Greg Mike | Street Art, Running from the Cops and AI

Published Jan 10, 2024, 8:02 AM

Greg Mike is a prominent figure in the street art community. His work often features bold colors, cartoonish characters, and a blend of pop culture references. As a self-taught artist, Greg Mike's career took off with his dynamic murals and street art installations, which have graced urban landscapes globally. His creative vision extends beyond traditional canvases, with collaborations that span from fashion brands to major corporations.

 

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Talking to Death. We're back. I'm actually in New York City right now, and so is Michael Beca Michael. I usually call Mike Michael. Michael's what I say when I'm in business mode. We're here in strangely, the same exact hotel room I stayed in last time, and we were here about a month or two ago doing some interviews for Talking to Death, some that you've seen, some of some you haven't seen yet. But I guess there's just a I mean, there's probably nine hundred rooms in this hotel, and I swear to god, I just reserved a standard room. And here we are, back in the same precise place that we were recording this first round of interviews. And so it's going to look like, optically down the road that this is just our New York studio. So I'm just gonna roll with it. Yeah, it is at this point Tenderfoot, New York, Tenderfoot Studios in New York City. We're also out here getting some really fun interviews of some people that I'm I've looked up to forever. I don't want to spoil it too much, but just some fun, exciting people that I got a chance to sit down with and pick their brains and learn how they tick and kind of see our similarities and differences. And I think that all you guys will get not only just a kick out of it, but maybe learn something too in the process. Today's guest is one of my very good friends. I have known this person for over a decade, and I met him back in and this was probably two thousand and eight. I was a young, little sprout and I wanted to be a musical artist. I wanted to be a rapper singer, and clearly that that did not work out entirely. That's why I'm here making podcasts. But I had a fun time doing it, and I met this producer named Maddie. Matthew Pearson also rip one of my best friends, but he passed away sadly a couple of years ago, but he lives on forever and impacted so many people, not only just in my life, but the music industry in Atlanta, the rap scene, style culture. But I met I met this person through my good friend Mattie, who was a producer, and the first time I ever actually set eyes on this guy, I walked in the room and he was at a point in his life where he was also rapping and singing. His name is Greg Mike. This guy makes some of the coolest art out there. Big, huge murals, fun, vibrant colors. He has this mascot called Larry Loudmouth. The guy is just a brilliant human who has mastered his art as a craft. Greg Mike's art is bold, it's playful, it's colorful. It just makes you feel good when you look at it. And he has this very popular character mascot, whatever you want to call it, called Larry Loudmouth, and it's really kind of an iconic figure. And if you're in Atlanta, if you live in Atlanta, there's no way you've not come across this, either in a mural somewhere in East Atlanta, or on a billboard, or somewhere inside a Falcons game, a Braves game, whatever, a Hawks game, you name it. This guy is on the pulse of the city. And he's also, over the years in his career, built this big, huge community of other artists and features them in his gallery. He's just an amazing human who is way better at something that I'm trash at. Mike, how good are you at drawing?

I'm absolutely terrible. Like I can kind of doodle, but like I'm bad at straight lines and like anything perfect.

So you'd be a bad surgeon, Yeah, probably, but the surgery hands, you know, like.

My handshake real bad. It's like a genetic thing in my family.

You just haven't had a drink yet or what exactly. It's weird. So I have to just drink this sean of whiskey in the morning then it goes away.

Uh No.

But Greg, Mike is the guy who does those perfect surgical lines. Like his stuff is just known for being like it's printed, it's amazing.

It's just fun to look at. And I actually have one of his pieces in my house. The infamous Larry Loudmouth just an icon staple of Atlanta. But I wanted to catch up with Greg because one it's been a minute since we've just sat down and talked to his friends. But he's become so successful in the artist world, the graffiti world, and I've always just been so curious what that is. Like, I'm talking about the og guys who in the middle of the night with hoodies on, dodging the cops out there tagging up places. You wake up and you're driving down I twenty and you see some tag on on the road sign like, how did that get there?

These people are like rock climbing to get out. You see it right out this window. There's graffiti at the top of this brick building, and I'm like, who is hanging off the side of this building doing this right now?

It's It's seriously, it's mind blowing. But it just sounds like a fun life, just running from the cops all to just leave your mark somewhere and tag up a town. It's kind of badass. But this guy is a genius, has so much stuff going on. I think we have a very hilarious conversation, and I learned a lot about his journey to get to where he is today that I honestly didn't even know. And I think a lot of this stuff is relatable and applicable to everyone, no matter what you're doing in life or what you want to do. I learned a lot. But either way, I'm super excited for everyone to meet Mike. Good friend Greg, Mike. And so, without further ado, the next episode of Talking to Death Greg, Mike, hope you enjoy it. Well, it's good to see you again, man, it's been a minute.

Good to see you as well.

Long time, long time. I've actually known you for a long time. Yeah, what uh, I.

Mean, I'm trying to think what year do you think that was that we first met?

Two thousand and eleven? Twelve sounds about or earlier maybe actually sounds about whenever I met you, you were doing music, or that's what I or at least that's what it looked like you were doing.

Well. Yeah, I mean I've always been a huge fan of music. I've always said that, you know, music is my speed. You know, whether you can take that as like a drug reference or a reference for how I operate on the day to day. You know, it's like I feel like from the minute I get up, it's always like putting on music and whether that's a fast DM song that kind of dictates the mood and energy that I work at right and like same thing if it's like on some chill mellow, you know, reggae vibes, Like that's just the vibe that I'm going with at the time. I feel like music always dictates that. Oh yeah, especially with art. I mean it's feel like it's almost I find like it's almost impossible to like create without music playing.

So it feels so when you're painting and stuff, you just always have the music.

Oh I have to. Yeah, it just feels like so stale. Like if I go in the studio and I don't put on a track, I'm like, it's like dead silence, you know, says like rhythmatic, you know. But yeah, I mean we used to. But I mean you were you were crushing it back then. I was just messing around with some buddies. I feel like at the time it was like go to the studio and paint and then go to the music studio and you know, rip some bars.

I remember this. It was like a song that you were doing that's still in my head.

Something that the Diamonds song. She shines like Diamonds. I think we're gonna have to find that. But yeah, I actually looked years ago and it was I couldn't find it. I mean because it was on like MySpace or something. Oh man, and that all those files must have just been deleted.

I said, bringing back my space. We don't need more social media. I know that they've talked about it, but yeah, I kind of want the top eight friends again.

Yeah, that was fresh and the song you know you had that song I remember I had right now. Yeah, day and night. That was like mine for like, you know, at least six months about.

Other people.

But timber justin Timberlake tried to bring it back. I think at one point he was an investor.

That was a while ago.

I could be wrong. I mean I just heard that.

But where's Tom.

You know, Tom's on an island somewhere. I saw something recent care. Yeah, he's just chilling. He seems like he made out better than everyone. He said, peace, you have fun with that social media Hawaii.

Just chilling. I feel like, you know, if you're you're a professional artist, you make artwork and it's it's I mean, there's a lot of it here in my office. Huge fan of yours. I feel like that's one of the harder things to do, is be self sustainable doing your job. How long did it take you to get to a point where you can do this for a living, because I mean you could be a talented artist. You probably know tons of them, but do they you know, make a living off of this.

Yeah, I mean I think for me it was really I mean I've been doing art since I was a little kid. Like I've always picked up you know, krans when I was a child, and my parents would put out a giant sheet and let me just draw on papers all over the ground. So I mean I was always attracted to it. So but I don't think from a professional standpoint, like you're saying, where I was able to sustain my myself on It was probably till two thousand and nine, So I mean there was, you know, and I was born in eighty two and probably did art, you know, got serious about my art when I was about maybe ten or twelve years old, So I think from like ten till when I was twenty six, maybe fifteen fifteen or so years of like actually like painting daily, you know, going to art school. Like I mean, I was a starving artist at that point. I never, I never you know, could imagine like being where it's at now and being able to be a full time professional artist, like if you would have asked me back then, you know, because there were so many times of like people telling me you can't do this. You know, you're not gonna make it. You need to get a real job, right, like even family friends.

Your parents.

No, my parents never said that, but it was always like, you know, it was always like the brother's girlfriend or like the people that were like you know one, yeah, yeah, yeah exactly, so things like that where it was like I think that that type of stuff too, just like lit that like Underdog fire and fuel for my tank, Like hey, well wait though, just all the people telling you you can't do something. Yeah, yeah, I mean I still feel like I used that like kind of aggression. Yeah. I mean when I was younger, all my art was like super dark and kind of disturbing because I was like, you know, pissed off young graffiti, vandal and rock yeah, and just like skateboarding punk, you know, vandalism just you know, all about just you know, anarchy and whatnot. But then I switched it to being more positive, and I feel like, because I feel like that, it just made my mood better. But I mean just yeah, never never thought ever like, yeah, you can make money off art. I think it was just one of those things. And I'm sure even with you, it's like, you know, it just happens, and then it's like a snowball effect and it keeps going and you're like, yeah, okay, you start to see it grow and you're like, wait, okay, there might be something here, and it's like if you don't chase that, you never know, or if you don't try out a million things. I mean, you know, you're never gonna know. It's one thing I tell my kids, I'm like, try every single sport. You know, you might be the world's best badminton player, right, but if you ever if you never picked that up and try it like you nevern might not. Yeah, it could be yeah, you know what I mean. It's like, no, that's what's crazy about life.

And it's like, you know, just like taking shots, you mean, yeah, because you don't know what your talent is until you do it, right, I mean, there's certain things that you're drawn to naturally.

But it's like, so.

From ten to twenty six, I mean, you're saying that you're like you were a starving artist. Had you decided at that point that even if you can't make get rich off this or whatever it is that you were just gonna do it anyways that you.

Yeah, I was doing it like I was working, you know, normal nine to five jobs. I mean, I used to be a bag boy at publics. I've worked at every single restaurant, like yeah, in South Florida growing up there. But I was always the one thing I was always doing was doing art on the side. It's like I'd get off of work and then I go and do graffiti till you know, three four in the morning. Even when I moved to Atlanta, the same thing. Like I was working like you know, just like consulting and design, graphic design jobs. But like I come home at you know, six o'clock and I start painting, and I paint till three in the morning, and then I get up again at seven o'clock and I repeat it. So I think, if it's in you, it's in you. It's like, I mean, it's one of those things you can't force, right, It's like you got to let it out. As an artist, you have to release that otherwise it's not healthy to just keep all that energy like bottled up. And I think with anything, if you stick with it long enough, you're going to see success and you know you're going to see growth. And I think that's at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. Whether it's from I mean, if it's satisfying you creatively, whether it makes money or not, then that means it's the right thing for you to do.

I think all the people who you know would say that you should get a real job, that kind of thing. You know that probably, like you were saying, motivated you back in the day, what motivates you today? How do you stay hungry like that at this point there, Yeah, kind of flipped out.

Yeah, no, I I think that's the toughest part about kind of the stage that I'm at now, because you know, a lot of things that I've dreamed of have came to fruition, right, And it's like, you know, when you're younger, you have all these dreams X, I want to be you want to be here, I want to do this, X, Y Z, and then as those things come to happen, you know, kind of happen, you kind of have to reset those goals and you know, yeah, it's like what are those things and how do you reset those and how do you stay creative and how do you stay motivated. I mean, for me, a lot of it is like I have to get out of my own space. I got to get out of my own city. I gotta get out of my own like like work environment, whether that's like taking a flight and going to a place I've never been to, because I always say that, like when you look at things in another city or outside of your normal nine to five day to day, you kind of look at things from a different lens, right, Like have you ever notice, like when you go to when you're traveling, how much more alert you are because you've never been in that space, So you're looking and you're analyzing things from a different viewpoint vantage point You're like, I mean, I know when I drive around these streets here, I kind of go into autopilot mode in my head because you know where you're going, right Yeah. And it's like I feel like that happens the same way with your like everyday work. I know, for me, from like a creative standpoint, it's like I'm doing the same monotonous thing every day. My brain isn't going to look at things differently and think of things differently. So it's like when I take myself and I go to another city. It kind of makes me look at things completely differently. And that's where like I'm seeing inspiration. So yeah, I mean it's like doing a lot of that travel, getting in nature and then finding out like really like what matters in life. Like it's not if you figure that out yet. Yeah, I mean as now that I have a kid, you know, two kids, a wife, and you know a lot of things I dreamed of as a kid. Just through success, it's like, you know, you kind of just have to like really think about what matters in life. You know. It's like, so that's kind of where I'm at now and trying to figure out, you know, like what are the next moves and how I'm gonna get there. And you know, I have some exciting things of building like this new creative hub and.

Tell me about that. What's the plan?

So this has been kind of like a ten year decade dream for me is to build like kind of like a just a creative hub that encompasses all things that we do, because you know, what I have currently is you know, there's the Greg Mike Art which is my personal art brand. There's ABV, which is my gallery which we work with close to five hundred artists globally. And then we have my ABV agency, which is all corporate commercial, you know, collaboration projects. So with that, there's just like so many crazy things that go on during the normal, normal every day, whether it's me painting the studio or creative directing projects or curating art shows. But I always wanted to have like one place where we could do this all in one space, right where I could kind of hop from room to room, work with my team, you know, create shows, paint in my studio, all under one roof. So about four years ago, I found a space in East Atlanta. Village is a church that was built in nineteen fifties, and I was able to purchase the building and we're renovating the whole space. But it's going to be really just like a creative fantasy factory hub where we'll be able to do all this stuff.

You know.

It's four thousand square feet of gallery space, design studio, conference rooms, art storage, my personal painting studio, just rooms for anything imaginal. You walk in the building and just like anything you can think of you can do in that space, whether it's giant twenty foot tall sculptures or massive murals on the outside of the building. Just taking everything and putting it in one place. So I'm just excited, Like it's things like that, like excited to see kind of what comes out of that. You know, like if you have a space where you can do everything in one place, you know what kind of work is going to be developed.

So who owns pieces of your artwork that you're the most humbled by that You're like, man, it's pretty cool that they are a fan of my stuff.

I don't know, man, that's a tough question.

Or what which one flattered you the most or something? Right?

Yeah, I mean there's been there's been a few along the way, and it's cool when it just shows up, you know, whether it's like an artist like Diplo and he's doing a live stream and he's got you know, my vinyl figure in the background and you know, things like that, or like you know, the random DM from like Justin Bieber that's like, hey, I want you to do my charity art auction or something like that, And that's what's cool. It's like, you know, the power of the internet now, right, It's like it's like you never know, you know, like, what's gonna happen tomorrow? Right, you might open your phone there's a DM from you know, one of your biggest you know, superstars you looked up to as a kid, right, asking to collaborate on a project. And those things are cool when they happen, and it's like, you know, it's been a lot of that over the years where it's you know, I think stars aligned for a reason, and it's like you got to put in that work and you know, work on your your art over time, and good things will kind of come to life. Right.

I feel like when you're a starving artist, you're largely uncomfortable for a majority of the time. And as you you know, gain success with with that oftentimes comes more comfortability. And so once you get to that level, do you feel like you ever try to make yourself uncomfortable again?

I actually kind of feel like it's the opposite of that. The more success you have, the more money and financial you know, success you have, the more responsibility you have, the more employees you have. I mean, you know, now I have close to you know, eight or nine employees full time. They're just you know, working on projects that we're working on, and it's like you have more responsibility and more fear. I feel like, to make sure that you're going to continue to you know always, you know, create work that's going to be sucessful and collected and whatnot. When you're young and you don't have any of that, you know, stress or burden or worry, you can create whatever you want, right.

You know.

Also, when you create, you know, a body of work over fifteen years, you develop a style as as an artist, as a new artist, you can do whatever you want. You could jump fifteen styles you know every week, right, Yeah, because you don't have a collector base.

There's a standard of the set, right.

So I think that's the most challenging thing for artists and creatives or probably entrepreneurs or business people you know, in general. It's like, you know, how do you make sure that you grow properly and you don't lose your your you know, initial fans. Right. It's like what if you man, if you're known to manufacture whatever type of product and you're like, oh, that's our you know, bread and butter. We have to do that. But times change and styles change and people want something else. I mean, I feel like you see it all the time with even in tech or you know these companies that are known for one thing and then they keep doing that and then somebody else comes along and progresses. So it's like one part right there, like we have to do what we got to do to make sure we bring in the money to feed all the employees and you know, pay all the bills. Right, But then if you're not growing and changing, then people are gonna get you know, they're gonna get the I guess just complacent with you and move on to something else.

So you think just building on what you've done is arguably harder than I guess even if you were dead broke back in the day, you had more freedom to kind of just do whatever and take risks that didn't have as much of an impact if you failed. But maybe the further you get down the line, the more successful you are, the more those risks matter to your well being in the moment or what you've built, right, I.

Mean, think about like how many musicians, how hard it is for musicians to stay relevant and like after number one hit or something, right, Yeah, you know, like I feel like that's like the toughest thing for a musician is like you drop that you know, that first album and then your follow up album. There's so much stress where people are like, oh, you gotta have the hits, you gotta have the number one more slump. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's a scary feeling.

But you don't ever consider those things when you're you know, the starving artist mentality, because they don't matter to you.

Yeah, you don't know, you're not thinking about it. I think that's all just like right, comes comes along with the just years of doing it.

Do you have any regrets in your life that stand out to you?

Any regrets? Not not a ton of regrets. I mean, I think there's things that like, I think it's more just like time. I wish I would would have done things sooner and be more What do you mean just time, like when I got when I actually got serious about, you know, about art, even though I started early, like I could have probably gotten you know, more serious early, which could have sped up.

The entire part is getting serious about art. So there was a time that you're picturing were Okay, now I'm getting more serious or what.

Yeah, I think it's just being more active, right, and being more like in the scene and being don't like, don't be scared to knock down doors and don't be scared to make those calls or send those emails or show up and you know, show face. It's like I spent a lot of my I guess young younger years just like with that fear of being told no.

Right.

So it's like and I think as you get older, obviously you get more confident, and as you have more wins, you're gonna be you know, more confident. But I think everybody starting off is scared of that feeling of you know, just talking to people or like you know, going up in a room where you don't know anybody and pitching your own work or uh huh.

You know, so you didn't want you didn't want the rejection, so you kind of maybe, yeah, it's just held yourself back, like in hindsight sometimes.

Not even like I think just as a young kid. I think that's just things that kids go through in general, not even talking about my art, but like I remember, like you'd be scared to like pick up the phone and call somebody, like your parents would be like call Johnny's parents and ask him if you can go spend the night, and you're like, hell no, you know, I don't know, it's just like that type of stuff. And like I see now looking back at where I'm at, and I see some kids that are young that are like, you know, very timid and shy, and it's like, what's the worst thing that can happen to you if you go into a gallery and talk to the curator and ask them like, hey, take a look at my work, right, because you learn from all those experiences. It was just like, yeah, I think there's just years of that, like just kind of fear.

So what'd you learn through that if you somehow overcame the fear of you know, making that cold call or email.

I mean, what I'm doing right now is just like like time on this planet. There's not a lot of it like for us, and I'm sure like I mean I don't know. When I hit forty, that's when shit got real and I was like, holy shit, like you know.

Like like what did it feel like.

I'm getting old?

I'm trying to thirty six next week?

Yeah? Well, I mean when you're in your thirties, you're like, oh, I'm a thirty year old, you know, I still my thirties, right, Like I'm not fifty. I'm not sixty. You know, I don't know. When I hit forty, it was just like an eye opener. I was like, Okay, holy shit, Like what if you know what I would give to be thirty? You know again? You know, so it's like mm hmm. I think it's a lot of like reflection like that, and you know, it's like, all right, now, how did the next thirty years look? Right? Thirty, forty, fifty years hopefully God willing right? So I mean, and that just goes back to that comment, like, yeah, what if I would have gotten you know, started sooner and more serious sooner where I where would would I be right now?

You know?

Like would I be where I am now? Like ten years ago? I guess right?

Yeah, So if you're afraid to go talk to that guy in the gallery, you know what you learn by just saying fuck it, I'm gonna go do it? Anyways? Is it that nothing bad usually happened? Yeah?

I feel like you're always building it up so much worse in your head. Like I would drive myself crazy in my head being like, oh my god, I can't call this person right, And then it's like you get off the phone and you're like, I'm such an idiot? Why was I that? Like I thought about that for six days and like freaked out and couldn't sleep, and then I got off the phone and that was the easiest thing that ever happened.

It's done, Yeah, yeah, but I feel like a lot.

Of people like deal with that. You know, it's like mental anxiety and stress of just like you build things up in your head. Yeah, and then when it's done, you're like, wow, that wasn't that bad.

Yeah, and like you realize that you're the only person who's really thinking about it like that. Yeah, it feels real.

I think about that all the time, Like half the things that you stress about or you think other people are thinking about, Like, no one's thinking about that. Everyone's thinking about themselves most most of the time. Right, It's usually yeah, like what if I do this? What are people going to think? But it's like people don't even care what you think actually, or if they do, it's gonna be one second and they're like, oh, okay, my dog up, Like that was weird.

But yeah, no, but that anxiety feels like it's just the the absolute truth, right.

I mean it could be polarizing and crushing to people. I mean a lot of artists aren't people that like to talk to people.

They're very like, are you one of those?

I mean I kind of walk like a like a middle ground I feel like, you know, because a lot of artists are not entrepreneurs. You know, they're not you know, they're not into business. They don't want to deal with invoicing and talking to you know, lawyers and legal folks and right. They want to be in the studio and they want to create. You know, I kind of feel like I walk like the middle ground where you know, I have that entrepreneurial spirit and kind of get that drive, but I love art and I've always done art. But dude, there's so many artists and you know that's why agencies are great, like because they can handle all that stuff. But there's so many artists where they either get frustrated, starts messing with their art the art looks different, or they just like can't emotionally or mentally like handle that stuff. It's just like they were built to create art and that's it. You know. It's like they go to the studio and they paint. That's it.

And yeah, you know, do you still get do you still get scared when you unveil a new series for sure, what's it feel like?

I mean, with art, it's always you know, the thing about art is you're putting it out for people to critique it, right, you know how you look at create, you create something, you say, you look at the reaction, You're like, you know, I mean, obviously you create for yourself, and you're and you're you're you're getting your emotions out through the art. But at the end of the day, if you put your art in a gallery invite people to come look at it, you know, that is a pretty terrifying thing. If you think about it, You're like, all right, what do you think?

You know? That's all right?

Yeah?

So you know, so I mean, do you feel like it's that your art is an extension of yourself? Yeah?

I mean for me, my art's always just been like like a way for me to kind of release emotion. And you know that's why, like I said, like when I switch my art to kind of being more like happy, colorful, positive, you know, versus I was painting a lot of like depressed, weird ship when I was a young kid, you know, as an outlet or what yeah, as an outlet, you know, Originally it was an outlet, but then I started realizing that I was painting all this like negative, dark, depressing stuff that it wasn't helping me. It was like I was just staring at all the all the bad things and was like, okay, like what if I start what if I try all the positive thoughts. I try to convey all the positive thoughts through my art, whether it's smiling characters or positive statements or you know. And then that's when I noticed, like it started making me feel better versus making me feel like depressed.

Right, So it felt good to get it out, But then you're just living in this darker world all the time.

Yeah, exactly, versus living in like a positive, like you know, a positive happy place. You're living in this like deep dark, depressing all the depressive thoughts. Where I always thought it was like, oh, you got to let your like dark thoughts out on canvas and right, But it's actually, like I learned over time, it was like the opposite. Like what if you take all the positive things you're thinking, and all the positive things that people tell you or you know, or positive things people say, and incorp that in corporate that in your work. What's that going to do to your overall you know, well being right, and what is that going to do for other people? Like there's people that tell me all the time, like they'll see murals and they're like, you know, send dms. They're like, Yo, this brightens my day. I mean I feel like that's like, you know, that's what you want. You want your art to kind of affect people to positive positively, right, And that could just be like the colors that I use or like you know, my character Larry Loudmouth, like the way that those characters are always smiling and giant grins and whatnot. You know, but it's just like like anything you learn over time, right, and you know, hopefully that continues to make people feel that way.

When's the first time you consciously remember trying to make something happier looking?

I think it was right around like two thousand and nine ish. You know, I was going through like a weird period of my life and had a lot, like I was saying, like a lot of like just kind of deeper, darker thoughts and why why do you have those thoughts?

What was going on just like.

Back then was like relationship things. Yeah, you know, was going through like a big major change in my life with the relationship, a long term relationship that I was in, and I kind of saw I lent like was leaning on my art as kind of like the more positive art outlet, Like, Hey, if I really go hard on this, maybe this is going to be like the way out. And it was, you know, but again it was like I felt at that time mentally, I was like in a deep dark space and started creating these happy things and started you know, leaning more into like that that happy, you know, positive world. And it was just like me looking at the art would make me feel a certain way, and vice versa, and you know, the way that people reacting, and it kind of, you know, just helped push in a positive direction.

If you're always kind of living in this art space that you've created for yourself, which is also an outlet, which is also your career, and you have employees who work with you, and it's just you know, bigger than it ever could have you know, maybe even imagine it being. Yeah, is it hard to juggle your personal life with how much you put into your art.

Yeah. Luckily, like I've gotten it to a point now where it's I'm like I treat it like a you know, nine to five job, which I have to do because I have a wife and two kids. And it's well, it's been helpful because you know, my wife works, and you know she's is you know, on the nine to five schedule usually, I mean she she works more than that. But yeah, as I've been able to kind of like look at that lifestyle because I think when you're growing up as an entrepreneurial artist, your mind is like I have to work, work, working non stop. You know, there is no like no off days. You know, take some days off, but that like that's not it's so bad for your mental health. So like, yeah, the more I've gotten like on that, like okay, like follow a holiday schedule that maybe you know her company does, or you know, get up at nine to five. Like every morning I I wake up, you know, I take the kids to school, whether that's I I walk them to school or drive and drop them off. And every day I pick them up from school and I work from you know, nine to five every day, uh, in the studio. And I feel like having that structure has allowed me to like when I get home at the end of the day, to be like, Okay, I can focus you know, a little bit more than I used to not saying I can, because I do have a hard time.

Like course, it's always a juggle, right, you.

Know, you get home and it's easier to hop on your iPhone and you know, but it used to be really bad where it would be like I'd be at the studio till two three in the morning every single night and then up at you know, nine, nine o'clock back at the studio. So it's gotten a little healthier along the way, just kind of like having them like somewhat of a structure in a format like I'm I think about it all the time. I'm terrified, like if my wife was not in the picture and my kids, like I couldn't imagine like just having like that free spirit of just being like I'm gonna hop on a plane go to New York for five days, or you know, if I didn't have the company, you know, with employees and things like that, because there's a lot of artists that do that and get caught in that cycle where it's like, all right, I'm going to la for three weeks and then I'm hopping on a plane and we'll go to New York and party with some friends up there, and it's like, you know, it's nice being able to kind of like pop in and out for special events. But like having that structure and that family base and that core back home I think really kind of keeps you level headed and you know, a sense of structure in place is there life?

Is there ever a point where you feel in a moment stagnant with the structure where you have to go say, ah, like let me go do something random just to kind of like get it going.

Or yeah, I mean, luckily, like I travel enough with like a lot of these projects because these mural projects happen in like various cities, and you know that's like you know, usually seven days minimum to like complete a project like off site. So those are nice breaks where I can kind of like get away, you know, and just kind of like get fully immerged into the art, you know. And then usually by the third or fourth day, I missed my my family terribly and I'm like, all right, I want to get back. First day, I'm like get me out of here.

You know, You're like God, finally, then you're like I miss you. I'm sad.

Yeah, It's funny. I mean, my wife, you know, she travels for work too, and she's just gone. It's the same thing. Like first day she's like, all right, see you later, have fun, peace. Yeah, and then like by day she's like, I'm so tired.

I just want to be home.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, so nah, it's good. I mean, I'm big, big on family. I always have, you know, I think it's important. You know, it just keeps you mentally sane as well.

Do you think you're the kind of person who learns the hard way it has to learn it for yourself, or were you able to take advice from anybody and apply it or did you I feel like I'm the kind of person where when I was younger, especially, I was more stubborn and I had to figure it out myself and then lose and fail to know that I shouldn't do that.

I'm a taurust man. So if that tells you anything, I'm as stuborn. What does that mean for you, then I'm as stubborn as a bull. Yeah, I mean the same thing. I've everything's been learning the hard way. I think you know artist's personalities, I think a lot is like you know, well, especially with me, as like I got to go through it to remember it for for really to kind of like.

Yeah, give me the yeah, yeah exactly, Yeah, make sure you don't forget it.

Yeah, you know, I'll read things and I'll be like, oh, yeah that's cool, and then like yeah, it goes out the window.

Right.

But I think everything I've learned has just been like a trial and error underdog mentality.

M hm.

You know, see what works, see what didn't work, Tweak it, you know, and just kind of like fine tune it as you go along, Gonna fall off the tracks here and there. Make sure you stay in that yellow line, you know, right down the middle hopefully.

So what kind of advice would you give to somebody who is maybe following in your footsteps, who is just as stubborn as you are. You could sit here and say, hey, I would do this and you know, remember this, But think about yourself back in the day. Would you have even taken that? You know, in like that.

It's like, how would you give hate to be cliche, but like, you know, Nike, like just do it. You got to just get the fuck out there and like make it happen.

And what does that mean though people say that kind of no, I mean it's the truth is men example of what just just doing it is.

I mean, even if I don't have the knowledge, I feel like if you I've okay, here's here's an example. I've always been a firm believer that like, if you say you're gonna do something and you put it out in public, it's you're gonna have to do it because humans have big egos. And the minute you say, hey, if you were like I'm gonna do this crazy art show and this and that and blah blah blah, you put it on social media, are you gonna let yourself not make that happen if you went public with it at the stage in your career you're at right now, So.

You're setting yourself up for accountability here.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I've done it multiple times over my career where it's like, you know, some people are like, hey, don't don't talk about things until they're actual happen. But I've realized like, if I say something, you know, if I have a thought in my head and I know that I can make it happen, whether that I don't, even if I don't know how I'm gonna do something, I will start talking about it because I know in the middle when I talk about it and I tell you about it and you're like, man, that's cool, then I'm like, holy shit, I actually have to make this this happen. And it's happened time and time again, where it's like, you know, like the minute you start talking about things, that's when they become a reality. And it's like, you know, it's easy to sit there and be like, I'm gonna wait till the timing right, timing's right, or I'm gonna wait to get this investment, or I'm gonna wait till to do this. It's like if you talk with that idea that like this is happening and and in your head it's already happened, you're gonna find a way to make it happen. Like you know, if you want to purchase a piece of property, and I mean, you have no idea how to do that, right, but you're gonna learn from each person you talk to. You're gonna start talking to lawyers, You're gonna start talking to real estate agents. You're gonna start looking at properties. You're gonna go to a property even if you don't have the money, you don't have the funding, You're gonna go out there and you're gonna look at it, and then what's gonna happen next? They're gonna be like, what bank are you talking to?

For your fuck?

They want to have a bank, yeah, and what's not gonna make you? Oh, well, my buddy as a bank, you should talk to him, right right. But it's like if you sit there scared for years and you're terrified of just like taking that first step or that jump, like I don't think like it's ever gonna happen, right, like.

Because no one's gonna come connect all the dots for you either.

Yeah right, Yeah, you.

Have to kind of do that yourself.

And the minute you start talking to people, like people want to help people naturally. I feel like that's the thing like.

When you think maybe if if you're not giving a shot.

Yeah, I mean that's all the time. Like people will ask me things like hey, do you know a good accountant? I'm like, yeah, this is my account here? Cool? You know, like right, things like that are like who's your lawyer? Like you know, Like, but it's like if you don't start talking about those things, even if they haven't happened yet, you're not going to get those leads, right if you're just sitting there, you know, with your mouth shut like, oh, I can't wait for somebody to come to me and say, hey, do you want to.

Or that never happens, yeah, and he usually doesn't. I've found that it really hasn't for me. Yeah, you know, like, do you consider yourself a perfectionist when it comes.

To your work? For sure? With my artwork, I mean, what.

Is what is being a perfectionist mean to you?

I mean it's like I mean, when it comes to my art, it's mostly just like obviously like the clean the cleanliness of the work and like the very like from a design aesthetic, like you know, clean lines, bright colors. Like my motto is kind of like you know painted, like it's printed where like you look at it and you can't tell if it was you know, a piece of graphic design or you know those printed on an apps in printer or a screen print or whatnot.

So it's really just your style, right, Yeah, that's my style.

But I guess that comes from just like my personality a little bit, which is weird because like you would think that like you'd walk in my house and it'd be like everything would be like in perfect place. But maybe that's like where I find my I don't know, place of like relaxation. Is like when I when I know my art is so like you know, clean and structured, because the rest of my life I feel like it's like an add mentality where I'm like running around sometimes like uh huh, like a chicken with my head cut off, just like, but.

This is a place where all those things can come together for something that's really put together. Yeah, do you feel like any of the work you've ever made is perfect? I don't.

I mean I think you can ask any artists and they always feel like every piece could be pushed harder, it could be better, it could be cleaner. Yeah, you know they're always struggling with that, like is this done? Like I don't, like, you know, luckily I don't do like a ton of abstract work, but like that's one thing like that's always baffled my mind and like been a place of interest. Is like these abstract painters that are just like brushstrokes and splattering canvas and doing sprays. It's like, how do you know when that's done right? It's a feeling or like do you ever have times when you push it too far and you're.

Like, I overdid it a little bit, right, Yeah.

I mean with my stuff, it's always started as like, you know, there's a sketch, there's a digital drawing. You know, I pretty much know when I'm painting a giant wall or a canvas what it's going to look like, just because that's not like my process. But like there's a lot of artists that just go to a wall and start throwing paint and you know, seeing reacting to those marks and you know, seeing what comes out of that entire process.

Yeah, I decided years ago that I am not a perfectionist, only really because not that I don't want my work to be perfect, but also that I realized every time I release a new podcast, you know, I'll listen to it one time and then I'll not want to listen to it again because I'll immediately think about all the things I would have done differently, and you know, I just apply that to my next thing. But I've met so many people over the years who say I'm a perfectionist, right, Yeah, A lot of those people, not all of them, but a lot of them. Majority of them never put out anything. They're always trying to make it perfect, and so therefore they don't ever put anything out into the world. And me personally, I've learned that putting out stuff that maybe had a couple flaws in it that I didn't even realize were flaws until I got better later and just got better at my craft. But sitting back there and saying I wanted to be perfect and it holding me back from putting anything out at all, it wouldn't be where I am at today.

Yeah, no, I see it. I see that a lot in the art world and the music world too. It's just like I've seen like these producers where you know, they're like, you know, super talented and the same. Yeah, it's like they're just sitting on files and they're like, I'm gonna release these one day, and then you're like, okay, it's been ten years you've been saying that, like these are fire, like drop them, you know. But and yeah, artists too, Like you'll walk an artists studio and they'll have hundreds of paintings. You're like, why don't you show these anyway? And they're just like, eh, right, But that's funny that you say that about uh, kind of like moving on from a body of work when it's like after you complete it, because I feel like I feel a very similar way when it's like when it's done, it's done.

Yeah.

I mean there's like some cases where I'll go back, like five years later, yeah, and it is cool to kind of revisit those things or watch those videos and be like, Okay, there's been some growth, you know.

Yeah, it's a reality check, the assessment of where we were, where we got. Yeah.

It's always cool to kind of yeah, see that, you know that timeline because back then it's it's funny because like you always think you're at your like you know, best point right in a certain year, and then you go back and you're like, wow, I improved a lot, right, Yeah, But I guess that's how it goes. Yeah, if you're not changing and growing and getting better, or at least thinking you're getting better, I think.

I mean, I'm equally as stubborn I think when it comes to the kind of stuff. So I think the most viable lessons I've learned that have improved my work have been putting it out in dealing with what that feels like. Yeah, and you know, it never felt perfect to me. I did my best at the time, but sometimes you even have constraints that are out of your control. Yeah, right, it's I mean I had to get this done by this time. It's like, yeah, you could could always do it differently, but you learn from that when you put it out.

I feel like, yeah, I mean, speaking of deadlines, what do you think about deadlines in the creative space? And like, you know, right, like you said, like does do DEADLINEAE sometimes dictate like the quality of work and or I know for me, sometimes I don't get shit done if I don't have a deadline. So sounds like, hey, I hate probably admit it.

But I kind of need that kick in the ass sometimes where you know, it's like I was always the kid even in school where oh the project's due tomorrow, let's start now here exactly, and then also get an a maybe right and just bust it out. Yeah, I think I do need that sort of kicking the ass deadline where hey, man, don't ruin your reputation on this shit, get it done, and you kind of learn how to juggle that a little bit as you grow into your craft more. I think where it's not you don't put yourself in you know, too risky of a situation. But at the same time, you make accountability or I set like accountability measures for myself in order to finish the product, right, Like that business mind on top of the creative mind, because creatively, I could go on forever with all the different ideas and ways to do this because it's infinite. Sometimes yeah, but if I force that structure onto this, it makes me think about the things that matter first, and you know, when those become autonomous, I can work within that space and still make something great even if it feels restrictive. What are you looking forward to the most, you think? I mean all the work you've done, you know, you're past forty. Now you have this really cool, exciting new creative hub you're making. What's the future of Greg Mike's work.

I mean obviously that, but it's yeah, these like bigger projects, like whether it is building a hub, is it building like loud Land, which is like you know, my version of Disneyland. You know, like those are the type of things I'm thinking about, Like what's Loudland?

What's the vision here?

Some of the ideas are, you know, like build a build a small community where all the houses look like characters, build a giant skyscraper that looks like a character. I haven't seen that done. You know, like, what if in the middle of New York City Skyline there was a giant, you know, giant building that looked like one of my characters.

May be awesome.

I mean, it'd be crazy. So it's like, those are the type of things where it's like, those are the dream projects that I'm looking for now.

You know.

I had the loud house you remember over here, I mean right down the street here. You know, what if there was a whole community.

Of those, what's the loudhouse?

The Loudhouse was a house that I've painted right here next to pont City Market on North Ave, which was random. It was like I got it. It was one of those days where I got like a random, you know, DM from a developer and he's like, Hey, I have this house that's that's zoned in a commercial district, so there's no hoa, I can you know, we can paint it whatever colors we want. Do you want to do it? And I was like, you know, he didn't have a budget for it, and it was just like one of those things. I'm like, you know, I've always had a dream painting a house, painting a commercial jet, commit a commercial airline, a commercial ship, you know, whether it's like a cargo ship or like a cruise ship. So house was definitely one of those things on the list where it's like, you know, this is gonna take time, not getting paid for it, but I think it's gonna be really cool and I'm inspired by it. So I think it took like a week, but I painted, you know, three sixty this entire house and you made the front doorstep turn into a giant loudmouth that you can kind of sit in, became this whole like photo op. I mean, like three days later, it's all over the news.

What are they saying?

They're just like house painted in an old fourth ward? Does this a a site for sore eyes or a piece of art work?

Right? Because we don't know.

And it was funny because like you know, that was like the title, it was like site for sore eyes or art and.

Like is that funny to you? Or how'd you feel about?

No? I was like, I mean, were you like this was like ten years ago? And I was I was definitely like I feel like now my personality is kind of like the more shit that you go through like you can kind of like take shit and it bounces off of you left and right, Whereas like back then, like anything that would happen to me, I would like get fired up. I was like, I'm going down there right now. I'm gonna talk to the news people protests, which I did because they like hit me up. They're like, hey, do you want to like come down here. We're outside filming this, like we're doing a piece on the building, Like will you come talk to us? My team's like, don't go down there.

Ignore the email who said it was a nice raise your hand.

Now. And there's a video clip on my social media where like it's funny because like you could tell just like younger and just more of a knucklehead. And I don't know, I guess Larry Loudmouth was coming out, but like yeah, I'm like, I'm like, this is better than some condo you're gonna you know, build here, like you know, it's like you're gonna knock this down and build a high.

Rode for more than that, yeah, you know.

And I mean at the time, I was just kind of like a little pissed about it because you know, they I mean, I guess that's what the news dude does, right, They like they painted in a positive and negative like vantage point, Like they interviewed someone that was like, you know, really upset about it, and then they interviewed somebody that was like, I love art, I love Greg's work. This is the greatest thing ever, Like we need more houses like this. So you know, it was cool, but yeah, I mean what ended up happening with that was they uh, because it was it was vacant when I painted it, like it was like it was an office building. I think there was like a yeah, because there was no like I guess by city code, you can paint your commercial building however you want, as long as it's on price.

It was by the book.

Yeah, but literally it's the house next door was like a residential house.

And right, you know there how they feel about it.

I mean there's people on like you know, all these you know, reddits and Zillows and all these things common like this is bringing down the value in the neighborhood, which like you sure I understand, is it though a little bit is it? But it's also like you go, you know, you go ten feet one direction, it's the resident residential house. You go ten feet the other direction. It's a massive you know, they're building you know, retail spaces and condos and you know, all these things that you know a lot of times they don't have control over. Yeah, so you know, I was like, at the end of the day, it's art. Don't look at it if you don't like it. It's not infending anything. If if anything, it's paint, and paint protects bricks, so it's you know, it's really helping the building. Yeah. You used to always say that about graffiti when people complain about graffiti, were like, actually, we're actually protecting. We're putting a protective coating on your building. You know, so I'm actually helping the longevity and historical nature of you're building.

Yeah, I mean ten years ago they were. I feel like today people care a little less about graffiti. You know, they're kind of like, oh wow, how cool. Yeah, but there was a time where you know, every Karen was probably like this is the devil here.

Yeah, for sure an IFO.

I grew up with that. Did you ever have any weird run ins when you were doing graffiti with I don't know, the cops or some hoa guy.

Or I don't know of course. I mean, dude, even up to what I mean how many years ago was now seven or ten years ago. I mean I got slapped with like a million dollar lawsuit on real like you know where they what happened where they said that I did some work.

Or they said you don't but you weren't there. I was not there at the time. You really aren't there.

Like growing up as a kid, it was you know, like it was a lot of that you're like running from the police, hiding, ducking, you know, but that was like what made graffiti fun was that adrenaline rush. It's like skydiving, you know. I feel like people get addicted to that natural high and chasing that, you know, that feeling. Yeah, you don't have to do drugs, but you can go out and you know, paint a massive piece on the side of the road and catch flicks of it the next day and you know, hide in the bushes for thirty minutes at a time because you saw some headlights from a car like driving down a you know, deserted road like that like feeling of like your chest pumping and like adrenaline was like that's what is the reason people do graffiti, Like if you've never done that, you don't understand what that is. Yeah, you're gonna look at graffiti and be like, I don't get it. I mean, obviously there's a lot of things that go into it. It's fame, notoriety, but I think for a lot of people, it's the addiction to same reason. Like why do people go skydiving?

Clearly they think about it.

Yeah, it's that thrill. It's crazy. I see a lot of these people now too, like that get to a certain level in their career and they've made you know, X amount of money, and you're starting to see like these like big CEOs of these corporations that like they are only like doing things like that to kind of get that natural high, because like if they're buying another Lambeau, like that doesn't give them the thrill, right. It's like, so it's been interesting. I've seen some people that have been really successful, just like friends along the way. Then I'm like, I'd never thought you'd be skydiving, bro, Like, what what what are you okay? Are we good? Is everything good?

Yeah?

But like I think about it, I'm like, if you have everything you can want and dream in your life, like what gives those.

Type of little excitement. It sounds like, right, I see I see some crazy graffiti sometimes when I'm like, how the hell they actually pull this off? Right? Have you done some of those?

Before? I did a I painted a few billboards like back, but that was like I was like probably sixteen seventeen years old, uh, in South Florida. But and that shit was scary as shit, and you you know, you got to like cover up the lights with a T shirt or a rag or something so that you can't see, you know, when you're climbing up on.

Paint a picture for me, like what, what's the crazy one you did? And like just location wise, I.

Mean mostly in West Palm Beach when I was doing like more bombing, that's like what you call like graffiti where it's you know, you're just going out to pain as much as possible, and you're doing one night you're doing I mean, yeah, just.

Tagging, just stuff.

But if you're there's like in graffiti, there's like tagging, which is like a tag and usually that's just like a one liner of your name. There's bombing, which is like more just like go out and kill as much stuff as you can and that's like, you know, you're less focused on, you know, how pretty it looks, and you're more just like doing fill ins, which is like you're just doing like you know, hollow fills and outlines, and that's just like how many like bubble letter throw ups is what they're called, Like can you place around a city or an area at the time, you know, so like you have your tag, which is your most basic thing. You have your fillings, and you're in your bubble letters and your bombing, which is more just like your quick stuff that you probably see a lot of. And then you have your piecing, which is like short for like a masterpiece. That's where it came from, and that's where you see like the more like fill in fine tune colors, you know, like and it's like if you can get to that level where you're doing like pieces as like other folks are just like going out and bombing, Like you're going out and you're spending you know, eight nine hours like painting on the back of a highway freeway sign, which is called like a heaven spot like because basically like you feel like you're in heaven up there because like there's nothing else around. You're looking around there's just car zooming under you, which is absolutely insane. That's insane, you know, especially kids that are like going up there like you know after a few bruise at the end of the night. Right, Yeah, but yeah, I mean if you can, you know, master and crush masterpieces. But like I guess, like when you the term going, like being a king in graffiti is like being all city, which is like you're the best at your craft. You know, like there's you know, there's only a few folks get to the like king level. But yeah, you're able to like you're able to piece, You're able to bomb, you're able to tag. You know, you have all the things mastered.

Have you ever had run from the cops? Of course, give me.

I still run from the cops. Ran from the cops this morning. No, did you just kidding? Like I ran from the cops.

In my head there wasntairs. You might might you want to regret them?

Yeah, No, it was funny this morning. It was random. I dropped my kid off at school. There's like a little park by the school, and I mean, I'm not dressed for it, but I decided to just run full speed through the woods and I on my Instagram. No, but everyone's like everyone's like dming me. They're like, bro, are you running from the cops? Like what is going on right now? And I was like, I was like, maybe I'm just running from the bear in my head that's telling me, yeah, just let it out and go and fucking go full speed. So maybe that's yeah, who knows, Maybe that's tied back to I see a trail in my head and think I need to run full speed down it.

How do you feel about AI and art?

It's such a mixed bag, dude, Like.

I mean, what's your knee jerk reaction?

I mean, initially I was obviously pissed off, and I'm like, I can't believe this is you know, this could ruin everything. But I think, like anything, it's like you got to use it as a tool, right, use it to your advantage. I mean, don't copy it, but use it as a mood board, use it as a thought starter. I mean we've seen like even at her, you know, at a like if we're curating something, you know, with the brand, and we hit a roadblock and we're like, we know this needs to look psychedelic and old newspapers you know have vintage newspapers and things like that, Like what happens when we put that into you know, into mid journey and what is what does a computer think that looks like? And we've done that, and it's cool because it's like we didn't take that stuff and then we flip it and maybe we incorporate one little element into it in our bigger project. I mean that's more like on like the agency side of things in the design business. Like I haven't really messed around with it a lot with my art, but I know a lot of artists that are like an artist, you know, a good friend of mine, you know, he's will be like, I want to see a bear that's made out of leaves, that's you know, has smoke coming out of its ears, and it is in the middle of a desert, right, And then he'll take that and do that six different times and come up with these images and then collage all those images together and create a new piece of work. It's not any different than like an artist that goes on Google pre AI that says, I need a picture of a candle, I need a picture of a lighter, I needed a picture of a hand held in this direction, and then they go and photoshop and assemble all those things and then they paint that because that's what artists are doing.

Like whether yeah, whether.

An artist is going and saying, I'm gonna take a picture of this plant, I'm gonna paint this plant like it's very rare unless you're like a truly like surrealistic artist that you're painting just like straight out of your head.

And that's what you're doing intentionally. If you're doing that right, and that's that's your style of work.

AI is just doing that for you faster, right.

What's your fear with AI and art?

I mean, just like stylistically, like I've been thinking thinking more like as an artist with AI being in the picture, like you have to be more of a brand, You have to be more of you have to be able to manufacture more products, because that's one thing AI at this point hasn't been able to do as man. I mean, it could design all day, but it's like if you have an image, you can't say, okay, AI go all right now producing a event based around this image that has you know, three D elements, that's you know, something that people can experience, whether it's like a music festival, right, Like you could say, design me a music festival the desert and it looks like this, but like you can't say, okay, it doesn't have the power to go and produce that and put all the artists and run all the talent and you know, the stuff on the ground, boots on the ground, hire all the folks, and so like, I think that's where people are going to continue to win. It's like, you know, if you can design sculptures all day long through mid journey, but it's like, how do you actually produce that? How do you put an event toge where people are going to go look at that? You know? How do you make it more than just a painting?

Right? Right?

How is it something that could be experienced by people? Those are the things where I think it's going to like set people apart. You know, you're going to see like a lot of people that are painting the same things. We're just like AI generated images. But like the people that are creating experiences for people, I think are the people that are going to be able to stand out.

Do you know, do you feel like the it advancements of AI art and the accessibility of the programs could potentially devalue human made art like you like yours.

Uh. The thing that like kind of makes me feel okay with it is how long art's been able to stay around, like to this day. Right, think about like you know, back in the early times, Like I'm sure when the camera came out, people were like, art's gonna die. Why can't I just take a picture of that landscape?

Right, we could say the same thing maybe on an iPhone, right, yeah, everyone's a good photographer now. Yeah.

But it's like I always I think humans want something, want something that's created by human touch.

Do you see there being a time where, maybe you know, as AI art just keeps advancing and becomes more prevalent, that people will value human made art more.

Yeah, I mean I think that's why people value paintings like they do now, Like you could easily buy a replica photograph or digital print or print on canvas, but like, right, yeah, I think that's just like humans being humans and humans the same reason, like the human touch and the human like the act of creation and all that. It's like I feel like people will always want that. I mean, what do you think about like for like acting and actors and like, yeah, I mean I guess there's a market for I mean, I see my kids that are addicted to watching all like Pixar films and you know, Cocoa Melon and thing like these YouTube shorts that are just like, yeah, you know, it's that's all. There's not one act I mean, maybe there's voice actors involved in that. But I'm sure in the future you're gonna be able to say, Hey, write me a cartoon that's based on Larry Loudmouth and here's the script because I threw that in chat GPT and you know, here's a thirty minute you know short, you know, plot, and do the animation for it same way you put in a mid Journey. It's gonna kick out me a like it's gonna kick out me a full animated series.

Right.

But it's like, yeah, are people gonna still yearn for like voices like you know, Chris Rock, like you know, yeah, as a cartoon character voice.

It's tough because I mean, I I think I will I would yearn for that. Yeah, I do think that there are some people who just simply don't care. I don't care, right, if it's like the same thing, like I mean, if it sounds the same looks the same, feels the same. It not being the same doesn't really matter. It's like living in the matrix. It's like, oh, if it feels real, it is real.

That's like I mean, if you've seen those like you know, those like Drake AI Audio like they're insane, like where they're making tracks that are like you're like like like kind of yeah, you know, I mean I don't know. Yeah, it's it's scary. I mean, times are crazy, but I guess we always figure out a way to make it work right and make you know, hopefully humans will continue to evolve and be able to how you know, keep a living for themselves. Uh yeah, you know, make money and succeed and be happy.

I mean, do you feel like they're you Like at this point, there's just so many content creator I think everyone is a content creator now.

Yeah.

And so while these tools are super helpful and can you know, get you eyes on your work or ears on your work that you would never be able to get in like a you know, smaller setting at some gallery or live event. Is it too saturated at this point? Is everyone trying to do that to the point where maybe this person over here who has objectively better work is being overshadowed by just how saturated it all is.

Or yeah, and it's only gonna get worse with this AI stuff, right, I mean it's like AI projectors, all these like tools that have like, yeah, you know, coming to the forefront like the last few years. It's like anyone really can be an artist if you go on mid journey, you type in an image, you project that image on a canvas, and you do a paint by numbers. You know, it's like boom, But it's like how do you stand out from that? Right? So yeah, I think it's gonna be like, yeah, the bar's gonna be raised, and it's like, yeah, it's like who's thinking of the crazier ideas? Who's doing insane and still late? You know, like just being an artist that paints on a canvas isn't gonna cut it anymore. I don't think.

Yeah, yeah, but we do some AI stuff.

Maybe this podcast is or this interview, whatever you want to call it, is that we.

Paid a lot of money for this deep fake here. Yeah, how do you rig Mike's busy? He couldn't come down?

Does it look real? Do you guys believe it?

It looks I mean it feels real.

This is actually a deep fake.

What's the like the beta test for if you're AI, you gotta show blood right now? Yeah?

The prick test? Yeah, give me your finger. Do you guys have the little test kit.

Yeah, it's like a COVID test. It's like you just.

Put it into this, you put it into the computer and it's like, yep, that's actually him, Like, yeah.

He's come back. I'm I'm worried him. I gotta come back as am. Do you care about your legacy?

Of course? I mean that's a big thing I always think about, especially after I have kids. After now that I've had kids.

What do you care about?

I mean, for me, it's like I'm always you know, I think what kind of differs me a little bit with like a lot of artists is like I've found like a strong passion for you know what we've done with ABV as an artist agency and gallery where it's like utilizing my platform to you know, put other artists uh artwork on show. You know, We've we've worked with close to five on our artists globally and we're constantly pushing out shows in our gallery for that reason, to kind of like, you know, make it bigger than just my art, you know, like utilizing as I grow to kind of use that as as a showcase for other folks and you know, artists that I meet, and I think hopefully that carries on. Like you know, a lot of people are like, oh, do you want your kids to do art? Like, yeah, of course you want your kids to do art. But for me, I mean, I hope it's bigger than just me. I don't want it to just be more family, but like really, yeah, I want it to be. Like so when you're dead, you're how do you influence? How do you influence a community, a culture, an art scene in a city. Yeah, you know, those are the things that I'm thinking about and hopefully, like with building this new creative hub that you know, inspires people to be artists. Like I've noticed and had conversations with people that used to be like working dead end jobs as bartenders and came to me and they were like, Greg, what do I do? And I'm like jump jump, Like they were amazing artists and now they're getting paid, you know, sixty seventy thousand dollars to pay one wall overseas, you know, and it's like and they're doing those every month, and it's like, those are the same people that were scared to take the risk that were bartending and you know that type of stuff that makes me feel good. And it's like, hopefully, like if our agency and our gallery and all these things that we're building can continue to do that, like after I'm gone, whether it's through foundations or running the company still, through other employees or partners or whatever, it's like, and you're able to positively impact other artists so that they can like live their lives freely, then that's a win.

You know how much more popular your work would become if you died.

Don't say that, I know, come on, man, And then I just realized that this guy's on like it does like true crime. Shit, I'm sure you've got some interesting listeners and uh, just stay away if you put.

My listeners an when it's too into that. The thing is, I think your wife's one of them. Though, yeah, she's true, normal is true.

Yeah, until she said she couldn't sleep at night. She's like until yeah, No, I'm like, like, why are you guys listening to these like things that are terrifying you. We're like, you're like, I'm gonna go and and you're out of town and I'm gonna listen to something really scary and just be not able to sleep for four days. So I think she's into romance novels now.

So that's okay. That's helped out a lot. That's until you read it here. What is this?

Yeah exactly. I'll hop on GPT sometimes and just throw in the titles and be like, can you give me the like the three sentence summary on this book, just to make sure she's not getting anything that's gonna harm the relationship.

Oh god, that's good, but it's always a little bit worse. I think I'm joking, but it's always like, wow, he does what it was? How big? Yeah? Yeah, exactly, that is amazing.

You gotta be careful when the plumber comes around.

Right. This has been a blast, man. I'm looking forward to when you get your your new creative hub up and running. We'd love to check it out at some point.

Of course, I'd love to give you a sneak peek and yeah, man, early a little early view on it all. But yeah, what a fun conversation. I mean, we definitely, I think we jumped around. I think the topic. We were most interested in his ai and how our jobs are probably gonna get.

And how threatened we feel by it. Get that, guys. Yeah, there should be a verification process. We need the government to step in at some point. Not the government, but the government, but you know, an entity of of sorts. Yeah. No, it's been fun, man, and I've always been a fan of yours.

Likewise, mean, ye, long history. Maybe one day we'll get back in the booth and U, you know, lay some bars down.

Hey man, like to hit me up anytime. Let's go all Hey man, cheers. Brother.

Talking to Death is a prettyduction of Tenorfoot TV and iHeart podcast created and hosted by Payne Lindsay. For Tenderfoot TV, executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Co executive producer is Mike Rooney. For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Matt Frederick and Alex Williams. With original music by Makeup and Vanity Set, Additional production by Mike Rooney, Dylan Harrington, Sean Nerney, Dayton Cole, and Gustav Wild for Cohedo. Production support by Tracy Kaplan, Mara Davis and Trevor Young. Mixing and mastering by Cooper Skinner and Dayton Cole. Our cover art was created by Rob Sheridan. Check out our website Talking to deeathpodcast dot com.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Talking to Death. This series is released weekly absolutely free, but if you want ad free listening and exclusive bonuses, you can subscribe to tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts or go to tenderfoot plus I Come

Talking to Death with Payne Lindsey

Up and Vanished host and creator Payne Lindsey wants to talk you to death in his first “true crime”  
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