So, I've been an artist since 1998, it's 14 years I guess.
And I never sold a lot of anything because I was doing other things.
I made work for my peers, I made work for people on the street, and I made work because I thought it was important.
I didn't have the chance to sell stuff so I didn't really think about that.
In the last three years, I started showing at a commercial gallery.
I thought, oh, this is great, this is like another venue where I can show my work sort of like you'd think about a museum.
But all different kinds of people are going to come through and they're looking at this artwork in a certain context.
And they're going to bring attention to it instead of me trying to capture their attention like I would on the street.
So it's like I can be a little bit more subtle and I can do different things with the work that I wouldn't be able to do.
It can be more valuable, it can be made of materials that I don't mind spending a bit of money on because it's not just going to get trashed on the street.
It's going to be in this place where people are going to come through and they're going to look at it and pay attention.
What I didn't realize is that that's not just where when you're showing in a gallery, that's not the only place that the work is shown.
Eventually, hopefully, in my case, it got sold and then it goes to someone's home, right?
So the people's homes that the work ends up in are not my peers.
They are of a different class than I am.
They usually have some wealth because they can spend a few thousand dollars on an artwork that's just going to be in their house because they like it.
And I can't do that.
So then I'm in this spot where, on the one hand, I've got this huge project that I'm taking around the country and it's about the economy and I'm trying to reach as many people as possible.
And the other part of my practice is this gallery work that is going into the hands of the select few.
And this feels like a conflict.
So thinking about it, I'm like, how did I get here?
This is not what I was working towards.
And there's this feeling of like, go back. You weren't trying to get here, just go back where you were before.
And then there's another part of me, which I think is the smarter part, that was like, wait, you have the chance, you get to talk to this group, this select few.
And not everyone gets to do that, even when they want to.
And don't walk away from that.
So what do I want to say to this audience?
If the venue is this person's home, what do I want to do in that venue?
And what I want to do is offer some reminders, right, that they want to.
They want to remember like what's important, what are the values that are important to them.
And so when they buy this work, every day in their house flashing these lights says tell the truth.
It's a good thing to remember if you have a little bit of wealth and a little bit of power and you want to do good things with it.
Tell the truth every day.
Give and give and give.
Every day, right, flashing in their house.
This is like what life is about, giving, you know, and it can be easy to forget that.
I think the messages that are in this work are kind of universal sort of virtues that can be easy to lose track of in our world.
Especially for people that are in these circles.
That don't mind having this reminder in their home.
So the shift for me was realizing, oh, I'm making work. I can make work that people are going to live with and not just any person, but a very specific type of person, and it gets to be there and be an influence and hopefully like a reminder.
Thank you.
