(gentle dramatic music) - To have an idea in your mind when you have no control
over anything else, just being able to
touch a material, and
think of something, and try to make it,
and that is a real... It's a real pleasure. When it became evident
that this virus was going to have a
significant impact, it meant that I would have to shift significantly
how I work. And I knew that
I wanted to spend a portion of that
time being selfish and enjoying the
isolation in a way. My studio is a second home. It has all of the things
that excite my imagination. But the other part felt
like I would have to also maybe try to figure out
how I could be of service, and the service part was a
little bit more complicated. A big part of my
artistic practice is using abandoned buildings
to create cultural spaces on the South Side primarily. I have a space called the
Stony Island Arts Bank. We've had to close it. I never thought that the
best thing I could do for people is stay
away from them. It's such a strange notion. There are moments
when I feel like I'm not exactly sure what
I can contribute. I don't feel like an
artist whose practice could lift the heavy
veil of this moment. (slapping) I don't feel like an activist. I really wanna feel
like a neighbor. That in this moment
it feels like it's everyone's duty to be
kind, to be generous. (cart rumbling) In the moment when I
didn't know what to do, I would call my
friend, Jared Freedman, who happened to be
the creative director of this company,
Citizens of Humanity. And he said, "Hey man, we're
gonna stop making jeans, "and were gonna
make these masks." And I was like, "I want in." And it felt like
I could function as a kind of conduit
from this fashion company that was willing to
make masks to my city. They had so many cool
materials around. They ended up making these
out of a kind of camo motif, and obviously it's the
one that I like a lot. We will direct 1,000 masks to
the Chicago Food Depository because it felt
like those workers and those in need of a meal could both benefits
pretty quickly. It's clear to me that
it actually requires
times of crisis for the everyday person
to also recognize that they're are extremely
creative and resilient. They're actually not
far from the solutions, it's just that life has
been so comfortable that we actually don't have to
worry about solutions often, but I think in this case,
more and more people will find themselves functioning
as artists and creatives. When I think about what culture might look like at
the end of this, I think it's gonna be less
about market-driven things and more about creative people
who want to get together in their living room or get
together in the basement and spend time together. I think that I'm
just gonna be able to be present more in Chicago and present with the
people who I love. And I'm gonna try to
focus my resources, which are really
space and a big smile, I'm gonna try to
focus those resources on the people who I care about and try to do as much
as I can locally.
