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My name is Keith Eric
Alston
I'm an artist
and I write sometimes as well
I am
I grew up in Miami, FL
I went to art magnet schools in Miami, FL
so I'm actually a lifelong artist, I've always been creative
later in life, I took up
writing and I'm doing pretty well with that as well
but I went to art magnet schools starting from seventh grade
all the way
through high school graduation. I graduated from a
high school called New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL
You know, what I happen to be working on right now
for a project
this is
for my pastor's daughter
and on the bottom it's going to have spotlights
it's also going to have the Hollywood sign
and is going to have on
she's going to put four of her headshots on the wall
and we're going to work that mural around the headshots
what's going to happen is that she'll put her
pictures inside frames that I paint
the frames are going to look like the old Hollywood style movies
the way they have
uh...
mirrors with the bulbs
the lit bulbs around the makeup mirrors
But what I'll do is, maybe by showing you this
piece that I'm putting into the show, one of my fortes in art is collage
I would say that's the best thing that I do
because that's more freedom to it
and this is a collage
and I'll read the print
the theme of the show is art
in recovery or or how we use our art in our toolbox
towards recovery
but this piece is about
Me as a phoenix
and here you see the lettering
Me, the phoenix
rising from the ashes and the forest of pains
I drew this banner and cut it out
and pasted it down
Collage is
cutting and pasting different things and putting it together if you don't know
what
collage is, but
I would say collage is my forté
and I am very pleased with the way this piece came out
here's uh... me as the phoenix
rising from the ashes here is
I cut out different
cloud shapes
and uh...
outlined them
and so here you have clouds and then I used
gloss medium
and uh... different colors to highlight the clouds
What I did, yeah I was really, when I heard
about the theme and title of the show
uh... when I heard recovery I just thought of myself because I've had a lot of ups and
downs in my life and I thought
what am I about, I just thought what am I about and
and then the phoenix rising from the ashes just came to me
and I was obsessed with that until I finished the piece
I definitely use my creativity as a tool in my toolbox to
to want to get through
sometimes sometimes art is just
an exercise, sometimes art is just
entertainment, sometimes art is just
sometimes it is just a job if you're good at it
people appreciate it and you do it as a job
I don't know, I think uh...
it's like a catharsis, therapy
uh...
and it keeps me going
quite often
and you never know, when I was first
developed my talents
I didn't think that it would
be used
as a type of therapy really it was more of them
it was more of just an imaginary getaway
creating my own stories and creating
comic books and whatever it is that right now
but
it's... um...
it's it's definitely uh...
it's... healing, for me and others as well
Hello, my name is Ronald
Shawn
Ragin
and
I want
to introduce
my artwork
and, I'm the type of person
that likes a lot of action stuff
and military stuff
and
this is about
one guy that's
transforming
a bad world
into a good world
he's the global
artillery marine agent
and it's like a one man
strike force
mission, that's substantial
I'm just being creative
it took me
a week to do this project
those are the bad buys
and here? what's different about down here?
down here is like
angels
stars
some people
enjoying
the day
where there's no violence
where there's no
conflict
everything is good
and which world do you like better?
this world
destroy all wars
conflict
gangs
enemy and
criminal combatants and crime anywhere in the world
you know our kids say
in school
stay away from that guy, or he looks weird, he looks like he's doing his own thing
and it hurts
that's saying right there that I feel odd
when I'm around certain kinds of people
it's really like I'm expressing my anger
in my artwork
and someone told me before my
anger comes out in my artwork
and I get mad because people don't understand
And I would like to
draw some different stuff
peaceful stuff
and
stuff that
that's clever or sarcastic
besides
military stuff
I just want to see if my artwork is
offensive or not
especially around people twice my age
senior citizens
because I'm from a different generation
and I hope they understand that, and I hope it's not offensive
I hope to
get up of it
by them saying I'm a very good artist
uh...
I have good class, I guess I could say
or
making things make sense
putting things together
Because when I
finish with it and come up
with a good idea
so people can understand
so no one will misinterpret it
It makes me feel good
My name is Mark Lee Wiley
and I like
surfing and skateboarding
motorcycles
uh...
driving too fast
I just really enjoy
creating things
it makes me feel really good
it's just something I really like. It makes me feel good for
days after I do it
I usually
I have it all
at home
my walls are covered with stuff
and I just like
having it around me
this one is sort of a miracle that I did, I did it in 45 minutes
and I was like, I'm just going to put some black down
green and red and yellow and I started mixing colors and
and it just sort of happened
I wasn't really aware that I was doing it
I usually paint on canvas
but
but I sort of knew that if I painted it on that
that texture would come out
is just wood particle board
you
I knew that that
texture would come out
I was painting all of those images
and just mixing colors
I was just
mixing colors on that piece of wood
obviously there's a... an African-American woman here
the grim reaper right there
that's what I call the evil man
a woman on a frozen lake
you know
it's just sort of amazing
anyway
I'm going to do a lot more on this
type of wood. This frozen lake
that's actually
that would be a view of a lake we used to hang out on
in Alabama
that lake was laid out just exactly like that
with the curves
areas
and like I said I had no idea I was doing it
when I sat back and looked at it
it isn't just isn't this
it is a topographical view
of that lake, it is exactly how that lake is laid out
it's not that difficult to do and it doesn't cost that much money
it
is really therapeutic
It's really just simple
You create things that you're proud of
and
it makes you feel good about yourself
That's all there is to it
create things that you're proud of
you hang them on the walls, makes you feel good about yourself
My name's Steven Poirier
uh...
uh...
I'm from the Massachusetts area. I grew up most of
my life in South Carolina and North Carolina
I've been interested in art and writing most of my life
Well, I think I've learned
I've been working through my
on my recovery for
most of my life
just uh...
the diagnosis and misdiagnosis over the years
and I find that
your inner
what I've come to learn through many people
is that we all have inside us this person
uh... a lot of people refer to it as your inner self
that uh... is who you were meant to be
not your job title, not the thing you went to college for
but the the inside here
and takes a long time to find it and sometimes we find it got stepped on
and which was in my case part of the reason I
let it go
trying to get back to that inner self is I guess how I would define it
I am primarily a writer but I do like to do art and view art
uh...
with my particular work that I did when I was in California a few years ago
it just was sort of a representation of how the trip went
I like the idea of recycling
uh... things into new things
for example the work is made out of, I took a lot of photographs
it was made up of the remnants of
duplicates and mistakes
into this work of art, so I think that helps
helps you get at the soul of things, what you're feeling and what you're
experiencing uh... I was at a
low point in my life where
I was basically about
at the point of financial ruin
but I have enough tent money to take one final trip
and I took it, to California
for my birthday and uh...
I stayed through PRIDE
which is gay pride
celebration that goes for weeks if not months
and had a very good time; I also closed out
quite a few bank accounts in the process
but
i know enjoyed myself in them when i got back
I was residing... staying with my parents while I had all of
these photos
so I decided this would give me something to do and just the project
developed
you know I took
I took sections of the streets and made streets, I took
sections of the parade and made parades
I cut out buildings and placed them around
pictures from the hotels
made an airplane out of the
wings and parts of the airplane that I photographed out the window with clouds
its kinda fun to play around with reality
uh... the piece is called San Francisco Daydream
It could be called a few other things, I suppose
it represents a memory to me, or sort of a part of a memory
kind of like when I write
like doing art is the same way, or music
is kind of when you're coming up with it you come up with the start
and then the work makes itself
it just kind of gets your brain tweaked and then
then once you start it just
goes on its own way
at least that's the way my mind works
uh... it kind of
it helped
it helps and it hurts
um... I think it helps
when you it helps you get out of it's some of what's in here
and bring it out into the world in a very natural
sort of for filling way, not only for you but also for
for the reader or the
person that views the art or
buys that piece of furniture that they fall in love with
you know it helps you
work out demons
the problem is
is what you're doing that if you get caught up
in too many
too many projects
you get overwhelmed, its a big issue for me
much more but I'm working on this. It is useful to direct your attention on
one specific thing
however you also have to remember that there's other things out there and figure out
how to get back to those as well
like they say, there is no cure there is only recovery
Well, I guess I could say one other thing
for any form of art, writing
it's a way of expressing your demons
and your soul
your joy and your pain
what you find comfortable
what excites you it's just a vast spectrum of emotions
and your soul
you know if you feel comfortable well for one thing you can get it out of you
and put it down
and when you get to the point where you're comfortable, you can share that with someone else
maybe it will have some meaning and bring the same thing out in them.