up an Instagram. I
had already had a personal Instagram account, but I set
up a new Instagram account and I didn't even know
what it was going to be at the time. I
didn't have a good name for it. It was the
first name I had for it was small You later
instead I Smallulator, which I stole from the show Silicon
(25:18):
Valley a few years ago. But I wound up nine
is my lucky number, and I just I came up
with Route nine signs and I started my Instagram page.
And what's funny is I didn't have any intention to
sell anything, to commission anything. It was just a little thing,
fun thing for me to do. And within about two months,
(25:40):
I had like four orders for signs. And it was
scary because I didn't know what I was doing. I
had no idea how I was going to fill these orders,
but I knew that people wanted them, and that was
it really took off in the beginning of twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty, when everybody was on lockdown and nobody was
going anywhere. That was That was the year that really
it blew up for me because people were I had
(26:01):
a lot of people say, you know what, we can't
We can't go to Disneyland and we can't go to
our favorite place. But can you, you know, can you
instead of us, We have the money to go, but
we're not going to. Can you make us a sign
at very least so we can have a little bit.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Of it, and not just private, not just private parties.
You're you're also doing these for companies, aren't you?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
All kinds of commissions.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, I've done I've done pieces. I've done a
few pieces for companies. But I did a in Las Vegas.
There's a foundation the family that used to own the
Imperial Palace, the Casino in Las Vegas, they now have
a charitable foundation and they commissioned a sign for me.
But most of my pieces are in private collections.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Brian, if you don't mind bringing up that photo, that
first photo, we can share with our viewers and kind
of describe to our listeners a little bit. I mean,
his signs run the gamut. You can see, you know
when you mentioned Disneyland. You know, for example, their original
disney landmark. There's a miniature perfect version of the Disneyland sign,
or the Eldorado Hotel, Musso and Frank and Frank we've
(27:03):
been actually the old Fisherman's Wharf sign in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I mean, he's done so many of these and.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
These are spot on two scale. Yes, Yes, that's his
passion and getting them just right.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
That little one in the upper in corner is is
another version of the moon Motel sign that I actually
sent to Australia last year and it was part of
an exhibit with some of the top miniature artists in
the world. And it's much like being on this podcast.
I have no idea how I wound up in that group,
but they asked me to participate. So that little moon
Motel if that tells you anything I've made, I've made
(27:36):
the moon Motel three or four times.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Now here's the thing signs. Signs have, as evidenced by
these photos and hearing you talk about them, signs have
all kinds of nostalgia attached to them. Often just like
one that sort of brought you first into Chris's orbit.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Well, yeah, I will tell you this, that Instagram account
you started, Chris that brought me to you through Trey
and the story goes, and I talked about Franni earlier
in the show. She comes up from her office one
time and she mentions that she saw a post of
an artist she follows on Instagram, and of course it
(28:15):
was this photo of this built to scale recreation perfection
of the iconic Las Vegas Dudes Hotel Casado Marquis the Dunes,
and she also mentioned she told me this because she
knew you, and she said, Trey follows this artist as well.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Funny.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So then she shares this beautiful story, and I mean
beautiful story of how when she was around six years old,
her dad mom started taking her to Vegas every year
and they would stay at the dunes because Franny's dad,
whose name was Frank, used to take care of the
owner of the dune, Sid Wyman, whenever mister Wyman stayed
(28:54):
at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel here in town, where Frank
was the room service manager. Okay, so they got to
go every year, and she said those trips were some
of her fondest family memories.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
There's a real sentimental history for her.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Something clicks in my head. Yeah, she mentioned that you
follow the guy too. So I get on the phone
with you and tell you that you and Franny are
following the same artists. Well, you kind of got excited
about that, and you tell me that you know him personally,
and you started giving me a bit of his history,
which was absolutely captivating. Yes, so I asked you, I said,
(29:29):
does this guy Because again I have that little thing
in my head because she was so emotional when she
talked about, of course these vacations. I said, does this
guy do private commissions for you know? And and at
that point you said, he's pretty busy. I don't know,
but I can hook you guys up. So we get
in touch with each other. I think I called him
(29:49):
and we chat on the phone for a bit and
I share Franny's story with him.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
He was touched.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I mean, you could tell the kind.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Of guy he is.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
He was immediately touched, and he agreed to do another
Dune's marquee that I would give Franny as a surprise
for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Okay, Ryan, you got to bring up our first photo here,
so at least our viewers of a montage check this out.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So if you're listening, Uh, this is an incredible sort
of classic version of the Dunes casino sign.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Uh. It's with real cars driving underneath, by the way,
cars underneath. It's little envelope with a little cars.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
It's got a big bass sign that advertises their popular
show Casino de Paris or Pari.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Uh. And uh is it Viva Last Girls?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's just.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Like the real acts that were there, yeah, back in
the sixties. So he agreed to let me commission to
do this. And I want to say this about the
man we're talking to today. He was wonderful to work with.
You can tell by listening to him. He's just down
to earth and it's really sweet. He would call or
text me without dates and send me photos every few days.
(31:02):
And it was during one of these conversations, and this
is what moved me, This is what touched me. During
one of these conversations, I asked him if kind of
kind of through the side door, Hey, do you ever
get requests to customize a project? Now, this is an
incredibly successful artist.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, that could have gone either way, that could have
gone ray.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
That holds true to every detail see in these pictures.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
You don't want to get in the way of an
artist process.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
But he didn't seem to mind me going there, and
he just simply said, rarely do I get that request.
But then he said the magic words, what did you
have in mind? Kind of just like that, So he
told him what I was thinking about, and he very
kindly agreed. So, Ryan, if you could punch up the
next picture, this is a zoom in of the one
(31:52):
we were showing. Now, if you could look down at
the bottom of the Marquee.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yes, it says top of the strip, Russ Morgan and
his orchestra, and then it says Frank and Franny nightly
at the Sultan's table.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Oh, oh man, I mean that that's the kind of
guy he is. That's the kind of just giving, giving guy.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
So so this is the kind of thing where we're
talking about. You know, this is not just miniature sign reproductions.
This is tapping directly. This is how art moves people, right,
and in this case it's using nostalgia, but it obviously
flooded Franny with all kinds of positive memories about her father.
Can you tell us, Chris, about a sign or signs
that move you in some particular way?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
And and and why I'm.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Glad you brought that up, Brian, because I had to
be honest, I had forgotten that little detail. I was thinking,
where's he going with it? And then oh, that that's right.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
But in my work, you know, it's it's not something
that I'm going to keep. It's something that that somebody
wants and if they want to, if they want to
make it that little extra special, you know, why not.
I'm not you know, you you talk about Oh, he's busy,
and he's that. I'm just a dude working at home
in my spare time, taking care of taking care of
(33:04):
dogs and cats and taking care of my son and
not getting any sleep. But you know, it's if I
can do something, if like that and it's meaningful, of
course I'm going to do it. You know what's funny,
And I have a couple of stories. But I've made
the I made the most iconic sign from of Las
Vegas history not too long ago. You have a little
(33:26):
tiny version of it in your photo. I've recreated the
startus sign, right, and I took it back. I took
it back to the original location, to the ground where
it used to stand, and I set it down.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You were actually profiled by the Las Vegas Review Journal
about this particular sign reproduction that you donated to the
Neon Museum in Vegas. So yeah, tell us more about
that experience. Because I love that he keeps getting up
to go grab sign out. I just love that. I mean,
the sign is extraordinary.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
It really is. It really is.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
I mean because in this modern day, being on the
cover of a newspaper, and that's that's newspapers themselves are rare,
but here's here's one of my ten copies of them.
You can see me right there at the location of
the original startup.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
That's so so.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
I had had people who whose families worked there, people
who visit there, much like Franny, people who visited their kids,
reaching out thanking me, you know, asking about having one made.
And so I'm losing your your your question was.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Well and it was literally just are there signs in
particular that have moved you? And maybe the stardust is
one of them.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
There's there are a couple of signs. There was a
sign for a place called Connie's Diner back east. I
couldn't tell you exactly where where it is, but I
have a fellow reach out and ask me, hey, can
you make this sign? And it's just a little small
diner on the side of a road, you know, And
I said, yeah, sure, you know. And he said that
(34:59):
his mother, the man who commissioned it, that was his mother,
had passed away and that was the lot. That was
where they would go and they would meet up kind
of in the middle and eat at Connie's. And that
was the last place that he had seen her. It
was a Connie's giant and so he asked me to
recreate that sign for him in memory of his mom.
(35:20):
And so, you know, I mean, I'm getting half choked
up just thinking that someone would ask me to do that.
Another one not as not as emotional for me, But
there was a sign. And I'm looking to my left
because I have a wall of photos. It's helping me
refresh my memory. But there was so I've made this giant,
(35:42):
massive the startup sign. But there was a launder maat
back east called lovely coin lovely laundry coin on and
that's all it said was lovely laundry coin op is
for a launder maat. And I believe as a hurricane
blew the sign over. And there was there was a
man who loved that sign so much he drove past
it every single day. And then one day he drove
(36:03):
by it and it was and it was destroyed, coupled
over and they tore down, and he asked me if
I could recreate that. So I put as much love
and care into a recreation of a of a laundromat
sign as I do to something like the startist sign,
because it is a there's so much of an emotional
attachment you know the startus signed the Las Vegas there's
(36:28):
a little bit of a connection there that that that
we hadn't talked about. And if you if you saw
that article, you'd see it. But I mentioned earlier that
I had lived in Las Vegas briefly, and so I
saw the startups signed with my own eyes. But I
didn't appreciate it. I did, it didn't mean much to me.
I was busy working. I was busy trying to uh
(36:50):
trying to uh, you know, do my job. And but
I I saw some of these gigantic, these massive signs
back in the day, and I did not appreciate it.
And now they're they're gone. But I had no idea
driving down the Strip in two thousand and two when
I was house hunting and seeing that sign, what a
major part of my life, that particular like that startup
(37:13):
sign was going to be there you go. And so
when I left Las Vegas, I had a little bit
of a it was. It was not the greatest situation,
like I said I was, I was getting getting divorced.
I left Las Vegas feeling kind of defeated, feeling like
I had failed. And so now to be able to
not only make signs from Las Vegas, not not only
(37:36):
take the signs to the original spot, but to to
get something like this twenty years later, to return to
return to the scene of what I considered one of
my one of my kind of darkest moments. And now
it's just it's it's I have an incredible relationship.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Look what happened? Hey, do you guys this might have
been a Midwestern thing, But do you guys remember a
chain called Made Rights Made Rights? No? Okay, they were
loose meat sandwiches. Okay, and my pairing in my aunts,
my uncles loved it. I think it was local. I
think maybe they had five or six stores. But for me,
in my mind, and I don't know why, but that
(38:18):
sign outside, the Maide Rights sign, the color of the red,
the font, the letters, everything was just so amazingly branded
into my head.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Okay, well, I smell another commission coming on, but I better.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Find it as long as I can include the words
loose meat sandwich.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Before.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Look, here's the bottom line. Although you although your artistic
specialty uh is in miniature form, this story feels like
such a full scale demonstration of how art and artists
not only inspire people all over the world, but also
how their work inspires them, and and and so here's
(38:58):
to you and your work as you are most definitely
a very talented and very good human.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
If people listening or or watching would.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Like to see more of your work and and maybe
even try to to take a number and get in
your long line of potential commissions. Where's the best place
for them to do that? Would it be your website?
Speaker 4 (39:17):
I'm going to you know what, I share most of
my stuff. You see that break their Route nine signs
on Instagram?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Yeah, you look me up.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yes, that's that's my main.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Okay, so that's at that's at Root nine signs on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
And then I think and then also say route or Root.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
I say Route.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
I don't know what was happening?
Speaker 4 (39:34):
I say Root.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Okay, so the artist is Rue.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
Okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
From now?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
So Root like Root sixty six right, uh so at
Root nine signs on Instagram. Also Root nine Signs dot
Com is a website and we can drop the link
to that on our Big Good Humans podcast.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
Start saying, okay, fine, my email if you want to
go straight straight to the source. My email is Chris
A Root nine Signs dot Com. And one of the
things I wanted to bring up and I would be
remiss without bringing this up, is that, you know, I
had talked about my son, Matthew. Sure, my my teenage
son has autism and epilepsy. None of this happens without him.
(40:13):
None of this happens without were he typically developing. I
would be I'd probably be a you know, a third
grade teacher, which no shame in that. Teachers are are
some of the most important people in our in our world,
and we need to we need to look out for
our teachers. We need to protect our teachers on Thursday
and I need to take a drink here. We need
(40:33):
to look out for our teachers. So but I would
be I would just be another you know, working, working teacher.
And again there's no shame in that. But life is through,
you know, in the span of a few years, through
me about three or four major curve balls. And the
art that I've created is the result of my son
(40:57):
needing me to be at home and needing me to
be healthy and happy and well and not feel like
it's all doom and gloom all the time. So this
is something that has really helped me lift myself up.
It gives me the strength to carry on with Matthew
and take care of him and so that my wife
(41:19):
can do what she does. But it has also opened
up my world to some of the most amazing people.
And I'm looking at two of them right now on
the screen.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Well I don't know about that, but right right there, Chris,
right there, that's what this show is all about. We
get to meet people. We get to go kind of
deep into these people that discover something in themselves to
make the world a better place for them, and many, many, many.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
No question.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
So here is to you, Chris, Here is to artists
all over the world. Here is to Matthew, your son,
and your amazing wife Angelica.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
We know you've got some traveling coming up, Chris, but
when you get back, maybe we can all go out
and get truly pixelated.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yes, let's do that.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
There we are that will be in your neck of
the woods.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Fairly fantastic, fantastic, my friend. Thank you for making the
time to join us today. Thank you for being such
a good human.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Thanks for having me a biger. We will thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Suck five tigns in for we're signs blocking up the
seat room. Hey hey, welcome back Humans Podcast nice.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
He was so cool, so.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Great, and you felt the heart in the guy so humble.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
No, that is the definitely the heart of an artist.
And like we said, we will will drop a link
to his website on our Begod Humans podcast site. Please
go there. Tell us about the good humans in your lives.
Give us some pointers on how to be a good human.
We're always open to those. Also, thank you for following
us on the socials and Facebook and Instagram and all
of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
I just want to say, this guy's so talented, Chris,
that he has every right to be snooty.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
I really enjoyed that. Well, that's going to do it
for our show. Have you said everything you needed to say?
Speaker 2 (43:11):
That's everything we needed to share.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Friend, We'll see you next time on the Begod Humans podcast.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Hey, be good Humans, Be good humans.
Speaker 5 (43:20):
Be good humans, Be good humans, or we will thank
you suck.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Be Good Humans is executive produced by Brian Phelps, Trey Callaway,
and Grant Anderson, with associate producers Sean Fitzgerald and Clementine Callaway,
and partnership with straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Please like, follow, and subscribe, and remember, Be Good Humans
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