July 28, 2023 • 23 mins
A new art exhibit called POLLINATE has just opened at the Newark Airport after debuting a prototype at the Oculus in New York City last year. The exhibit aims to raise awareness for the importance of saving the bees, featuring beautiful imagery from world-renowned photographer Reka Nyari.
The real story, however, lies in the project's backstory. Founded by late celebrity designer, Kenny Davis, POLLINATE is now led by his widowed husband, Ilay Ron. Eight years after Davis's unexpected passing, Ron has finally been able to see his late husband's vision come to life.
The real story, however, lies in the project's backstory. Founded by late celebrity designer, Kenny Davis, POLLINATE is now led by his widowed husband, Ilay Ron. Eight years after Davis's unexpected passing, Ron has finally been able to see his late husband's vision come to life.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This week on the Art of Improvement, I'll be speaking with Eli Ron.
He is part of a new artexhibit called Pollinate. It's just opened on
the East Coast. He's got agreat story that ends successfully, but it
does not come without tears and alot of hard work. My conversation with
Eli Ron coming up next on theArt of Improvement. Thank you so much
(00:27):
for joining me today. I'm KarenKlaus. My guest is Eli Ron.
Eli, thank you so much forcoming on today. Oh, of course,
thank you for having me. Youknow what, I read your bio
and I was like, Okay,this is about you. This is about
an art exhibit, and this isabout something that has happened to you in
the past. And I want foryou to take me on this journey and
(00:51):
tell me how an art exhibit calledPollinate came to be. Well, it
started about I would say ten yearsago. Um my late husband Kenny Davis
had this idea for a cocktail tableum inside acrylic box filled with beautiful flowers
(01:15):
and um and some people saw itfrom the mayor's office and they were like,
oh wow, this is a greatconcept. And they were referring to
how perhaps this can be manifested intosomething a little bit bigger than a cocktail
table, like an art shower andinstallation. And and Kenny really liked that
(01:37):
idea. And immediately, UM whoeverknew Kenny UM knew that his mind was
always ahead of everything else that wasgoing on. So I already seen the
entire show, you see, hesaw the cause, he saw who we
can collaborate with, He saw thewhole thing in within seconds, UM.
(02:00):
And then the reference. The nextreference was, oh, we could do
something like the gate that happened inCentral Park back into thousand and five.
And that was obviously very ambitious,but the people of UM, you know,
the Mayor's office was very receptive forit. So that was a great
start, you know, to todo Pollinate as an art installation in Central
(02:23):
Park. So we call it Pollinatein the part. That's great. Yeah,
And and the thing is, UMwe started. I was always in
the you know, in behind thescenes, helping with the presentations, helping
with the uh the image of howthe installation might look on the paper,
(02:47):
presenting it to potential sponsors. Andthen we had an engagement with the Brookfield
Arts. We worked with some bigpeople from the entertain industry and from the
marketing and publicists, and they setup a meeting with Brooks's Arts in New
(03:10):
York and Brookses Art really really likedit, and they were about to sign
a check for two million dollars towardsthe project, and we already had at
that time, so it was evena little bit more than ten years ago,
because we had a letter of intentfrom the Mayor's office, you know,
(03:34):
inviting us to do this at CentralPark. At Central Park. This
was huge. And two weeks beforesigning of the check and he suddenly passed
away. It was completely unexpected.Had he go ahead? Oh? No,
go ahead? I was like,and that is just like my jaw
(03:55):
drop when you say Kenny passed awaysuddenly? I mean, what happened?
Do you mind sharing that? Wheredoes that put you? It was devastated,
heartbroken, shocked. Yes I was. I was in Florida at the
time. Kenny was in New Jerseyat friends. Uh. It was a
(04:17):
cardiff arrest. He woke up thatmorning um with some chess pain um,
and the friends at the time thathe was staying, we didn't really paint
much mind. He was working onpollinate. He had a big meeting um
the next day, so he wentto lay down that morning. He woke
(04:42):
up very early. He went tolay down, and he never woke up.
Unbelievable, trying to get ahead.No, I'm just I'm shocked.
I read that part of the story. But I just I can't even imagine
what you were going through initially becausenow Kenny's gone. But how do you
(05:05):
even pick up the pieces to say, I need to continue with this exhibit.
He was working on it up untilthe last minute, up until his
last breath. Pollinate for him washis life work. He was a celebrity
designer, so he worked with celebritieslike Perry Shilton, Queen Latiffa, Ryan's
(05:29):
Secrets Share and the list goes onand on. And he did interior design,
he did exterior design, He wason morning shows and you know the
big Network morning shows, and thendoing Polity in the Pocket that time was
his life's work. This is whatthis is how everyone is going to know
(05:51):
about Kenny Davis now. And hewanted to bring color to the people of
New York. This was talking abouta ten feet all installation that was supposed
to be on display on the mallof Central Part so you can imagine that
the latitude of that project and forhim to pass away before that vision came
(06:17):
to life. I couldn't just havethe project died with him. I had
to carry out the vision. Ihad to carry at his legacy, no
matter what the cost, no matterhow long it takes, I had to
go and do it. And that'swhat I did. It took me seven
years after he's passing to bring theprototype for the public at the Oculus in
(06:45):
New York. We were invited byWestfield to showcase to display the installation fifty
images inside the Oculus, and againeach one is we're talking about and fittall
image with aar component that people caninteract with the art, educational elements.
(07:10):
There's a lot that goes into thisum project and to this installation. So
it was very important for me tocarry out the legacy of Kenny and to
make sure that the project becomes areality. That's hard work, that he
that he's passing, and that thiswork will not be insane. That's that's
(07:32):
how I saw it. Anyway,for anyone that is listening right now or
has just joined us our conversation,this is Eli Ron. He is part
of a new art exhibit called Pollinate. Um, can you tell people where
they can get more information on howthey can get there and what pollinate looks
(07:54):
like? Yah? So, firstof all, of all of our information
is on our Instagram. It's theeasiest way to go. It's at Pollinate
NYC one word, and you canfind all the information on our Instagram page.
There's link tree to the official websiteto our store. We do try
to u promote the importance of savingthe bees. Right now, there's a
(08:20):
major decline in deep appellation and we'retrying to create an awareness towards that.
So anyone who's purchasing anything on ourstore, we are donating ten percent from
any purchase towards a charity that savesthe bees, conservation of bees. Of
(08:43):
course that's fantastic and so um,how how in the world did you get
past all of this? I'm stilltrying to figure out. I mean,
I said, you told me earlierit took years to do this, But
you said that Kenny was working onit. Did that mean that you had
to pick up the work yourself.Yeah? Wow, it's basically stepping into
(09:09):
his shoes and Kenny had very,very big shoes. Everyone who knew Kenny.
It's kind of a it's kind ofan inside I don't want to say
Joe, but everyone knew he hadthose beautiful, beautiful pig It might even
stepping into shoes. He stepping intohis boots. So those are really really
big shoes to feel. And that'swhy it took me a long time because
(09:33):
people, first of all, theyou know, books of the art unfortunately
had to step away because they backedit up for Kenny. Kenny was the
face and he was the voice.They're they're signing a check for Kenny for
his vision. Now there's no Kenny, so they kind of pulled away.
The people that I worked with pulledaway. No one believed that I could
(09:56):
make it work, that I couldsee it through. So I had to
um surround myself with new people,with new talents. People um like Lens
Lightly is our coom and Anna AlonsoMuller with our our director, and Ian
(10:18):
Skovsky is a director of programming,and so many other people. Now we
work with a company called to Gau. They're very known in New York,
so you know, we we Istarted collecting, not collecting, but collaborating
and teaming up with really the bestpeople in their field, the best talents.
(10:41):
How can we make this work?How can we bring it to life?
We took time and we we wehad to kind of start thinking outside
the box on Okay, how isit going to look like? We have
to bring engineering, we have tobring architects. And then had an opportunity
to team up with Westfield. WestFieldmall invited us to showcase, as I
(11:05):
mentioned before, inside the Oculist andthat was a major, major opportunity.
But we still need to find asponsor for that and we're still working on
that. But for us to displayand they invited us last year, by
the way, to showcase the prototypeon Earth Day. And the idea was
it's funny because they were like,Okay, um, you're gonna you're gonna
(11:28):
do it for like you're gonna behere for like two weeks, three weeks,
uh and then and that will beit. And we're like, of
course, sure, any anything youguys can give us, it will be
great. So we put the prototypetogether with great people and we brought it
there and we worked for the protatoritybecause they own that area's right by them,
(11:52):
the World Trace Center. Um,so that be that entire area is
very very secured. UM. Andwe got it there UM and they say,
maybe you can say it a littlebit longer. Another another month or
so, and three weeks became twomonths became four months. Wow, we
(12:13):
were there for four months, presentedto the public. The public loved it.
You have this beautiful display ten tenfeet tall in in a beautiful planter,
UM right outside the occult. Iremember I was doing UM a trip
in in in I took this choppertrip around New York City and I was
(12:37):
able to see it from the chopper. It was it was all areas.
Wow, Okay, here's my artinstallation and I can see it from all
the way out there. That's sofantastic. So you have to now tell
me what was your life before youyour life became pollinate? What were you
doing? What was your experience?Uh? Gee, I was. I'm
(13:01):
a filmmaker, so I have Okay, I have a production company and I've
done a few films that I gotinto the concils ass. So busy,
you know, with writing scripts,filming, directing, producing, UM.
And I'm still working at it.You know, I'm still doing UM.
(13:24):
I'm more currently working on actually ona pilot for a TV show and a
few other features. So that's always, you know there for me. So
there's polities, of course, andI'm all working with polities right now,
but I haven't neglected my other,you know, work that I've that I
have a lot of passion for,and that's creating films and working in that
(13:48):
kind of arts medium. It's it'ssort of funny, but a couple of
weeks ago, I had Elizabeth Stevenson this podcast and she she kind of
described me, she kind of describedyou, and maybe she described a piece
of what's in anybody everybody, andthat is that some people just have this
(14:13):
drive in them and believe that theycan do anything, and they do go
forward with many, many projects.And it stunned me because when she started
talking about how great it is thatthere are just some people that just go
for their dreams, but that onthe other hand, there are those people
(14:35):
that go for the dream, butit's not necessarily theirs, and it doesn't
it feels like you can't complete it. How even though Poulinate was not your
idea or your life's dream, howdid it? How have you managed to
(14:56):
make it your life's dream? Anddoes it it does the memory of Kenny
keep you going on that or howdoes that even work in your life?
Absolutely, m Kenny was the loveof my life. I was always,
you know, behind the scenes,helping with Pollinate throughout the time when Kenny
(15:22):
was working on it um So forme it was like I cannot have this
die with him. For me thatthat was becoming a new passion almost on
a profession him. Yeah. Yeah, so to really make sure that his
legacy moves on and and he wasvery hard to do because I met with
(15:46):
some people that were very brutal andhard and I had a lot of nose
and people were like, that's goingto happens out there were like ha haha,
that's not happened. Keep dreaming.But I kept pushing forward and I
kept surrounding myself with the right peopleto have and I have to let go
(16:07):
some people that were very close toKenny at the time, who were part
of it, but they didn't seethe vision coming to life. It didn't
care, I would say as muchto bring it to life. And that's
for me. It was was sadbecause at the time there were those people
were the beaking of hope to seehow it can you know, become a
(16:30):
reality at the time when Kenny wasstill alive, and for them to kind
of depart from that, for meit was a little bit upsetting, but
I understood, you know, it'sit's like, how how can you bring
it to life without Kenny? Igot it at that time, but for
me it was there's no way Icannot get through. That wasn't an option
(16:51):
for me. It's sort of funnybecause you didn't set out in life to
have an art exhibit, but youalready had everything. And I guess I
attribute that to you were in lovewith somebody that had similar interest that.
I mean, that really seems tobe something that's right there. And so
even though you may not necessary that, like physical art may not have necessarily
(17:18):
been your art, but you hadyour own art, and so it wasn't
like a big leap right my filmingand by the way, Kenny was part
of that too. He was workingwith me on some of my films,
executive producer, production designer, introducedme to some amazing people. So it
(17:41):
was we were kind of, youknow, um interacting with each other's world
in that perspective, whether I wasdoing my filmmaking and Kenny was working on
his designs and on his art.I mean, seriously, that is pretty
spectacular. But I guess in allcouples, I mean there's always a little
(18:03):
bit of similarities that draw you together. So I guess it's not too surprising,
but just so incredible that it happenedthat way. So Eli, I
guess I really haven't gotten into it. But he dies, Kenny dies.
I mean, how are you ableto even turn your grief into something that's
(18:23):
so magical? How long did ittake and how did you even come to
the realization I'm not going to letthis die? Also, it was hard,
It was definitely hard, and ittook me a few years kind of
tried to navigate also with the peoplewho are still part of it before he
(18:45):
passed away, And like I mentionedbefore, people went their own way afterwards,
and they have to really bring togethernew talent of people to help me
carry an extra cute Kemmy's vision.I think that was a drive because he
passed away while he was working onPollinate and that was his passion. That
(19:11):
was my passion seeing him working onthat passion. So and I was always
behind the scenes helping, you know, with presentations, and and getting him
ready for big meetings and whatnot.So for me, it was just natural
kind of push it forward. Andthere were so many challenges along the way,
(19:33):
but I kept pushing. It wasvery easy for me to just like,
yeah, it's not gonna work.It's it's too big for me,
or I could I could have comeup with so many reasons why not to
see it through. Yes, butnow I'm like, no, this is
Kenny's legacy and I'm doing it.Or I mean, people are telling me
(19:55):
he's probably very you know, filledwith pride looking over us, you know,
from up above, and I'd liketo believe that is the truth.
That is the case. Yes,it is very proud because I brought his
vision to life. It's so it'sso incredible that you did that. And
as we ramp up here, Ijust have one more question. Is it's
(20:17):
so funny because when you describe Kennyto me, it seems like a spotlight
is on him and that everybody isjust pulled toward him and he's, you
know, charismatic, and that's that'sjust who he was. Yet the whole
exhibit is about the world's natural beauty, and so it's sort of ironic to
(20:40):
me that with all of the spotlightand the stars in the glitter, that
his life passion would have been aboutthe world's natural beauty. How does that
fit together? Absolutely? He alwayshad a model of saying, leave life
in color anywhere he would walk intoum that was the message from his perspective.
(21:07):
It's not just the glamorous, butbut live life in color. There's
so much beauty in the world,and people are focused on negativity and the
wars and fighting and so many,so many problems instead of look at what
we have in the world, lookat his beauty, as far as nature,
star as animals, as far asstating our beautiful resources. So that
(21:30):
was his you know, trying tosee the world through Kenny's eyes was always
from me. It's like, ohmy god, you just fall in love
with that. So it was itwas very, very natural to have that
carry out and bring that into thefront of the stage to present it to
(21:56):
the public because that's who he was. And it is an art exhibit that's
currently going on. It's called PollinateAnd for anybody that wants more information,
where can they find it? Soon Instagram, um at pollinate NYC or
(22:17):
at our website, Pollinate dash andYC dot com so www dot pollinated NYC
dot com. So all the informationof who we are and what we're doing
is online on our website and oursocial media platforms. And as we wrap
(22:37):
up here, I just want tosay, if anyone is visiting the East
Coast during the summer, will theyhave an opportunity or do you have to
buy tickets ahead of time? Howdoes that work? Now it's actually open
to the public at Newark Airports.We will bring it to more locations and
we will post that information once it'sready to be presented. Currently Newark Airport
(23:00):
Terminal be anyone who's traveling anywhere andnow, especially during the summer days,
we are in terminal be in NewarkAirport and you're welcome to see it.
It's open to the public. EliRon, thank you so much for sharing
your story, and I wish youso much luck and maybe there'll be a
(23:21):
second art exhibit called something Else that'sall on your own, I hope.
So thank you so much, thankyou for having me on your show.
Thank you. Absolutely can't wait totalk to you soon.
This week on the Art of Improvement, I'll be speaking with Eli Ron.
He is part of a new artexhibit called Pollinate. It's just opened on
the East Coast. He's got agreat story that ends successfully, but it
does not come without tears and alot of hard work. My conversation with
Eli Ron coming up next on theArt of Improvement. Thank you so much
(00:27):
for joining me today. I'm KarenKlaus. My guest is Eli Ron.
Eli, thank you so much forcoming on today. Oh, of course,
thank you for having me. Youknow what, I read your bio
and I was like, Okay,this is about you. This is about
an art exhibit, and this isabout something that has happened to you in
the past. And I want foryou to take me on this journey and
(00:51):
tell me how an art exhibit calledPollinate came to be. Well, it
started about I would say ten yearsago. Um my late husband Kenny Davis
had this idea for a cocktail tableum inside acrylic box filled with beautiful flowers
(01:15):
and um and some people saw itfrom the mayor's office and they were like,
oh wow, this is a greatconcept. And they were referring to
how perhaps this can be manifested intosomething a little bit bigger than a cocktail
table, like an art shower andinstallation. And and Kenny really liked that
(01:37):
idea. And immediately, UM whoeverknew Kenny UM knew that his mind was
always ahead of everything else that wasgoing on. So I already seen the
entire show, you see, hesaw the cause, he saw who we
can collaborate with, He saw thewhole thing in within seconds, UM.
(02:00):
And then the reference. The nextreference was, oh, we could do
something like the gate that happened inCentral Park back into thousand and five.
And that was obviously very ambitious,but the people of UM, you know,
the Mayor's office was very receptive forit. So that was a great
start, you know, to todo Pollinate as an art installation in Central
(02:23):
Park. So we call it Pollinatein the part. That's great. Yeah,
And and the thing is, UMwe started. I was always in
the you know, in behind thescenes, helping with the presentations, helping
with the uh the image of howthe installation might look on the paper,
(02:47):
presenting it to potential sponsors. Andthen we had an engagement with the Brookfield
Arts. We worked with some bigpeople from the entertain industry and from the
marketing and publicists, and they setup a meeting with Brooks's Arts in New
(03:10):
York and Brookses Art really really likedit, and they were about to sign
a check for two million dollars towardsthe project, and we already had at
that time, so it was evena little bit more than ten years ago,
because we had a letter of intentfrom the Mayor's office, you know,
(03:34):
inviting us to do this at CentralPark. At Central Park. This
was huge. And two weeks beforesigning of the check and he suddenly passed
away. It was completely unexpected.Had he go ahead? Oh? No,
go ahead? I was like,and that is just like my jaw
(03:55):
drop when you say Kenny passed awaysuddenly? I mean, what happened?
Do you mind sharing that? Wheredoes that put you? It was devastated,
heartbroken, shocked. Yes I was. I was in Florida at the
time. Kenny was in New Jerseyat friends. Uh. It was a
(04:17):
cardiff arrest. He woke up thatmorning um with some chess pain um,
and the friends at the time thathe was staying, we didn't really paint
much mind. He was working onpollinate. He had a big meeting um
the next day, so he wentto lay down that morning. He woke
(04:42):
up very early. He went tolay down, and he never woke up.
Unbelievable, trying to get ahead.No, I'm just I'm shocked.
I read that part of the story. But I just I can't even imagine
what you were going through initially becausenow Kenny's gone. But how do you
(05:05):
even pick up the pieces to say, I need to continue with this exhibit.
He was working on it up untilthe last minute, up until his
last breath. Pollinate for him washis life work. He was a celebrity
designer, so he worked with celebritieslike Perry Shilton, Queen Latiffa, Ryan's
(05:29):
Secrets Share and the list goes onand on. And he did interior design,
he did exterior design, He wason morning shows and you know the
big Network morning shows, and thendoing Polity in the Pocket that time was
his life's work. This is whatthis is how everyone is going to know
(05:51):
about Kenny Davis now. And hewanted to bring color to the people of
New York. This was talking abouta ten feet all installation that was supposed
to be on display on the mallof Central Part so you can imagine that
the latitude of that project and forhim to pass away before that vision came
(06:17):
to life. I couldn't just havethe project died with him. I had
to carry out the vision. Ihad to carry at his legacy, no
matter what the cost, no matterhow long it takes, I had to
go and do it. And that'swhat I did. It took me seven
years after he's passing to bring theprototype for the public at the Oculus in
(06:45):
New York. We were invited byWestfield to showcase to display the installation fifty
images inside the Oculus, and againeach one is we're talking about and fittall
image with aar component that people caninteract with the art, educational elements.
(07:10):
There's a lot that goes into thisum project and to this installation. So
it was very important for me tocarry out the legacy of Kenny and to
make sure that the project becomes areality. That's hard work, that he
that he's passing, and that thiswork will not be insane. That's that's
(07:32):
how I saw it. Anyway,for anyone that is listening right now or
has just joined us our conversation,this is Eli Ron. He is part
of a new art exhibit called Pollinate. Um, can you tell people where
they can get more information on howthey can get there and what pollinate looks
(07:54):
like? Yah? So, firstof all, of all of our information
is on our Instagram. It's theeasiest way to go. It's at Pollinate
NYC one word, and you canfind all the information on our Instagram page.
There's link tree to the official websiteto our store. We do try
to u promote the importance of savingthe bees. Right now, there's a
(08:20):
major decline in deep appellation and we'retrying to create an awareness towards that.
So anyone who's purchasing anything on ourstore, we are donating ten percent from
any purchase towards a charity that savesthe bees, conservation of bees. Of
(08:43):
course that's fantastic and so um,how how in the world did you get
past all of this? I'm stilltrying to figure out. I mean,
I said, you told me earlierit took years to do this, But
you said that Kenny was working onit. Did that mean that you had
to pick up the work yourself.Yeah? Wow, it's basically stepping into
(09:09):
his shoes and Kenny had very,very big shoes. Everyone who knew Kenny.
It's kind of a it's kind ofan inside I don't want to say
Joe, but everyone knew he hadthose beautiful, beautiful pig It might even
stepping into shoes. He stepping intohis boots. So those are really really
big shoes to feel. And that'swhy it took me a long time because
(09:33):
people, first of all, theyou know, books of the art unfortunately
had to step away because they backedit up for Kenny. Kenny was the
face and he was the voice.They're they're signing a check for Kenny for
his vision. Now there's no Kenny, so they kind of pulled away.
The people that I worked with pulledaway. No one believed that I could
(09:56):
make it work, that I couldsee it through. So I had to
um surround myself with new people,with new talents. People um like Lens
Lightly is our coom and Anna AlonsoMuller with our our director, and Ian
(10:18):
Skovsky is a director of programming,and so many other people. Now we
work with a company called to Gau. They're very known in New York,
so you know, we we Istarted collecting, not collecting, but collaborating
and teaming up with really the bestpeople in their field, the best talents.
(10:41):
How can we make this work?How can we bring it to life?
We took time and we we wehad to kind of start thinking outside
the box on Okay, how isit going to look like? We have
to bring engineering, we have tobring architects. And then had an opportunity
to team up with Westfield. WestFieldmall invited us to showcase, as I
(11:05):
mentioned before, inside the Oculist andthat was a major, major opportunity.
But we still need to find asponsor for that and we're still working on
that. But for us to displayand they invited us last year, by
the way, to showcase the prototypeon Earth Day. And the idea was
it's funny because they were like,Okay, um, you're gonna you're gonna
(11:28):
do it for like you're gonna behere for like two weeks, three weeks,
uh and then and that will beit. And we're like, of
course, sure, any anything youguys can give us, it will be
great. So we put the prototypetogether with great people and we brought it
there and we worked for the protatoritybecause they own that area's right by them,
(11:52):
the World Trace Center. Um,so that be that entire area is
very very secured. UM. Andwe got it there UM and they say,
maybe you can say it a littlebit longer. Another another month or
so, and three weeks became twomonths became four months. Wow, we
(12:13):
were there for four months, presentedto the public. The public loved it.
You have this beautiful display ten tenfeet tall in in a beautiful planter,
UM right outside the occult. Iremember I was doing UM a trip
in in in I took this choppertrip around New York City and I was
(12:37):
able to see it from the chopper. It was it was all areas.
Wow, Okay, here's my artinstallation and I can see it from all
the way out there. That's sofantastic. So you have to now tell
me what was your life before youyour life became pollinate? What were you
doing? What was your experience?Uh? Gee, I was. I'm
(13:01):
a filmmaker, so I have Okay, I have a production company and I've
done a few films that I gotinto the concils ass. So busy,
you know, with writing scripts,filming, directing, producing, UM.
And I'm still working at it.You know, I'm still doing UM.
(13:24):
I'm more currently working on actually ona pilot for a TV show and a
few other features. So that's always, you know there for me. So
there's polities, of course, andI'm all working with polities right now,
but I haven't neglected my other,you know, work that I've that I
have a lot of passion for,and that's creating films and working in that
(13:48):
kind of arts medium. It's it'ssort of funny, but a couple of
weeks ago, I had Elizabeth Stevenson this podcast and she she kind of
described me, she kind of describedyou, and maybe she described a piece
of what's in anybody everybody, andthat is that some people just have this
(14:13):
drive in them and believe that theycan do anything, and they do go
forward with many, many projects.And it stunned me because when she started
talking about how great it is thatthere are just some people that just go
for their dreams, but that onthe other hand, there are those people
(14:35):
that go for the dream, butit's not necessarily theirs, and it doesn't
it feels like you can't complete it. How even though Poulinate was not your
idea or your life's dream, howdid it? How have you managed to
(14:56):
make it your life's dream? Anddoes it it does the memory of Kenny
keep you going on that or howdoes that even work in your life?
Absolutely, m Kenny was the loveof my life. I was always,
you know, behind the scenes,helping with Pollinate throughout the time when Kenny
(15:22):
was working on it um So forme it was like I cannot have this
die with him. For me thatthat was becoming a new passion almost on
a profession him. Yeah. Yeah, so to really make sure that his
legacy moves on and and he wasvery hard to do because I met with
(15:46):
some people that were very brutal andhard and I had a lot of nose
and people were like, that's goingto happens out there were like ha haha,
that's not happened. Keep dreaming.But I kept pushing forward and I
kept surrounding myself with the right peopleto have and I have to let go
(16:07):
some people that were very close toKenny at the time, who were part
of it, but they didn't seethe vision coming to life. It didn't
care, I would say as muchto bring it to life. And that's
for me. It was was sadbecause at the time there were those people
were the beaking of hope to seehow it can you know, become a
(16:30):
reality at the time when Kenny wasstill alive, and for them to kind
of depart from that, for meit was a little bit upsetting, but
I understood, you know, it'sit's like, how how can you bring
it to life without Kenny? Igot it at that time, but for
me it was there's no way Icannot get through. That wasn't an option
(16:51):
for me. It's sort of funnybecause you didn't set out in life to
have an art exhibit, but youalready had everything. And I guess I
attribute that to you were in lovewith somebody that had similar interest that.
I mean, that really seems tobe something that's right there. And so
even though you may not necessary that, like physical art may not have necessarily
(17:18):
been your art, but you hadyour own art, and so it wasn't
like a big leap right my filmingand by the way, Kenny was part
of that too. He was workingwith me on some of my films,
executive producer, production designer, introducedme to some amazing people. So it
(17:41):
was we were kind of, youknow, um interacting with each other's world
in that perspective, whether I wasdoing my filmmaking and Kenny was working on
his designs and on his art.I mean, seriously, that is pretty
spectacular. But I guess in allcouples, I mean there's always a little
(18:03):
bit of similarities that draw you together. So I guess it's not too surprising,
but just so incredible that it happenedthat way. So Eli, I
guess I really haven't gotten into it. But he dies, Kenny dies.
I mean, how are you ableto even turn your grief into something that's
(18:23):
so magical? How long did ittake and how did you even come to
the realization I'm not going to letthis die? Also, it was hard,
It was definitely hard, and ittook me a few years kind of
tried to navigate also with the peoplewho are still part of it before he
(18:45):
passed away, And like I mentionedbefore, people went their own way afterwards,
and they have to really bring togethernew talent of people to help me
carry an extra cute Kemmy's vision.I think that was a drive because he
passed away while he was working onPollinate and that was his passion. That
(19:11):
was my passion seeing him working onthat passion. So and I was always
behind the scenes helping, you know, with presentations, and and getting him
ready for big meetings and whatnot.So for me, it was just natural
kind of push it forward. Andthere were so many challenges along the way,
(19:33):
but I kept pushing. It wasvery easy for me to just like,
yeah, it's not gonna work.It's it's too big for me,
or I could I could have comeup with so many reasons why not to
see it through. Yes, butnow I'm like, no, this is
Kenny's legacy and I'm doing it.Or I mean, people are telling me
(19:55):
he's probably very you know, filledwith pride looking over us, you know,
from up above, and I'd liketo believe that is the truth.
That is the case. Yes,it is very proud because I brought his
vision to life. It's so it'sso incredible that you did that. And
as we ramp up here, Ijust have one more question. Is it's
(20:17):
so funny because when you describe Kennyto me, it seems like a spotlight
is on him and that everybody isjust pulled toward him and he's, you
know, charismatic, and that's that'sjust who he was. Yet the whole
exhibit is about the world's natural beauty, and so it's sort of ironic to
(20:40):
me that with all of the spotlightand the stars in the glitter, that
his life passion would have been aboutthe world's natural beauty. How does that
fit together? Absolutely? He alwayshad a model of saying, leave life
in color anywhere he would walk intoum that was the message from his perspective.
(21:07):
It's not just the glamorous, butbut live life in color. There's
so much beauty in the world,and people are focused on negativity and the
wars and fighting and so many,so many problems instead of look at what
we have in the world, lookat his beauty, as far as nature,
star as animals, as far asstating our beautiful resources. So that
(21:30):
was his you know, trying tosee the world through Kenny's eyes was always
from me. It's like, ohmy god, you just fall in love
with that. So it was itwas very, very natural to have that
carry out and bring that into thefront of the stage to present it to
(21:56):
the public because that's who he was. And it is an art exhibit that's
currently going on. It's called PollinateAnd for anybody that wants more information,
where can they find it? Soon Instagram, um at pollinate NYC or
(22:17):
at our website, Pollinate dash andYC dot com so www dot pollinated NYC
dot com. So all the informationof who we are and what we're doing
is online on our website and oursocial media platforms. And as we wrap
(22:37):
up here, I just want tosay, if anyone is visiting the East
Coast during the summer, will theyhave an opportunity or do you have to
buy tickets ahead of time? Howdoes that work? Now it's actually open
to the public at Newark Airports.We will bring it to more locations and
we will post that information once it'sready to be presented. Currently Newark Airport
(23:00):
Terminal be anyone who's traveling anywhere andnow, especially during the summer days,
we are in terminal be in NewarkAirport and you're welcome to see it.
It's open to the public. EliRon, thank you so much for sharing
your story, and I wish youso much luck and maybe there'll be a
(23:21):
second art exhibit called something Else that'sall on your own, I hope.
So thank you so much, thankyou for having me on your show.
Thank you. Absolutely can't wait totalk to you soon.
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