"From Canvas to Clothing: The Artistic Odyssey of Alloyius Mcilwaine" Be A Voice Podcast

Welcome to a vibrant episode of "Be a Voice" on the Usala Media Network! Join our talented host, Britt Carpenter, in a captivating conversation with Alloyius Mcilwaine, a self-taught artist and the visionary behind Cultures Clothing Company. Hailing from the heart of Philadelphia, Alloyius discovered his love for art at the tender age of three, when he began to replicate comic book images. His artistic journey evolved as he explored various forms of art, including traditional art, graffiti, abstract, and comic book art. In the year 2000, Alloyius founded Cultures Clothing Company, initially a t-shirt company featuring hand-painted, customized designs. What started as a side hustle during his time at Neumann University transformed into a profound love for fashion design. As Alloyius delved into the world of fashion, his clothing line expanded beyond its roots. Embracing diverse influences, from high fashion to urban styles, Alloyius transformed Cultures Clothing into a dynamic and eclectic brand that reflects his artistic vision. Beyond fashion, Alloyius is also known for his experimentation with freestyle abstract art, a form of spontaneous creation influenced by his mood and emotion. In this episode, Alloyius shares his artistic evolution, from the inception of Cultures Clothing to his latest series of paintings. Focused on the beauty of women, his paintings seamlessly blend graffiti, street art, comic book art, traditional art, and abstract art, creating a unique and visually stunning collection. Immerse yourself in the world of Alloyius Mcilwaine, where art becomes a canvas for self-discovery and creative expression. Hit that "Subscribe" button, click the notification bell, and embark on a journey through the artistic landscape of Cultures Clothing Company. Guest Bio: Alloyius Mcilwaine, a Philadelphia native, is a self-taught artist and the founder of Cultures Clothing Company. His artistic journey spans various forms, from traditional to abstract, graffiti, and comic book art. With a love for fashion design, Alloyius has transformed his clothing line into a diverse and dynamic brand. Explore his latest series of paintings, a fusion of influences that redefine artistic boundaries.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to be a voice carpenter onUSULA Media. Thanks for joining me today.
My guest today is a good friendof mine and somebody I've known for
several years and I've watched his journeyand I've watched him grow and evolve on
his journey and it's been incredible.It's been incredible to see what he's been
doing, what he's put into it, where he's at now, and where

(00:30):
he's going today. My guess isAlois macawain. Hey, Loyas, Hey,
thank you for the kind words words. There was a truth, man.
I remember. I remember we met. The first time we met was
on a boat. You had donethe cover you had you had just painted
Tammy g a human paint, youknow, and we met on the boat

(00:55):
for the boat party. I doremember that party. It was fun.
It was a lot of fun.And you know, that was the actually
had it. It was it wasa smaller and you know what I'm talking
about is Philly Current Magazine. PhillyCurrent Magazine is a magazine print magazine,
one of the few left that's actuallyreally great magazine. It's it's really really
great, like the layouts and everything. Yeah, it is, And what
he did or what he does ishe gives a voice to I won't want

(01:19):
to say to underdog, but underdogsor two people that deserve it. Yeah,
absolutely, yeah, and he helpsthem build a platform. Hm.
He actually just featured my best friendKEM Pepper a vicar consulting on the last
cover. So oh right, yeah, I saw that. Yeah, and
I might have squealed a little bitwhen I saw it. But you know

(01:40):
you you well a lawys. Imean, I know who you are,
I know what to do, andI'm talking to you casually because I know
that you know some people I notknow, you know, tell him who
is a Lais Necklin. It's it'sso hard because I do a lot of
different things when most of them areinside of the realm of art. So
I'm an international muralist, and Ialso do you know, canvas work like
contemporary abstract graffiti, comic book stylestuff. And I also do a little

(02:05):
bit of graphic design stuff too fora lot of the big labels. Done
a lot of a lot of workfor the big labels, especially recently.
Then let's see uh Maker's Mark Miller, LTE, Apple TV, Netflix,
Peacock, NBC, Universal, Comcast. It's been crazy. You were on
a bus. I was on abus. Yeah, you're on a bus.
Yeah, your your art was ona bus. Yeah, the the
Maker's Mark bus. Yeah, yes, absolutely, you had it all like

(02:29):
when I first met you, thoughyou at the at the time a lot
of it was just more of thewhat was it at the time, What
type of the art were we doing? I was doing a lot more of
the abstract stuff at the time,like it was more of like a like
wild energy kind of splatter paint.But there was yeah, there there's still

(02:50):
elements to that and when I'm doingnow, but you know, like as
an artist to keep trying to evolvethe style to you know, make it,
uh, you know, change andbe different because if I'm paying the
same things, I'm gonna get bored. So absolutely, yeah, you know,
Plus it's good to keep on theirtoes too, exactly. He really
is m M well. I reallyfound interesting, as you know what you
did. Was you painted Tammy GenI did, Yeah, painted Tammy.
I mean not just you know,not saying you did a painting of her,

(03:14):
you actually painted her body. Yeah, And that was such a funny
thing because like I usually don't dobody paint, so I didn't know what
exact like when I went to thestore to get the paints to paint Tammy.
I had to rely on what thepeople told me at the store to
use, which wasn't the right thing. Like I talked to some of my
talk to some of my friends whoactually do the body painting. Later they
were like, no, you shouldhave used this brand because it took so

(03:35):
long to get the because you know, like when you have like human skin,
like when people move and stuff,some of the paint cracks if you're
not using the right stuff. Sothat was that was a whole learning process.
But it was a really cool experience. Was that your first time you
ever painted something? I did oneother one like that, but it was
it wasn't that extensive. And yeah, to Tammy was like full body.
With the first one I did,it was just like a like a small

(03:58):
portion of the body, so itwasn't as crazy. Yeah, and that's
totally a little bit off the normfor you. Yeah, you know,
because you really are you know,canvas or walls. Yeah, usually,
but I like painting on different services, you know, it just it makes
it more fun to have a littlebit of variety, Like I've done airplane
and a helicopter and like buses andcars and stuff at this point of just

(04:20):
spinding a trolley for founding footsteps.So I saw that, Yah, I
saw that. That was great.I remember a few years ago saying,
hey, you want to paint avan. You're like, I never did
an automobile, but that sounds cool. Then I saw you did that for
for Timmy. Yeah, you know, and it came out great. Thank
you. It came out great.When we talk about it, like,
one of the things that I've alwaysliked about your work and I liked about

(04:42):
your art is the fact that youfind a muse, you find someone that's
amused to you, and you willthen translate that into your art onto the
wall and a mural and not justthat, Elois. I've been very fortunate
to watch you on several occasions.M hm. Do your craft work your
craft, you know, and theway you do it is so unique and

(05:08):
so intricated. I want to askyou about it, like I want to
like when I talk about for thoseof you who don't know, when you
start to google a Lawyus's work oryou find him on Instagram, which actually
has Instagram pages, Culture's clothing onInstagram cultures clothing on Instagram, so you
know, and you'll find a lotof his work on there. But when
you look at the pictures of whatI call his views is and he calls
his muses as well, you startedthere's like you you do like x's and

(05:31):
oh yeah, yeah, explain thatto me, because to me that was
a wild thing, like I neverto me that was almost like is that
like a paint by number or it'sso it's actually something that I picked up
from overseas and from uh watching YouTubevideos. You know, when you're in
school, they teach you about howlike to do grids when you're you're trying
to scale or like keep everything inproportion. So when I'm doing something like

(05:54):
that, it's basically like providing agrid so that I can Like what I'll
do is I'll pay random letters,shapes, numbers and stuff on the wall
or the surface, and like alight color, I'll take a photo of
that and superimpose it over my referenceimage that I'm looking at. So then
it helps me to keep everything inscale, no matter how big the wall
is. So that's what it is. So like after I get that part

(06:15):
up there and I get all mylines and keep everything in scaled and that
I don't need that anymore, soI just you know, go over it.
It's so cool though. Yeah,I've watched that and it's always fascinated
me because it's like there was abunch of a's up there. Yeah,
there was some maxes and that helpsyou then, yeah, to draw the
image together. Yeah, it helpsme keep everything in proportion, just because,
like, you know, I canjust sit there and like paint a

(06:38):
face on the wall without that,but like it'll probably take me like a
couple hours more because a lot oftimes when I'm up on the wall,
I can't necessarily see what this,like the proportions and stuff are like because
I'm too close to it, LikeI won't see until I step back.
So when I do it this way, I don't have to keep stepping back
as much just to make sure Ihave all my line straight. I don't
have to make as many corrections.I can just okay, all my lines
go here. Now I can justfocus on doing all the shading, which

(07:00):
is my favorite part anyway, SoI don't even thought about that. You
know, people drawing, they're righthere on a piece of paper, you
know it's right there. Yeah,when you're doing them, wall you're like
you're so close to it that you'rejust a lot of times you can't see
unless you keep stepping back to seewhat you're doing. You're like in their
face see the rest of it.Especially like if you're up on like a
like an escalating lift and you literallycan't go back unless you like take the
machine and go like make it goall the way backwards, you know what

(07:21):
I mean. So it really helpskeep everything proportioned doing that. How how
old are you when you first startedart? I had to be two,
two or three, Yeah, juststarted drawing or well, so I was.
I was a super hyper kid,and I would always just like run
around. So I know my momand like ask me just to like sit
down and draw her things so thatshe could have like time to catch your

(07:44):
breath because I was, yeah,just run back and forth non stop.
I was. I was a hyperkid. So so yeah, yeah,
exactly. It's It's so funny.I drive my intern crazy all the time
because we'll just be doing something andlike a ADHD kick and all started like
dancing, or I'll forget what I'mdoing and I'll just all replace. She's
just sitting there like sighing at me. Hey, life of an artist,

(08:05):
right, yeah, welcome my brain. Yeah no, it's it's funny,
but I've been uh yeah, Istarted out sketching my favorite comic book characters
and it kind of dis progressed fromthere. And you you are when you
when you talk about comic boy,are you comic book or a superhero or
bot? What? Yeah? Yeah, well I grew up on like the
X Men and the Spider Man andthe Avengers. That's what I thought,

(08:26):
oast X Men, Avengers and yeahthat was sort of like something you had
an interested in that you enjoyed.Yeah, yeah, stuff. When was
it that you like started doing theabstract part of it and you started just
starting abstract? That's that's uh,that's a good question because I've never really
thought about that. Uh. I'dsay probably sometime around like seventh or eighth

(08:46):
grade. Okay, that's when Ifirst started doing some version of what I'm
doing now with the shapes. Itwas different, but like, like what
I'm doing now is more refined,but I was doing something similar to that
back then, like like sixth seventhgrade. Yeah, oh wow, Okay,
that's yeah, because it's it's sofunny, like some of the people
that knew me in high school becauseI used to just draw on all the

(09:07):
borders and stuff of my books.Like when they started seeing me developed a
stile, they were like, Irecognize that used to do something like that
in your books, like when we'reback in school, and like, yeah,
it's just a more refined, likevisual language now person like drew and
doodle than your notebooks and your bookcovers and didn't really take notes, just
drew literally everything everything. Mm hmm. Were you more folks? Did you

(09:28):
know then that art was what yourpassion was? And yeah, it's what
I wanted to do. But like, I don't think there as many opportunities
then to do art as like alike a full time profession. You know,
like there's still that stigma back thenwhere it's like artists starve, and
that really, honestly really didn't changeuntil like it was people like like Banksy
and Shepherd Ferry and and Calls andsome of those guys that got over commercially

(09:52):
for doing the type of stuff thatI'm doing, And I think it just
kind of like opened up the floodgates. So it was like that. And
also just like the development of socialmedia, being able to market your own
product kind of open up the doorsfor a lot of artists because now we
don't have to rely on other peopleas much as like, if you're just
getting on social media and like doingyour own promotion like constantly, you can
really put your stuff out there.Can you imagine? Like and I can't

(10:15):
imagine, And I'm old enough toimagine it, but I can't remember times
before. Social media isn't such aweird thing. It almost seems like it's
always been here, even though likeyou kind of remember when it started popping
up, because I had a gueston the other day, the Philly sports
guy, the guy who thinks hisface there. Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah, he had said the firsttime he did it was like two thousand
and one, and there was nosocial media. There's no social media.

(10:35):
Yeah, you don't think of itlike that because it's just blown up and
taken over now. Yeah, artistsdidn't have a chance to get themselves out
there and then before that unless theyhad any own agent, Right, we're
out there mailing it out, callingpeople, getting doorstamming their faces. So
yeah, it definitely wasn't like itis now. There are a lot more
opportunities for people to actually be ableto make a career out of doing art
now, which is amazing. There'sa lot of people just doing like like

(10:58):
there's that one guy that really gotfamous for just sketching people on the train
and stuff and then just like showingthem like he blew up. Now he's
probably the most famous artists, likeliving artists in the world right now,
just like according to social media,like the amount of followers he has,
it's it's ridiculous. That is crazy. Yeah, that's great. And the
touch to reach you have, theconnection you have and you know you you
you have a reach. You knowyou you know you went from from Philly

(11:24):
when you're right around Philly pushing yourself, marketing yourself, branding yourself, because
that's so important people, it's superimportant. That's why I went to school
for business. Where'd you go toschool? Newman? Newman University? Right?
So he kept that local? Youreally did? I did? Yeah?
Did you did you live in newOh? Yeah? I lived at
Ye had that? So you didn'tgo to school for art? No?

(11:46):
No? No, So when Ifirst or anything like that, No,
like when I when I when Ifirst went to school, I was going
for I was trying to go forBio Kim and then because like when I
wasn't. When I was in highschool, my internship was a black Show
smith client, Like that's the fieldI thought I was going into. And
then I switched over to liberal artsand then to business. Yeah they're for

(12:11):
us, the sisty Wow. Okay, So the guy who sat there in
class and drew in all his notebooksand all his books and everything didn't take
notes. You didn't go to schoolfor art. You went to school for
business. I went to school forbusiness. Yeap. Did you in the
back of your mind did you everthink, you know, I don't want
to do business. I really havea passion for hard Or was that never
even an inkling in your mind thatthat was going to be a career goal.
Well? It was honestly one ofthose things where like I had a

(12:35):
shift where I was like, Okay, I know, at a certain point,
if anything's gonna happen with the art, I'm going to need to know
how to run a business. Sobecause in college, that's when I started
Culture's Clothing, and I was likeI was making clothes that like get like
beer money and money for books andstuff in college. So that's how that
all started. And so but Iwanted to really know how to run the

(12:56):
business and stuff. So that's whyI switched over so I can know what
I was doing. Because the reasonwhy I initially went into the clothes in
the first place is because there weren'tas many options for just like painting being
like a career. So I waslike looking for a way where I could
be creative and like providing necessity becauselike everyone needs clothes, so I can
put artwork on clothes and then sellit to people and then they'll be wearing

(13:18):
my art. So that was thethought process behind it. That's how.
Yeah, and I'm about to doa big relaunch probably like right, I
think I'm doing US. I don'tknow whether I'm doing Cyber Monday or Black
Friday, but that's when the bigrelaunch for cultures is. Yeah, that's
awesome. Yeah, and I didn'tknow that backstory. That's a great backstory
to know. So you started withcloth. What kind of clothing were you

(13:39):
designing? You know, it wasit was mostly like hand painted T shirts
and hats and jeans and stuff,And then I took some classes with my
buddy Jules, who now has alike bracelet and like jewelry line that I'm
always wearing stuff now, So weboth kind of went into doing fashion things.
We took some classes to learn howto sew, and we were,
you know, started doing dresses andall kinds of things like that, because

(14:00):
I just want to like, I'mlike, if I'm going into this field,
I want to know the craft.I don't want to just like skate
by on the bare minimum just puttingout T shirts and stuff. I want
to learn how to make stuff.So then it was just one of those
things where like once people because peopleknew me for the clothing line before the
art actually, so then once theart started blowing up, it's like the
clothing line almost took like a littlebit of a back seat because it was

(14:24):
like I had so many calls todo the artwork. I was just selling
the clothes that I had on mywebsite, but I wasn't putting out new
stuff consistently because I just didn't havetime. I'm one person. So then
I was getting ready to start thebig relaunch for the clothing line right when
the pandemic hit and then all themanufacturers shut down. So it took me
a couple of years to like regroupafter that happened, to like get back

(14:48):
to putting everything out. But itkind of aligned well because like bringing on
my intern Cam, now I hadsomebody to help me to do some of
the stuff that I needed help with, just you know, taking off some
of the look because it's it's stillhard doing the art and the clothing and
all the other stuff. Someone constantlyrunning, you know. So it's so
cool to hear you say you havean intern. Yeah, it's such a

(15:09):
weird thing. Well, but it'scool. I mean, think about it,
like when you could say that youactually as an individual, not that
your company or that you're working fora corporation, you as an individual what
you're doing. You have an intern, You have somebody who was interested in
working for you that they need towork. Pretty cool. That's really cool.
You know that that you've arrived,Bro, that's been really cool.

(15:31):
You know, not just that,like I said, you started in Philly.
I mean you know graffiti, Pierre, that was you know, one
of your places you know you're recognizedfor. You know, you did a
actually during COVID. You did abuilding for us at d and in dy
for your birthday and doing for yourbirthday, you got people together. That
was a lot of fun. That'sthat's definitely going to be in the book
too. Really. Yeah, thatwas a great day. Yeah, and
no, it was a fantastic day. It was a really cool yeah.

(15:52):
You know, and you know there'sbeen We did one in Miami, Yeah,
we did. We did with theAmberella came and put the Yeah the
hearts too. Yeah, I forgetover at Philly Broad there and Little Haiti.
That was really cool. So you'vedone a lot here in the States.
Yeah, but what I've seen yougrow into is you've gone international over
the last few years. Tell meabout international and how that's happened, and

(16:15):
yeah, where you've been and howyou feel about it. So the really
cool thing was I remember my firstinternational mural I think was so other in
twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. SoI contacted one of my friends who lived
in France, and you know,I was just telling her Iris, my
friend Iris. I was telling her, it's like, it's one of my
dreams to do a mural or paytin Paris, And she was like okay,

(16:38):
I'll call you back in the day. And I was just like okay,
because you know when people say that, you don't expect them to call
you back in a day, andlike, I have something for you.
She called me back in the day. She set me up with the C
two and five. He was likeone of the big international artists. They
actually call him the French Banksy.He actually knows Banksy, which is funny,
but he you know when I whenI met him out there, he

(17:02):
like took me to different places andlike he was like, here's his art.
Can he paint here? Because hehad like clout there. So he
took me around and got me likethree murals and was like, okay,
I'm leaving to go paint and Rwanda, I'll be back in a week.
And I was like, I'm tryingto be where you are in a couple
of years. So he got memy first murals in v Tree. It's
like a suburb of Paris. It'skind of it's kind of like the the

(17:23):
ard More to Philadelphia, just tryingto give like a or like yeah,
it's like the ard More basically,but it's it's funny because like in the
center of Paris. They try tomaintain like the aesthetic of like the old
stuff, so you'll have like curatedmural sections and stuff on buildings, but
not like V Tree. V Tree. It's like one of those places you
go to and it's like street artistseverywhere. So that was a really cool

(17:45):
place. So it just kind ofexpanded from there. I have stuff in
thirteen thirteen countries now something like that. Thirteen Yeah, so I did in
less than nine years. Yeah,I did a pair London, Tokyo,
Costa Rica, Casablanca, Puntacana,Toulon, wherever else. I did Puerto

(18:11):
Rico, but obviously that's not acountry, that's a territory. I'm forgetting
something. It's yeah, yeah,Windsor, Ontario. Yeah yeah, if
I really think about it, Ican name it. What was your favorite
place you went to? Ooh.I feel like I liked them all for
different reasons that would be understood,you know. Yeah, yeah, because

(18:33):
I feel like I had like acompletely different experience in all the different places.
Like I feel like Paris felt themost like home outside of the US,
because like just the whole way thatthe city runs, Like if you
walk around Philly, you're like Oh, I understand how the city runs because
you know, it was based onit was based on Paris, so it's
really easy to get around there.And also like I made a lot of
friendships from uh, Like I've donesix murals over there over time, so

(18:56):
I've made like, yeah, soI've made some friends and up there.
I think you've just been in thirteencountries. You've been back to Paris.
Yeah, I've been back to Paris. Yeah several times. Well I was
back to Paris, had three orfour times. I just was doing like
two miurals. Yeah, every timeI was there. That's crazy to say
that that's what where you've come to. Yeah, it's it's such a such
a weird thing to think about becauseit's it's such an interesting thing, like

(19:21):
because you know, like I grewup in North Philly and so like I
remember seeing things on like the newsand like CNN back when I was younger.
It's like, yeah, these kidsaren't going to be around when they're
twenty five. And like I've paintedin Paris and Africa at this point.
So it's like such a like amind blowing thing. And Casablanca was another
place that I really loved for likethe the culture and the people. I
just remember because the funny thing isthey found me for Casablanca. When I

(19:45):
was painting in Paris, one ofthe guys asked me to come over there
and paint for a festival that theywere doing there. So I go over
and I paint something for the festivaland I got to hang out with all
the actors and actresses and uh overthere. It was just a really really
fun time. Made some lifelong friendsover there too. That's amazing. Yeah.

(20:06):
So, and you grew up inNorth Philly. Where in North Philly
before around Brown Neary Okay, sonorth Work. Yeah, it's like North
Philly Kevin Heart Murrel. Yeah,like literally the Kevin Heart mural is probably
sixty feet from where I grew up. Okay, yeah, all right,
And so and you were through theNorth Philly went through the Philly school systems
too. Did you go to highschool or so high school? I?

(20:26):
So I went. I was onlyin the Philly school school system for up
until middle second grade. Then Iwent to Friends elect Down private Quaker school.
Okay, in city. But you'restill living in North Philly. Yeah,
Yeah, I lived in North Phillyup until I was probably about fifteen,
and then I moved out West.Wow. Yeah wow. So your

(20:47):
childhood you were you were you youwere born in a statistically area. What
they said to you was very correct. Yeah, where most people are not
going to live past the twenty five. They're not going to get an education,
You're not going to make anything outof themselves. They were either gonna
be in jail or dead. Yep. And you had everything going against you.
Yeah. Yeah, and here youare painting murals in thirteen different countries.

(21:11):
It's such such a such a funnything and crazy thing, and not
just that, Like I thought itwas cool that the new Fresh Prince uh
TV tell me about that incident,that that whole So it was such a
cool thing because like they contacted meto do work for the New bel Air
show, which is a yeah,it's a peacock NBC universal thing. And

(21:36):
the craziest thing is because I livein Overbrook. Now, when they contacted
me, they didn't know that I'velike I was in over Like I literally
lived in the area, like noteven just westerfleyd the the exact area that
like Will and his his family grewup in. So it's funny, like
when they found out that, theywere like, oh my god, that's
such a like funny coincidence. Sothey brought me on board to do art,

(21:57):
and I did some art for likefor the actual show. So like
on episode six of season one ofbel Air, you can see my art
on the show as Jabbari, whoplays Will on the show is playing the
piano, like you'll see my artand stuff behind him. And then I
also did promotion for the show atPhiladelphia International Airport. They had me do

(22:19):
a big mural that they had promotingthe show for a while. Yeah,
that's so cool. Yeah, Imean you think about it, like here
you are, you know, akid from Philly once again, you know,
and I think that's important for peopleto hear and then people to know
that it gives hope first of all, you know, because you know,
sometimes people that look like you,yeah, get they don't chances like that.

(22:41):
That's why I go to try tolike talk to the kids and stuff
when I came, just to letthem know, like the there are opportunities
out there. I love it youtalk to classrooms. Yeah uh huh,
yeah, see that's cool. Youknow, the coolest ones so far,
because you know, I've done acouple of classrooms and stuff around Philadelphia.
With the coolest one, I gotcontacted to talk to some kids in Columbia.
So I talked to some like overlike a zoom thing. They found

(23:03):
my artwork online and like had thekids like ask me questions like that was
the coolest things. How'd you guyseven find me? That is actually really
cool? I it was cool.These are these are things that I think
people need to know too, becauseI also think people think that concept of
artists as starving artist. You know, they just they just want to paint.
Yeah, they just want to paint. You see what they do,

(23:23):
and that's not just painting. Yeah, it takes a lot of work and
dedications painting, yeah, you know, because it's it's funny, Like I
was just talking to somebody this aboutthis recently. Like even when it comes
down to like pricing and stuff forthe artwork, and a lot of people
don't understand how pricing works. AndI happen to paint fast, so some
people like when you give them aprice for the work and stuff and they're

(23:44):
like, well, you painted thisreally fast. But it's like I had
to explain to people like it tookme forty years to be able to know
how to do this that fast.It's not like this is not something that
I'm you know, just I'm ableto do. I had to like learn
how to do this fast. It'syour craft or right, It's like making
a table, right, you knowyou're not going to just solder and putting
together, you know, parkle mmhmm. That's a craft. Yeah,
it's a skill. It took youforty years. Yeah, it took me

(24:07):
because I couldn't like the stuff thatI'm doing now, I couldn't have done
that ten years ago, like notat all, like the faces that I'm
doing now, like the realism andstuff like I couldn't have done that ten
years ago. Do you do youoften like look at your old stuff and
compare it to new stuff all thetime. Like I obsess over it a
little bit. I knew that eventhe stuff that I just paint recently,
like got my friend Kim like makeswonder me all the time because a lot
of times, like if we're justsitting there, she'll catch me like analyzing

(24:30):
my work on my phone because likeevery time I look at my work,
I'm like more more, bigger,better, more, and more and more
so, which is why things aregoing so well, because it's like I
have to make new stuff, andI'm constantly like pushing the envelope and putting
new stuff out there. So itjust helps when people are constantly seeing you
make stuff. You push yourself alot of time, very determined, and
I don't sleep. You don't sleep, doesn't shut down, does it just

(24:52):
does not? You know, andyou know, knowing you for as long
as I had, and knowing youknow your sister as well as another determined
person, that's pretty good in therefor termation. Okay, yeah, so
if you you know you don't sleep, you know your your your goal and
your focus is consistently on your artand your skill and your path. What

(25:12):
do you do for a lawyers?The funny thing is, and people make
fun of me about this, likeeven in my like if I'm going on
vacation, I'll go paint. Ilike painting, Like it's it's one of
those funny things where like I partof me when I do get some free
time. A lot of times I'mlike, I really want to go and
join some like us like sports leaguesand play like flag football and stuff like.

(25:34):
But I'm just like, I don'thave enough time to commit to doing
that. So like when I getlike five hours free, I'm like,
I'm going paint something. You know. That's all right though, you know
what you like. That's how theMiami started too. We were both going
to our puzzle. Yeah, youwere like, do you know how your
walls down there? You didn't evenI was like, yeah, we'll get

(25:56):
a wall, got a wall,and you wanted to paint. Yeah.
You wanted to spend the time wherepeople out there going to you know,
show shows. Yeah, did thepain yeahm donating in this year. Yeah,
so how many how many times havebeen down there and how many walls
have been paying down there? Probablybeen there, it's like six, seven,
eight years. It's somewhere in that. I'd have to like really count
back to to know. So I'mnot sure if that year that I was

(26:19):
down there with you, if thatwas the first, I think that might
have been the second year if I'mnot mistaken. Yeah, that was the
second year I was down there.Yeah, so twenty seventeen, I think
it was. Oh, then thatmight have been the third year then,
because I think my first year wasin twenty twenty fifteen twenty six. Yeah,
I think it was seventeen, Yeah, because Philly Grebb was around,
or maybe it was sixteen twenty six. Twenty sixteen might have been my first

(26:42):
year, and I think twenty seventeenmight have been the year that we did
that. Yeah, which is whichis cool. And you know you have
met some really great artists. Hyeah, one of amazing artists. Yeah.
What what what artist stands out inyour mind that you were like a
fanboy for? Oh wow, it'syou know what's the The funny thing is

(27:03):
I feel like I fanboy over alot of artists that are like my friends.
And that's that's why I just recentlydid this this big collaboration show that
I did called a Chameleon, whereI collaborated with forty two artists. Because
there's so many artists that are aroundthat I just I love their work,
like people like like Sepper and Boostaand like these guys like I love these
guys like I love their work andI love you know, like Kyle Kanfer.

(27:26):
There's there's a lot of people,all good names, all people,
all good duds. It's funny likeI start like naming names and I'm like,
oh, well, I have tosay this person, have to say
this person. Shout everybody out.I have to shout Emily out because she
just did her show. Yeah,Emily said that she would do the show
once she's yeah, it's it's it'sso funny. I feel like a lot
of people are gonna see this andlike when didn't show shout me out.
It's like my my brain in realtime, I have to think just Eloys

(27:51):
is thinking about you. He didn'tsay his name. It's because we edited
out right, we cut it out. Yeah, I love all of you.
I just have to think. That'sanother thing that I will say about
you as well. You know,art can be a very much an ego
trip for people, for artists,and some artists can be all about themselves,
and you are, and you probablyto an extent art for yourself,

(28:11):
which is a good thing because youneed to be because it's you. Yeah,
and you should teach your own horrythat it is one of those things.
But you also are very selfless andvery community focused and oriented. It's
so funny because like my friends,like my best friend Kim, she's always
like, I gotta knock you downa peger two, so your head doesn't
get too big and like my enterand teases me a lot too, because
like I I like, it's oneof those things where I talk a lot

(28:33):
of trash. Well like like I'mlike, you know me, I'm very
humble. I just like talking trashand my friends. But you know,
because you can't. Yeah, butyou know the way I've always looked at
it when it comes down to art, it's like I don't understand why like
there would be like competition between artistsbecause it's like either people are gonna like
my stuff like your stuff, likeboth are like neither. I can't control

(28:56):
that. So it's like I don'tunderstand why I should have you know what
I mean, like anything against youlike I I and me personally just the
way I am, Like I loveseeing people winning, like if even if
I don't know them, Like ifi see like another artist doing really well
on Instagram, I'm like, ohthat's awesome, Like I'm I'm happy to
see this. So yeah, Inever understood the the the other side of
it where it's like oh, likethe backstay a yo, we I want

(29:19):
to see everybody win. That's justhow I am. No competition, yeah,
really is no competition, you know, you know, and you have
a great group of people on there. There's a lot of people that I've
connected with because of you, yeah, you know, and and vice versa
actually, cause like I met Imet Zurbi because of that the wall,
Yeah, that we did on mybirthday. Yeah, that was. Oh,
I definitely have to shout out Alex. I definitely have to shout out

(29:41):
Alex. That's that's my buddy.He painted with me on the the fifth
and Oxford wall. Oh okay,yeah, yeah, So that that was
Oxford Billy Penn Studio. That wasa chameleon. Yeah, that was that
was so that that was an offoffshoot of the the Chameleon Art Show.
So I called the Wall Concrete Chameleon. So it was like it was like
basically from Avis to the Wall whereI was just there more people that I

(30:02):
wanted to collaborate with for like onthis project I got for the on the
Wall section. So it was itwas some of the same artists like I
had Sepper and Zerby and Bernard andlike some of the other people on for
that thing. But also I broughton that's where I brought on a Busta
and Jay Martin and some of theother people that I brought on for this

(30:22):
wall because there was certain people.There was just so much work I wanted
to do for this project that Icouldn't get all into the show. I
just I did forty two paintings inthree months, like an insane person.
Yeah, and that's that's why Iwas. I'm pretty sure I had a
nervous break down. There's some gosh, do you drink coffee? I was
living on coffee then, and like, I don't. I don't feel like

(30:44):
I drank that much coffee before,but I was. I was only getting
three hours of sleep a day,like for about three months straight, like
working on that project. Yeah,it was one of the reason why I
was so crazy. It was becauseit was like one of those things where
like when I first had the ideafor the show, I talked to a
certain amount artists like, Hey,I'm thinking about doing this this show,
like do you want to collaborate forit? And so then like about like

(31:04):
eight months past, so I forgotsome of the people that I talked to
about doing the project. So whenI really started getting into it, and
I'm like I contacted some more artistsand then the other artists hit me up
like, hey, am I stillpart of the project, and I was
like, oh my god, Iforgot So I was like, yeah,
no, like, you're definitely stilla part of it because I wanted you
on there. That's why I contactedyou in the first place. It was

(31:25):
just my brain. When I reallygot into it, I forgot that I'd
already contacted some people. So thenI was like, oh yeah, like,
well now this is turning from likea medium sized show into a big
show. So I had to makesure I got everything done in that timeframe,
which is nutty, but it windup being super successful. It was
really cool. That's crazy, andthat's why I know about artists. Artists
will just work round the clock.They won't sleep. They will look like

(31:47):
shit some days. Yeah, theywill look like they haven't slept in a
week. Oh I look like azombie. Like like I was looking at
some of the pictures, like fromthe actual show, and like I always
had to have bags under my eyesbecause I just don't sleep, but like
I had like like suitcases. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was.
It was rough, but I gotthrough it thanks thanks to to Kim

(32:08):
and Cam. Like I literally couldhave done it without them. It's always
good to have a support yeah,you know your circle. That's the funny
thing is, like I have areally really really good support system. You
know, I'm really thankful for likeall all of my friends, Like anybody
that I called and said, like, hey, I'm kind of drowning here.
I need a little bit of help, like everybody. You know,

(32:30):
that's a good that's a that's asign of the character. That's a good
sign of character. Well, becauseI think what it is is people know,
like I always have everyone's back,So like when I when I need
help, it's easy to ask becauseit's not like, you know, pretty
much everybody knows me. He knowsthat they can call me for anything they
need. You know, if I'mfree, I'm there for it. So,
what was the biggest mural you've everdone on your own? Solo mural?

(32:53):
Funny thing is, outside of thecouple of colladmiration murals, like most
of them are solo ones. That'sthe biggest one. Is that's hard because
I have one that's like sixty fivefeet by fifty five feet or something,
or like sixty five by fifty seven. I have one that's like not as

(33:15):
tall, but it's really long.I have a couple that are like fourteen
fifteen sixteen feet by like one hundredand fifty feet. So I have a
couple that are like that that arejust really long. I just did one
for Miural Arts don Antonyton Atlantic inPhilly that was fifteen feet by one hundred
and fifty five feet. So Ihave a lot of really really long ones.

(33:36):
I also did a really big oneat Spark Therapeutic right across from thirty
Street station that's like forty five feetby like twenty seven feet. Yeah,
so I have some pretty big ones. Yeah. So you get a lyft
and everything for these stream out there, and you're not afraid of heights.
No, so I when I wasyounger, I used to be more afraid
of heights. Now I'm more justwary of them. But like like if

(34:00):
I'm painting a painting zone, yeah, you know, it doesn't matter.
Like I remember one time I wasdoing this miror and it's right at what's
that like sixteenth and Chestnut, andit's like on the side it's a for
like a pizza spot, And Idid this miural and it the lift had
to go over the pizza spot andthen up higher and I didn't feel safe,

(34:22):
so that I was very wary whenI was doing that one because I
didn't feel safe like that. Yeah, yeah, it was just the way
it was, and like, look, it was weird. It was.
It actually felt easier when the sunwent down and I was up there painting
because the perspective was different when becauseof the lights inside right, So that
that was a little easy. ButI usually don't feel it until I get

(34:45):
up really high, Like if I'maround like thirty thirty five feet, I'm
fine. Like I really don't feelit until I started getting up to like
like like forty five fifty fifty fivefeet, and then then I start feeling
like ugh, up kind of high. But then I just like focus on
the wall when it's stand on aat that height, looks straight. That's
amazing. I'll do anything. I'lldo anything for for art. But like

(35:06):
there there are a couple of uralswhere like I see people and they're up
doing like one hundred foot tall murals, and part of me really wants to
do one that's like one hundred feettall, but like I know that's gonna
be stressed, Like it's it's likeone of those bucketless ones where I'll do
one, you know, it's it'sI didn't want. Yeah, But normally,
like we're staying somewhere in between,like at the top of it,

(35:28):
like forty five to sixty feet,like that's that's comfort zone. I'm at
least familiar, familiar where it mightnot be comfortable for me to be at
fifty five sixty feet, but I'mfamiliar with it, so I know how
to deal with it, you knowwhat I mean. One hundred feet is
a little different. Yeah, LikeI said, I'm like going up on
bathwets like that, let alone,you know, Yeah, and a little
thing that's swaying on uh you know, and you know you know what it

(35:51):
is. I think the real thingthat bothers me when I'm up that high.
It's not even so much to height. It's set like when you're up
that high on a lift when thewind blows, it shakes because all the
weights at the tip of it,so like it starts shifting back and forth.
And that's crazy. That's the thingabout it. It's a skinny thing
that lists you up and then you'reon a large metal piece of landing.

(36:14):
I don't want that. Yeah,you know, i'd be freaking out of
you kidding, get me down.Yeah, yeah, So you have a
book, a book, yeah,book. This will be my second coffee
table book and technically my third bookbecause I did a coloring book first,
and then I did my music coffeetable book, which had all the women

(36:35):
that I've painted over six years,and now this is going to be my
first like Mural just just solely focusedon Mural's book, the coloring book.
Yeah, let's talk about that.Yeah, I remember that one. Yeah,
yeah, no, I think Iprobably have Yeah, no, that
was that was my first publication,and it's just like it was one of
those things where people just always toldme, because of my style and the

(36:57):
shapes, like you should do acoloring book. And I was like,
that's a pretty fantastic idea. AndI think I'm going to do another one
sometimes soon. I don't know when. I don't know when. It might
be a twenty twenty five thing,but I should have another coloring books.
Yeah, goals your brain one shot. I'm trying to trying to get my
merchandising up. You know, it'sa you need to do your merchants to
get up for business school was forthe education was for you already had the

(37:22):
art education on your own. Yeah, because I can't be going up on
sixty foot lips when I'm like eightyyears old. So I have to get
my stuff so where my merchandising isrunning, you know what I mean.
So yeah, well, let's hopeby the time of your years old,
you know you've hit that spot whereyou're not to get up on the lift.
And the funny thing is like knowingme, I'm probably gonna want to

(37:42):
do a certain things, and Isay, that's probably a good idea of
moving, like with my cane acrossthis like little platform. So you did
a coffee table book on all themusic you did in six years. Yeah,
it was like, yeah, itwas it was like a period of
six years. How many were thereare there? Oh? In that first
book there had to be at leastfour hundred Yeah, like four hundred different

(38:02):
women that I painted. Yeah,mm hmm. Wow. Some of them
are friends of yours, Yeah,that you've done, You've just they're just
friends that you and some are peoplethat you've just encountered. How do you
find so? Like, So,my thing is, especially when I'm painting
women. I usually, if Ican, I like to paint my friends

(38:24):
because it's like, if I'm gonnajust paint some money, I might as
well just like show some love toI have a lot of beautiful friends,
so why not do something where Ican give them a present, you know
what I mean? And on topof everything else. And it's always because
the funny thing is I usually don'ttell them or I'll tell them I'm that
I'm interested about in painting them,and then I'll get photos from them,
and then I'll let time lap sothey forget and then I'll just post it

(38:45):
and tagn them in and on socialmedia, just like that's a great gift.
Yeah, that's a really great gift. I remember I surprised my friend
one day at a graffiti per actually, and she she came to visit.
I was like, hey, youknow, come, and she came to
visit and then she walked up andsaw her face in the wall. You
know, it's a funny thing.Yeah did you get did you get video

(39:06):
of that? Oh? I gotvideo? Of course. That's sick.
Yeah, I'll put it on spot. Who's your favorite views? No,
I'm joking. I was like youyou give me mad pitchforks. But I
think it's interesting that they're probably thewell number one. If you had that
many, there can't be a favoritebecause each stood out to you. It's

(39:28):
different a certain light or a certainway at that time too. It's it's
it's like a like that's and that'sthat's what the interesting thing about it is.
It's like at the time where Iwas looking through images that face like
inspired me to paint them. Soit's it's it's different. You know,
even even the photos that I'm choosingfor reference are different. And like I've
painted there are a couple of peoplethat have painted multiple times, and like,

(39:50):
you know, the picture I paintedthe second time is way different than
the one I painted the first time, just because I was looking for a
different thing. So yeah, it'sit's it's just a about the other energy
of the moment sometimes a little bitof serendipity in that. Sometimes I'll just
be flipping through and all I'm like, oh, that one, that's the
one. You know. It's well, I will tell you. I mean
I've watched you, you know,on several murals on canvas. You've done

(40:15):
live paintings for my nonprofit where you. We've auctioned them off and raffling them
off at the end, and Iwill tell you that, you know,
it really shocks me that some peopledon't know the value of art nowadays.
Yeah, but we could educate themon that, and that's what we're here
for because you you just already educatedpeople by saying you know, like it's
your time. It's many years toget to that practice. It's almost like

(40:36):
those things that like, you know, I want it, well, here's
a d yi, then go doit on your own. You know,
that's what you have done. Soyeah, this this, you know,
this is this is definitely your.This is your your Did you ever think
when you were a kid and yourmom was making you do this that this
would be your your career, yourprofession. I know, I it's what
I wanted to do. Well,I want to obviously when you're a kid

(40:57):
want to do different things, likeI wanted to be an astronaut too.
I'm gonna be a cop. However, is that which is it's it's such
a funny thing. Is actually likelike speaking of that, I'm painting an
astronaut tomorrow, so that's gonna befun. Yeah. Yeah, So I
was looking for something interesting to uhpaint for my my book cover for the
for the new book, and landedon the astronaut astronaut breaking through a crack

(41:22):
in the wall. So I wantto do that tomorrow. And I was
gonna wear my astronaut shirt holding theboombox today. That would have been just
that would have been that would havebeen a thing. They couldn't find it.
Yeah, Carpenter shirt. You know, so your new book, tell
me what that's about. So yeah, the new book. The new book
is gonna be mostly focused on mymurals, but I'm going to have a

(41:44):
certain section in there that kind offeatures like a kind of like uh,
wall to canvas thing where it showslike some of the styles that have developed
on the wall and how I tookthat to to do in like more of
a contemporary art format. So there'sgonna be a portion of the book where
I can something like that with withBut the main focus of the book's going

(42:04):
to be in all my murals aroundthe world. The abstract piece is the
muse pieces, all of them.It's so cool. Well, you to
do you have to go by yourselfor you usually have people with me.
Yeah, because here's what usually happensit's either me and either my sister or
even the whole family sometimes, orit'll be me and my my college roommates

(42:29):
because a lot it's like we dotwo guys trips a year, once to
Miami for Art Week and and ArtBoss and everything, and the other one
is like some to someplace overseas forus just have vacation. But if I'm
going to a place that i haven'tbeen before, I'm gonna paint something.
It's just I'm not gonna go toa country I've never been before and not
paint something. So I'm just oneof those things. They've accepted it at
this point. They're like, Okay, well this is the day where we

(42:52):
know you're probably gonna paint and we'llkind of playing around, you know.
So when you go to other doyou take your paint with you? You
buy it? You should have tobuy it there because like you can't like,
uh can't ship, can't well youcan't fly with spray paint. That's
what I thought. Yeah, so, but I didn't think you could,
yeah, pressurize. The funny thingis, even when I was taking the
bullet train from London to Paris,I thought I was gonna be able to

(43:14):
just take the spray paint in mysuitcase on the bullet train. Can't even
do that, So it ditched thespray paint by Luckily, Renda was in
town the same time as I was, and so I had to give my
paint. I gave my paint toRenda Randa. Yeah, I love Rendah.
I was actually gonna say, youknow, you did that collaboration,
wow and wow. But we alsodid another one with him. That's that

(43:36):
was. That was when it happenedin London in love. So the funny
thing about that was it was justone of those like it's the serendipities,
like one of those things. SoI landed in London, you know,
like the first thing you do isturn on your phone, you know,
check to see what's going on.It just happened to log into Facebook.
First thing I saw as soon asI land I landed and opened up Facebook.
When I landed in London, itwas Renda posting. It was like

(43:58):
five minutes ago. It's like,just landed in London, where are the
good places to eat? And Iwas like, I just landed in London,
where are you? And so Ihit him up and then we met
up and we grabbed paint. Wewent just freezing him before that, I
knew before that. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, he's a trip.
He's a great guy. Fun funnyfunny thing. Funny thing about that

(44:19):
is I actually the first time Imet Renda was remember when I was talking
to you before we started about thethe the charity event thing that where I
was live painting. He actually hewas in town and I guess we had
been following each other on social media, so I was live painting, so
he just came to the live paintingthing just to you know, so we
can meet in person. Really gooddude. Oh yeah, I've hosted him

(44:43):
several times when he's in town.He stayed with me, and yeah,
Renda's great. You know, Ijust tell him he needs to wear a
narrator, he needs a mask.Yeah, yeah, I said. I
think he's just he's a great guy. That he's he's doing good things too,
and that's that's so positive things.You been able to have colleagues that
had become you know, your peers, that became friends, right, and
they became support. You collaborated withthem, and you've each watched their journeys

(45:07):
grow. It's it's so crazy.It's like there's so many people that I've
just seen just we've grown in theart industry together. Like I remember,
uh, probably ten twelve years ago, King Saladeen, He's like he's doing
amazing right now. I remember meetinghim because we both went into Blick at
the same time and they had likea like a blank canvas thing and they

(45:30):
were letting people test out the newspray paint. To me and him like
went up to the thing and startedlike painting at the same time. So
naturally we started talking kept in touchover the years. He's doing crazy things,
amazing things. Well, didn't hedo something over at Boyds too?
Didn't Yeah, he did did thboids. That's really cool. Yeah.
See, so you've seen people grow, Yeah, you've seen you grow and

(45:50):
that support Like that's why I sayI love it. I love to see
people winning. It's like such acool thing, you know, and and
and you are sincere, so likepeople that are watching this is sincere.
He does want to see people win. Yeah, there's a lot of humbleness
going on there. There's very alot of selflessness in there, and you
know, and I know that fora fact for knowing you so well,
you know, because I think peoplecan get a misconception to that artists kind

(46:14):
of have you know, an airabout them, but also rightfully so look
what they're doing. I mean sometimesbut you were yourself. You give you
you know, you're philanthropic. Yougive back to the community. Yeah,
as much as like charity, youdo what you can. You know,
that stuff amazing me. Like Isaid, you know, you don't sleep,
you don't shut down, you don'tdo what What do you really like

(46:36):
to do though? For fun outsideof art? Outside of art? So
what I honestly like my favorite thingto do outside of art is I literally
just like going out to eat withmy friends, like like just being out.
I just love just enjoying like theenergy of just being out, you
know, going out dancing, havingfun, to enjoying people's company. That's
like my favorite thing to do.But I am a big sports guy too.

(46:57):
Yeah, like I said, Ilike, I wish I had time
to go and join a couple ofleagues and play sports. But I feel
like I beat up my body enoughas it is, just climbing up and
down ladders all day. My kneeshurt. So you get your workout,
workout. Yeah. So you're aPhilly sports fan all Philly teams. Have
you ever done any work for anyof the Philly teams? Yep? Yeah,
yeah. So I had a muralin Lincoln Financial for uh for a

(47:21):
year. They turned that one overthe one in Pepsi Plaza, And you
know, I did a game dayposter for the Eagles. I did want
to Davante and then I did athing with Jalen Hurts that was like actually
pressed for the mural. Then Iwound up doing Oh we played a flag
football game called three Touchdowns. Thatgame that was the last time I actually
played a flag like a flag footballgame. Was mind you why you want

(47:45):
to do it ever again? Yeah? It's it's so it's so funny because
because Jalen was there, I probablywent a little harder than I I normally
would have. And so like,yeah, I remember one time, like
I I dove and I caught thetouchdown and bang myself up and I like
I messed my leg all up andstuff too, because like the the field

(48:07):
at that point, which is itjust roughed me up. But I remember
Jalen helped me up off the ground, like you know, gave me a
high five and stuff, but Iwas like, okay, it was worth
it. Yeah, Like I said, once again, I want you know,
I I think there's a great correlation. I think it's great, you
know store and a great message forpeople to realize that, like, you
know, don't ever let where you'recoming from, you know, dictate where

(48:30):
you're going right right, yep,absolutely, you know, because there's a
lot of people that have that mentalityand the mind frame that I'm not going
to get. And honestly, thefunny thing is, like, you know,
just talking about where I grew upearlier, like I know what that
feels like, you know what Imean, Like it it sometimes feels like
like you're you're trapped, so likeuh, but you know, sometimes just

(48:52):
knowing that you have opportunities you canescape that that system, guess it's scary
too, you know what I mean. It's like I just I just remember,
like growing up, I remember alot of times I was scared.
And a lot of people don't thinkabout that because like you see people and
they're in certain environments and like theylook hard and stuff, but a lot
of us are just scared humans onthe inside. You know what I mean,
like trying to navigate life, whichin general just feels like a tornado

(49:15):
that you just got thrown in randomly, you know what I mean. And
like I think a lot of peopledon't realize and most people are just running
around scared, trying to figure outwhat they're doing with their lives. You
know, it's awesome. Yeah,that's break it down, that really is
because I don't think people realize that. Yeah, they really don't, and
if they do, they're afraid toadmit it. Yeah, I mean,
yeah, a lot of people areafraid to admit that they're scared, but

(49:36):
most most of us are like noone, Like I was just talking to
my intern about that, and sheshe's like, you know, getting ready
to go into college and she hasto wait to see if she's gotten certain
schools, and she's like terrified waitingfor like most of us, because we
have no idea what's going on inlife. It's literally like a whirlwind,
Like most of us just walking aroundscared. For most of the times they
talk about what they say, Yeah, it's always fear of the unknowntain.

(50:00):
That's why they break fear down asfalse evidence appearing real just sort of put
that in your mind because you don'tknow what to expect. Ring Well,
one of my favorite quotes is froma hip hop song with Ross Syen,
and he had this quote where hesaid, challenge your fears because shadows only
appear when light is present. Andthat's that was like one of my favorite
quotes of all times that you know, just you know what I mean,

(50:20):
Yeah, not really, yeah,yeah, but yeah, that's cool.
Yeah. I love that quote becausethat's that's how I try to approach life.
Like you're only gonna like achieve greatnessif you challenge some of the things
that you're afraid of, you know, because like that, that's one of
the things that people don't understand aboutart, even like so I remember when
I first started, it's scary toput your art out there because people are
gonna judge it, you know whatI mean. It's scary to put yourself
out there. That is not aneasy thing. So you've handled rejection well

(50:44):
over the years, yeah, Imean, like I or learned to at
least. I think it's one ofthose things where, like you at a
certain point you realize that not everyone'sit doesn't matter what you do, not
everyone's gonna like you have people thathate on Michael Jordan. Not everyone's gonna
like what you do, you knowwhat I mean. I mean, so,
uh, you can't worry about that. You have to do what you're

(51:04):
doing for you and for the peoplethat are gonna appreciate it. And that's
like once I changed mindset to knowthat that's what I had to do,
things kind of change. It wasdifferent. I just can't believe people hate
on Michael Jordan. Howey, Well, you know it's you know, it's
it's one of those things, ohlike I love Lebron, I hate Jordan.
You know, it's like like littlesilly stuff like that. So yeah,
you know, like so people peoplehave like their own tastes and and
thing, you know what I mean, So you can't really control that thing.

(51:28):
Like everyone's different, Everyone has apersonality, everyone has an opinion,
So you can't really change that.Just you know, do what you do
for you and for the people whoare going to appreciate it. And that's
all you have to focus about.Because there's certain people that are you know,
I'm not one of those those peoplethat like tends to focus on like
the the people that are sending likethe negativity and like the so called haters
and stuff your way. I justI choose not to focus on that at

(51:51):
all. But it's just it's somethingone of those things that you see though
because and you see a lot ofit because of things like on social media,
and like it's one of those thingsthat I hate because it's like you're
hiding behind a keyboard keyboard sometimes andthen people because they have a certain thing
where they feel safe, they justgo on and just so mean to other

(52:13):
people. I never muscle is.Yeah, like I I've never understood that,
I like going out of your wayto tear other people down. It's
actually it's people who hate themselves.Yeah, yeah, I think I think
it's it's an insecurity thing because likeI was having this conversation with someone the
other day and I was like,I don't understand how like, let's say
you don't like the way someone looks, Like, how do you go to
someone else's page and comment negatively onhow they look? Like you're making a

(52:36):
like concerted effort to go and shareyour negativity to that person. Like that's
such a mean thing. So I'venever understood that, And I used to
like think about that too, Andnow I look at it like, now
it's just a sign of character,and like that person, I know what
they're like right now, you're showingyour true color, right right, shame
on, you know, you know? Yeah, And I think that happens
a lot in relationships and in personallife and day to day. We don't

(52:58):
focus on what the actual issue asat hand or what's going on. We
focus on something personally because now it'sa personal attack, right, I'm gonna
hurt that person instead of focus onthe real issue and what the real issue
is. That happens a lot.It's sad. It's sad that humanity has
got to that point. Yeah,it really is, It really is.
But like like I said, youcan't focus on that stuff. You kind
of have to just focus on thepositive and all the good stuff. That's

(53:20):
why I love the fact with youbecause your art is positive. Your colors
are vibrant. I don't know anyof your work that is like dark color
scheme. There might be something,yeah, there there are a couple,
like if I do like black andwhite sketches and stuff, but occasionally,
but like for the most part,myself is very bright and colorful, bright
and colorful, it cannot be missedall over this city. It is all

(53:42):
over the place. You know,if you had one artist, one that
one big artist to collaborate with,who would it be? Ooh, that
is tough. That is that isreally tough. I really like, I'm
a big fan of meural artists.Tristan Eaton, he comes to Minus one.

(54:04):
There's a There's a guy Helio Braythat's super super talented. There's there's
honestly so many that it's it's hardto even because I know I'm forgetting people
that I absolutely love. But thoseare two that pop up right away,
where like pretty much every time Isee what they're putting out like that,
that's phenomenal. That's serious. Yeah, so you had your next book's coming
out, and that is coming out. It should be sometime around first quarter

(54:29):
of twenty twenty four, because we'reabout to start the pre orders and usually
it's gonna take like like three orfour months for production. Do you have
other books on hand if you wantto buy your old copies or yeah,
yeah, I have my Muses book. I actually have to I'm almost sold
out of the coloring book. Ihave to read. It was one of
those things that the guy that Iused for my original like manufacturing went out
of business. So now I justhave to find a new person to do

(54:51):
the production now, which is whyI haven't restocked on that. But I
have plenty of my muses book instock. What's your website, leyismackwayn Art
dot com. You're probably gonna haveto put a little thing on exact spell
it to make sure they spell itright. But uh and if they want
to find you out there on Instagram, yeah, it's at Culture's Clothing on

(55:13):
Instagram TikToker. I'm on TikTok.Hmm. Yeah, I'm trying to embrace
it. I still can't know.I usually post my my time laps is,
my my videos. Yeah, andit's Cultures Clothing as well on on
on TikTok. I think I'm justa Loyis mckaway. Okay, so you
get that, okay, yeah yo. So yeah, it's it's one of
those interesting things where I've been talkingwith uh some people about like especially when

(55:38):
I do the re launch for theclothing line, like separating the Cultures and
the Lloyis macawayn Art and have themfunction as like two separate things. But
it's just they're just logistics of thatbecause I have to like it's it's weird,
it's a logistics thing. It's hardyou're branded with both yeah, yeah,
and it's it's one like because Iwanted to continue, like the main

(55:58):
account that has all the followers withthe I want to turn that into a
Lloyd's macawayne art and like start mycultures just to really focus on the brand
stuff where I'm just posting stuff aboutthe clothing. So so obviously the one
where I'm like showing more of myself, I wanted to have that is my
main thing. But it's there's somelogistics to doing that though, so I'm
still trying to figure out that.But that's gonna be the man with a
name like yours. You can justbe you know, epanonymous like Priens.

(56:21):
It could just be a lawyers,you know, Banksy Lays, you know,
that would be pretty cool. Andthen I can just be a symbol
after a while too. It's funny, I already have a symbol, so
I could I could just be that. You actually do and it is it's
that. It's like, yeah,it's like a like a maze with my
initials and the crown on top.Yeah, I see, I know this
stuff. You'll recognize that out there. Any other big projects are coming up

(56:44):
on down the line, anything anywhereyou're gonna be So I'm going down to
Miami for our week first week inDecember, first first week of December.
That's like the next thing. Thebook is like the main thing, like
so like like you know, oneof the things. But there's there's I
don't know if I can talk aboutit yet. That's the only thing.
I'll tell you what. We're gonnahave to come back and talk about that.

(57:05):
Yeah, that way, when itdoes it built, how are they
talking about you'll find out. Yeah, yeah, there's there's a there's something
with an a less celebrity that Ijust did that. I I'm just waiting
to be able to post and talkabout it. Isn't that so the hard
thing when when you have like suchgreat news like that, but yeah,
like those disclosure things and you wantto say it. I mean, and
me, I got a big mouth. I'll be the first person that blurret

(57:27):
out like I'm working with those Yeahyou know, yeah, I finished your
thing in September. I've been likeholding on to it since then. I'm
just like, oh man, sothere's like a hot cold is burning mm
hmm. Yeah, well as soonas it comes into fruition, we'll talk
about that. Yeah for sure.But I I can see her and talk
to you for hours, enjoy it. I you know, you have the
attitude, you have the heart,you have the spirit. Your vibes are

(57:50):
amazing. I mean you have connected, like I said, with so many
people all over the place. Peopleconnect with your art. You need to
really go out there. You needto get on the internet that you need
to get out there on Google andcheck out eloyas Mechallane Art. You will
get the spelling because I'm not goingto stow for you. Dany'll put it
at the bottom there for us.Yeah, isn't me won't on paint I'm
su It's so funny. The onething is people don't like like when they

(58:13):
meet me in person and like,oh you you really are that friendly,
like as you are online, Likeyeah, yeah, no, that's that's
not an ec Like I'm really friendlyand he's serious when he's painting and he's
posting that coming out stop by.You did the one at the underpass that
one time and I kept stopping by. Yeah, something like yeah, and
that also gives you energy, Yeah, it does. And you know talking
to people, Yeah, it's younever know who could be the next news

(58:35):
h you know, very true,very true news. So, Olias,
I appreciate your time. I appreciateyou. I love everybody appreciate it.
And Danny and Justin thanks. Ro'skeeping me on track or as best as
you can keep me on track.And like I said, make sure you
check out Alloys Mechelane on Instagram,especially Cultures Clothing. Check out his website,
check out his art. You won'tbe disappointed. I appreciate your time.

(58:58):
Everybody else out there, remember whateveris you stand for, be a
voice. This is Brick Carbono Slovenia. How to break rest of your day