#010: Between Beats: Darin Triplett’s Symphony of Creativity and Advocacy

It was January 3rd. And, you know, broke my leg, landed me in a wheelchair, and at that point, I was like, I, I cannot keep almost dying to inspire me to do amazing stuff. Get your stuff together and do it every day. And so even from the wheelchair when I was still um early in the year, I just pushed extremely hard to um to bring the stuff to life and, you know, to tell the stories and just garnering all the experiences and the stories and life experiences and brushes with death that I've had over the years and just layered into everything I'm doing and just like, just lit this extremely like hot burning fire and so I started getting a lot of attention. Like last year I was like published like 6 times and um got a chance to be um shown at UT Southwestern, shown in um the mall. um I'm forgetting the name of the big mall here but uh er. North Park, North Park. I was shown in North Park Mall, then got a show at the Adolphus, a group show and just like all kinds of stuff was just happening. Got invited to show in Algo it's like, and that's kind of where things are right now. Welcome to another edition of For the Love of Creatives podcast. I'm your host, Dwight and Maddox. We're the connections and community guys, and today our featured guest is Darren Triplet. Welcome to the podcast. Oh, thank you, thank you, yes. How are you? Terrific. You know, to have you, Darren. Yeah, we're, we're so glad that you could join us. Uh, we, uh, love the, the fabulous artwork that you do, the, the oil paintings that are just so, uh, you know, there's, there's something about them that really calls, uh, because you see real life and you see real people and in a way that, uh, that just Invites you to, to, to look and, and know more and, and, you know, ask, you know, how do, how do I fit in that scene or what's going on there. Um, I, I know that you have a lot of different things that you do. I mean, you, you're working at an architectural firm, uh, you do poetry, you do oil paintings, you've done photography, um. What, what would you like to share with our listeners about what it is to be in Darren's world? Well, what I can, what I can say, well, first off, thank you for that. Thank you for the uh introduction. Um, well, I myself, I define myself by a couple of A's, sometimes 3, and as um artist, architect, and advocate, or um And thinking about that, and in my advocacy or, you know, in my activism, I've just picked different tools that I have skills in to communicate it, whether it be through the poetry and the written word or it be through the photography trying to capture scenes or through painting, which allows me to not only capture them, but in my telling. You know, I put myself in there and you know, just moments and things like that. It also calls on me to sit with it and really be in those moments. So it's not a direct representation the way that the um like a photograph would be despite the realism that tends to be in some of my work, uh, there is um. There's just a, a place of conversation kind of a dance and creating that. And I do, I try very much so to Express real people, real life, but then turn around or invite people into it. So a lot of times I try and find nostalgic moments, not real full narratives, so you can ask your ask yourself about the narrative and ask the people that are in it, or or even me to just spark the conversation, not to command the conversation. So that's, that's a lot of what's going on in the work and just trying to, because I think it's valuable for us as people to have those dialogues uh internally and externally. And, and I, I think it's beautiful the way that you frame it in terms of the three A's and I'm most intrigued by the advocacy because it has expression even beyond art that's consumed. I, I know that you've, you've actually hosted several events and you do things to build community. Oh yeah, absolutely. And because, you know, at first it was activist, activist, a activists, and then I kind of went from the activism thing to advocacy because um I don't, you know, as much as I'm fighting for things and fighting for other people to be there, it's really advocating and acting as like a vessel to help communicate these things and also giving people space because it's a lot of times we're struggling and especially in many marginalized communities, about finding a seat at the table, about being able to have that voice and being seen, about being heard. you know, truly seen and heard, truly having a voice mean what it's, you know, what we want it to mean and being um appreciated. And so I think in that, especially when you have somebody step up to advocate for you, you feel special, you feel same, you feel like, oh, they do feel like they do see me, I'm able to be here. I am important and it gives You know, a person, um, agency in that, and like if nothing else, that's, that's something that we want and then bolding in us to, to live like much more open, much more, you know, like out their lives and live our our truth. So, um, that's why it's so important to me, for me to do that and why I've taken up uh painting certain things and you like, you'll notice in my work. Just won't see many if if ever any celebrities. You always see like real people, like these are just like some somebody in these moments and usually not even a lot of clothes, but you know, so it's not about the brands, it's not about what you're hiding behind. You show up as your like this is what you are, this is what you've grown to in this space. Yeah, there's, oh, go ahead. I, I, I was just gonna say there, there is something that's really, that's real in so many senses, and authenticity and just uh a lived experience that, that I appreciate when I'm looking at any of your works. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'm definitely, definitely fighting for that, that part, um, this is, I feel like especially in this age of um social media, uh, and, and so many other things, like people put on a mask, you, um, you're there, like this is just like this little piece of the world it's like aggressively curated and modified and edited and all those things and I'm like, what if we don't though. You know, it's like, you know, not, not even like a whole like, oh this is a big to do, like, why not just show up, but let's see how it goes. And I think in that space and seeing how it goes, because that's more so the way we live our, I mean, as much as we attempt to curate things, that's how we live our day. Like, we don't know what happens when we show up to work. You could write the calendar and then everything changed. Um, I think it was John Lennon. Um, that made the statement, life is what happens while you're making other plans. Oh I love that. So, like I think it's kind of that, and I think that like layering that into like our existence allows for certain things to happen. Yeah. Maddox, did you have something you wanted to say? I do. As you spoke about advocacy and, and being from a marginalized community and of course many of us are from marginalized communities of some, some sort, um, what would you say the, the biggest challenge has been, you're a multidisciplinary. Uh, creative or artist or whatever, whatever the word you would use is. What has been the biggest challenge of being a man from a marginalized community? Money No, honestly, sometimes, sometimes one of the biggest things is money is because it's like, um, you're, you're finding ways to navigate on shoestring budgets and, and because you're not necessarily investing in as quickly. It's hard to, to have things kind of congeal around you or having, you know, to build the the support. Um, because so many people, when you're in marginalized communities are fighting their way up. And so it's hard, it's hard to help bear the weight of others when you're, you're fighting for yourself, and so I understand that. And so when you're attempting, especially just in reference to production of the arts, right, uh, there is, there's a certain just like real capital. Investment that has to happen, like these are a large scale oil painting that to have a space to do it, the lighting, and, you know, so many other things with that. Um, and so sometimes barrier for entry for people to just execute on what they want to becomes challenging to get, and I've had some opportunities and onto myself where um scholarships were made available to me that I was able to capitalize on um where You know, being a little stubborn, a lot of stubborn, has allowed me to to keep doing some things despite the fact it's like, oh no, you should go do this, this is gonna make you more money, this is gonna make you more money because it's just that that general survival that you're trying to do while you're trying to do this other thing, um, but fortunately, like I said, for me. I was a bit stubborn, um, definitely aggressive in reference to what I felt inside myself. I'm a person who kind of lives within my heart, and that has set up for it, but I also know for other people when in those positions, you, you know, abort, abort abandon ship, you know, you like, this is hard and, and that those challenges um were not. You know, they were not not present and I used to double negative on purpose, but there was a presence to them, but um. And and I would say that that all that that tension. Um, Created like. A desire to like produce in a certain way in in the work itself, and then all the works themselves. And so it's always that hard part is, is what's sharpen it, like, what's it steel sharpened steel type thing and so very, very still very hard moments as much as they've been hard, they're the one thing that's, you know, sharpened me in reference to what I'm doing. Yeah, well, I, I know that for a lot of listeners, uh, they may be hearing your story for the first time, and they may not, they don't have the benefit of knowing some of the very real struggles that you've gone through like in uh was it 2007 when you um were setting up in in school in Louisiana and No, that was figured out. Well, um, I can kind of get a little bit of a rundown, um. So 2007 was when I actually finished in Louisiana. So I was, everything was finished. So, um, I started down there, um, 2002, so went there for architecture and there was stuff that happened even before that. Um, so I've been through, you know, some fair share of challenges since originally out of Chicago, um, born and raised there and, um, grew up, uh, yeah, I'm number 46 in reference to siblings. Uh, it's 3 boys and 3 girls. We alternate like the Brady Bunch, which is interesting and unto itself. Yeah, girl boy down the line. Um, so living as like the, the middle child, not that I ever thought it was a big deal, but 46, I was born in '79, this is Reagan era, you know, it comes with its own challenges coming up in Chicago, and that time comes with its own challenges and, you know, in the neighborhood I'm from, I'm from Inglewood originally and then moved to Auburn Gresham. Which are um not sure of what we call Ho. Uh and so there was financial struggles and woes and things like that that happened throughout my life, even when I was young. So I, I, you know, I know what it is to have a Christmas with no, no gifts, um, and my parents like pulling things together to make sure the lights stay on and stay fed. Uh, which is not necessarily easiest path to find yourself in architecture school, which is expensive. Like, um, and then, you know, going to school and, um, actually just really pulling it together, grabbing in every little thing, and, you know, I went through like health challenges coming up because I was born with a collapsible trachea. And like would have respiratory issues and pass out, like whatever, fought my way through that, ran track despite all else, like. I pass out from time to time, but that's amazing. Willing to, um, just willing to, um, just do it and and that was something like just the early attitude towards stuff. And um and that led into like, when I was in Louisiana. Uh, you know, as I, and I'm just running through the whole thing, we can go back and cover different pieces, just like high level points, but in Louisiana, I was down there and You know, being down there from like 02 to 07, you know, '05 is in between that when the hurricanes hit us. There's still happen. Deal with that, you know, going through kind of got swept by by Katrina and got a direct hit by Rita and like going through that whole thing is I'm, you know, just being a poor college student as it was and that. You know, despite my own personal struggles, I was continuing to advocate for people, and I was doing some writing on the social responsibility of design and what it took to do these kind of things this is why I was diving much deeper into psychology. And things like that, like with my independent studies and also looking at sociology because of like the economic disparity that was happening in some of these areas because I was in the oil district well, I was around the oil district. It was like right by the school where some mid-level oil executives in Lafayette, Louisiana, it's like tremendous houses, but it's a neighborhood that was not far from one of the other studios in the area called Four Corners where the average Um, The average grade level completed was like 8th grade, like incredibly impoverished area, um, and but it was like in a city when in the 1980s had the most millionaires per capita. It's like, why is, why is this disparity here? And so like, you know, I started like I was, so I did this um this building, uh, like it was like this community of the arts and education center that was my thesis project, and so I had uh Psychologists and philosophers and things like that that were on, on my thesis review committee as I wrote about how to like, like get this change. When people are looking. Like, for one, the people in power sometimes will put on a show to make it a little better, but then the other thing is it creates protection because people don't really want to be villains in the light, and so, allowed to be dark, they do that. And so that's been one of my things is to be a beacon and get eyes on the situation, cause once eyes on the situation, people put on the best show. And then in some ways, um, that has carried me through some things and then. That whole thing happened, moved back to Chicago in 2007, um, after, you know, doing a couple shows and things like that. And um actually working through some hurricane relief projects, which is really interesting, really cool and really humbling to see what people were going through. uh. The Moat '07, you know, right as the, when you step into architecture as the, the recession was hitting like wonderful like work and jobs and do all this, um. So I was freelancing and stuff for like almost a year of just like doing whatever little architectural odd jobs or whatever that I could make happen because it was just hard to land something during that time because during that same era, like 50% of the architecture firms across the nation had closed or something like that and even firms that were still um open were shrinking their workforces just because of what was going on in the country at large. And um Yeah, that, that posed some challenges, of course, as, as it all did for everybody. Um, and then led to some work, start working with the city, but then we will move forward very quickly. Then, um, after life, it kind of stabilized for a bit in 2017, I had a lung collapse. It's like, oh, not wonderful, but, and I was doing really well, so I was training for a half marathon. And um my mild time start falling off. This is March in Chicago. I thought I had a chest cold, so I went like a week without going to the hospital and then when I finally did go, they're like, no vascularity on the right side of your chest, sir, how fast can your family get to you? I said 30 minutes. They said, that's not fast enough. You need to get to the emergency room. So after kind of almost like exiting the earth that day, you know, you, you go through the whole thing and, and I wanted, I wanted Jimmy John's that morning, but I did not have it because it was I knew. The day that that was about to come. And at that point, because just other things in life, cause you, you know, you you kind of live life on autopilot sometimes when you get things to stabilize for a while, but it reminded me, I wasn't doing everything that I wanted to on an everyday basis to bring to work the life, I mean, to, to life the work that I wanted to do. I was doing enough. I was, you know, I was finishing my architecture, doing this, doing that, but I wasn't. Advocating in the same way. So the, that reminded me of like this fragility of life and so I started like working with a certain type of fervor, like in reference to it, like, um, started doing some of the projects, had another exhibit or whatever, um, things in Chicago with architecture were going exactly how I wanted so that's when 20, uh, like 19 when I can't got an opportunity with a developer I came to Dallas. Worked out for a bit, um, started, you know, so I'm like doing the work and whatever, but, you know, things starting to stabilize again, and I was like, yeah, hm. So at the beginning of what, what was last year, now, 2024, I had a motorcycle accident that nearly killed me, broke my leg. And um just on my way to work one morning, it was January 3rd. And, you know, broke my leg, landed me in a wheelchair, and at that point I was like, I, I cannot keep almost dying to inspire me to do amazing stuff. Get your stuff together and do it every day. And so even from the wheelchair when I was still um early in the year, I just pushed extremely hard to um to bring the stuff to life and, you know, to tell the stories and just garnering all the experiences and stories and life experiences and brushes with death that I've had over the years and just layered into everything I'm doing and just like, just lit this extremely like hot burning fire and so I started getting a lot of attention. Like last year I was like published 6 times and um got a chance to be um shown at UT Southwestern, shown in um the mall. um I'm forgetting the name of the big mall here but uh. North Park, North Park. I was shown in North Park Mall, then got a show at the Adolphus, a group show and just like all kinds of stuff was just happening, got invited to show in I it's like, and that's kind of where things are right now. Uh, that's fantastic. Darren, you made a couple of references to being stubborn. And you know, I, I'm listening to your story and all the adversity, the challenges, and I, and we're not talking about like, oh, I've got, you know, creative block, you're talking about some really massive challenges and what I'm hearing is maybe less stubbornness and more sheer massive determination like like wow. Yeah, it's um, that's pretty much, yeah, it's, I always refer to it as stubborn, but yeah, I'm, I'm a, I have a goal and I will not be taking off my square in reference to where I'm going with that. So, and that. Oh, go ahead, go ahead. No, go ahead, go ahead. I, I, I was just gonna ask, you know, what is it that fuels that massive determination? What is the thing that you The carrot. What is the carrot that you're always reaching for or or the. Uh, I don't know how to word it any better than that, you know, I don't wanna say a goal because, you know, oftentimes we put the, the goal out there like my goal is to go to the gym 3 times a week. Well, That's not really your goal. Who would make a goal like that? There's gotta be something more than that, you know, and I use that as an example because what gets me to the gym my carrot, the thing that keeps me doing what I need to do is I want to have quality of life right down to my last breath, and that is the thing that really gets me going. So it's, it's not that short term goal, it's that long term vision. What's your carrot? Yeah, I mean, a, a lot of it is quality of life, actually, um, the, the thing you say, and quality of life and fulfillment, and to me fulfillment means being a bit of a beacon. You know, I want, like, even whenever I, like, take another artistic adventure or endeavor, I want it sometimes to look like, this is the only thing this person does. This, this has to be the only thing he does. Like when I see my paintings and like if you saw him at the Golden black candle lounge, a lot of people when they see the work there, it's like 17 pieces, and then I, they look at it like, like, oh, this is amazing, how is it living life with a full-time artist? I was like, I don't. They're like, oh, so like, like I'm like, I'm so I'm working to um just fulfill or to pack as much experience that makes me happy, that makes people around me happy, and so this little thing we call life. And that, and waking up every day and taking advantage of those opportunities to do that is, is kind of the way I walk through it all. And Um, like I go to sleep and wake up, like, just was like, oh, I have another opportunity to make it awesome again. Let me go do it. And I keep doing it. You know, this begs another question. You, you, you have a full-time career as an architect. You paint. And more art than somebody that does it full time, you know. You, you're a part-time painter because you have a full-time job and yet you paint more than most people who do it full time. You, you said I've been published 6 times this year. How do you do all that and maintain some kind of sanity and some kind of life balance? How how do you, how do you keep all those plates spinning? Because this is something that we're, most creatives are up against and, and you somehow have cracked the code. How did you do that? It's cathartic. So like the um I find peace and relaxation in some of the efforts that I go through, and it's really cool to sit back and look at it sometimes and um there's I don't maybe have as much traditional recreation as other people have and sometimes even when with friends and things like that, that I'm um they hang out. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna be painting tonight. You can come over, like have a drink or something with me while I, you know, paint. This is what's gonna, you know, this is what's gonna happen. So I've had to invite like and have these worlds kind of play back and forth and um. There's also this whole thing about active procrastination, and one of the most Popular figures, Leonardo da Vinci in reference to active procrastination, cause like, you'll know, he painted on the Mona Lisa for decades or something like that. Um, but he had all these notebooks, thousands, thousands of pages of different projects and things like that he was working on, but one thing would kind of feed the next. And he would sharpen like certain skills and things like that, and I've, I've borrowed a bit of that. Um, this is there's another podcast that's got Casey Nasda, he talks about chasing curiosities, um, and experiencing them, not necessarily going through with like, oh, this is the one thing of a goal I have versus like having these experiences and curiosities and doing that, going through the active procrastination and actually just like Using all your minutes, like, well, like, social media is extremely popular. And people are able to spend a whole lot of hours on it, doing nothing, but say they have no time to do stuff. Like, no, like, you're not spending your time sometimes doing this stuff. And even with my social media feed and, and my Instagram, it's loaded with like my interest and like my my active interest, like art, like I'm, I get up sometimes in the morning and, you know, sometimes we just don't want to get up and get moved the right way. So I get up and I'm like listen to some stuff about some contemporary art. I like to listen to um and uh. Philosophy podcast has got Stephen West, just to give credit where credit is due or the stuff you should know. And so I'm listening to this stuff cause I'm feeding myself, and this is gonna layer itself into my art or, you know, maybe a little bit too much NPR. But when I'm listening to NPR, um, that sometimes is driving what I'm about to do. A lot of the work that I started. With some of my erotic works and things like that came from NPR articles about the pandemic and about how people were having this issue that was coming up with social distancing and the rates of suicide just after Tony Shey died, and I was like, oh, we need to focus on connection, we need to focus on intimacy. I need to layer this into what I'm doing. And so when this is happening over and over again, like I may just be sitting and listening to NPR on a drive to work or, you know, like on a little run, but I'm actually fueling and still working on the art, like passive, and when this is constantly happening, I am still moving the needle. So, that's, I think that's a lot of what it's doing, so it's the constant kind of just where like I'm, the Grand Canyon was a drip from the Colorado River from some stream that a long time ago, and that thing is pretty big now. It is. I, you know, you, that's a, a really unique way of of approaching life and projects, um. Wow. I mean, I. That's, that's pretty profound, Darren. Oh thank you. Uh, I can't help but be inspired. Uh, I, I love that you called out Leonardo da Vinci because He is the first story that's told by Robert Green and his book Mastery. Where he talks about how because Da Vinci was not expected to do anything, he was left to his own devices. And as a result, we see the output of work that, you know, spans so many different fields. Yeah. She just, and he would just be all over the place and like, I'm gonna do this for, I'm gonna write this thing for this. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do this. Like are you gonna get that painting done? I'm working on it. But check out this helicopter. Like you all, you'll, you'll build this in 400 years, I promise. You know, you know, it's, it's a very interesting like thing that he was just gonna doing. um, and I, and I was like, You know, as we talk about like, oh, Renaissance man, this, like people can't be a renaissance man in these spaces. I'm like, just keep doing this stuff. Nobody told you not to. Absolutely. So, look, can we get back in time? I want to go back to the beginning. What did it look like in the very, like, how old were you when you discovered that Creative energy inside of you and what did it look like? Um, It, it, it's not. It wasn't discovered. It's just always been present. It was kind of I was born with it, um. It was me as a little kid under a table, drawing, constantly trying to analyze and see the world. Like I wasn't even reading yet, and I was pulling flowers off the bushes in front of the house and and trying to analyze them. Um, I think I was about 8 years old when I came to it's like, I'm gonna open an art gallery one day, like if I want a place to. To do this, and by the time I was 12, I was like, hm, maybe I'll be an architect so I can design my own art gallery. So this is, it's like, cause I need to move these things out the way. Um, by the time I was 15 years old, I was already doing portraits and selling art to buy lunch and fancy clothes when I was in high school and selling sculptures. So it's been Like I'm one of those people do, this is always what it was. You, you were a childhood entrepreneur. Yeah, I was, I just, I was like, I knew people kept looking at it. I'm like, here you can have this. They're like, well, I was like, I wanna eat. So here I'll do your picture and you can do this. So yeah. Wow. Are, are, did any of your other siblings get this? Um, we all have our different ways that we're in it, uh, in different things, like my, um, My oldest sibling, she does, my, my sister Shanda, she does like jewelry making and things like that, um. And she sells bracelets and earrings and all that stuff, uh, and, but as far as like finding that. I was probably one of the most aggressive, like, in that, in my youth, is knowing, like having this like singular focus. Um, but the other ones, I mean, we, we're all actually doing pretty well, uh, couple, couple of electricians, like, um, my sister Kasha is a business person. My sister Dina and Derek are both electricians take over the family business. My little brother and my sister works down here for a cable company doing design for huge electrical services, and then my brother, um, Darwin also works in construction. Uh, and he had some early, early like dabbling in the arts, uh, and it was actually pretty good artist in his, in his own right. I just kind of left it and got more interested in sports and basketball and things like that. And for me, I was like, yeah, I don't want to stop doing one. I'll just do all the things. So So it's been But yeah, um, so. This is to do all the things kind of attitude and we all have had our experiences though, but we definitely um we we dive into it and we haven't, as a, like I told you, coming from The challenges we had early, none of us have used it. It's like, oh well, we're not gonna achieve. No, we just all like, no, I make it happen. Yeah, I love. Did, did you find that you were supported by those around you? Family. For the most part, for the most part, I would say, you know, it's I would say that my, my immediate family definitely supported me. Uh, I don't know that they always understood it as what I was doing, I'll say, just because Uh, at times it. You know, coming from like a middle class family or lower middle class family, sometimes it can look like a, you know, art, it's like a parlor trick because it's, it's a world of the aristocrats. That sometimes it feels like and that direct line of like economic gain and references, you know, selling some art is not really seen in that world, not the same, not the way that it's traded in, you know, the art world, otherwise, when people are selling multi-million dollar paintings at Christie's. So, um, that's just not a real, there's, let's a real thing, but it's not a real thing to that world. It it seems preposterous. So, when I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do that. They're like, well, you know, what about a real job? I was like, I was like, yeah, I'll do that too. OK. But um, so it wasn't, it wasn't the lack of support, just sometimes the lack of exposure in reference to things that um this is challenging, it's challenging to see it. And um, You know, but then I took upon myself. Like, well, I think I can do it. I'll show him. And so, and nobody told me, don't do that. So, but they were like, you know, they were just kind of Support me and also trying to create a person who would be self-sustaining and, you know, invite me to do these other things. I was like, all right, yeah, I'll get to it. I just kept doing little. I just kept doing like both things and so it, and when you have that internal drive to want that thing to happen, you just keep doing the other thing. Well, well, certainly he's now. Oh yeah. It's, it's, it's being well received right now. It's being well received. I can't tell you how many times and like if I put up like a little video or a Facebook post or whatever, they're like, oh my, like I didn't know you had it like that. Like, really? You do it like this, this is what you, this is what you were talking about. Oh man, and it's really, it's really cool, um, because you, from the people, and it's not a sense of pride in myself, but a sense of pride from the community I came from and people that are looking at it right now and so happy for me and uh also proud of the fact that I come from, you know, the spaces with them, like. Like this kid get kids good like I I know he was doing that. This is what he was talking about, so it's been amazing. You're definitely good. I, I don't, I don't think you probably need anybody to tell you that at this point, but your work is lovely. It's just. And it's unique, you know, I think, very unique. I mean, I was able to recognize it right away and go, that's Darren Trilet's work. And there's a lot of people doing portraits out there and things of, of, I don't know whether you refer to that as a portrait, but they were most all all the ones I saw were most of most of it and that you, you just approach it in a very unique way that's very attention getting. Oh, thank you, thank you. You know, I, I had an, an, an expert tell me one time, don't try to be the best. There's only one spot for the best. Do what will make you stand out, be different, do what will make you stand out, and you have done that. Well, I'm the best me. Like, like, like, and so I was like, um, at that level, yeah, I just I, my sister was asking me something yesterday. She was like, ah, because there was something that came on. We were watching, oh, that's what we were, we were watching um Elementary. This is this new Sherlock Holmes, well, not new to me. I had, I didn't watch it till now, but I guess it came out like 5, 10 years ago or something like that, but we were watching one of the episodes and it was talking about um spotting art forgeries and Sherlock and Watts and they're going through and I'm like, oh, you know, this particular artist did this, and she asked me, she's like, is that a real thing? Can you tell, like, if it was a forgery or like who this is? I was like, there is a signature that is left behind many times by an artist, be it in their brushstroke, be in their composition, being in your style. I was like, there's a thing. I was like, when I was like, there are people right now that will call me. When they see my stuff sometimes, and like, I saw your work at such and such place. I, uh, and I was like, even as I've changed certain things about my work, um, there's still like remnants of other things I've done with it when people say, oh, I see you're doing this new thing, but I still love it, but will still recognize this is you, like, and I was like, there's you have a personal style. Yeah, there's a mark of this and in me and any of the arts, but there's a mark that's left behind, um, that does it speaks of a style, yeah. Mhm. Well, I think we've uh covered a great deal of, of territory here. I mean, I, I think that anyone would learn a great deal from The amazing challenges that you've had to overcome. Um, And I guess it kind of begs the question. If there was one overarching lesson that you've learned through everything that you've had to overcome and everything that you've done. What would that be? Um, there's a, there's a couple things, and I think they kind of feed each other, but, um, there's definitely value in being persistent, but then there's also has to be an acceptance and appreciation about the opportunities that you have for you. Like, um, oh, and there's this one. Um, quote, well, not, not so much of a quote, it's a question, it's a poet, uh, by the name of Taylor Molly. And he asked this question at the beginning of one of his poems, um, that actually came from a 7th grade class, and he says, When does the human heart rest? And actually, I'll give you all the opportunity that answer that question to see if either one of you can get it. I'll give you a try a piece and then I'll give you the answer if you don't get it. But when does the human heart rest? I mean, I could think of a myriad of possible answers. That's one proper answer, Simon. I, I would say for, for me, perhaps the, the heart rests when I am. Able to fulfill all all my own needs. In other words, I don't need outside validation or not, I'm saying your heart, your physical heart. When does your physical heart rest? Oh, physical heart, the muscle, the actual muscle. I didn't, I didn't, I misunderstood. I, I think that, so just thinking it through, each as it's pumping, you know, it, it's a contraction and an expansion. So I, I guess it has to rest in between each cycle. So it's. Yeah, and you got it right on the first. The, the human heart rests between beats and that and onto itself, but that puts you into this like very serious like this quick cycle and you, you're talking about. You know, sometimes somewhere between like 60 and 180 to 200 beats a minute, depending on what you're doing. So it is resting, like in between beats. And so in reference to the way living life, like each moment or each thing it's just kind of a beat. I'll take that rest in between, but move on to the next thing just like the human heart would. Like, and there's a certain resiliency in that strength and resting in between beats. Uh, and I love that and I can see, I can see the larger pattern there. Uh, I, I remember, um. Uh, I, I learned in, uh, Barbara Oakley's Learning how to learn. There's this concept of there being a need to have periods of intense focus. And having to go to a diffuse uh way of applying your attention. And you even referenced it earlier in this conversation. It's something that we, we need. You're, even when you're not directly working on something, your mind is chewing on it and you're You're, you're doing something that's going to actually lead toward a better outcome. But we need that time away. Yeah, yeah, and so, but yeah, but and that hopefully that answers your question in reference to like the things I think to to take away and learn, it's like it's definitely the time away, but also the appreciation of it and it's taking advantage of the opportunities. Yeah, that's a big one, mind blown. I, I think I have one more thing I'd like to ask before we start to wrap up. Um, you talked a little bit about Post pandemic, realizing that there was a need for connection and. Um, so you, you, and, you know, you had told us that you do some community stuff. What would you say? The impact of that community work that you do, that community involvement. What has the impact been to your personal creative journey? Uh, I it. I can't say anything more than he feeds it, um, and what it is because Um, And I'll go back just a little bit before the pandemic, but when I was working on the my work in architecture school and it was this professor Michael McClure, who was, um, when I was writing the paper that was to feed my thesis, the social responsibility of Design. And I was doing this thing in specifically in Lafayette. And I was writing kind of in my own vacuum because I'm sitting down constantly reading and researching and writing, writing, writing. He asked me one day he was like, how are you gonna do this? I said, what are you talking about like I'm reading about it, he said. You're going to do social architecture, but are you gonna talk to the social society? I said, oh yeah, I should probably do that. And so I started setting up meetings and I started going out doing my thesis phase and actually meeting with people from the community, like the people that I had read about, the people I studied about, but I hadn't. Uh, commune with him. I hadn't said. In a real way, and it was that part and so I constantly now, like even as I picked models, people ask me, how do you get your models? I was like, you see friends, like, so that that. Touch of the community that like impacting people that way and allowing them to impact me. And even when I make a selection about people that are in my works, uh, and some people that are gonna be in the work, cause I have a show opening on January 18. And some of the people in the works and their stories, uh, a friend of mine, Fallon. In reference to just like her love for her children, but like she sometimes she calls me her spirit animal, which is, which is fun because she she likes the, the art and the other things I'm doing like this community aspect of things, and it's my appreciation of her and celebration of that, my friend Jayda, who's been an incredibly resilient person in reference to some of the underlying things and she's a social worker herself. That, um, so she was, she was telling me she's like, sometimes people don't see my sad, her sadness, and I was like, I see it, I know the sadness, but I appreciate your resilience and I paint a picture of her that's also gonna go in that show. And when I show her, both of them were almost drawn to tears. I have another friend of mine. Danielle is also one person to show and she has a certain, I just love and this openness and this feeling, you know, about like wanting to feel desired to be desired in this presence that she has about it and I've layered that and like and drawing these kind of people in, you know, some of them I met before the pandemic, some I met after the pandemic, but uh or during even, but. These kind of connections and telling these stories and like connecting with these communities I could not do without the community itself. So it's brilliant, so. So you, you really appreciate the value of, of community. Oh, absolutely. I don't think there's anything, I don't, I don't know life without it, especially growing up in a huge family, tight knit neighborhood. Um, and just like the other spaces, um, that I have had to stay connected to and even with the arts, like you're a little weird kids, so you can, you need to drive with you to make sense of life, like, and so yes, community has been huge to me, and staying connected to it, like it. Well, just in general, I don't know how, I mean, I guess I can go get some raw pigments and find some stuff and crush it up and mix my own stuff and find some linseed and crush the oils, but yeah, that's hard. I don't think I would finish a painting if I had to make it all myself, and I'm definitely not building a whole building. And all these kind of things. It's only through community cooperation that we can execute. I can't make a computer. I need to lean on people around me to do these things to facilitate conversations like this event. And so, I, I think I have a sensitive appreciation for community and understand like what it takes to get this stuff done. Um, maybe that's special, but all of us, if we just take a step back and ask that question, all of us really have to commu uh have to like appreciate community, even the whole idea of communication and speaking, we train ourselves and learn. Um, how to make a whole bunch of weird sounds and jamming together so the people on the other side of it can understand it. I feel like in certain this is all, this is all something that we know, um, whether we know it or not, we know it, so. Yeah, it's, it's uh. We do, we do, but we forget it. It's important to have a constant reminder, I think, don't you? Oh. So I, I wholeheartedly agree and um and that's why I plug in and and a lot of times it's not just about one community, like there's this whole concept in physics is talks of, well not physics, and calculus called fuzzy groups, you know like it talks about how you're grouping different systems and things like that. And I think that's the way I just in in communities and you grow in that fashion where it's like, oh, I have some similarities with this group here, but some similarities and there'll be like the occasional overlaps, but in that one thing and like feed the other and it blossoms and and it just molds into these different kind of things and I think that's where the best kind of communicable. Community actions and uh even if you think of ourselves like as the individual. Um, like, not able to be divided part of it is, but then we put these things together and you build on that, like the layers of the complexity of the textile and the texture in which commune becomes, you know. Makes a beautiful thing. Like, and, and we need those that variation, but we need that connection, um, so we can get like this tapestry. You have stated that ever so eloquently. Well, thank you. Well, as we approach the close of our time, uh, we want to launch into some rapid fire questions. All right, got you. For rapid fire answers. That's right. Um, and some of these have held up. We, we kind of came up with these before we actually launched into these, so I'll be interested in knowing, uh, how, um, are some of the things that we reflected on. Might uh influence how you respond. So first question. What role do you think social media plays in fostering a sense of community for artists? Um, it is a long arm that allows people to Reach out and touch people that you would not be in the room with otherwise. Love that. So it's uh it's a megaphone. I'll call it that. Yeah. Um, I, yeah, I. Wholeheartedly agree with that. Um, second question, what advice would you give to someone who is going it alone without the support of the community? I'll find your tribe. You like, you're not in this world alone, go find your tribe. Um, all right, final question. How do you define creative community? Um, hm, that's a hard one, but, um, I, I think it's a space where people are expressing and bringing their gifts and uh intertwined with other people that are expressing and bringing their gifts, is a is a communal exchange. That you allow your creative self to be present. Mm. Beautiful Darren. great answers. Thank you. Um, is there anything that you would like to share with our listeners that we haven't covered in this conversation? Uh, not a lot. Like I'll do a little bit of a shameless plug because I always forget that part. OK. Like, I, I hear people doing it and I'm like, oh, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I'm like, oh, this is smart. You have to do it. So, um. And, and I guess with a little bit of it, I can explain it. So Just that Creative is my Instagram handle. Just that Creative is my website. Just that Creative is my nonprofit organization. So, and I I do like to, I, I have in the past like to downplay things. So whenever I've had certain opportunities and things like that, like even right now, I'm gonna go ahead and plug a little bit, but then pull back. I'm an architect that actually has worked in the Library of Congress that I did when I was in college, and I made it through an hour-long interview without ever mentioning it, and I never think about it. Oh like, and so, so sometimes that, that downplaying though, and I'm also like a published poet that has stuff with this African literary blog and all this stuff, but I'll go through life and forget to mention that stuff, and forget to mention like all these other things I've done, which um is unfortunate. So, but now I'm trying to be better about that because I understand people like success stories and people like to see like the process and as well as the uh achievement. And I've been also always so just on the things, the achievement in the same way. That the heart is kind of overlooked a lot of times, is the most hardworking, constant piece of our body that's just there, between the brain and the heart. These are active muscles that are always present, but we forget them and just kind of leave them, leave them be. I, I don't want to be forgotten like the heart. We're important here. And um and so, but in that, um, also, like just that creative, like back to what I was saying with that. Um, I have. That platform where I post upcoming shows. So I have an upcoming show at the Golden Black Candle Lounge. Uh, actually, let me start here. I have a first upcoming show coming up. is at Jeanette Kennedy Gallery in Southside on Lamar on January 18th. There is an advertisement out right now in reference to that. And the opening reception will be on January 18th, that's a Saturday from 6 to 9. Um, really cool conversations. There'll be some interesting people in the building. Um, I'll have the connections and community guys there. Oh yeah, and then brand new works, yes. So the white masks will be in the building. It's just a lot of people from around different spaces, so even rubbing elbows with that. Uh, the golden black candlelight I actually have an exhibit on right now, but I have another one coming up in. Um, February is gonna be, you know, you know, some of the more erotic work, so you'll get a chance to, you know, take a look at that and what I'm talking about in reference to that connection and different types of life, uh, because I do go into some alternative lifestyle stuff with that one, you know, uh, you know, some homosexuality and polyamory and things like that also pop up in that work. So, uh, And just like physical connection, but done with a sense of elegance. So it, I think that will be an interesting show to check out. I'm gonna get the date on that. It will be on um the website as well as on um Instagram, so you can follow there. Um, otherwise, just stay on the lookout and as, as things are coming about, I'm trying to connect with a bunch of different things. I'll 01 last one, and this is just another community plug. I um, I'm the outreach chair with NOMA National Organization for Minority Architects, and we have a show coming up, um, architecture and poetry that will be at the Adolphus in August. So that's another thing. See, and that's another thing I forgot to say, and it's only because I need to say it, and I sit on the board with the National Orization for Minority Architects and that's we're doing like big stuff here in town. I, I forget to mention stuff. So, so for, for those that just may not know, everything that he's talking about, all these shows and things are happening in Dallas, Texas. Yes. So, um, and, you know, you're hearing the all all he's talking about all this, we will drop links in the show notes so you'll have access to everything that he's mentioned. So just check the show notes and um I'm, I'm glad you, you mentioned that because we, we, you know, we want you to have some exposure from this as, as much as we can because you've been so gracious to come on and share your story with us and, uh, our listeners. So, um, this has been amazing and, and Darren, thank you so much. Oh, thank, thank you too. Thank you too, and we will be in contact sooner. Can't wait to, you know, connect and continue. Absolutely. Dwight, you got anything else? No, this has been a wonderful session, and uh we look forward to catching up with you, our brilliant listeners, and the next episode of For the Love of Creatives podcast.