GL Richardson

Welcome to Coffee with Gio Richardson and George Irwin. Do you want to talk a little bit about how you came on to, I guess, what translated into this, this body of work?

Sure. I'd say the first thing was the panels themselves, and back when I got The pan— this panel and a couple other panels, they're aluminum. And I was— I mean, I still am struggling for money, but, uh, back then I was strictly buying my panels on Craigslist. Any surface really I could get my hands on on Craigslist and just kind of taking artist Santa Fe artist house artist leftovers. And so I got these, um, from Javon Lee, um, great guy. Yeah. And I was just like, I've never worked on aluminum. He told me how to prime it, and it's a different priming method. It's a little bit more intense than others. And then I just, I just went for it and didn't really change anything too much. I'd already been using spray paint and oil, but it just seems like the spray paint and the oil work better on panel as a whole, but, but specifically aluminum.

Interesting.

And so I would say that the substrate surface kind of informed the whole thing, and this transition, the shift in the work, came from that. So yeah, it's kind of just lucked into it.

That's cool.

Yeah.

I'm actually going to see Jeevan tomorrow.

Really?

So I'm going to ask him for the other side of that story.

Yeah, please do. Please do. That's cool.

Yeah, man. So that's really cool. I think like these pieces have kind of a more ethereal feel in the, like, in the background or the, or the foreground, I guess. The whole, the whole kind of bunch of them are a little bit less focused in places. Yeah, intentionally. And, uh, which gives them a great atmosphere. Is that something you've been trying to do before the aluminum, or is that something that, like, the aluminum you just saw happen and you're like, oh, this is cool?

I'd say that that's more— that has less to do with the surface and more just a direction I've been trying to take my work. Which is cutting constantly, you know, removing unnecessary elements and getting things down to their simplest form. And I think you can see kind of the progression in my work. I started off, one of my first pieces I put out was monochromatic. I really liked it, but it had signage in it, and I was using Krink markers back then, the graffiti markers that drip. And so it has more elements going on. More of a, I would say, literal attempt to make a concept come across as opposed to a feeling, an ethereal quality that just creates a vibe. And so I was working monochromatic, and then I kind of transitioned to being a little bit more realistic for some reason, and then I dialed back in and I came back to monochromatic here, but I had the elements of words included. And then with this body, I was like, what else can I cut down on? What else can I remove? And how much effort can I put into the background? How much can I build the foundation of the piece? And so the primary work for these came in the initial setting up of the color fields. Layering and layering and creating depth there, but then whatever is happening can play off on—

cool.

Yeah, so yeah, that's just something I've been trying to do with the work. Yeah, the whole time, slowly getting there.

Yeah, I think, I think that you definitely hit on something, um, when you, when you made Leave and then started on the series. It's, um, it's a special body of work.

Thank you, George.

Yeah, sorry, I don't mean to like— I don't mean to gush, but I, I really like it.

Oh, thanks.

Um, cool. Well, so GL, I think this is going to be the first time that a lot of people are introduced to you as an artist. And, um, and so your backstory, I think, in, in a nutshell is like you went to school for advertising, worked in San Francisco at a big agency, And then started cowboying after that, and then became a fine art painter focusing on subjects of the West through your, you know, sort of with some advertising kind of, I think, compositional influence.

Yeah, compositional and conceptual, I'd say.

Yeah, yeah, I can see that, especially with your titles.

Yeah.

And then Yes, tell me, I guess, what— can you start a little bit, like, it's precipitated your departure from advertising and your journey to the point where, um, you're now here in Santa Fe making these, uh, kind of next-level works? Trying to make it fresh.

Yeah, it's a little hot up here, so yeah, uh, any colors, not Okay, so I was in advertising for a year after being in school for advertising for close to 6 years. So really my advertising background is mostly academic.

You have a master's, right?

Yes. So that's the extra years there, 2 years at VCU. And I truly love the conceptual, the academic side of advertising. Like, I still love that so much, and I think that it's a different type of creativity It's a much more pointed form of creativity. Like, obviously you have an objective with it. You're trying to sell something. But for us as students, the selling part of it was not really important because you're making it for the pure creative, just the creative element of the advertising, you know, how beautiful the ad is or how conceptual the ad is.

And you don't have a client.

That's, yeah, exactly. You don't have a client. And a lot of times you get to choose your clients who you're working on. Gotcha. So I think I just somehow kind of lost track of what I would really be doing, which is all of me. And I just kind of got smacked when I got into advertising and it was like, it was so sales-driven and client-driven and a little bit less of the creative stuff, less of the conceptual stuff. And so I hadn't painted in those 6 years. I had painted a lot in high school, but during school I didn't paint. And so in San Francisco, I painted 2 pieces, and really just one. I came out, I came up to New Mexico with 1.5 pieces made. And you just don't have much time to work on stuff, as I'm sure most people are aware, with a full-time job.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, the painting became an outlet when I had, when I had the time. It became an outlet for the creative stuff that I felt like I was maybe missing, the conceptual, the free conceptual thinking that I was maybe missing. And then I just, I decided, you know, I don't think this is for me, and it's time to go try something a little bit new, go take some risks. And so I left um, pretty abruptly and came out to New Mexico to work on a cattle ranch. All right. And then painted there because there was a lot more time, actually.

Wow. So, um, okay, so I think that to most people, leaving, uh, like a corporate job to go and work on a cattle ranch seems like a big kind of 180 and not something that especially if you don't have like a background in ranching, how do you come about even thinking of that?

Instagram's a powerful tool. It was Instagram.

Wow.

Yeah, so I, I worked with— worked for Ranchlands. Okay. They have a fantastic Instagram presence.

Yes.

And I had been, uh, just kind of daydreaming every single day at work, uh, guided by their Instagram.

They make it look good.

Oh, and it does. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I've been fantasizing through kind of through them and a couple other accounts.

Um, just pack it all in and yeah, find a horse.

Yeah, exactly. And, and music too. So much music that was just kind of spelling out the path for me.

Oh really? Like, can you be a little specific?

Um, I, I would point people to some of my playlists, I guess. Oh, cool.

Um, it's just on Spotify.

On Spotify, yeah. Okay. So there's— I can't remember his name right now, but there is a guy who has a song that came out after I was at the ranch. He's a pretty small artist, and I just— it resonated with me so much. He talks about how he hears like a train calling in the distance, and he goes to grab his gear and leave the city but he stops himself, uh, and he just can't do it. But he has dreams of eventually, like, going to Montana, working on a ranch. And that's one that stands out to me. Um, and yeah, so, so much good Western music. I don't even, uh, think country is the right— right— Western, Western music.

There is kind of like— yeah, there's a difference between country and Western now.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, exactly. Interesting.

And I feel like the theme of leaving and going out and kind of risking it all, you can find that in so much of Western music, or working, working the lifestyle. And the— they, they're very comprehensive about the pros and cons. Like, not every song is just glorifying the cowboy life.

Sure.

So it was, you know, yeah, music, music led to it, and, uh, Instagram led to it. And then the final thing was a story calling for a ranch hand application to their remote New Mexico ranch. Oh, cool. Um, which they don't put too much out on Instagram about, at least at that time. And so I really didn't know, but I reached out and applied and I heard back from Duke the next day. And then, uh, that was like Friday, and on Monday putting me out the, uh, 2 weeks. Yeah, yeah, it was fast. It was a fast turnaround.

And then what, like 2 weeks or so later, then you're in New Mexico at One of the ranchlands properties?

Yep. Wow. Not really knowing what I was getting into at all.

Super green?

So yeah, very, very green. Which I like being in that position.

Yeah, I mean—

You learn so much.

Yeah, it's a good opportunity to learn and grow, I guess. Yeah.

That's cool. Yeah. Low man, low man on the totem pole.

Yeah, so what kind of, like, what kind of, um, what kind of work did you do then out there at the ranch?

Yeah, we were up at 7 every day outside. And being in New Mexico, water is super important. So a huge part of the job is just making sure the water systems are working correctly, doing your rounds, checking up on the livestock themselves, just keeping your eyes open all the time. It's kind of— Duke used the term power of observation a lot, and just— and I— that stuck with me for a long time. Just keeping your eyes open with any, any situation you're in, not just specifically with ranching work. It's like, right, if your eyes are open, uh, and your mouth is closed, there's a lot to see. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I've taken that with me. Um, we rode a lot. I'd say the average ride was like 20, 20 miles, 15, 20 miles. Um, and there were ones that were quite a bit longer too.

Um, walking plenty. Yeah, yeah.

Left with maybe a little bow in the leg. Yeah, um, yeah, it's like we got to ride and neither of us had— Anna, sorry, Anna is my girlfriend we met out there at the ranch. Um, she'd never ridden horses and I'd never ridden horses, and so that is one of the biggest things that we both have taken away from that experience, that year, year and change out there. I work with horses still every day and I can't see that changing.

That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, you're doing something. You've got a cool, uh, morning gig right now.

Yep, yeah, work at a horse sanctuary, um, and I'm a ranch hand. Yeah, yeah, uh, mucking— they don't do stalls, it's, um, corrals. So mucking corrals, feeding, uh, working with the horses a bit, um, and just making sure everybody's doing well. They take in a lot of horses. Yeah, sanctuary implies. So just making sure everybody's okay.

That's cool.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

So, um, then while you're— so you're painting then while you're out at the Ranchlands Ranch?

Yes, yes. Yeah, I didn't do a ton of work because it is a— it's a 6-day job, or I guess 5.5-day job, and then We were 2.5 hours away from town, so our Sundays were spent going into town for groceries. And so yeah, there wasn't a ton of time, but the biggest difference is where your energy is taken from. So in the city, my energy was taken from my mental and maybe a little bit of my soul. And then out there, my energy was taken from physicality. I was still like sharp and ready to go at night to paint. And that's— I think you really need that when you're going into a creative endeavor like painting. Like, if you're mentally exhausted, it's getting pretty tough.

Well, then also probably the physical exhaustion at the end, you know, at the end of the day, you've probably worked out a lot of kind of like, uh, you know, junk going through your head.

Absolutely.

Whatever else. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, I don't mind. A very important thing, creativity. And you have a lot of time to think and just kind of be with your own thoughts. Yeah, so that was super important. You get like super— you get really, uh, stoked about an idea throughout the day, and then you can come home and you still have the mental energy to put it on the canvas.

Interesting.

Yeah, so I think I came away from the ranch with 5 pieces, 5 new pieces. After a year. So it was definitely more painting. Yeah, I've been out there.

Cool.

Yeah, then moved to Santa Fe.

Yeah, so, okay, so then you like wrapped up a year out there in New Mexico or something, and, and, uh, just I guess we're trying to decide what was next, and the painting was, um, inspiring enough to just for you to kind of make a, make a jump.

It was, and, and people had been very supportive in my life. I came to Santa Fe with a piece almost finished that one of my old friends had commissioned for me, and I was like, I'm getting people reaching out trying to commission work for me, um, and I'm just gonna try to make this, this piece's, uh, commission, you know, work with rent and groceries and everything and see if I can make some, make some more that people resonate with and take off my hands and it worked out. Cool. Yeah, it was definitely scary. And there have been lots of months where like, I don't know if it's going to happen this month.

Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, as I'm sure you know, that's not an uncommon experience. Yeah. Yes. And, you know, speaking of Jiwon Lee, when I was talking to him a couple of years ago, he kind of took me through a little bit of his career. And I think, uh, you know, he was pretty far in the hole for a long time.

Yeah.

Before things started clicking for him. And something though about being able to tap into your kind of inner compass and maybe having your eyes open.

Yeah.

And whatnot. So seems to, you know, have done the trick for him. And I think it does. That's kind of what's really important for a lot of people. It seems like you've got— you've tapped into that a bit too, you know. Being able to take the jump from San Francisco to New Mexico and then coming back out, you know, and then coming out to Santa Fe and going for it, that's awesome.

Yeah. As I was leaving the ranch too, you mentioned the word leap. I was saying my goodbyes, sad goodbyes to Duke, and I told him like, without the ranch experience, without the confidence from that lifestyle, the confidence of figuring things out, no matter what the situation might be. Um, and honestly, him, like, just watching him too. Um, without that, I don't think that I would have had it in me. It's like, or known that I had it in me, right? Yeah, it's like that. It was such an awakening for me. Cool. And a turning point in my life. It was— I will always look back on that.

That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's a gift I think that a lot of people don't ever get. Yeah, I think is to have like that kind of an inspiring example and the ability to go through something in a way that makes you realize how resilient you are. Yeah, you know. Yeah, that's cool.

Used to run cross-country in high school and our coach would be like, you always have more in the tank than you think you do. And I don't know, his words at the time didn't—

you're like, whatever.

Yeah, I'm not down with the 20-mile runs today.

Yes, Drager.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yeah. Well, um, maybe we can go through and talk about some of the work and titles and kind of what, what's happening with these pieces.

That'd be awesome.

Should we start with Easy? Sure. Or do you want to jump in with— I guess Leave is up here in one of the views. So yeah, and if that's the turning point, uh, or, you know, sort of like, I don't know, Genesis, Genesis for the series, that might be a good spot.

Sure. Yeah, either way, happy to talk about this. All of the pieces, honestly. You usually don't get to stand beside your work and everybody that comes up, it's like, this one's about this.

Yeah.

So I'm happy to talk about it.

That'd be awesome. Yeah. Um, so before you do, I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about it. I mean, it sounds like, you know, especially this conversation we've just been having, there have been a couple key, key leavings, right?

Yeah.

And, uh, so maybe there's some of that in here. I don't know. I'm just guessing.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, 100%. And okay, so, uh, title of the piece is Leave. This piece comes from, I guess, after I made my jump, I had a lot of people reaching out to me asking me how I—

how did you do it?

Yeah, how did you do it? And so I just wanted to make a piece that kind of speaks to the fact that there is no how, really. It's extremely simple, and that We tend to make it very complicated, like, well, I can't leave because, uh, my, uh, I have rent. And those things are valid, but they also just serve to get in the way and give us excuses. And so the title answers the question, um, it's—

I like that—

You Leave. Um, that's the, that's the answer to how.

The, like, so the subject in it too, I've seen in a new way after chatting with you right now as well. I mean, like, I think that the, you know, the, the popular Western mythos of the cowboy is like riding off into the sunset. And, you know, obviously there's, um, that like aspect of Leave. But, you know, you're talking about being inspired by Duke and your experience at the ranch as a cowboy maybe taught you.

Yeah, absolutely. And so, or just kind of illustrate how simple it really was. Like how many complications and thoughts swirl around when you're coming up with how you're going to do it. And then just realizing that the actual key was just doing it, pulling the trigger. And that after that, all those things kind of fell away. All those reasons why not to do it, they figured themselves out.

Yeah. Awesome. I want to get into a little bit of your process and stuff too later. Sure. And a little bit of the technical, you know, side of the work. But I like, um, you know, if we're just sitting here talking, it's good to— let's just, let's just talk about the easy— yeah, let's talk about easy and kind of just like the conceptual side of things. Sure.

So I'd say, I'd say that there's usually 3 things that my work could really be speaking to. Um, it's— or that are— that's happening in the work. First, it could be a conceptual thing that I'm trying to do. Another could be technical, like I'm really trying to work on some process. And then the other is emotional. And so this one is less conceptual. Sure. And, and more trying to get to an emotional state of calm, because a lot of my work is energetic and not like, not in a bad way, I don't think, but it's just I don't focus on portraying just like the easy calm, um, that I went for with this. So this was an emotional challenge for me, trying to get to a new place and stretch my legs in that direction.

Cool. Yeah, yeah. I mean, is the title, you know, like telling a horse like easy? Easy now.

Yeah, so you could be. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that the perspective is You, you get to look in on a horse in a moment where it doesn't know that you're really there, because horses will almost always look over at you, and you'll see their ears pointed in the direction they're focusing. And this horse is half asleep, um, and so you cut— you get to step into a place that you usually don't get to be unless the horse is really, really comfortable with you. Yeah, um, you're easy— like, you two have an easy relationship. Yeah, um, and I think that so that informs the title as well as the, the standard easy.

Yeah, easy, you know. Yeah, cool. Yeah, I love, uh, another thing, so I was gonna say I love the color palette and, and the way that like the greens interact there with that, the pink and purple. And come across not as green.

It's really cool.

And I know that you mentioned to me previously that a lot of this came from like starting with warm colors. Yeah.

Yeah. And the bodies and like the actual physical bodies and all these pieces in this body of work are warm colors. Yeah. Like this rich pink, red here with Leeve. And then as we go over, I can point it out, but it's going to be obvious. Every other bottle.

A lot of, a lot of reds and pinks.

Yes.

Yeah. All right, well, let's talk about, uh, neon as camo too.

Okay.

Yeah, sure. This is, um, you know what, I am going to get up and kind of move this camera so that we can at least camera be it. Yeah, let's see what we got here. And so these are— oh, maybe let's hang it up on the wall. We got that. Oh no, we don't have the— we moved the hook. Yeah, so that's fine. Let's just hang on where it is. Um, all right, so Neon and Camo is Camo 2. Yeah, is this pink painting. Yeah, pink painting.

Yeah, painting. Pretty dusty and out of focus.

Yeah, this one is, is definitely the most, um, ethereal of, of all the pieces, I guess. So most ethereal feeling. And something about that is really compelling. Like you really want to know what in the hell is happening. Or I do.

Yeah. So I imagined a storm, but I've had people say fog. And this one I was going for, as the title implies, Neon is Camo Too. So even with all these bright colors in here and my palette is bright as well. One of the themes that I've kind of tackled with is hiding. Like, are you hiding from something? So this, it's like you have this obscure figure who's clearly enshrouded by something and camoed, I guess you could say. Sure. But it's in these neon colors and that there's almost like two ways to hide. Some people hide in the traditional camel way, right? Um, just trying to blend in. And then other people, I think, hide by being more like extra and boisterous. Yeah, that's their way. That's like almost their defense mechanism, you know? Like, we're all at some point, until we, um, kind of break out, I think. Yeah, we're always trying to hide in some way. Sure. Like the facade. So yeah, this one conceptually it's about just the different, different ways of hiding.

I like that.

Yeah, it's really cool.

Um, I'm gonna try and explain that one to my 6-year-old too. He's really into camouflage. Oh yeah, like animals that can camouflage themselves too. So I'm looking forward to talking about that.

Yeah, yeah, chameleons. I got a lot of cool flowers they— yeah, they can, uh, camo up to. Yeah.

That one, it's, it's kind of remarkable to me how you're able to get that sense of depth with whatever's happening in there. And I mean, I think some of that, you know, is like you're talking about, like the spray paint on the aluminum, you know, maybe it takes it really nicely. And but at the same time, like whatever you've done blending-wise is, is, um, it's really nice.

Thank you.

And, you know, like, I think, I think contemporary artists using spray paint in their work and mixing it with oils, it's pretty exciting. The two, it's, you know, it's got the, like, the street art kind of background from graffiti artists all the way to, like, um, I don't know, hippies at fairs making space paintings and stuff. But, um, but to apply it in a way with a lot of intention And to get these effects that you're getting, I think are really, it's really a cool use of it.

Thank you. Yes. I think that the oil definitely helps refine it. Yeah. Because it can, it can quickly turn into what you're describing, you know, whether it's gorgeous graffiti art, which I have immense respect for, or like the interstellar paintings at, at, um, like these fairs.

Yeah.

These fairs.

Yeah.

So. Yeah, I think that the oil helps me reel it back in and be very intentional about it. Use specific caps for the work, like for the can itself, so that it helps with the gradients quite a bit, but also just the intention of where I want the color to be.

Right. Yeah, yeah, you're doing a good job of that.

Thank you.

That's good. All right, and then what's the title of this little guy?

That one is Rough Handles Reward.

So I live in Dallas and something I feel like I would be amiss if I didn't mention, like it reminded me somehow of like the red Pegasus. Maybe it's Conoco. It was like a, it's like a symbol of an oil company. What?

The one over there in the corner?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Hang on.

Yeah.

Look at that guy. Interesting. Did you realize that there was a similarity there?

Uh, no, I did not.

That's interesting.

But I absolutely see it.

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. So tell me about this piece.

Okay, so, um, this one, of the three elements I described, I'd say this one is also focused in a conceptual way, um, conceptual direction. The title being Rough Hand with Reward, and the horse is rearing. It speaks to— it's a personal— it's kind of like an introspective piece for me where I feel like, as we all have probably, there's been moments where you just, you don't handle an interaction well, whether it be someone you're really close with or just, you know, a random interaction and maybe you're a little bit too rough with your handling of it. Sure. Let your anger flare up. And even I found that even if you're right, like even if you were totally right in your stance, especially if there's people watching and you handle it poorly, you lose. And so this is just looking at some of those times in my life where I have— I've been there. I reacted too harshly and got bucked.

Yeah. You got the— yeah. Yeah.

So, and then, I mean, color-wise, um, decided to go with a really rich red, um, and have that stand out It's the cleanest background of all of them. Like, it's the most stark. So baking in some of that, um, that leading energy of like anger or frustration.

Yeah, it's a little rougher, maybe not as, not as easy. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's cool.

All right, and then you've got, um, your H Brace piece.

Yep, it's called Backbone.

Right.

And, uh, so this one speaks to my time at the ranch quite a bit. That H-brace is actually one that we built out there. I guess it's speaking to the grit, the sand that you can gain from living a life like that, and also from learning these skills that are passed down. Like, there's no— I think it's pretty tough to find a YouTube video on how to build a traditional New Mexican hichgrace like this, with all of the intricacies that we were taught that are just elements from Duke's life. Like this, these connection points are called— it's a Cobb Co connection, and he learned that in Australia when he was there in his younger days.

Interesting.

And so we we got that, that wisdom from Duke. And so the man for me kind of represents wisdom and ranch knowledge being passed down. And for me, that has led to a stronger backbone. For people that don't know, an H-brace is an element of a fence line that is, if built correctly, like relatively indestructible and can last— if you use juniper, because juniper is an amazing, uh, wood. It can last 80 years strongly, longer than some people live. So you could build something that outlives you, which I just think is so incredible.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Right above Backbone is, um, this is Leap. Leap.

And then here we go, Seas. It is Expectation is Reality.

Expectation is Reality.

And that's, I think, one of the more— that's very important in the title, um, and speaks to the leap that we were already talking about earlier. Um, and yeah, just going for it. And, and the Expectation is Reality part, um, is just something that I've been noticing over and over in my life recently, whether it be with people or with horses or with a painting, um, if you go into it with the pot— with the right mentality, with the right expectations, it seems like you can almost create your own reality. Um, one of my favorite examples I've been telling people as I've talked about this piece is that like my dad used to always, uh, when he'd have an outtail an out taillight, he would think about it constantly that he has this out taillight.

Oh yeah.

And he would end up getting a ticket. That's a sure thing. Whereas other people can drive around with a taillight out for a year and not get pulled over. Yeah. And so that's just like a very simple example, but I think that the more we set our expectations, intentionally set our expectations, the more we can create our own reality. And then with the bird, I wanted to create the opportunity for people to set their own expectations for this man who's jumping. To literally put into practice what I'm getting at with this piece. So that bird, as with most people, I think that when you look up and you see a bird hovering around like that, no one's ever really sure if it's is it a vulture or a hawk? Like, how often is it like, yeah, I can't really tell. So, um, I wanted to create a very vague, almost shadow of a bird where you don't know what type of bird it is, and let people's expectations of what's going to happen to this man inform what they think that bird is. If it's a vulture, then they think he's gonna die. If it's a hawk, then hopefully they think he's fine. And sure, almost like a mirror to him.

Um, or yeah, I mean, or like you could think about it like, but, uh, start to wonder kind of like what the guy's intentions are, you know?

Yeah.

And what, what kind of character he is, you know, outside of this jump.

Exactly.

That's interesting.

Baked a lot into it.

That's great. Cool.

Yeah.

Um, a couple more pieces in this, in this, uh, group. We've got, um, uh, that's night.

Northern Lights.

Northern Lights, right? Yeah, Northern Lights. Oh wait, I gotta reset my lighting here. Here we go.

Yeah, and this is—

this one's, uh, I gotta zoom in on this one, or I'll get a better— I'll get a better, um, image of it later. But yeah, it's almost like there's like some— I mean, the, the title at least suggests to me that these, um, star-like qualities in the, in the, you know, bright warm spots of the piece are, you know, part of where the title comes from.

Definitely. This one, as I said, there's, there's 3 things, and this one was a technique for me. It's been very difficult for me to do night pieces, and I, I definitely struggled with it looking back at some of my Some of my pieces early on where I did night scenes, I just, I really don't like them. And part of that is trying to use blacks, which I don't even, I don't use blacks anymore. Night scenes are greens and purples.

Wow, so that's not the normal night palette. I like it.

Yeah, it's, if you want to create a night scene, I think that those two are really, really important. And so I was— this one's less conceptual and more, can I get a nice thing that I really like? And this is one of my favorite pieces in the group, so happy, very happy with how it turned out.

Yeah, yeah, I love that piece. Last but not least, we've got Distillation of Life. This one is not conceptual at all, is it?

No, no, definitely not. It's just, it's a cowboy snubbing a horse.

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, so this one, um, definitely the conceptual space. I'm really not into the practice of snubbing horses. I know it can be done well, but it also can be done really poorly and really harshly for the horse. Also, just generally breaking a horse I don't know, like, I'd like to have my horse have some spirit still.

Can you explain a little bit for the non-cowboys what snubbing a horse is?

Yeah, so it's, it's one method of breaking a horse where you have a snub line. It's like essentially like a lunge line and a snubbing post, and you let the horse wrap itself around the snubbing post till it really can't move anymore. It's like a controlled thing. And once they're snubbed up to that post, it's like, for a horse that hasn't been restrained before, like, that's pretty— that can be pretty traumatic. And end up leaving with, you know, broken, I guess. But there, like I said, there are ways to do this more softly, I think. But this piece is not about snubbing the horse at all. It's the title, like I said, is "Distillation of Life." In parentheses there is "under strain." And with this one, I just ask anybody that comes up to it to put themselves in any of these— there's only 4 elements in the piece, right? There's the cowboy, there's the line, there's the post, and there's the horse. So if you come up to this piece, I just ask that you put yourself in the shoes of each of those elements. And ask yourself if you— what you resonate with most. Do you resonate most with the horse? Do you feel like you've been kind of reeled in? Are you all of these elements? Like, are you reeling yourself in? Are you the cowboy and the horse? What's holding you back? It doesn't have to be like an interpersonal thing with somebody. It could be totally happening internally. It could be situational for you.. It could be a job. So yeah, it's more of a reflection on life and these elements that seem to crop up all the time. Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that that's, I mean, that's what I kind of, what I got out of it when I was looking at it. And it's a good thing to contemplate for sure.

Yeah.

This one presold, as did another one, When the Levee Breaks, that's in the show. And that one actually we've shipped off, so we don't have it to show in the video or talk about, but unfortunately, um, we do have an image of it. So would you mind telling me a little bit about When the Levee Breaks?

Yeah, um, When the Levee Breaks happened right when there was a lot of really good things happening in the career, like a lot of momentum. And, um, you know, sometimes things don't pan out, so it doesn't really even matter. It's just like when you feel momentum happening, it's just a good thing, especially when you're out here painting. And so that one is just like, it felt like all of a sudden, after putting in a lot of work, making a lot of pieces, that things started to pan out. And it was like the title, When the Levee Breaks, informs that. Yeah, it's just good stuff. Good stuff happening. Definitely. Yeah.

Well, awesome, Gino. Thank you for telling us about all these. I mean, I know that's kind of a— I mean, you seem to be excited about it, but it's a lot of talking. So it's a lot of time.

Thanks. Yeah, of course. Yeah, hopefully I didn't put anybody to sleep talking about it all.

No, man, I think all each one of these pieces is really interesting. They're all really beautiful and And there is an emotional component to each of them that I guess, you know, you were saying you were looking at 3 different— 3, is this 3? You're looking at 3 different elements, I guess, like as you're working on the series. But I really think that each of these has all 3 of those elements, but maybe one focuses more on one aspect than another. Um, so these are awesome, and I'm excited for, for anybody who has one of these in their house, including yourself, until they go away.

Yeah, it's always tough to ship away your babies. Yeah, got to.

That's like the, um, half of the process, right, is to, is to have these ideas, to express them, and then to share them so that other people can have them and share them with their You know, they're groups of people and get these thoughts out into the world.

Exactly.

It's interesting stuff.

And keeping it vague too. I mean, obviously I explained all of them, right? And what I was doing, but one of the greatest things is just hearing what other people take away from it. It's like, oh, that looks like my grandfather, you know, um, whatever it might be. Like, I just, I love to hear what people take away from the pieces when they're left in a vague space.

Somehow you've done a good job of communicating, I think, your intention with them and leaving a lot of space for personal interpretation. Thank you, George. Yeah. Um, cool. Well, is there anything else you want to bring up that I haven't— I know we talked, we've been focusing on the work specifically, but, um, tell me about this cactus.

Okay.

The cactus, cactus is a prominent feature in a lot of these.

It is, yes.

Photographs.

Well, I think it helps maybe with scale, I don't know, so a little bit of that, but we got— Anna's brother is a plant biologist.

Oh really?

Yeah. Oh cool. And he is very talented at that and has some of the coolest plants I've ever seen.

Awesome.

So a lot of— you can't see them in the video right now, but there's a lot of cool greenery around this house and that's pretty much all from David. Thank you, David. It's always nice to have some green in the studio too. Yeah, we just got this. We were back in Tulsa for one of Anna's friends. They had a wedding. Cool. And yeah, he left some very cool plants for us there.

I didn't actually expect there to be a story.

Letting me—

like, we got it at Home Depot.

Oh yeah, Home Depot doesn't have anything like that.

Yeah, as I was thinking that, I realized maybe, yeah, maybe not. Yeah, awesome. Um, cool, let's take a break out and then let's come back and do like an around the studio bit.

Sweet.

Okay, cool. Well, thanks. Thanks, Jill.

Yeah, of course.