Hi … my name is Stephen … I’m from Minnesota … Minneapolis or Twin Cities Minnesota … Growing up … Actually I grew up in Saint Paul … in my childhood … but I spent my adult years living in Minneapolis … but living in the Twin cities … you’re growing up surrounded by trees … and lakes … and rivers … but you’re in the midst of a highly urban community … so … it’s kind of a contrast between two different world views … or … environments which will form your world view … and … and in terms of what type of place it is … to live … it’s a nice place to live … I think that … I don’t know if I would describe … my … youth or childhood as calm … but … in terms of … as an environment … it’s a beautiful place to live … or … to grow … I can totally see why people raise families there … it’s very comfortable … and calm … and it’s just enough to not be bored … but it’s not so much that you’re … over stimulated … or frantic … It’s interesting … I was the type of kid that never would have called himself an artist … but I was always … making things … or doing things … I used to … I mean one of my first favorite toys was lego … you know … just making things out of building blocks … and then … from there I used to … take apart computers … and other electronics … and I would make things with the components … I used to use these things … called tin snips … to cut up a box … that a computer tower is made of … and I would make little figurines out of them … and other little metal sculptures … twisted with a pliers … or whatever … Thats one of the things I guess I would have made … I definitely used to draw … and paint a lot as a younger child … under ten … but I think I lost connection with that for a couple of years … because I really didn’t … see myself as an artist … or I didn’t really see being an artist as a … positive life direction … or something like that … I didn’t really believe in it … as an idea until I was older … and started making things again purely for the sake of expression … and enjoyment … and meditative purposes … and then I fell in love again … So … I did athletics as a kid … but I didn’t … feel highly passionate about them … I was more … at least not conventional athletics … I did like alternative sports … I did Tae Kwon Do … for six years … I did alpine skiing for a few years … at the same time I was doing theater … and now we’re fast forwarding into high school … But sports … I did Tae Kwon Do … starting … when I was probably eight … and I did it until I was sixteen … So … we’re going all out of order … So … I was born in Saint Paul … I lived there until I was eighteen … and then I moved to Minneapolis … but the thing is … it’s two different cities … but geographically they’re under ten miles apart … so … it’s the same metro area … but with different … downtowns … but I spent time in both … through high school … I grew up in Saint Paul … that’s where I lived … but once I got into high school … I was actually living in the suburbs with my cousins … which is part of my life story … that we can get to … but … I was living in the suburbs with my cousins … so I would have spent time in both cities … you know what I mean … around the metro area … So … the athletics would have been when I was living in Saint Paul … I honestly can’t place exactly when that would have been … Yeah … it’s over ten years ago … when your young … it’s hard to … But in high school … I got into theater … It was a big part of my high school experience … I was on the tech side … so I didn’t really act … but I was involved in pretty much every production … doing the lights … or the sound … or design or set building … type of thing … then  running it during the show … I did … The way my season worked … I was able to do the fall and spring show … and sometimes one of the two winter shows … but could never do both because I was in alpine … racing … that was one of the athletics that I did … So … I couldn’t do the theater in the winter … because I was skiing … So … it’s downhill … it’s not like cross country … it’s downhill skiing … so it’s slalom … if you’ve ever seen the Olympics … it’s like you go to a big hill … thirty to forty miles… outside of town … We as a team … there was only like eight of us … so we would carpool … a lot of the other teams were bigger … because they were suburban schools … that were by the ski place … so they would have thirty … forty people on it … but our team was … relatively small because we were further away … getting people out to the meets … it was just too much of a commitment for most peoples families … unless they had more money … and time at their disposal … or were just closer by proximity … to the place where people practiced and compete … and so we would all carpool together … So about moving … and staying with my cousins … I didn’t move to Minneapolis with my cousins … I moved  out of the city … to the suburbs … with my cousins … but I was spending time around both of the cities then … Essentially … I moved in with my cousins because both of my parents passed away … when I was a sophomore in high school … and so … I kind of just  needed a place to live … so I lived with my cousins … I have two sisters and one brother … but my brother was in college … and one of my sisters was in college … and then I was a sophomore in high school … and my sister was a senior … so … me and my sister moved in with my cousins … and then she finished out her year … and went to school … and I continued living with them … for like … a year … and a half after that … I didn’t have to change high schools … which was great … because … it would have been really shitty to lose my friend group at the time … So… I got lucky in that … that I could stay at the same school … but was just living in a different place … and um … yeah … I was able to hold on … despite the chaos that was happening in my home life … I was able to at least hold onto … some of the communities that I was building … or I had built … and the things … that gave me happiness in life … and that was definitely really good … because I would have been … drowning … given what I was experiencing … personally … at the time … with the loss of my parents … so … it would have been pretty devastating to just … completely disconnect from my life … the thing about … when you’re going through something like that … one of the things that they … emphasize … that … any normalcy … or balance … that you can maintain in your life is super important … because otherwise … you just … something so major happens … and you … your whole world kind of like falls apart … from under you … and you don’t … it’s hard to … get back up … if you don’t have anything … So when you have some normalcy … and some regiment … and something that’s already balanced … or consistent … it’s so important to have that … because otherwise your … your entire world just like crumbled beneath you … and you don’t have any of the normal things that add balance to your life … So … after I graduated high school … I was enrolled in college … for engineering at the University of Minnesota … From the time I accepted … to the time that I graduated high school … to the time that it was time to attend …  I realized … that that wasn’t really … what I was interested in doing … I didn’t really want … to go and work in a lab … or end up in an office job … so I didn’t really want to go the engineering route … because I knew plenty of engineers … and there’s those two routes you can go … and either way … it didn’t seem like what I wanted to do … so I kind of just … didn’t attend … orientation … or … classes … or like anything … I just … dropped out … without dropping out … I just didn’t participate in the first semester of school … and … then … I … kind of was just treading water for a little bit … trying to figure out what to do … and during this period of time … I started drawing … casually … for the sake of my own therapy … and entertainment … and enjoyment … and then … I just … was living with some people that I had found off of Craigs list … I was just doing my thing … and then … you know … a lot of my friends were big into … the hip hop music community … and the scene of hip hop music in the city … I just became a part of the art circle … and community around me … as a result of my friend being a part of it … Then I just started to … all of this while I was drawing … and experimenting with visual arts as a means of expression and entertainment … and at a certain point … I decided to take it more seriously … and started … drawing a lot more … buying more art supplies … and spending hours and hours every week … just getting lost in abstract expressionism … across different mediums … and then I started painting … I did that for a couple of years … and I was enjoying it … And then about the time … two years into painting … was when I had the first opportunity to come and live here … Chicago … with the community of artists I ended up living with for two years … up until a couple of months ago … How did I meet that group originally? … There was one person I knew … and I had been out here before … and met some of the people that … there was one person I knew that was moving in with these people … everyone was coming together … trying to get this warehouse … and he was trying to move in with these people … and get this warehouse space started … They kind of found a spot … and then they had two months … until the lease would start … or whatever … and I found out about it during that two months … and I was like … “Can I come live with you … the first month?” … so I did … and then I just felt so inspired … being surrounded by other creatives … in this space … and just the scale of everything … and being able to … experiment creatively … with a community aspect … was just very inspiring … So I just kind of like leaped on it … and I was … I’m going to move here … I had always wanted to move out of where I was living anyways … and get out … and see the world … because I had spent twenty two years of my life there … so I was … “I’m going to do this … because there’s no reason not to” … So I uprooted my life and came here … Since then creatively … my medium … and my practice involves … environment and space … where I practice my process … as well as the people that are surrounding me and the things that I’m inspired by … I’ve come to this place where now … I wouldn’t be able to say the I’m a painter … or a woodworker … or a textile artist … because … if I except just one of these things … I’m not including the entirety of what I do … So now … I’m like … I do all these things … because they’re processes that I enjoy … I’ve definitely collaborated with multiple different people that have been in my community … but I also work a lot on solo work … It’s a balance … I’m not a purely collaborative … or purely solo artist … I … in the past … tended more towards solo work … but now … I’m a lot more confident in my vision and process … and I’m a lot more flexible in terms of what my expectations are … It just depends on the context … if there’s an idea that I’m sharing with someone else … and it seems inspiring enough for us to pursue it … then we’ll collaborate on it … I’m always down to listen to someones idea … regardless whether or not it’s the right fit for collaboration … There’s a lot of collaboration from concept … more so … then collaboration in process … A lot of the collaborative energy that I share with other people is just … communicating … and … dissecting and evolving ideas … more so then it is both of our hands … on one part of it … or like … the process of making a thing … a lot of it is more conceptual … Earlier in my art career … a lot of my work was therapy … you know … self therapy … The process … or product … was something that brought me peace … but over time I‘ve been … feeling more compelled to … start … or participate in discussions and dialogs regarding things that either I think are important … issues or things that I think are worth noting … or things that are undeniably important … In the world … as we … live … I would say over time I’m growing more towards … my work … being influenced by … our current sociopolitical climate … but at the same time … I still certainly make things just for the process … or the experience of making things … the catharsis that comes from the process … Catharsis is almost a neutral feeling … that you get as a result of … doing something … Sometimes … what I do is purely in order to express something … and get it out … and process … but it’s not about … a larger communal discussion … sometimes it’s just me speaking my mind … or it’s me speaking to myself … but then other times … I’m trying to have a dialog with other people … about something … Right now … I’m very interested in kind of moving into … reuse … based art … or art that centers on … or … incorporates … ideally both … either found … or waste materials … in order to have a dialog about … the environment … and waste … within the creative industry … as well as our personal consumer culture … and as a way of using up things that otherwise would be trashed … Turning something that would be waste into something that’s beautiful … is something that I’m captivated by … I think the discussions that stem from that will certainly include issues of the environment … and our commercial culture … I guess its tending more towards a larger discussion … but … stemming from a more personal place … As far as social media … I use Instagram … I used to have a Twitter … and I removed myself from it … because … it was a lot of negative energy … that that platform shares … with Twitter … it’s very easy for something to be seen by a lot of people … because you can retweet it … I found that a lot of what I was seeing … was just people being mad about something … and I don’t need to internalize that negative energy to be aware of the issue … or whatever … I use Instagram … because as an artist … it’s a visual platform … so it just makes sense … for presenting my work … and it’s a good place to network with other young people … and or older people … anyone in the creative field … I think everyone has an Instagram these days … or nearly … I think that as an artist in 2019 … and soon in 2020 … it’s pretty much essential to use social media in order to … at least connect with people that you meet … even if you’re not really trying to use it to reach a new … larger audience … and bring your work to people that haven’t seen it … or can’t see it … You still … like when you meet someone … it’s a portfolio … like you said … More then that … it’s easier for people to remember you … when they see you … If you meet someone … and it’s a new connection … and you give them your phone number … they can forget about you forever … but if you follow them on Instagram … and they follow you … and then you post … then they’re going to see your post … and be reminded that you exist … so that connection has a built in reminder … of the connection … versus the phone number where someone has to keep the conversation going … On social media … people are aware of your life because … when you put it out there … for them to see … they are alerted to it … via the algorithm … and the way the coding works … It’s a built in update … about where you’re at … and what you’re doing … to the people that you include … or are trying to include … in your life or process … My foreseeable future? …That’s such an interesting question … Where my life will go … I think it could go a lot of directions … One thing I know for sure … I’m going to continue creating … I don’t foresee that ending anytime … before I’m not capable of continuing to do it … I’ve been seriously pursuing art for … six years … and …was creating before that … I think that will be a given no mater where I go or what I do … or what I’m trying to do in life … is that I’ll continue to make things … based on what interests me … or captivates me … I see myself … traveling … a lot in the next ten years … I see myself spending time … and energy … both within my creative and non creative career … trying to work with environmental groups … and certain social action groups based on … issues that are important … and important to me … relative to my life … And I think I see myself trying to … build something … whether it’s an organization … or a space … or a company … whatever … about bringing artists together … and using their respective talents … and assets … and perspectives … in order to achieve … a goal … I definitely see a community … being a large part of the next twenty-five years of my life … but then maybe after that … I’ll go live in the middle of the wilderness … in a cabin … something like that … I don’t know …