EP9.Art and happy meals from the darkside

join the collection obsession podcast as Andy...without Ben talks with Pittsburgh artist and collector Jeff Bertrand and the Ben nap happens. JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS THERE IS A SLIGHT MIX UP AT THE END....SORRRY!. Andy was a bit flustered by Bens napping

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
In the attic, treasures hide every trinket, every guy.
Old clocks ticking Secret's toe chasing stories chasing gold.

(00:27):
Hey, and welcome back to the Collection of Session podcast.
I'm Andy and I'm here with my Cohost, my friend, my amigo, Ben.
Ben, how are you? Not bad buddy.
How you been, man? I I've been all right, you know,
I can't complain, man. We got a really great guest

(00:48):
today. Oh dude, I'm so excited.
Yeah, this is this is a little bit different than we're used
to, but this is going to be fun.It's definitely, yeah,
definitely one I know we've bothbeen looking forward to so.
Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, let's get into it,
huh? Yep.
All right. Hey, hey, Andy.

(01:10):
Yeah. Hey, before we hop off here, I
just wanted to say I'm going to take like a 10 minute nap or
something. I you know.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
You'll be here though, like. Yeah, it's just like. 10
minutes. Oh yeah, my notorious 10 minute
naps. Like, yeah.
I mean, yeah, you say it all thetime, so I just figured out.

(01:30):
Oh, yeah, yeah, no, you don't have to worry about that.
I I do this all the time. I I'm gonna just, but I do.
I just need to take a quick nap.That's how I stay refreshed.
Sorry. Yeah.
I'll, I'll just give you a call.OK, yeah, call me.
Yeah, but I'll hear my phone forsure all.
Right. I'll see you then.
Yep. Hello.

(02:05):
Hey Ben, you ready to record? Hello.
Ha. Ha, just kidding, it's Ben.
I'm not able to answer the phoneright now.
Please leave a message and I'll get back to you are.
You kidding? I'm I'm calling the house phone.

(02:28):
Hey. Ben.
Ben. Haha, just kidding, it's Ben.
I'm not able to answer the phoneright now.
Please leave a message and I'll get back to you.
What the what's going on here? Hey guys, it's Andy here.

(02:50):
First off, I want to know all about this guest, but I don't
want to spoil who this guest is because, you know, we normally
go with guests that are part of the what not app as far as
sellers, buyers, collectors and that notion.
And this is someone that I met in a completely different

(03:10):
manner, Jeff Bertrand. Bertrand, that's correct.
I'm I'm upper Pennsylvania. So that's how Bertrand is what
just came out, you know? Sounds good to me man.
Jeff, how are you today? I'm good.
How are you doing, man? I'm I'm good it's Sunday.
It's we recorded last night as well.

(03:31):
All transparency there because you know, normally we want to do
episodes right in a row, but we're going to be doing this
just to take a week off and kindof be able to edit a little bit
further with this one. But I want to talk to you, man,
about who you are, what you do, what you collect, everything
about it. I, I'm fascinated.

(03:52):
I'm absolutely fascinated by it because this is something that I
never thought of. I said to you just a few minutes
ago, I never thought of this as something someone would collect.
So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself a little bit?
OK my name is Jeff Bertrand, I'moriginally from Nashville, TN.
I'm recently a Pittsburgh, PA transplant and I make spooky pop

(04:14):
art with like a outsider folk art flair and I paint on
everything from like ouija boards to medical bone sauce to
meat cleavers to. You're giving people hauntings,
what with your? Art.
Yeah. I haunt, I, I haunt your house
with my art. Yeah.
And my, my, my work is in the permanent collection of Ripley's

(04:37):
Believe It or Not. Really.
Actually, yeah, yeah. Wow.
They have. They have seven of my pieces in
their collection. Really.
Yeah. What?
What are those like if you don'tmind just explaining basics of
why they would? I paint on like weird objects
like saws and meat cleavers and matchbooks and Ouija boards and

(05:02):
I'll I'll do like a piece that is on an item that you wouldn't
think it would would be supposedto be like belonging to.
Yeah, almost like a street art type of deal.
It's kind of street art, but it's it's like street art meets
folk art. I mean, I I will say your art is
nothing like street art because it's way better than street art.
Normally it is, but. Hey, yeah, I appreciate that.

(05:24):
Yeah, I, I think it's awesome. I'm an artist as well, so yeah,
I can see it, what you put into it and you are dedicated with
it. Thank you.
Thank you. But yeah, like it really, it's
weird how my art, how I kind of got to this point of collecting,
which is what the podcast is about.
I would go to like flea markets and estate sales and thrift

(05:46):
stores and I would find stuff topaint on and that that that kind
of snowballed into like, oh, what can I make into art?
So I would find stuff along the way.
And then I got a lot of attention for doing art on like
weird objects. Like I've I've literally painted
human skulls before. Really, I, I always wanted to
get a human skull. I have, yeah, maybe I shouldn't

(06:08):
say, but I have some things that, you know, but I, I've got
them from science research. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, and things like that.
But that's a weird thing. That's a weird thing to talk
about collecting, because then people look at you like, oh,
should I be talking to you rightnow?
You know, So yeah, I your collection, we might as well

(06:30):
just go ahead and say food characters.
That's just part of my collection.
I collect a lot of like, food icons from like the 50s,
sixties, 70s, eighties, 90s until the 2000s and everything
from like Ronald McDonald to Colonel Sanders to, I mean, even
like Pittsburgh related Heinz ketchup.

(06:52):
Like I have a giant Heinz ketchup bottle.
Yeah, hanging in my, in my house.
I don't know if you can see that.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I always go.
I actually lived down in Pittsburgh for a little while.
I lived. I don't know if you're in the
city or if you're outside or what, but I lived in Springdale
for a little while. OK, Yeah.

(07:14):
And I lived there for a while. My brother lived in Lower
Burrell and New Kent, so I livedboth those places with him for a
while. He actually, he actually had a
tattoo shop down there. That's why I was down there.
Yeah, yeah, I'm super familiar with Springdale and like there's
a, a, a good brewery that I likeleading task and New Kensington

(07:37):
has a preserving underground, the the metal venue.
Yeah. The record shop.
Yeah, I'm super familiar, yeah. Yeah, New Ken is always one of
those ones that like, when you say it, people are kind of like
new. Ken Yeah, but I live in the city
and like, I literally live like 2 minutes from the Steelers
Stadium. Oh, right on, man.
Cool. Yeah, Seems like you have a big

(07:59):
place then for that to have, youknow, this room that you can put
your collection in. Yeah, we, we went from we lived
in Nashville. We had this tiny 800 square foot
house and we didn't really have any room whatsoever.
And during the pandemic, me and my wife were like, you know, we
were getting kind of fed up withNashville.
It's getting so outrageously expensive.
And we we were like, OK, we havea tiny house and we don't really

(08:22):
have room. She works from home.
She doesn't have the office. Like, let's see if we can buy
something bigger. And we basically got priced out,
to be honest with you. We could afford something an
hour, hour and a half outside the city.
And I was like, if I want to leave, if I want to move that
far out of the city, I'm going to see what else is out there.
And Pittsburgh is on our short list of cities that we really

(08:43):
liked. And we were like, let's check it
out, see if we can afford. And we saw how affordable houses
were here. We were like, fuck yeah, dude,
like. This.
Yeah, Yeah. That's awesome.
It's a good time. So we we got.
To I can't help but question whyPittsburgh?
Like, you know, that's just, well, I grew up in Pennsylvania
my whole life, so to me it's like, why Pittsburgh?
But no, no, I also love Pittsburgh.

(09:05):
Yeah, I feel like there's something like raw and edgy
about Pittsburgh. Like it's almost like a post
industrial, kind of like wasteland type city that's kind
of cleaning itself up, you know what I mean?
And I feel like with my artwork like that, it would live in a
city like that. Yeah, that's cool.
That is very centrally located because I do a lot of Expos and

(09:26):
conventions. So I'm on the road a lot the
last day within like 6 or 7 hours of Pittsburgh and I do
shows around the country. Yeah, you, I mean, you could go
pretty much everywhere. Exactly.
There's a lot going on down thatway.
Then, well, that's what we, we started doing the map and I was
like, well, Pittsburgh's very centrally located.
I'm like, I'm like, you know, two or three hours from Buffalo,

(09:46):
two or three hours from Detroit and so on.
Cleveland's two hours away. And I'm like, well, that's that
city starts stacking up with with cities that can showcase
out within, you know, the, the range of of small cities outside
of Pittsburgh, you know. Yeah, I always look for, like,
venues in different places, you know, And that's like, my thing
is like, where can I go see a show, you know?

(10:07):
But I live, I live in a tiny little town, and my town
actually is where oil was first successfully drilled in America.
It's called Titusville. And it's just a little town
that's historical, but no one gives a shit about it, you know?
I thought you were going to say like Oil City or.
Something no, I'm actually like 20 minutes north of Oil City.

(10:28):
Good guess then. Yeah, I mean at like 45 to an
hour South of Erie. OK, so you're close to me then.
Really. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's not
too. Far an hour away.
Yeah, that's cool. Awesome.
It's. It's my hometown.
It's, you know, yeah. It's a town that's, you know,
small and there's not much here,but.

(10:49):
It could be way I travel all over the country.
It could be way worse than here,you know.
Oh yeah, totally. I mean, and that's The thing is
like every time I leave here, I'm like, when I get home, I'm
like, Oh my God, I'm so glad to be home, you know?
Exactly like it. Could be way super here.
Yeah, and it feels good. It's like super nice in the
summertime and you know, it's like super cool and whatnot, so.

(11:11):
Yeah, so have you always done art?
I, I've been painting since I was a little kid.
I think it had a lot to do with my mom as a single parent.
She was just trying to keep me like occupied.
You know, she'd put me in front of the television with crayons
and was like, hey, Jeff, draw. You know, like, pay attention to
the TV, like draw and keep yourself occupied while she did

(11:33):
her thing. And, you know, we're trying to
redraw what I would see on TV and actually got really good at
it. We're either your parents, the
artists. No, well, my father was a little
creative and my mom was also, but I I don't think it really
was deep ingrained into my family, but you know, my parents
were my mom especially was really supportive.

(11:55):
Yeah. Yeah, and I think to me, you
know, it was just like it at first.
It was just something like busy.I could keep myself, you know,
when you grew up, like I grew upreally poor.
I don't know about you. But yeah, I mean, I, I'm still
poor, man. Yeah, well, super poor.
Like my mom was like, oh, you know, here's some crayons, Draw
Something cool. And I really have documentation

(12:17):
of me drawing before I can ever properly write my name.
Really like. I would, yeah, I would write my
my grandmother like Christmas cards and I could draw really
cool pictures. And then, you know, my name is
like all like the FS are backwards or the Rs backwards or
something weird which I really incorporate my signature to this
day. Really.
That's awesome. Yeah, based on that kind of, but

(12:40):
yeah, as a kid, I, I, I started really young and I just kind of
snowballed and I don't feel likeI was really decent until I got
in junior high or high school and I started like getting a
little bit more of attention from like teachers.
And they're like, no, maybe thiskid, maybe this kid has
something, you know? So I kind of, I kind of ran with
it. I always remember doing art, but

(13:01):
like, I never, I guess realized what I was doing until I got
older. I actually tattooed for a while
at my brother's shop and like just, I never thought about it
until I actually was thinking about it.
You know, it was just something I did.
It wasn't like I did this really, you know, And then when
I started like thinking about how I was doing each piece and

(13:22):
working through each piece, I was like, this is actual art,
you know, this is actually doingthis art piece opposed to just
doing it. I don't know if that makes sense
to you, but like in my crazy brain that makes sense you.
Know, I mean, I mean being a tattoo artist is part of my
story too. Yeah.
I well, you know, from from, youknow, junior high school to high

(13:46):
to high school just to kind of speed through the the storyline
is I won some really prestigiousawards in high school.
One was called the American Vision Award, which was also an
award that was presented to AndyWarhol and Sylvia and Sylvia
Platt. Both 1 needs same same award.

(14:08):
I have one. Yeah.
And. I like now I feel in superior
right now. Well, well, I, I went to like
the Kennedy Center and had like a wart ceremony and everything
with that. And my my work is in the
permanent collection of scholastic as well for that.
That's awesome. That's so cool.
So I grew up stupid poor, like we were talking about a while
ago. And like, like I got accepted to

(14:29):
all these really prestigious artinstitutes, but I came from
nothing. So I couldn't afford, I couldn't
afford to go there even with scholarships because, you know,
a lot of these art institutes are, you know, 100 grand and up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and you have to have a
certain grade point average to even be thought to get accepted,
even if you have, you know, something more.

(14:51):
Yeah. Absolutely.
So I, you know, I, I got accepted to some local state
schools and stuff and I got little scholarships like I went
to, I got accepted to like Austin PE with a, a small
scholarship, but I started doingthe math.
I was like, I really, that really isn't enough to go to
this school. And so I started running out of
time. So I ended up at a Community
College, which was fun, but yeah, it's OK.

(15:12):
Ball State Community College is where I went for like a semester
and 1/2 and and I learned a little bit, you know, and I
learned enough to be like, oh, this sucks.
You know, I hate like that. I hate like the whole you have
to we have to like tear you downto build you up situation.
Yeah, that's kind of bullshit inlife in.
General Well, I was doing a lot of graffiti and influenced

(15:35):
artwork and then like, you know,they were like, oh, this show's
getting ready to come up for thecollege, you know, pick up some
pieces that would go to the the show and present them and we'll
pick out what, you know, the pieces that will be accepted or
what not. And I had, I had a couple oil
paintings from like the class, some of my spray paint and
graffiti pieces I was super proud of.

(15:56):
And the oil paintings got accepted and actually won the
award of excellence for the college.
Man, I can't do oil. Yeah, I don't know what it is.
I don't even paint oil to this day and that's what got accepted
over the stuff. I was proud of the front.
Well, to Fast forward from that point forward, like I got
really, you know, burnt out on the whole Community College

(16:17):
situation. I was like, I'm probably going
to transfer to a state school, astate school called MTSU,
Murfreesboro, TN, or State University.
And I went down there and my transfer got fucked up.
And you know, they said they were like, well, you know, I had
all these classes picked out. They were like, well, you know,
your financial aid's not in in time, so we're going to have to

(16:38):
purge your classes. You're going to lose all your
classes. Man, that hurts.
Two weeks later, they were like,oh, we got your financial aid
and here's the classes we can give you.
And it was none of the classes Ineeded for the major.
And I was like, sucks. I was like, why would I waste
all that money when I could, youknow, I was like, that's just
ridiculous, you know? So I didn't send it to take a
semester off and I got into tattooing.

(17:00):
Yeah. Yeah.
You were in Nashville when that happened then?
Murfreesboro, TN, which is like a suburb of Nashville.
And I was working at a a job when I was in school.
I was working at a gas station actually, and I was drawing like
little tattoo designs for peopleI worked with.
And and one of the girls I worked with was getting a
piercing and she's like, I overheard a tattoo studio

(17:23):
looking for an apprentice. You would be perfect for that.
You should go. Did you have did you have any
tattoos at the time or was this like a fresh world to you?
I had two tattoos at the time and so I went in with My
Portfolio of just drawings more or less added to that the gas
station and they were like well fuck, this is really good we'll
give you a chance. And then I ended up becoming The

(17:43):
Apprentice tattoo artist. So I ended up tattooing for like
3 years as it and I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about like line weight and whatnot and basically
how to build a drawing from ground up kind of thing.
Yeah, it, it's a whole differentart form really.
I mean, because after I quit tattooing, I did it about 6 to 8

(18:07):
years I'd say, maybe a little longer actually.
But after I was done, if I was trying to do my own artwork, it
looked tattoo like instead of being like just my own artwork,
you know? Even to this day, my my art
still has a tattoo quality to it.
You can tell. I I have a bad habit of doing
hard lines, yeah. You'll see hard lines, you'll

(18:28):
see thin to thick lines and like, I'm like, well, that's,
that's totally tattoo related. That's funny.
So that was. My transition.
And then once I got out of tattooing, I was like, well
shit, you know, like I was tattooing a bunch of stuff that
I didn't really care to do. So you would get basically all
the walk in stuff that sucked. Yep.
And that was and by the time yougot home, you were so burned out

(18:50):
on doing everybody else's designthat you didn't want to do your
own artwork. So yeah, I mean, you don't want
to even look at a pencil or anything after you do a day of
tattooing or a week even, especially if it's like a six
day week, because that's normal.You know, You would go Monday
maybe. I guess at the shop that I
worked at, which was my brother's shop, we had Monday

(19:12):
off. So Sunday, Monday off.
But then Tuesday through Saturday, Saturday was like the
busy time, you know? You know, Sunday comes around.
I was like, I'm not fucking doing anything.
I'm not even getting up right now.
Like I'm going to just sit here.I was working from like noon to
like midnight, you know, 5-6 days a week.
So you know, you know how that goes.
And you know, once I got out of it for, you know, various

(19:35):
reasons because you know how thetattoo industry is, it's like
you don't have, you don't have alife.
Yeah, it's hard. And I I don't think people
realize that when they want to get into tattooing, how hard it
is and you and not just artwork.Yeah.
No, no like you. Time.
No flexibility. No.
Sorry, I was. Burning myself here with an

(19:56):
incense, I was just frantically going there.
But there's no flexibility involved in tattooing
whatsoever, and I was getting tothe point where I was getting
really burned out and not doing any of my own personal artwork.
So I got out of tattooing and then I was like, well, fuck,
what do I do now? I'm covered in tattoos.
Though I worked at some really shitty jobs like factories and

(20:17):
horrible like I worked at a bread factory and in Tennessee
in the summertime. Third shift the worst.
Job I could ever. Yeah, you would.
The worst stuff you could ever possibly think of it.
You're like in a you're in an oven working in the summer in
the South. Yeah, I couldn't imagine being
down South. I work at a factory, but it's
actually a pocket knife cutlery,so it's not so bad.

(20:40):
It's actually traditionally madepocket knives as well, so it's
got like a different feel to thefactory.
It's not like we're sitting there just mindlessly on a
conveyor belt or something, you know?
Yeah, well, that sounds a lot cooler than the bread factory.
Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, you could
get the people that are really into wheat bread.

(21:01):
I don't fucking know. I was trying to come up with
something there and. It just didn't work for me.
Well, this could be also be the the segue into the weird
collecting of the food icons is.Because yeah, the factory,
that's just it. The factory.
Did they have? Buddy, go ahead.
Did they have a character? Was it a place that?
Absolutely. It was called Bunny bread.

(21:22):
Bunny OK, OK, yeah. So there was a Bunny character
that was like blue. Yeah, I've seen this little
Bunny. Yeah, to this day I will not eat
Bunny bread. I will not eat Bunny bread.
That's awesome. No, actually, did you knew what
went into it? You wouldn't eat it.
So so I had the hardest job in the whole.
Factory, Let me ask you, how many bunnies actually go into a

(21:45):
loaf? I mean, you're talking about
lots of loaves of bread. Lots of bunnies in the loaves of
bread. And it was so weird.
It was such a weird situation because you're working in this
weird factory of conveyor belts and I and I'm probably the only
guy that speaks English. So I could talk to 0 people,

(22:05):
nobody could talk to me. And then but my, my cousin got
me the job and he was like, you know, this is a real good blue
collar job. You'll worker what you up,
you'll make really good money. And I had the hardest fucking
job in the whole place. I was stacking bread from the
floor to 8 feet high. So one loaf of bread is weighs
nothing, right? Right.

(22:26):
But a whole But a whole tray of bread weighs a fuck ton.
Well I'm trying to make sure were they plastic like bins that
they were in or like? Yeah, well, like metal, metal
trays of bread. So there's probably 12 loaves of
bread on each tray, and you're stacking that from the floor to
8 feet in the 8 feet high. So you know, your first 2-3

(22:47):
hours is not that big of a deal,but you get to 78910 hours,
you're hurt, you're on fire. Yeah, I, I don't, I don't even
like doing too much as it is, I mean.
Yeah. I feel like your shoulders doing
doing this would yeah, just be awful.
I'll. Ask it for maybe two pay periods

(23:08):
and I was like, fuck yes, I'm going back to school for
something. So.
So I ended up going to the school for, for hair, believe it
or not, like barbering. So I'm a Barber.
Yeah, yeah, I've been. I've been.
I've been cutting hair for 20 years now.
Yeah. I mean, you got great hair.
I mean, I got this awful shit back here that just is kind of

(23:30):
there. But but, but the barbershop
eventually segwayed into giving me a flexible schedule in
allowing me to to pursue my art and stuff.
So that really helped open the doors for me because my very
first salon that I worked at, they would allow me to hang my
paintings and stuff up on the walls.
That's cool. And you know, tattooing in

(23:53):
barbers are kind of the same. Like very.
Much so, yeah. It's very, very parallel.
And the first shop I worked at was called The Pink.
Mullet. That's awesome.
And and we we actually did Paramore's hair, you know, like
the pop on group Paramore. Yeah, so I mean, I don't really
know them too well. I know the name.

(24:13):
Yeah, yeah, well, most people's heard of them, but we would do
their hair and, you know, have the art of the walls and the
Hayley Williams of Paramore and saw my art was like, fuck, this
is amazing. And she bought some of my work
and from that point forward started collecting my work.
And I ended up doing a T-shirt as well.
Plan for Paramore. Oh, man, that's awesome.
That's so cool. I yeah, that's, that's like way

(24:34):
beyond anything that I could imagine doing.
But it is kind of. Go ahead.
Sorry about that. I was.
Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.
My mini 1's just, you know, dating me.

(24:56):
It's OK. And well, that that kind that
kind of spiraled into, you know,like, well, maybe I can make,
you know, the art in the hair kind of go parallel and, and,
and use it to, you know, maybe kick start the next thing.
So, yeah, so you know what I mean.
The next thing is this collection, and you were
benching it with the bread, the Bunny.

(25:19):
Like what? How did that spiral into what
I'm seeing behind you right now?Because what I'm seeing is
absolutely blown my mind at the time, I mean.
Well, the, the whole collection started as kind of like a in
Nashville, I was using basicallythe food icons to, you know, as

(25:41):
reference to do the art pieces 'cause I was doing a lot of work
that was pop art or advertising inspired.
And I got one piece as like a reference piece to like, to kind
of like look at and kind of, youknow, see how I could play off
of it and, you know, just kind of display it.

(26:01):
And I was like, oh, this is kindof rad.
And I started doing like all theresearch on, you know, how these
big companies use these food icons as advertising.
And I was like, well, what if I try to do that with my artwork?
So I kind of took that idea and I ran with it.
So one piece turned into two pieces, 2 turned into 3.
And I was like, you know, starting to use these pieces as

(26:25):
inspiration for my work that I do.
OK, Yeah. So do you have a favorite piece
in your collection? Oh, man, I there's one.
This is a, this is a piece. It's, I don't know if you can
tell it's, it's Ronald McDonald holding two children's hands.

(26:47):
And the artist who did this was,you know.
That's one of the pieces I saw first on your Instagram,
actually, and I was like, whoa, that's so cool.
That's the comic book artist that did like the Dick Tracy
comics. He actually did all the Ronald.
Yeah, he did all the Ronald McDonald stuff.
His name is Dick Locher. Dude I love Dick Tracy and

(27:07):
Rodger Rabbit when I was a kid. Yeah, that was the, that's
probably my favorite piece. But I have, dude, I have like
tons of stuff. I have, you know, these big huge
plaques from the early McDonald's land types.
That's awesome. So what was McDonald's like?
One that you connected to instantly and that became a big
one for you. Well, you know, when I was a

(27:30):
kid, I would, I would always go to let McDonald's.
Like, you know, when you were a good kid, you would go and your
mom would take you there and youknow, you go to the play place,
you get to get your Chicken Mcnuggets and like, it was kind
of like, oh, if you're good, that's where you would go kind
of thing. Yeah, I remember being there at
birthday parties when I was a kid, and they would have like
someone that dressed up as Grimace and someone that was

(27:51):
like Ronald. And it was the weirdest thing,
you know, Like it was never really Ronald because his makeup
was kind of messed up usually. And like, yeah, you know, it was
just like ghetto Donald's or something.
I don't know. But I don't know if you can see
this right here. This is this is the little Dome.
From the play place, yeah, that's.

(28:12):
Awesome. And I did like some little I, I
did some painting of some littlecharacters up there and I put
them inside there like like almost like a shadow box.
Yeah, why would those bubbles always yellow?
Why was that? It's like someone was smoking in
there too much or something. I always remember going in those
bubbles and you're just like beating on them, like getting
your parents attention and you're like waving at your
parents as if, I don't know, like what they're supposed to

(28:34):
do, but that's what you would always do.
Right. Yeah, like, look at me.
I'm in a bubble. Exactly.
But yeah, yeah, I mean, the, thefood icons just kind of like
honestly snowballed because I mean, I I truly before the food
icons, I collected oddities. I would have like, you know,
skulls, taxidermy, wet specimens, I would have sideshow

(28:56):
photographs, you name it. And I feel like I still have
those so. Well, well, as you know, it got
really expensive and really rareand hard to find.
And, and I was, I always kind ofhad the love for this stuff.
And I was like, well, you know, it's really hard to find the
oddities now. Now I can find like giant ice
cream cones and shit like that. I don't know if you saw that.

(29:17):
Yeah. Like, yeah.
I mean, like, like, it's crazy. Well, the stuff that people
don't even like, I think about. And I was like, well, I, I don't
get just as much joy out of collecting these weird food
icons and the bright colours. I don't know.
There's something about walking in this room that just kind of
like lifts your spirits. You're like, you know, if you're
having like a shitty day and youwalk in this room and it's
bright and you're like, you can do nothing but smile.

(29:40):
Yeah, that's how all my collecting stuff is.
I started out that my big, big collecting was pro wrestling
stuff, like old pro wrestling stuff, you know, like the
merchandise that you would only get at a live show that was at
the merch stands because that was different than what you
could get anywhere else, you know.
But so my thing like that was I went kind of from just weird

(30:00):
oddity things and the wrestling shit to clowns.
And that's actually one of the reasons that when I saw your
stuff with Ronald, I was like, this is awesome.
Like, I don't know what it is, but there's an emotion with
every clown no matter what. Every clown has a different
emotion, you know, and that sounds crazy, but like it really

(30:21):
truly does. And it's not just based on like
the sad clowns, the happy clowns, things like that.
They actually have their own like thing for.
Sure. Well, a lot of people are like,
well, how did you do the whole like run on MacDonald Jesus, you
know, mash up, which I call a mixed savior.
And what I tell people all the time is I I have a food room.

(30:42):
You know what you see? Well, check this shit out.
This will blow your mind. So I have a food room and then I
walk in to the bathroom by the food room and pick this up.
It's all Jesus. No, I'm lost your little bit
process. Oh man, whoa, it's all Jesus.

(31:05):
This is my now. You don't have to answer if you
don't want to, But are you a religious person or is that just
a ironic thing? It's ironic, yeah.
I mean, I don't, I don't care either way because I'm not and
I'm not like that type of person.
I'm, I stay neutral with everything, especially on here.
But I had to ask because, you know.

(31:25):
Yeah, Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I don't, I
don't put down anybody what theybelieve.
I think that's great. If if something gets you through
the day, that's absolutely amazing.
And you, you should be afforded that right to believe in
whatever you want to believe in.I agree, yeah.
But I mean, to me, it's like, I don't think it's anything

(31:47):
particular, but I think it's, the imagery is fascinating and I
love a lot of the Catholic imagery.
I just think it's neat, you know, like, and I think it's
like a beautiful in a way too. And those ones on your wall in
the bathroom are, do any of those have like the slide up on

(32:08):
the cross that has like the holywater and the candles?
And yeah, I have one of those that I painted into a a zombie,
so. Yeah, they they're last Reds
crosses. What's funny you mentioned that
because I have a show coming up May 23rd.
It's called sacrilegious like. Where's that at?
It's at H Gallery in Mexican Warstreets in Pittsburgh, and it's

(32:28):
coming up and basically sacrilegious means food so good
as sacrilegious or making food with communion wafers.
So one of the piece, one of the pieces in the show is a Chuck E
Cheese last rice cross. Yeah, that's awesome.
So then I'll have a mixed saviorin the show.
I'll have a Rock'n'roll All Night Angel, which is basically

(32:51):
like a kiss painted up Angel. And then I'll have AI call
Greedyland or the Note Pope. And it's like a Pope with Mickey
Mouse ears that has like a kind of like a pointed up nose and
like the Mickey Mouse gloves. Yeah.
So it's like a playoff of pop art meets, like the religion
kind of dill so. What would you call your art,

(33:14):
Speaking of that? I mean, my art is so weird
because I would say first of allit would be outsider because
it's definitely not accepted. It has some dark undertones, so
dark outsider dark art meets folk art because a lot of the
art is on untraditional surfaceslike Ouija boards, meat, meat

(33:35):
cleavers, old statues. It could be on like you name it.
I I've painted on like TV's, suitcases, old radios, but so
it's like a new wave folk art. So I would say like, I don't
know, man. I have, I'm just kind of in my

(33:56):
own lane really. Yeah, Like I get, I get accepted
sometimes and I get like, you know, pushed away other times,
so. Yeah, that's how life is though,
man. That's just like, I think that's
normal, at least as far as I've experienced in life, because I'm
the complete outsider in my area.
Like I'm the weirdo. Like people called me a hippie

(34:18):
for the longest time and I'm like, I'm not a fucking hippie,
man. Like, as I say, man, you know,
like, yeah, yeah. But but it was just like, I like
different things. I have been tattooed since I was
15 years old. So like, I was different and
like, yeah. For sure.
People think of it differently, actually.
My son. His two middle names are

(34:39):
Morrison after Jim Morrison and Poe, but not after Edgar Allen,
but after a band called Harley Poe and.
Harley Poe I love. OK, cool.
Harley Poe, you know, Joe Whiteford is awesome.
He's one of my he's low key one of my favorite like artists
you've never heard of. Yeah, yeah, he's got great
artist too, like. He's, he's so good.

(35:01):
It blows my mind what that dude can do.
And he's like, I'm a big, big, like, he's tiny little guy.
Like, yeah, for sure. Actually, one of the last shows
that I had gone to was in Pittsburgh, and it was Harley
Poe. It's been a while now, but the
girl I was with at the time, we gave him a deer mount that we
just randomly had in the van. And yeah, it was just the shoes.

(35:26):
It's been quite a while now. It was at an old church that is
now like a straight edge owned bar that had vegan chili at the
time. And I was like, this is weird.
I wish I could think of exactly where it was, but my mind's not
going to allow that at the moment, so.
Yeah, I think the last time I saw a tour they weren't playing

(35:47):
in Pittsburgh, but I would totally go in a heartbeat if
they were playing local. It's it, it had been a while.
I mean, I can say that for sure.It's actually the mother of my 2
younger children. And we've been, we've been split
almost three years now. So it's been a while.
That just says how long it's been since I've been to a show
too. Yeah, for sure.

(36:09):
But so this is a question that I've been wanting to ask you.
Did your art influence your collection, or did the
collection influence the art as far as the what you're doing
right now? That's kind of a hard one.
I would say it almost is like a parallel because I was doing
like weird Ronald McDonald related art.

(36:31):
Almost I, I would argue maybe 15years ago I did like a big, huge
life-size cut out of Ronald. But then, you know, I got into
this and I was like, well, this is art too.
And then the more I, I started collecting it, the more I saw
like the individual art involvedin each piece.
And I was like, well, I'm going to get this as a way to inspire

(36:55):
my art though, I would say. And then I would find other
artists that would do similar stuff.
Like, I don't know if you've ever heard of the artist Ron
English. He's one of my favorite artists,
hands down. I don't think I have actually.
Oh man, look him up. He does.
He does. Like some obese Ronald McDonald
kid like characters. OK, I mean, I.
Which I think are. Seen something like that?

(37:16):
I'm not. Which I think are like shit
like, you know, I would. Yeah.
But the more you look into it, the more you see and then, you
know, see that and then that would see other stuff.
And I'm like, well, the the people making these products are
artists as well. And I was just like, well, how?
OK, so they're using these itemsto sell their product to the

(37:38):
masses. Why can't I use this idea to
sell my art to the mass? So that's kind of how that ball
rolled down. So is art all you do?
Well, I do the barbershop as well like I.
Do that. You're still actively doing
that. Yeah, yeah, I do that Tuesday
through Thursday and some Fridays, and then I do gallery
shows. Like I just had a show at Brass

(37:59):
Works in Portland, OR and then I'm getting ready to have a show
at Stranger Factory in Albuquerque, NM.
And then I do the Oddities and Curiosity circuit.
I have eight dates this year. So basically I would say like
it's dull. Like I do both.
That's awesome that you can do that.
Yeah, yeah. Well, the the barbershop makes

(38:21):
it flexible enough for me to do that.
Yeah. And like I said, yeah, that it's
the similar thing to with a tattoo shop, you know, it's like
that same atmosphere, it's kind of that same feel as far as they
kind of intermingle, you know, like as far as the what you can
do and the freedom you do have. Yeah, that.
I mean, that's what's really held me down with the barbershop

(38:41):
is the flexibility. And like I do my work through
the week and then when I'm done,I clock out and I get to focus
on my art, actually have an art studio.
I'm one of I just this is my second month at a place called
Radiant Hall in Pittsburgh. So I was actually, I was going
to ask you if you did your art at home or if you had somewhere.

(39:02):
I have a studio now, like this is my second month having a
studio outside of my home. So this is like a big deal for
me because before I was just painting in my dining room, you
know? Does it, does it feel different?
Do you feel like you have more freedom there, or do you feel
like you're less willing to go at it there?
I feel like you when you go in, you're more focused but also

(39:22):
kind of like low key makes you feel like you have your shit
together. OK, see I me personally, I feel
like I would be like after a while being like this is I'm
going to a job. Yeah, well, I like just
separation because I can go there and and then when I go
there it's quiet and I'm like, OK, so I'm going to give myself
2 hours to just paint. And I feel like I'm really like

(39:43):
productive when I'm there and I'm more like hyper focused on
what I need to get done. Well, I could paint at home too.
And I do a good job at painting at home, but there's a lot of
distractions from point A to point B.
It's that. Whole lot people are saying they
want to they I wish I could justwork from home.
No, you don't, because you did not get anything done.
Exactly, exactly. Well, you have way more

(40:06):
distractions at home too, cuz you're like, OK, I'm just going
to take a break and watch TV andthen like 10 minutes turns into,
you know, 30 minutes and so on. And when you're at the studio, I
just feel like it's like this isgo time.
This is why I'm here, you know? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I always
thought about that as well because, you know, I work at the
cutlery. However, I had been making

(40:28):
knives, chef knives at home and like, that was a different
thing. But at the same time, I would be
like, I don't want to work on that after I've just been out
work all day making knives, you know, I don't want to do that,
but. That's a great thing about the
barbershop is because it's so different.
I mean, it's similar in the aspect of like, you know, when
I'm cutting hair, it's like sculpting, but when I go home,

(40:53):
I'm painting and it's different enough that I'm not creatively
drained like I would be when I was tattooing.
Yeah, and like I said before, and you said already tattooing
it just wipes you out by the time your whole body hurts and
you're just like, I don't want to do anything.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
But you got a lot of times with the machines, you know, I used

(41:14):
to use the old, what is it, the Rotary?
Is it the Rotary machines I believe?
The Rotary are more what people are using now, the old coil
machines. I use the old coil machines that
would vibrate really heavily. Yep, and they would never used.
Yeah, they would vibrate so heavily my hands would numb out.
Yeah. And it depending on what kind of
machine you had, because some ofthem were heavy hitting and some

(41:35):
of them were just like, and thisisn't too bad, but like
depending on which one you're holding that weight as well as
that vibration. And people don't realize that,
you know? And then you, you would have
the, you know, the power supply and the cable and like now
everything is like cordless. And I'm like, well, that must be
nice. You know, I've never had that
situation, but yeah, my shoulder.

(41:57):
Used to get like my shoulder used to get it from like holding
up trying to like get Oh yeah, at the right, you know, and you
know, people, people listening won't be able to understand what
the hell we're talking about right now.
But like, at least we get. It yeah, well, you're, you're
also like, you know, you're stretching skin in every
direction too on top of all thatyes.
And it's like, you know, and then you're like, you know,

(42:18):
hopefully my stencil holds up. And it's, you have all these
factors going on. It's like, how could I ever
enjoy myself and. Which nowadays the stencils are
so much different because they have like the gels that you can
put on for the stencil and stufflike that.
Like back when I was doing it, we would use our green soap.
That was all we used. And then, yeah.
And like, you lose that, you're fucked, you know?

(42:40):
Yeah. Half the half the stencil would
like fade away by the time you were like into the tattoo.
I'm just guessing at this point.I'm going and guessing exactly.
Also No2 skins are the same by any.
No, no, yeah. And then not to mention, like
you, you could do one tattoo that's like really simple and
easy and has a lot of good starts and stops.

(43:00):
And then you could do like, which I hated doing lettering.
Lettering was fucking horrible. See I always got pushed the
lettering because that was something my brother didn't want
to do, so he would just be like,you take this.
I hated it. It was not fun.
Yeah, that's, it's all part of the job though, and that's just
any job. You're going to have those
things that you're not really into, you know, I have with my

(43:23):
job now, there's definitely things that I'm just like, fuck,
I dread doing this, you know? Oh.
For sure. Is there like a in your job with
the Barber shop? Do you have anything that you're
like when the person asks for it?
You're just like, fuck. Yes, mid bald fades with 30
minute time frames. You just spoke some language I

(43:47):
don't understand. Yeah, well, I'm in, I'm in Bald
fade is like skin and you're supposed to fade this up and and
make it look like it transitionswell into a haircut and you have
30 minutes to do so, which should easily be like 45 minute
haircut easy. And then you know what?

(44:07):
I'm doing this like I'm back-to-back to back because I'm
I've been there for five years. So I'm, you know, really, really
busy. So I could have anywhere from 15
to 18 haircuts that day, and that bald fade could be in the
middle of the day where I have ahaircut before and a haircut
after. That's great.
I would not have thought of thatmany.

(44:29):
It's happening that like just ina day.
You must be in a really popular spot too then.
Yeah, I'm in Mount Lebanon, which is like kind of like a
high end area, Yeah. But yeah, you also got to think
of like, well, what if that client before the bulb fade
doesn't show up on time and it'srunning behind and then the bulb
fades running behind, and then that makes your whole day run
behind. It's like, it's like, man, it's

(44:50):
a lot. Right.
This is one of the things that like, do you ever have problems
with your equipment like in tattooing?
I would say yeah, because I mean, you could have anything
from like, you know, your Clippers could die in the middle
of a haircut and you're like, hopefully you know what to do in
that case. You know, like you could you
could have backups or you could not.

(45:12):
Or you just kind of kind of knowwhat what how to use the
products or the the machines that you have otherwise like
just kind of like take the slackoff the ones that die, you know
what I mean? Yeah, so Jeff, man, I can't
thank you enough for doing this.I know we didn't get into the
collecting so much as we were going to, but I want everyone to

(45:33):
check you out. So will you tell me where anyone
can find either your artwork or I know you have a video of your
collection as well? Sure.
Well, you can. The easiest way to find
everything is if you go on my Instagram page, it's Jeff under
score, Bertrand Bertrand. And then there's a link tree to

(45:55):
everything. There's BIOS, there's TikTok,
you know, Facebook, you Damon, all the, all the, the social
medias are there. Yeah, I've noticed too.
I've noticed just going through and looking at your stuff that I
find you on every single one of them.
Yeah, I'm on everything pretty much so.
And that's a that's a whole job on its own, you know, to keep up

(46:16):
with all those things, it's a hard thing to do.
For sure. Absolutely Ben, who is my Co
host, he is the one that does our Instagram for this.
I don't even know anything aboutit.
I, he'll post things, you know, here and there and I'll be like,
oh, cool, I get a notification that's like the collection
Obsession podcast has posted. I'm like, cool.

(46:39):
I'm I'm excited to see what it is.
Yeah, exactly. Like it's, it's almost like a
like a side job just to keep up with the pages, you know?
Yeah. Well, I mean, if you have a
little bit of time with, you know, doing the barbershop and
then the art, that gives you a little bit more time to do those
things. Oh absolutely.
And the, you know, the collecting is fun too.

(46:59):
Like I today what got got to go to the flea market and I got to
find a bunch of cool stuff, you know?
So are you still actively collecting for?
I would say I'm actively collecting and I also have two
antique booths in the Pittsburgharea 1's called, well, they're
both called the Trouble Traveler.
Are are they all this theme or do you have more collection that

(47:23):
I don't know about? Should I be diving deeper?
I've got more collection you don't know about.
Oh man, I've got like, I've got the oddities collection, I've
got the food room, I've got the cheeses.
We have a bowling shrine. We have like vintage board game
walls. Oh my God, we need to go deeper,
man. This is Yeah, we.

(47:45):
We, we could do a #2, that's forsure.
But I have two antique booths inin Pittsburgh.
One's at Miller's Crossing. It's called the Trouble
Traveler. It's the first booth you see
when you walk in. And then I have one at Antiques
in Ohio in Bellevue and it's on the 2nd floor and you'll see a
mural as soon as you walk up thestairs.
And that's my booth as well, too.

(48:07):
Oh, man, Awesome. Yeah.
So there's no question we are going to have to do another one,
you know, because this is, this is too good to be true in my
mind right now. Jeff, this is.
It's all connected for me personally.
And hey, that's how collecting is for me as well.
Everything has kind of lined up in my life to the point that I'm

(48:29):
doing a podcast about it. You know, like this is something
I never thought that I would be doing.
Honestly. I like podcasts.
I listen to podcasts all day long at work.
And like I was said that I was going to start one and then it
just kind of lined up that this other person had said it to me.
And then I was like, well, we should just start it.

(48:50):
And then I just went ahead and started and I asked him if he
would want to be a part of it. And Ben, he's an awesome dude
and he has a great glass collection.
He does a lot of Fenton coining dot glass.
That's his big one that he collects.
I don't know if you know glass or not.
Uranium is really popular. Yeah, that's uranium is popular

(49:14):
and that's like one of those ones that's kind of like the
White Claw of the whole thing. That's good.
That's about the extent of what I know about glass collecting,
you know, other than like, like medicine bottles and stuff like
that, you know? Yeah, I actually have one thing
I'll tell you just real quick that I have this story that's on

(49:36):
our Spotify, or it used to be, Idon't know.
We got some things taken down. I'm not sure why, but it was a
story I told Ben about this piece that I got and my
daughter, my youngest daughter, Lorelei, I was down here the one
night and I was sitting here editing and she came down and
was like, Daddy, She kind of poked her head around the

(49:56):
corner. I was like, what are you doing
awake? It was like two, 3:00 in the
morning. And she's like, I saw someone
and I'm like, what? And she kept telling me that it
was by the front door at my house here.
And kind of right by the front door is my grandmother's China
cabinet. And I had just put this piece

(50:17):
that's a old embalming pump in there I've.
Got an embalming bottle? Really.
Yeah. This one has like the bottle
connected to a pump. That's like a hand pump and it
would like go into a a little tube that would then go into a
needle and all that. And she kept telling me like she
was terrified, man, like absolutely terrified.

(50:38):
And was like, there's someone over there and I was like,
there's no one over there. And I thought I was being like
super dad and being like, hey, get out of here.
Just thinking it would ease her mind.
It did the opposite of easing her mind.
It made her even more scared. But that's just whatever, you
know, she hasn't done it since, so you never know.

(51:02):
And but that goes hand in hand with I don't believe in those
things. So in my house there's there's
nothing because I don't believe that there could ever.
Be Yeah, yeah. I mean, I always feel like
people ask me all the time, do Ihave anything on it?
And I say, well, you know, it's not the object that's haunted,
it's the person. Yeah, that's the truth.

(51:23):
That is completely the truth. The one time I did think that,
and I know I saw something, but I'm going to say I think I saw
something. I was on my way to Sturgis.
My brother was going to tattoo, I was going to Pierce out there,
and we were in Albert Lea, MN inthis hotel room.
And I woke up and there were twobeds side by side, you know,

(51:46):
like a normal hotel room. My brother was closest to the
bathroom and I watched the bathroom light flick off.
It's like off that's funny. It's not funny, it was just
stupid humor. I have watched the light turn
off and then I saw what was blacker than the dark room,
which I thought was him feeling his way back to his bed on the

(52:08):
foot of his bed. Like, I watched hands hitting
the bed, this person kind of hunched over trying to get their
way back. And then all the sudden I hear
my brother beside me go quit fucking with my feet.
And I was like, what? And like the light got turned on
and he was like, why were you just fucking with my feet?
And I was like, I wasn't like, yeah.

(52:31):
And like so I know I saw that, but I think I saw that that's.
A shadow person, my friend. I don't believe that shit
though. That's just nonsense, you know?
Could be. I'm not gonna discredit anything
that anyone would ever say, because I'm sure there's shit
more than just us out there, but.

(52:51):
Yeah, yeah. You never know.
That might have been a new experience.
Who knows? But you gotta have that core
belief. I suppose so.
Oh. For sure, for sure.
I don't know, not to get into too much, but you know, I have
some, some items in my collection that are pretty
spooky. And people ask me all the time.
Like, you know, you ever see anything weird in my house?
And I live in like a historical home now and I never see

(53:13):
anything. But the older home I lived in in
Nashville, I guess it was like maybe 50 or 60 years old.
We would see some something thatI guess would be similar to like
a shadow person. My wife would see him all the
time and we thought that that was spooky.
So who knows? Honestly, if if I saw something
and I could, my thought is here and now if I'm seeing it that's

(53:37):
real. If not and it's like a week
later after I saw that, I'm like, that didn't even even
happen. Yeah, cuz your brain wants to.
You wanna second guess it in rash?
I'm just trying to, like, I'm trying to handle my own
psychosis within my thoughts, you know?
Yeah, I get it. You're like, OK, OK.
I'm like, like, I messed up enough.
I don't need this. Go away, whatever that is.

(53:59):
Yeah, like you're not real because I'm gonna just believe
that you're not real or I'm gonna, I'm gonna pretend.
You're like Ghost, I'm too damn busy for this shit, no.
I gotta go to work tomorrow, stop it all right?

(54:20):
So anyways, I got to apparently take care of this Ladybug
birthday party or whatever because I was just told by my my
boss told me that she wants a birthday party of Ladybug.
You know the superhero Ladybug. I don't know that, yeah.
I don't know what it's from actually, but she knows.

(54:50):
Miraculous story, stories of Ladybug and something or another
Cat Noir. OK, you are.
No. No, I'm just handing down the
note. I'm not.
I'm not really sure. But so Jeff, you want to tell
everyone one more time, like where they can just catch you
and like you're updating daily? Wow, what a great conversation

(55:13):
that was. Really wish Ben could have been
here. I know he would have loved this
one. No, I did.
That was a lot of fun man. What the Ben, where are you?
What, where were you? What were you talking about?
I I I thought you said 10 minutenap.
Yeah, Yep. You know how I said like the

(55:34):
notorious 10 minute nap thing? It was It was 10 minutes plus
maybe plus a little bit. Nonetheless, it was fun.
We, or maybe I, will see you allnext time.
Bye. Yeah, 'cause you were here the

(55:56):
whole time, why wouldn't you saybye?
Sorry. Another one, I mean, And maybe
we'll do it soon. Maybe we'll have back to backs,
you know? It sounds good to me.
I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much all. Right.

(56:25):
In the attic, treasures hide every trinket, every guy.
Old clocks ticking Secret's toe chasing stories, chasing gold

(56:48):
obsession collection. Let's dive deep.
Dusty Shelton, Hidden keeps and T Shiny stories.
We'll show you how to buy and sell crystal faces.

(57:11):
Vintage finds records spinning crossing times.
Whispered bargains deal so rare.Hunt the gems.
They're everywhere. Obsession Collection.

(57:33):
Let's dive deep, Dusty Sheldon Hidden cubes and keep shining
stories.