WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:04.560 Yeah, we're going to roll off a little bit here. 2 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:06.000 Let me put a slate and then we'll be quiet. 3 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:16.480 This is Wild Sound in the darkroom for Ivan's darkroom section. 4 00:00:17.360 --> 00:00:21.100 We'll roll off about two minutes here. 5 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:22.920 We've got a little bit of a clamp down. 6 00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:28.520 There we go. 7 00:00:31.020 --> 00:00:32.640 All you have to do is just stand there. 8 00:02:09.540 --> 00:02:13.860 Let's have you put the negative thing in and pull it out. 9 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:18.060 This is negative holder in larger. 10 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:54.740 Let me pull this. 11 00:02:55.060 --> 00:02:58.620 Go ahead and act as if you're putting a piece of paper in there. 12 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:10.700 Okay, we're rolling again. 13 00:03:11.320 --> 00:03:12.980 Okay, this is going to be assorted noises. 14 00:03:12.980 --> 00:03:16.040 We're going to start with the paper thing. 15 00:03:16.060 --> 00:03:23.620 This is going to be opening the paper thing and closing it. 16 00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:26.620 See that purple piece of paper? 17 00:03:26.660 --> 00:03:28.620 Go ahead and actually slide it in. 18 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:46.180 Okay, now go ahead and put it into this divider. 19 00:04:01.100 --> 00:04:03.560 Go ahead and do that again when you slide it in again. 20 00:04:17.900 --> 00:04:19.260 Okay, that's good. 21 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:24.560 You all have to say this really loud, Susan. 22 00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:26.940 What I'll do, Susan, is say slate. 23 00:04:28.020 --> 00:04:29.420 So you want me to read it first and then click? 24 00:04:29.620 --> 00:04:30.220 All right. 25 00:04:30.520 --> 00:04:30.960 Slape. 26 00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:32.540 Sanda, interview. 27 00:04:32.760 --> 00:04:32.920 Date? 28 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:33.780 No. 29 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:36.180 Scene one, take one, roll one. 30 00:04:40.260 --> 00:04:43.560 Okay, Sanda, if you can go ahead and tell us a little bit about your art. 31 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:48.740 Well, basically my artwork has a lot of pain in it. 32 00:04:48.780 --> 00:04:53.160 It influences pain a lot because I realized when I was younger, 33 00:04:53.200 --> 00:04:56.280 I would always have a lot of things in my life that would get in my way 34 00:04:56.280 --> 00:04:58.460 or I'd have a lot of problems I'd go through a lot. 35 00:04:59.020 --> 00:05:01.960 So my artwork has a lot of that influence in it. 36 00:05:02.420 --> 00:05:06.040 And for example, I have a lot of hand gestures in my drawings 37 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:09.880 emphasizing strength or growing or power. 38 00:05:11.260 --> 00:05:13.600 And in the eyes, when you draw in the eyes, 39 00:05:13.660 --> 00:05:16.280 when I usually paint, the eyes have an intense feeling 40 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:18.880 or the expression on the face is... 41 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:22.320 When people look at it, they can tell that there's something wrong with it, 42 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:23.620 that there's pain inside of it. 43 00:05:23.940 --> 00:05:25.420 That's mostly what I work with. 44 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:27.940 Very good. 45 00:05:28.880 --> 00:05:29.240 Stop. 46 00:05:29.420 --> 00:05:30.140 I guess so. 47 00:05:30.180 --> 00:05:32.180 I mean, I hate to have you stop every time. 48 00:05:32.260 --> 00:05:32.780 Stop today. 49 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:33.860 I don't know. 50 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:37.580 Okay. 51 00:05:37.580 --> 00:05:39.580 Yeah, okay. 52 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:40.520 Hello, people. 53 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:41.760 How's that? 54 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:42.900 Okay, it's Sandra. 55 00:05:43.820 --> 00:05:45.980 Scene two, take one, roll one. 56 00:05:46.760 --> 00:05:50.240 Okay, Sandra, if you could tell us... 57 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:50.720 Okay, now. 58 00:05:50.980 --> 00:05:51.440 Oh, I'm sorry. 59 00:05:51.760 --> 00:05:54.880 Tell us about how you first noticed the murals and how they changed. 60 00:05:56.540 --> 00:05:58.960 Well, I've always lived around 18th Street, 61 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:01.560 and 18th Street, that's where I see most of the murals. 62 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.460 So when I used to live on the north side, no murals. 63 00:06:04.900 --> 00:06:06.280 I would barely see anything. 64 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:08.020 When I started to move to 18th Street, 65 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:10.440 I started noticing murals and seeing what they were about. 66 00:06:10.840 --> 00:06:14.080 Except I didn't know why they had so much pain inside of them. 67 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:17.660 I noticed that a lot of the murals, it was like struggling, 68 00:06:17.900 --> 00:06:19.780 people struggling, people fighting, 69 00:06:21.320 --> 00:06:24.500 swords or poor people holding babies, things like that. 70 00:06:24.700 --> 00:06:27.160 I always wondered why it was like that. 71 00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:31.980 Now, that was before, that was like six, seven years ago. 72 00:06:32.260 --> 00:06:34.220 Now I notice that the murals aren't like that as much. 73 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:36.760 Now the murals are more happier or more simple, 74 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:38.960 or businessmen with suits, or you know, 75 00:06:38.960 --> 00:06:40.520 that's the kind of things that I see now. 76 00:06:40.780 --> 00:06:42.480 I don't see as much struggle. 77 00:06:42.660 --> 00:06:44.080 It seems like if things are getting better, 78 00:06:44.140 --> 00:06:46.180 that's what the community seems like. 79 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.020 When I first started painting murals, 80 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:54.800 it was hard for me because I was used to painting in the small area. 81 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:57.500 I was afraid of drawing on a mural. 82 00:06:57.820 --> 00:07:03.900 I was always afraid to pick up my pencil or my paintbrush and draw big. 83 00:07:03.960 --> 00:07:05.520 I always thought that it was going to come out wrong. 84 00:07:05.940 --> 00:07:09.900 But when you do it, you realize that you draw the person inside of your mural. 85 00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:13.320 You make them look at it and want to walk inside and join you. 86 00:07:13.700 --> 00:07:16.040 And that's part of why I like it so much, 87 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:17.620 just the fact that I can work large, 88 00:07:18.020 --> 00:07:19.920 I can show people more expressiveness, 89 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:22.720 more things about myself or about the mural itself. 90 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:24.800 And you just draw people inside, 91 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:27.060 and that's basically what I like about it the most. 92 00:07:27.940 --> 00:07:30.300 How did you feel the first time you painted a mural? 93 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:32.840 The first time, I was so scared. 94 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:36.380 I was used to painting with oils that used to be part of me. 95 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:38.820 And I started painting with acrylics. 96 00:07:39.340 --> 00:07:41.740 I thought it would be much harder in acrylic. 97 00:07:42.260 --> 00:07:44.620 The fact that the mural was so large, it scared me. 98 00:07:44.620 --> 00:07:47.040 It made me pull away from it, and I didn't want to. 99 00:07:47.260 --> 00:07:51.040 So I was timid with it, and I didn't want to paint. 100 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:53.860 I was telling my teacher I didn't want to do it. 101 00:07:54.420 --> 00:07:58.160 But once I started to do it, I got this sudden confidence inside of me, 102 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:01.520 just the fact that it was coming out beautiful, so much attention. 103 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:03.600 It was a big difference. 104 00:08:03.880 --> 00:08:05.700 I was scared, but now I like it a lot. 105 00:08:07.260 --> 00:08:07.260 106 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:08.300 Stop. 107 00:08:09.260 --> 00:08:09.260 108 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:10.000 Give me that. 109 00:08:10.200 --> 00:08:10.460 All right. 110 00:08:12.380 --> 00:08:15.000 By the way, do you know that you want to check the lay neck? 111 00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:16.460 112 00:08:17.140 --> 00:08:17.660 That one. 113 00:08:21.380 --> 00:08:22.580 I brought this one, Tina. 114 00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:23.300 No, I brought this one, Tina. 115 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:23.300 116 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:25.600 Oh, okay. 117 00:08:26.500 --> 00:08:26.640 Yeah. 118 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:29.480 I'm starting to look interesting. 119 00:08:29.900 --> 00:08:32.100 I guess that must be moderation for you to play that. 120 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:35.980 And it'll be, you know, it's one of those things where it'll be a fraction of a second later. 121 00:08:36.780 --> 00:08:36.780 122 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:38.360 Okay. 123 00:08:39.020 --> 00:08:39.020 124 00:08:40.340 --> 00:08:43.760 So you want me to wait until you tell me to ask a question, okay? 125 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:45.460 Uh, snake. 126 00:08:46.580 --> 00:08:47.640 Sandra, scene three, two, one. 127 00:08:47.640 --> 00:08:49.300 You take one, roll one. 128 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:55.860 If you could tell us about the messages in your murals and why those messages you've chosen. 129 00:08:57.640 --> 00:09:01.620 Well, one thing with me was I grew up in a neighborhood where there were lots of gangs. 130 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:03.860 And that was a big influence on me. 131 00:09:03.880 --> 00:09:06.380 My artwork when I was in eighth grade, seventh grade, 132 00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:11.660 had to do with boys smoking or guys in gangs with tattoos and everything else. 133 00:09:11.680 --> 00:09:14.060 And I didn't realize that it was a negative influence. 134 00:09:14.060 --> 00:09:15.940 I thought, wow, this is great. 135 00:09:16.040 --> 00:09:17.280 You know, my brother's in gangs. 136 00:09:17.760 --> 00:09:18.940 All my friends are in gangs. 137 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:20.020 So I just thought about it. 138 00:09:20.400 --> 00:09:25.800 Well, it turns out that the more I realized that gangs were just ruining things, 139 00:09:25.800 --> 00:09:29.960 that they were beating up on people or beating up my brother or threatening my life, 140 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:34.340 threatening my family's life, I started to put my artwork against gangs. 141 00:09:34.420 --> 00:09:35.880 I started to change my artwork completely. 142 00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:37.960 It was like a sudden change. 143 00:09:38.020 --> 00:09:39.200 It just popped out of nowhere. 144 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:46.320 My artwork started to say, you know, get out of gangs or just, well, 145 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:48.140 this was really cartoon-like things. 146 00:09:49.180 --> 00:09:51.300 And my friends started getting pregnant. 147 00:09:52.580 --> 00:09:53.900 Half of my friends got pregnant. 148 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:59.000 So my artwork just was saying, you know, just let's cool down on this 149 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.220 and realize what life's more about. 150 00:10:01.560 --> 00:10:07.060 So I would do things against, what do you call it, against incest, 151 00:10:07.060 --> 00:10:09.500 against child abuse, against everything. 152 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:12.840 So I guess what was turning out was I was realizing more 153 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:15.440 that not to hang around with that kind of a group 154 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.080 and notice that your friends are like this, your peers are like this, 155 00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:19.500 and maybe you don't want them to be that way 156 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:22.060 and just try to talk to people to get away from it. 157 00:10:22.140 --> 00:10:23.720 That's what mostly my artwork was about. 158 00:10:24.520 --> 00:10:26.300 That's what I mostly am influenced on. 159 00:10:27.040 --> 00:10:32.120 And can you describe how the murals affect people, the messages? 160 00:10:33.160 --> 00:10:36.060 Yeah, because I didn't think that they affected people that much. 161 00:10:36.060 --> 00:10:39.660 I thought they would just look at it, oh, that's nice, that's interesting, 162 00:10:40.400 --> 00:10:43.120 until I worked at Jose Clemente Orozco. 163 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:46.940 I worked on a large mural, I think it was 5 by 11, 164 00:10:47.520 --> 00:10:50.760 and it was just a nice scene, sort of from Paris. 165 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:52.780 It was taken from Paris. 166 00:10:54.760 --> 00:10:57.120 And the thing about the mural was I didn't think it would make that much 167 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.600 of a difference on people because of how calm it was. 168 00:10:59.880 --> 00:11:01.600 But when I went to the office a few weeks later, 169 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:03.600 people were more calm, more happy, more cheerful. 170 00:11:03.880 --> 00:11:05.080 At least that's what I had noticed. 171 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:09.700 And if I look at a mural in the street and if I see how it has something to do 172 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:13.740 with against gangs or against homosexuals or whatever, 173 00:11:14.260 --> 00:11:16.320 anything that it has to do with, it does influence me. 174 00:11:16.400 --> 00:11:17.920 Just by looking at it, it makes me think, 175 00:11:17.940 --> 00:11:19.680 and I'm sure it makes other people think. 176 00:11:20.060 --> 00:11:21.180 I'm pretty sure it does. 177 00:11:25.100 --> 00:11:25.980 I stuttered there. 178 00:11:31.380 --> 00:11:32.260 Slate, no. 179 00:11:33.020 --> 00:11:34.420 Oh, I'm sorry. 180 00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:36.100 Is it actually fine, Paul? 181 00:11:36.420 --> 00:11:37.360 I know I changed it. 182 00:11:37.660 --> 00:11:37.960 Okay. 183 00:11:38.520 --> 00:11:41.280 Sandra, scene four, take one, roll one. 184 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:46.960 And, okay, starting with your favorite things in murals. 185 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:50.020 The thing about murals that attracted me, 186 00:11:50.280 --> 00:11:52.620 or the certain murals that would attract me the most, 187 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.820 were the type that had a lot of activity in them, 188 00:11:56.180 --> 00:11:59.800 that had lots of people inside of it moving like crazies 189 00:11:59.800 --> 00:12:03.460 or holding up flags and just that they were pretty active. 190 00:12:03.540 --> 00:12:05.480 Those are the kind that would attract me. 191 00:12:05.940 --> 00:12:10.780 To me, they had earth tone colors and the colors were kind of bright in a way, 192 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:11.720 something about them. 193 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:15.000 And those are the type of murals that would always catch my attention 194 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.000 and make me stare at them for a long time. 195 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:19.680 And when I would go to the north side a lot, 196 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:22.800 I would see a lot of murals with the greens, earth tone colors. 197 00:12:23.300 --> 00:12:25.560 So that would remind me a lot about Puerto Rico. 198 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:28.740 I want to learn more about Puerto Rico. 199 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:30.260 I want to paint more about it. 200 00:12:30.300 --> 00:12:33.620 I want to paint more about my country or about my people. 201 00:12:34.140 --> 00:12:38.960 And it was hard because I was raised in a background of Puerto Rico. 202 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:42.100 So what I'm trying to do a lot with my artwork now is, 203 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.720 well, I'm trying to gather as much information as I could to know more about it 204 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:48.740 and to, in my artwork, to express it. 205 00:12:49.060 --> 00:12:52.280 And maybe one day I'll be exhibiting things about Puerto Rico 206 00:12:52.280 --> 00:12:55.440 on the north side or, because right now I'm exhibiting a lot around here 207 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:56.560 in the Pilsen area. 208 00:12:56.560 --> 00:12:59.600 And I'd like to go different places. 209 00:12:59.620 --> 00:13:00.700 I'd like to exhibit in Puerto Rico. 210 00:13:00.740 --> 00:13:02.800 But I wanted to do with my country. 211 00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:05.940 That's all I could come up with. 212 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:08.420 I just suddenly forgot everything. 213 00:13:08.660 --> 00:13:09.300 I don't know. 214 00:13:10.900 --> 00:13:11.800 No, I forgot. 215 00:13:11.940 --> 00:13:12.840 I forgot what I had said. 216 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:14.060 I'm like, oh, no. 217 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:16.680 What's happening to me? 218 00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:17.500 What else did I say? 219 00:13:17.900 --> 00:13:18.600 You should read that. 220 00:13:18.780 --> 00:13:19.620 I don't remember. 221 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:21.640 I don't see it. 222 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:23.100 Unfortunately, I didn't mark down. 223 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:25.560 There's a lot about... 224 00:13:25.560 --> 00:13:26.560 Oh, this light, okay. 225 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.200 Sandra, scene five, take one, roll one. 226 00:13:41.880 --> 00:13:44.620 So begin with the art versus the message 227 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:47.500 and how you balance that in your own work. 228 00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:52.080 Well, basically, I normally work with my technique the most. 229 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:54.560 I think that's what I study the most. 230 00:13:54.880 --> 00:13:56.920 When I work with technique, I feel that the person, 231 00:13:56.920 --> 00:14:01.240 it attracts their attention more than the subject itself. 232 00:14:02.680 --> 00:14:05.120 So that's really important to me, the technique that I use. 233 00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:06.860 Of course, the subject too. 234 00:14:08.560 --> 00:14:09.740 But I just like it. 235 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:11.620 I just like the feel of the pencil or the paintbrush, 236 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:13.140 just the strokes. 237 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:14.360 I love strokes a lot. 238 00:14:14.660 --> 00:14:16.280 And that's what my artwork is mostly about. 239 00:14:16.400 --> 00:14:19.220 If I use a person inside of it or if I use an object, 240 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:21.800 I'll try to make it as, even if it's a dull object, 241 00:14:21.800 --> 00:14:25.120 I'll try to make it as powerful as I could by my technique 242 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:26.800 or things like that. 243 00:14:28.800 --> 00:14:32.040 What kind of feedback do you get? Criticism, compliments? 244 00:14:32.380 --> 00:14:33.380 Oh, I get a lot of that. 245 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:37.000 I get compliments, but then again, I get the negative parts. 246 00:14:37.400 --> 00:14:38.440 And it used to hurt me a lot. 247 00:14:38.580 --> 00:14:42.320 I used to just lock myself up in my room or just think about it. 248 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:44.460 Geez, I wish they wouldn't have told me that way, you know. 249 00:14:44.880 --> 00:14:47.560 Maybe I did something wrong or maybe they don't like my technique 250 00:14:47.560 --> 00:14:50.920 or they'd say that it was too scary 251 00:14:50.920 --> 00:14:53.780 or it was too, my mom especially would get scared of my artwork 252 00:14:53.780 --> 00:14:55.700 because sometimes I draw evil things. 253 00:14:56.140 --> 00:14:57.060 It was just the mood I was in. 254 00:14:57.100 --> 00:14:59.560 It wasn't because I had this evil person inside of me. 255 00:14:59.560 --> 00:15:00.800 It was just the mood I was in. 256 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.080 But I'd like it and I'd like all my artwork 257 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:04.240 and people would just come and say, 258 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.920 well, no, you should just, you should change that, Sandra. 259 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.320 And I just, I didn't like people telling me 260 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.360 that doesn't look right or things like that. 261 00:15:11.380 --> 00:15:12.700 But from that, I learned. 262 00:15:13.160 --> 00:15:15.200 Now I can take that criticism constructively 263 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:17.720 and I can just, I can, from what they say, 264 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:19.980 I can paint something even better, you know. 265 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:21.540 It's up to what they say. 266 00:15:22.200 --> 00:15:24.940 I let myself go with other people, 267 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:26.400 what they think of my drawings, 268 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:28.940 and that's what's going to hopefully help me in the future. 269 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:31.180 Before it used to hurt me a lot though, 270 00:15:31.180 --> 00:15:34.520 and now I think I can handle it. 271 00:15:35.160 --> 00:15:40.040 The pain and the evil that you say comes out in your artwork, 272 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:42.560 where do you think that comes from? 273 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:45.800 Is it influence of the community or are you angry? 274 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:49.600 Well, yeah, I think that's what you would say. 275 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:52.800 I think it's a mixture of both the community 276 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:55.500 and what I went through as a younger person 277 00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:56.980 or when I was younger. 278 00:15:57.400 --> 00:15:59.840 What would happen was in my community, it was so bad. 279 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:01.080 I didn't like it. 280 00:16:01.140 --> 00:16:03.320 It was, I'd walk around and there were just gangs 281 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:04.280 fighting with each other. 282 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:07.040 I'd walk with my mom and gangs just fighting 283 00:16:07.040 --> 00:16:10.080 or with knives and just screaming out all these gang symbols. 284 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:13.040 So what I would do is just, I'd stay at home. 285 00:16:13.160 --> 00:16:14.020 I wouldn't like to go out. 286 00:16:14.020 --> 00:16:16.100 If I'd go out, I'd just play some sports or something. 287 00:16:16.560 --> 00:16:20.460 But it came to a point where I was threatened by a guy with a knife. 288 00:16:20.780 --> 00:16:23.160 He threatened me because I was my brother's sister 289 00:16:23.160 --> 00:16:24.040 and he was in a gang. 290 00:16:24.540 --> 00:16:26.500 And it was getting out of hand. 291 00:16:26.540 --> 00:16:30.900 My brother's best friend got shot and he just fell on the floor 292 00:16:30.900 --> 00:16:31.960 and was just bleeding, whatever. 293 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:32.480 He died. 294 00:16:33.020 --> 00:16:35.660 And it was a lot of anger in me, 295 00:16:35.660 --> 00:16:37.860 and I just wanted to get it all over with. 296 00:16:37.980 --> 00:16:40.640 So at that point, that's when I started creating all these, 297 00:16:40.940 --> 00:16:42.260 the paintings, they started getting more evil. 298 00:16:42.260 --> 00:16:44.920 And then just to think of everything that I've gone through 299 00:16:44.920 --> 00:16:46.460 and everything that people go through. 300 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:48.140 And I just didn't feel that. 301 00:16:48.140 --> 00:16:50.040 I felt, why do we have to go through this? 302 00:16:50.280 --> 00:16:52.000 Why is life so rough? 303 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:53.420 And that's what my artwork was about. 304 00:16:53.520 --> 00:16:56.020 It was just everything all put together in one. 305 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:57.260 And that's when it would get powerful. 306 00:16:57.300 --> 00:16:59.360 And that's when people would criticize it the most. 307 00:16:59.780 --> 00:17:02.740 So if I were to draw something real nice and elegant, 308 00:17:02.900 --> 00:17:05.060 like real soft, then people would say, oh, that's beautiful. 309 00:17:05.340 --> 00:17:06.720 But that just wasn't what I was about. 310 00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:11.620 I wasn't the type of person to be all soft and all happy all the time. 311 00:17:11.620 --> 00:17:14.900 That just wasn't real. 312 00:17:24.700 --> 00:17:27.640 Sandra, scene six, take one, roll two. 313 00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:33.320 You talked about how the murals brighten the community 314 00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:34.480 and beautify the community. 315 00:17:34.580 --> 00:17:35.700 Can you tell us about that a little? 316 00:17:36.600 --> 00:17:37.320 Well, yeah. 317 00:17:38.520 --> 00:17:40.480 I feel that they do do this. 318 00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:43.220 Just start again, say the murals this time. 319 00:17:43.420 --> 00:17:45.580 Yeah, we're not going to use my question, 320 00:17:45.620 --> 00:17:47.040 so you have to get the word murals in there. 321 00:17:47.100 --> 00:17:47.720 You have to answer. 322 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:49.860 I pretend that you didn't say a thing? 323 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:51.020 Yeah, pretend I didn't say anything, 324 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:52.160 because we're not going to hear me. 325 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:54.420 Okay, ask that question again. 326 00:17:54.940 --> 00:17:57.240 About how the murals brighten the community, 327 00:17:57.440 --> 00:17:58.180 beautify the community. 328 00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:00.060 Our murals do brighten the community, 329 00:18:00.220 --> 00:18:03.100 because whenever I was walking down the street 330 00:18:03.100 --> 00:18:05.040 and I would see a mural, it was a happy sight. 331 00:18:05.820 --> 00:18:08.800 For other communities, like when I would walk down Archer Avenue, 332 00:18:08.800 --> 00:18:10.900 I really don't see any murals down there. 333 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:12.820 I see nothing, as a matter of fact. 334 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:15.060 And you just walk down the street, 335 00:18:15.100 --> 00:18:17.900 it's not as exciting as when you walk down 26th Street, 336 00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:20.080 for example, which is where I live. 337 00:18:20.580 --> 00:18:22.900 When you look around you, there's murals everywhere. 338 00:18:23.140 --> 00:18:25.400 They're just always brightening up the community. 339 00:18:25.800 --> 00:18:29.120 And I felt that when gang members would always 340 00:18:29.120 --> 00:18:30.480 write their graffiti on the walls, 341 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:32.680 if you would put a mural on that certain wall, 342 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:33.700 you would paint over it. 343 00:18:33.820 --> 00:18:34.700 They would respect it. 344 00:18:34.700 --> 00:18:36.720 There would be the sudden respect for the mural 345 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:39.040 and the sudden respect for the artist who painted it. 346 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:40.420 And they just wouldn't touch it. 347 00:18:40.420 --> 00:18:41.160 They'd back away. 348 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:42.520 Maybe they'd go to another wall, 349 00:18:42.520 --> 00:18:44.040 but if you were to paint another mural there, 350 00:18:44.280 --> 00:18:45.260 they'd back away too. 351 00:18:45.580 --> 00:18:48.440 And it would just make everyone a lot more looking at it. 352 00:18:48.520 --> 00:18:50.380 I would feel that it brightens things up. 353 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:51.240 That's what I felt. 354 00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:54.760 I felt that people would look at it and suddenly be happy. 355 00:18:54.840 --> 00:18:56.100 That's how I felt, at least. 356 00:18:56.280 --> 00:18:58.000 So I think it would brighten up the community. 357 00:18:58.900 --> 00:19:01.900 You had talked before about your Puerto Rican heritage 358 00:19:01.900 --> 00:19:03.440 and wanting to include that in your art. 359 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:06.820 What is it about Puerto Rico, that heritage, 360 00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:09.800 that you want to communicate or you feel close to? 361 00:19:10.120 --> 00:19:12.300 I think just the strength of it. 362 00:19:12.520 --> 00:19:14.880 I would say the strength of being Puerto Rican. 363 00:19:15.600 --> 00:19:19.440 I would say to let people know that we're fighting 364 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:22.280 or let people know what's happening right now 365 00:19:22.280 --> 00:19:27.500 and just show them my opinion in just an artistic way. 366 00:19:27.940 --> 00:19:29.400 That's what I would really want to focus. 367 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:31.360 The only problem is I have to know more about it. 368 00:19:31.360 --> 00:19:33.800 I'd like to go down there to travel in Puerto Rico, 369 00:19:33.820 --> 00:19:36.280 look at their mural paintings, just look at the sites. 370 00:19:36.360 --> 00:19:37.220 It's so beautiful. 371 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:40.580 You can draw beautiful landscaping. 372 00:19:41.280 --> 00:19:42.400 I need to know more about it. 373 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:43.020 That's what I felt. 374 00:19:43.180 --> 00:19:46.980 My artwork should have more of Puerto Rico involved inside of it. 375 00:19:47.840 --> 00:19:52.120 What is your personal ambition when you look to the future 376 00:19:52.120 --> 00:19:54.360 as an artist and as a muralist? 377 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:56.780 What do you want to accomplish? 378 00:19:56.780 --> 00:20:01.780 What I've always wanted to accomplish was to be known already 379 00:20:01.780 --> 00:20:06.200 by the age of 26 or 27, to be known, to be asked 380 00:20:06.200 --> 00:20:08.720 from different countries. 381 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:12.480 They call me just to go over there and paint or make a workshop. 382 00:20:12.940 --> 00:20:15.580 That's what I've always wanted, to have my name in books published 383 00:20:15.580 --> 00:20:21.240 or to exhibit in museums that only the best artists exhibit in. 384 00:20:22.780 --> 00:20:23.740 I would want that. 385 00:20:23.780 --> 00:20:26.120 I would want children to look up to me. 386 00:20:26.120 --> 00:20:29.160 I would want them to look at me and actually want to be with me 387 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:31.240 or actually want to paint like me. 388 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:34.800 For me to be such a big influence that suddenly I'd stop 389 00:20:35.620 --> 00:20:37.700 when I'm really against gangs. 390 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.720 Maybe I'd make a big influence on that. 391 00:20:41.020 --> 00:20:45.540 I just want to really be set somewhere financially, for one, 392 00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:47.400 and just have people know me. 393 00:20:47.600 --> 00:20:48.880 I just want to be known. 394 00:20:49.040 --> 00:20:51.540 That's what I want to do in the future, hopefully. 395 00:20:51.540 --> 00:20:56.080 If you could paint any mural, any place, pick any place 396 00:20:56.080 --> 00:20:58.660 and paint any mural, where would it be and what would you paint? 397 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:00.220 Where would it be? 398 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:04.720 I don't know exactly where it would be. 399 00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:07.140 I've always wanted to go to Africa to paint, 400 00:21:07.940 --> 00:21:10.780 but probably I'd take some of Africa's ideas and bring them in. 401 00:21:11.040 --> 00:21:11.980 It's something about it. 402 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:16.640 Maybe I'd stay in Chicago because I think that it's not that great. 403 00:21:17.180 --> 00:21:21.880 It's just a fabulous city, but some parts of it is not that great 404 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:24.360 when the gangs are around or when the people are around. 405 00:21:25.420 --> 00:21:28.640 Maybe New York because New York is a place where I think they would need 406 00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:32.140 a little bit of...what's the word I'm looking for? 407 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:34.400 Maybe they need someone to help them out or something. 408 00:21:36.300 --> 00:21:43.960 Maybe I would do it against abortion or something, against incest. 409 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:46.040 That's something that I'm really against. 410 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:48.460 I just draw little things like that. 411 00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:52.240 I paint a big mural, and that's what I would have to do about it. 412 00:21:52.340 --> 00:21:54.500 Can we stop for a second and look at this? 413 00:21:55.420 --> 00:21:57.820 I forgot about these next couple of things. 414 00:22:02.540 --> 00:22:06.000 Sandra, theme one, take one, roll two. 415 00:22:08.340 --> 00:22:10.600 Lead into the curing mural. 416 00:22:12.040 --> 00:22:15.080 When we first started the curing mural, which was last year, 417 00:22:16.020 --> 00:22:19.460 it was in the summer of last year, around there, 418 00:22:20.140 --> 00:22:23.300 it was a new idea that my teacher, Ms. Matthews, had come up with. 419 00:22:23.300 --> 00:22:28.500 She wanted to paint a mural to hang up and let it have to do with the youth, 420 00:22:28.740 --> 00:22:30.280 what the youth does right now. 421 00:22:30.380 --> 00:22:32.400 I'd flood the road, but she wasn't hurt when she was. 422 00:22:33.660 --> 00:22:37.500 Do that again and get into it faster, like last summer. 423 00:22:39.120 --> 00:22:40.860 Let's do Curie again. 424 00:22:43.140 --> 00:22:46.660 Last summer we worked on a mural at Curie, and we've been working on it for a while. 425 00:22:47.140 --> 00:22:52.760 It has to do with the youth, what the youth does, maybe dancing or listening to music. 426 00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:56.140 The teacher had just asked us to do something with that, 427 00:22:56.260 --> 00:23:02.580 and we just came up with drawing things about going to parties or eating at McDonald's. 428 00:23:02.660 --> 00:23:04.920 It's just simple things that we do in our everyday life, 429 00:23:04.920 --> 00:23:11.540 like going to school or driver's ed, et cetera, and that's what we had just led into at Curie. 430 00:23:11.980 --> 00:23:14.040 Okay, could you do the same thing with Cooper? 431 00:23:14.460 --> 00:23:17.800 How did you get into that and lead us into the Cooper mural? 432 00:23:18.560 --> 00:23:22.480 At Cooper, during the summer of last year again, 433 00:23:23.620 --> 00:23:27.680 the principal wanted just a huge mural just to put in the office, 434 00:23:28.040 --> 00:23:32.360 so I started thinking of a different idea, something having to do with Paris, 435 00:23:32.360 --> 00:23:37.320 and I just started working on it over the summer, last summer, and it was pretty successful. 436 00:23:37.660 --> 00:23:43.200 It was a nice mural, had to do with Paris, and it was in acrylic. It was a nice mural. 437 00:23:45.020 --> 00:23:46.060 Do you want more on that? 438 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:51.360 Or else, you want something long or just? 439 00:23:52.180 --> 00:23:55.880 No, I think length is okay because we've got all the other stuff, so it's just kind of a bridge. 440 00:23:55.880 --> 00:23:57.340 Good, I'm trying to cut it all down. 441 00:24:00.300 --> 00:24:03.620 Sandra, scene eight, take one, roll two. 442 00:24:05.080 --> 00:24:07.120 Tell us about Cooper. 443 00:24:08.080 --> 00:24:10.720 Jose Clemente Roscoe, we decided to paint a mural. 444 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:14.380 Dr. Michael asked me to paint one, a mural five by 11 feet, 445 00:24:14.840 --> 00:24:17.160 and I decided to do it, something having to do with Paris. 446 00:24:18.100 --> 00:24:20.320 It was a very successful mural. It was beautiful. 447 00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:24.140 I thought it was a great mural, and it cheered the place up. It was great. 448 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:26.120 That showed enough. 449 00:24:27.540 --> 00:24:34.940 At Curie High School, Miss Matthews wanted us to paint a mural to put up so all the students could see it. 450 00:24:35.080 --> 00:24:37.880 She wanted it to involve the youth, so we all got together, 451 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:43.400 and we started thinking of things like guys or girls going to dance parties, 452 00:24:44.500 --> 00:24:51.060 a lot of pregnancies, a lot of drug abuse, or just gang-related or drinking. 453 00:24:51.900 --> 00:24:58.260 It was, in a way, a good mural, but then people started asking questions about it 454 00:24:58.260 --> 00:25:03.700 and asking why we had done it that way or why we kept including negative things. 455 00:25:04.040 --> 00:25:07.600 But it's just part of what it was. It was just part of the youth. 456 00:25:07.620 --> 00:25:09.820 That's part of us, and that's what we wanted to draw. 457 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:11.720 That's what we just decided to paint. 458 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:14.460 Is that better? 459 00:25:21.860 --> 00:25:25.060 Sandra, scene nine, take one, roll two. 460 00:25:27.600 --> 00:25:31.160 You talked about how your artwork has changed.