Vegas Circle

From Soles to Souls: How Al Baker Turned Jordans Into Art

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What happens when you take a beloved sneaker, dissect it with surgical care, and present it like a museum specimen? We sat down with Al Baker, the artist behind Deadstock Anatomies, to unpack how an entomology display at home inspired a breakout art form that sneakerheads, athletes, and brands can’t stop talking about. From a carefully pared-back booth at ComplexCon to commissions for high-profile clients, Al shows us why restraint and intention can draw bigger crowds than flashy builds ever could.

Al breaks down the craft with clarity. Some silhouettes like the Jordan 1 come apart cleanly, but modern foams and rubbers fight back, forcing slow, blade-by-blade work to preserve both sole and upper. That discipline protects the shoe’s story while creating a striking frame that reveals design lines, textures, and engineering choices. He talks authenticity checks, why he refuses to work with replicas, and what it feels like to cut into a $12,000 grail without flinching. We also get the origin story: years of sketching sneakers as a kid, a detour through competitive billiards that taught focus, and a move to Las Vegas for outdoor access and a rising arts scene.

We cover growth, too: scaling from single-shoe frames to multi-pair pieces, navigating the business basics, and the dream of a future collaboration with a major brand. Al shares a grounded take on AI—useful for research and light marketing, but no replacement for the tactile honesty of hand-built art. Along the way we spotlight Vegas culture, from the Arts District to food gems worth a detour, and the idea of a gallery model that lowers the barrier for new artists.

If you care about sneakers, design, or building something original in a noisy world, this one’s for you. Follow Deadstock Anatomies for the latest builds, then tell us which silhouette you’d want framed next. If you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Pocky and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who are making it happen. And on today's podcast, uh, we've got just that, man. We've got an entrepreneur who's an artist and photographer. He's created a really cool concept on the sneaker anatomy, which was really cool. Ran into this gentleman at ComplexCon just recently. And so welcome into the circle, Mr. Al Baker. Thank you for having me. Yeah, so finally having you in the flesh, man. Very creative, man. I love artists, man. Artists are some of my favorite people to be around, man, just because being able to come up with a concept, come up with a vision, and put it on a blank canvas is just amazing to me. So I salute you, man, and glad to have you in the circle, my man.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's jump right in, man. So Complex Con, how was ComplexCon for you? It was great. It was expensive.

SPEAKER_00:

I bet it was. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I mean, it was my first, like, it was my biggest showing at a convention. I've done like a few sneaker cons here and there. But Complex Con definitely was like a big investment that and a risk almost. So it definitely helped out though, because just the people I met there. I mean, I I knew from visiting the previous year that uh it was probably a good idea to do it, just from I mean, the people I met just walking around. It was just not networking is unreal. Yeah, and uh so it's like to have a booth there, it was just it was actually somewhat easier. Uh considering considering like I didn't have to go anywhere, people just came by and and I I feel like my work kind of drew drew a lot of people in. So it was kind of nice to just have them come through, kind of eyeball my work and just get to know me and uh I get to know them too.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you think it's worth it? Do you think it's worth the investment to to do the because I know it's expensive. I've seen you know what behind what's behind the scenes as far as what it costs and stuff and size booth and things like that. And then you have to build it out too, right? You have to build what what you want to do also, right? To make a customization.

SPEAKER_00:

So I didn't go all out like some of the brands did. Yeah. There's a lot of, I mean, obviously, when you work with these convention centers, they uh uh was it Freeman? So Freeman, like working with them is just it's unbelievably expensive. So I tried to keep them out as much as possible, you know what I'm saying? So uh what I did was I just kept it simple, kind of like gallery style white walls with just my artwork hanging up on it. Yeah. And uh didn't really want to do any graphics or anything, maybe in the future, but right now I just feel like it saved me a lot of money and it just kind of kept things simple. Where I didn't want to draw the eye away from my work, I just wanted to kind of keep it on my way.

SPEAKER_02:

And I think you did a great job with that because you locked in to be able to see what you do, you know what I mean? Let's jump into that. So your company, Deadstock Anatomies, is the name of the name of the brand. Let's talk a little about that. So you came up with the concept from your wife, Sydney. Is that what I'm gonna share a little bit about that? Like how how it all came about.

SPEAKER_00:

It was really cool. So I mean, yeah, so my work is basically if, for example, if you walk into a natural history museum, you're gonna see a exhibit, an entomology exhibit. So when you walk into that exhibit, you're gonna see insects that are either displayed in cases, frames, and all that. Yeah, my wife was you know, she has a a passion for entomology. Oh, she just she would get ethically sourced insects from around the world that are you know not alive. Yeah, and she would pin them herself in these frames and we would display them in our house.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

She would actually like study them too. So she it was interesting because you see like a whip spider like that you see in Harry Potter. So that spider that's in the world. Oh, you speaking my kids' language, yeah. They love Harry Potter. So they the we got a whip spider, we got a uh like just giant moths, and uh it's it's interesting to see them in person, how they look and how they feel. Yeah, and uh so she would kind of like just study it, learn more about it, and then she would frame it up. And while she was doing that one day, I would I kind of was just like, what if somebody did that to a sneaker? And so I took a pair of Jordan ones and I just took it apart and just kind of I bought a prefab frame at Michael's uh and then just kind of worked it all out from there. And but since then I've kind of just gone out with building my own custom frames and all that stuff. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

What is that process like? That's gotta be time consuming as hell, man, to be able to very tedious. Yeah, I was gonna say very yeah, it's very tedious. From like start to finish, like what is a what is an art piece take to do something like that?

SPEAKER_00:

It really depends on the shoe. Okay. I would say so, like a Jordan 1, I mean, that's one of my more popular shoes. One of my favorite shoes, by the way. Shout out to Jordan Ones. And they're fairly simple. I mean, as far as design work goes, I mean, it is a 1985 design, right? So it's yeah, it's taking that apart and then building it together from start to finish, probably, I mean, at most, probably take me four or five hours. Okay, okay. Um, however, like say like a more modern shoe, they use more modern materials and it's a little easier. Um, it's actually harder. So modern materials uh are like softer foams and rubbers and all that stuff. So and it's actually harder to get it off like patent leather um and stuff like that. So like the Jordan 11s, for example, the the the outsole is a different type of foam. So if I actually I actually can't like use acetone or anything, it's really hard to separate the sole. Because you could mess the whole thing up, yeah. So I have to like use a razor blade to cut the sole off, basically. So uh so for example, Jordan 11's takes me forever to get the the shoe off because the sole alone, it takes me a couple hours to get it off. Man. And because I don't want to ruin the the upper as well, you know. Okay. A lot of like custom sneakers artists uh who build their own custom shoes. Yeah, they when they separate the sole, they don't really care one or the other. They want to either preserve the sole or preserve the upper. They don't really care, you know. Yeah, it's one or the other, basically, right? So with me, I want to preserve both. So I'm trying to like be very careful at it.

SPEAKER_02:

And you're presenting the whole shoe in in a way, or at least half of the shoe, right?

SPEAKER_00:

So your style, yeah, yeah. And then yeah, so basically I just take the shoe apart and then I glue it, I glue it onto a canvas that I build, and I just go from there. I kind of want to express like the design of the shoe, but I just want to bring it up.

SPEAKER_02:

You're a big shoe head, I'm assuming, right? That's where a lot of this started from.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, um, I've I've been into I I've kind of taken a break, you know, in the middle of my life, but uh because it gets expensive too, man. It does drive me crazy with my I'm a shoe head too, so yeah. Yeah, I've been in the shoe game for a while. Like when I was a kid, I actually always wanted to be a a sneaker designer. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

That makes a lot of sense now.

SPEAKER_00:

I can see that. Yeah. I've always wanted to so I would just sit in elementary or uh middle school drawing sneakers designs on my notebook stuff actually working and uh all that. So it yeah, I actually have a uh my mom would actually send my drawings to Nike, and Nike would have send back letters saying that, yeah, no, technically we can't do this. So as but it's uh it was a cool experience to actually like figure something out in the world of sneakers and show people, you know, the creative stuff that I do and uh you know it and be in the industry of some sort. For sure.

SPEAKER_02:

Who is your customer? Is it all the shoe heads that want to buy their favorite shoe and it it display? But who who's your who's your customer?

SPEAKER_00:

That's actually a good question. Yeah, it's it really is just all over the place, really. Yeah. So for example, Jordan 1's, they I mean you don't even have to be a sneakerhead to appreciate a piece of one. Yeah, but I would say most likely it's just sneaker heads in general, but I do get like athletes, I do get celebrities and who and then also brands. So like brands who collaborated with a Nike shoe or something, they of course they'll send out a pair of shoes to do and uh and commission me to do something for them.

SPEAKER_02:

That's gotta be fun as hell, man. Your work displayed and it's gotta be some of the coolest. Yeah, it's fun. Do you ever have I was curious with this? Did you ever get like a cease of the cis at your door when you start cutting up Nikes and things like that? Is there no there's no uh copyright or trademark infringement with any of that stuff?

SPEAKER_00:

No, so I mean it is when you're dealing with art, it's different. That's what I was curious. Okay. Yeah, so when you're dealing with art, it's different, but also there's like I'm don't quote me on this, but I know there's like some sort of 10% rule. So I mean I mean I'm not really in the I'm not really into industry selling shoes with a Nike logo or anything else. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02:

You're selling the art.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm actually I'm more so like helping them in a way, uh, or these brands in a way, like showing people, you know, the quality of their shoes and everything. So and the you know, the design behind everything and all that. So it's like when I actually do a piece and show my work, I'm actually more promoting them. And as long as I'm not like making them look bad or anything, yeah. That's the way I was explained by somebody from Jordan, but yeah, it's like I it's it's one of those things where I never really was worried about it.

SPEAKER_02:

For sure. So since you're so detailed, could you can you tell instantly when shoes are fake? Like if people aren't wearing you know to be no, but it's actually getting harder and harder. I was gonna say because people get very, very good with this 3D print and all the stuff that they can do is amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

It's getting much harder now, but yeah, you can there's there's little details here and there that you can definitely tell. And I personally only work with authentic shoes. Okay. So it's if, for example, if somebody wanted to commission me and supply the shoe, yeah, then I have to actually like if once they send it in, I have to make sure that's a real shoe. So it's like because I don't want to deal with fake shoes at all. For sure.

SPEAKER_02:

And then so I help show that messes your brand up too, man, on what you're trying to display, I would assume, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it does it can, yeah. It's it's like, well, I mean, when I first started, I was kind of using you know uh fake shoes, but only get the example and the replicas and stuff. That makes sense. I had like a process where because I didn't want to just like just take apart a real shoe and not know what I'm doing. So I actually I would buy the fake version just to kind of approach it where I know what I'm look looking towards if I've never done that shoe before, you know what I'm saying? Okay, and then I would use the real shoe. But now I'm just kind of so confident of doing any shoe that I don't really care.

SPEAKER_02:

How long have you been doing this now? Yeah about two years. Has it been that fast? Wow, okay. I feel like you've been doing this for like 10 to 12 years, maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, no, no, no, no. Yeah, it's just two years. Yeah, I mean that's it. It's it's been it feels a lot longer, but it's yeah, it's it goes by fast.

SPEAKER_02:

Who's who's surprised you as far as like a celebrity or somebody you maybe were a fan of that has bought your pieces?

SPEAKER_00:

I would say Jay Balvin.

SPEAKER_02:

Jay Balvin. Shout out to Jay Balvin. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, he's probably I mean, I'm half Colombian.

SPEAKER_02:

And he does Jordan, he's got a Jordan shooter.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so I'm half Colombian, so that's kind of a big deal for me. That's awesome. He when he reached out, so he we I went to New York, showed my work there, and I had a Jay Balvin Jordan one. And uh I was able to send that piece over to him, and then he reached out to me to commission to do all the other ones. Wow. And uh, so that was a that was an awesome deal. He's a cool guy, really. Like we when we speak on Instagram, like he's such a cool dude and uh very genuine celebrity. Yeah, like he it didn't feel like I was talking to somebody, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I was talking to somebody that one of his right-hand guys is in Vegas, Henry. I don't know if you know Henry at all, but Henry's in the industry, he's one of his right-hand guys, man. Columbian Gentleman 2, man. Really? Yeah, yeah, he's based in Vegas, man. Good dude. I did not know that. I'll tell you offline what he what he does. Yeah, shout out to Henry, he's good, good dude. Real real connected with with uh Jay Balvin. So a lot of the the concerts and stuff like that. He did a lot of artist management and oh nine. So yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's a huge, that's a huge steal, man, to get him to buy. So you did, I think I actually saw that piece. So the Jay Balvin Jordan that you did. Yep, there was that what you made for him?

SPEAKER_00:

I did hung I hung one up at Complex Gun. Yeah, it was sick. Yeah, it was sick. Yeah, uh the Jordan III, uh, the uh Rios. Okay, and then my favorite pair, the the Med the Medagine Medagine. Uh sorry. But it's they uh the Jordan one though is that he has is just so colorful. So when you take a set apart, it's it is it really shows and really just like stands out. Yeah, and uh the new Jordan 4, I don't know if you saw those that he's coming out with.

SPEAKER_02:

I have not, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's very similar, very colorful as well. Okay, yeah. So I'm kind of looking forward to doing it.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm an old school Jordan guy, man. I'm not I'm Jordan 1 is my favorite. Yeah, and now I'm I'm thinking I only want to do low tops now. I'm feeling the Travis Scott's and a lot of ones. I'm wearing Jordan 1 low tops. Oh, you yeah, so that's my that's I'm loving the the one. I'm I love the low tops right now. I'm wearing high tops right now, but I'm I think I'm gonna get rid of all my high tops and just do one, the lows. I don't know why, but I just I'm feeling it.

SPEAKER_00:

You'll feel you'll start liking them again.

SPEAKER_02:

I know you're probably right. You probably sound like my wife. You sound like my wife, yeah. Yeah, you'll start liking them again. But that's exciting, man. How did he come on your radar to be able to see because you're because art could go so amazing, you know, for the referrals and things like that. How did he get how did he how did he get on your radar to want to buy one of your uh shoes?

SPEAKER_00:

Mutual friend. Okay. So yeah, we when I was in New York, I had a another friend who does is in the stinker industry, okay, uh, who knew who he was, and they uh he just kind of showed him a picture and he's like, Oh yeah, uh he's like, here's my address. Yeah, so like cool, sick. So and as soon as he received that first piece, then uh then he just bought the rest of them. So that's awesome. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Good stuff, man. And so your background, you got a very interesting background, man. Were you a professional billards, right? You played pool, yeah. So that's what you were doing, right? Playing pro that would which get you to travel and get to Vegas and got a little touch of a lot of the world, right?

SPEAKER_00:

It was I did that for about 10 years, 10 years maybe.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so you could play played it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was it was more of like a Florida thing. When I lived in Florida, ah I grew up in Florida and uh I spent I started playing when I was 17.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And it was uh it was like 13-hour day practices and just kind of playing tournaments, and I would just travel within the state of Florida. Okay, but then for like national championships, world championships, I would come out here to Vegas. Okay, and then but yeah, it was it was an interesting ride. I mean, I wouldn't recommend it for anybody.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a different 13-hour practice days, though.

SPEAKER_00:

Joke. It was a lifestyle in general, it's just it's not great. A lot of hustlers, a lot of yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's not it's not really a great lifestyle. Yeah. But yeah, there's just like a lot of gambling, like you said. Of course, yeah. But I did more like tournaments. I never really when I gambled, it wasn't with my own money, I had people back me. Oh, okay. Um, because I'm not a gambler.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so you were good. Yeah, you were very good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. I I I don't like to so I was I I wouldn't say I don't know. I would say I was pro. I was able to play against the pros and uh keep up with them with the best in the world, but I was never as consistent as they were. Uh so like you know, an actual pro, pro, you know, some of the best in the world, they consistently go out, play, win these tournaments, right? Sure. I'll probably win a tournament every once in a while, you know, if that makes sense. Got it. Okay. There was a joke.

SPEAKER_02:

So you were good enough, is basically there's a joke in Florida.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, if you if you traveled playing billiards and you didn't have a job, then you were a pro. So it's like that's kind of a funny way to look at it.

SPEAKER_02:

Makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But um and that's kind of was was me. It's like I would just travel the state of Florida, play in these tournaments every week, and just kind of make a living doing that. And it yeah, it was all right. I get it, I get it, I get it. What what brought you to Vegas then? What what caught your attention for Vegas? So I so I I actually came out here I would come out here for the world championships, national championships. There was a time where I came out here for two weeks, and that was for the national championship, and I took fifth at the national championship. Okay, and it was uh I was actually had a chance to like explore outside of the strip instead of you know just in the strip. And so I would I took the time to like go to Death Valley and kind of travel, and that's when I realized what you know, Florida, you the only direction you can go is up, you know, and yeah, in Vegas, there's a place to go to in every direction if you want to go like visit somewhere. It is and so I felt like Vegas was a very like centralized city, and I actually loved the vibe of Vegas in general. So it was like I never lived in a bigger city before, and I just wanted to give it a go.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, it's amazing as you say that, as you point that out, is that's why I love Vegas. People think it's just a strip, but we we got all this cool stuff off. You know what I mean? Like if you're an outdoors person, like you mentioned. I mean, you can go to Red Rock, that's right around the corner. But the other big piece is Zion. Zion is yeah amazing, and it's only like a two-hour, two and a half hour drive from here. But I love that you're mentioning that because people get so caught up in all the lights and the glamour. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And people don't realize that Vegas is actually just a big outdoor town. I mean, Lake Mead, Red Rock, yeah, Valley of Fire, you know, those are within a reasonable driving distance. It is, yeah. Death Valley is my favorite.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then, like you said, Zion, but there's also a lot of state parks around. It is. It's it's really you know great. Joshua Tree, four hours away. I mean, it's like if you're willing to drive four hours, then you could there's a place to go to everywhere.

SPEAKER_02:

For sure. Yeah. Well, how do you feel about the art scene? Because I'm I'm loving the transit. Yeah, I love it. The transition like now with the arts district and things that we're starting to do. You know, I guess there's gonna be a museum coming in, you know, pretty soon. Really, I did not know that. Yes, I guess in Symphony Park, yeah, in Symphony Park, they're gonna be put out in one. Yeah, I did hear about that. Yeah, so what what do you say, what do you see happening with the the art scene, you know, compared to a lot of other, you know, places like obviously the big New York LA is growing.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I don't know if it's gonna ever be a place like LA or New York, but I uh I mean I think uh to be able to be a place like LA in New York, you mean you just have to be a big big enough city as much as that. But that's true. I I do love it though. Like there's a lot of artists here in town that I do love and I love paying attention to. I mean, it doesn't even have to be like you know, like a a sense of art that you would normally look at. Like I I look at like bartending as an art, I look at like you know, the culinary world as an art, you know. It's so just seeing that in general, and there's a lot a lot of people that I follow that I love, and my tattoo artist is one of them, honestly. Okay. But he is he owns a tattoo shop in the arts district. Okay, and and in another tattoo artist who's a good friend of mine, and we're just really good friends. But yeah, I mean, I love the art scene.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's really it is, yeah. I I want to see it like I'm not as familiar. I mean, I you see the glitz and glamour of like the art basels of the world and things like that that was just in Miami. I want to see something like that in Vegas, you know what I mean? Like, why can't we do like an art basel in Vegas? Or like I met Swiss Swiss Beats when we were at ComplexCon just because we had our media passes and stuff like that. Yeah, he was. I got a chance to talk with him, and he has no no commissions, which is pretty cool, where he does around the world and he the no commission, because obviously a lot of artists get, you know, excuse my language, but they get screwed from a lot of the brokers at the art galleries. And he came up with this concept in school at at Harvard where he came up with no commissions and it gives the artist the opportunity to display their work at different events, really, and he gets no commission from it. So it's a really cool concept. Yeah. I was asking him when he's gonna bring it to Vegas, you know what I mean, because it would be so cool. We got so many creative people like yourself, you know what I mean? That they could be really cool. They could be make an impact. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, one of the goals of mine was to kind of like open up my own place. Good. But also meaning like a gallery, like your gallery. So, if I I kind of wanted to split it where there was wall space to kind of feature local artists, sure. Yeah, and even people who because it I mean, I was one of them. There's a lot of people who when I was doing photography, I wanted to show my landscape photography or and stuff like that, but I never really could afford like gallery space to show it. Sure. And and they charge, they charge a lot, right? Yeah, it's real estate behavior. Yeah, it's quite a bit. And it's so I wanted to just kind of like provide like a a like a monthly space for an artist or a photographer or somebody to kind of come in. Yeah, but I mean, I'm not sure how long that's gonna be until I open up a spot. Yeah, yeah. It's a goal for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

What what is like the the art like turning this in, you said two years, right? You you developed your company. Can you kind of talk a little bit about that process of like how did you make it into a business? You know what I mean? Because it's hard to do to be able to invest and invest in yourself, you know what I mean? And and put that, you know, that that light on yourself. But what can you talk a little bit about how you were able to establish a business out of this?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I it I kind of just used resources. Okay. Like it because I'm not really very business savvy. Okay. So it's I respect that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You kind of learn on the go. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

So I mean, I've kind of always just been like the creative person. And then when I finally felt like I had something going, and I I thought it was a probably a good idea to start, you know, with a business and actually like do things right. Sure. So I I I just want I kind of used like, what was it, Zen Zen business? And I kind of just used them to kind of help me just start and having that template. Since then I've I've obviously kind of like known learned more and more, but in the very beginning I didn't know anything about starting my own business at all. So I just kind of but I wanted to get it done quick. So it definitely helped me out for sure.

SPEAKER_02:

How are you scale it? Is that is that in the plans or try to figure out how do you scale it? What do you what do you take it to, you know, over the next little bit?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, yeah, I mean I've I've gone to working with bigger pieces. Like I'm starting to do like originally I just do single shoes, now I'm doing like four shoes in one big frame. Oh wow. Um but as far as like I don't know, like I've always wanted to have a clothing brand, but I mean it a big goal of mine is to kind of do a collaboration with like a Nike shoe and do my own uh design or uh like a Jordan shoe or something. Sure, yeah. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I I I could see you doing that 100%. I'm not just saying that, I could really see you doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

It would be fun. Like it as far as like it would just kind of be full circle. I mean, I designed my own shoes growing up. Yeah, I've always wanted to just kind of design my own shoe. And I mean, even if it's a shoe that has already exists, I don't really care. I want to make my own colorway and kind of do it.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you see a lot of people do it. Like you just met a Jay Balvin. We met what was it, Nigel? We met Nigel with bike bike air. I think you want you actually won you know shoe of the year. You could easily do that. I I I really do think I'm I'm gonna speak that in existence for you, man. Because you have some really you have a really cool eye, man, and that's hard to do that. You know what I mean? So thank you. But we're we're gonna speak that into existence. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about photography. Are you still really involved in your photography style too?

SPEAKER_00:

Or yeah. I uh so I do my artwork full time. Okay. Like I do video too.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I I kind of just picked up a so there's a little restaurant here in town. It's a bar, Jive Turkey. I don't know if you've ever been there.

SPEAKER_02:

Jive Turkey, that sounds familiar. Where is that at?

SPEAKER_00:

So it's downtown. It's downtown, you know, where the where's that? You know that old theater? Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

If you're talking about the old theater that's down in that area, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

It's right across the street from there.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. I love what they're doing downtown. So I definitely have. I don't think I've been in there to eat though, or or had a drink or anything.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's it's so it's it's a legit spot. Okay. It's uh it's really good cocktails, really good food. They have a chef that works there. Bruce is a really good, really good guy. Everybody there is good people.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh it's it they I mean, they they just got like the best chicken chicken nuggets in town. But I mean, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, my kids will actually be all up. I won't bring them to the bar, but that'd be that'd be legit.

SPEAKER_00:

But their chicken sandwich is probably one of the best in town.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, uh besides that, I started doing like their social media stuff and just kind of keeping keeping the photography going because I didn't really want to fully get rid of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And and now I'm doing like just temporarily doing sand dollar and all that stuff. Oh sorry. Uh so while I work during the day, I just kind of go out there and you know in the evening and just do my thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure, yeah. You know what I was always curious, like with just artists in general, like, how do you know when a piece is done? Or is it like ever done? Like you always want to go back and critique it, like so you sell a piece of art and then you want to go back and try to fix it. Is that is that something always go maybe drives you crazy being being a perfectionist?

SPEAKER_00:

I ask my wife a lot. Really? Yeah, she has good eye, awesome. Yeah, so I if I feel like I like the way the layout looks, that's when I bring my wife in to kind of give me solidify that idea. Yeah, I yeah, it's because there's there's been shoes where I'm just like this could look better here, this could look better there. And there's there's been a lot of shoes where I have three, four different designs. So I would just bring her in, I'll do different things, and then she'll tell me which one she likes more, and then I'll kind of just go from there. But that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

So that's how you that's how you break it down, and then you finish. And then do you just say stop? You you put the period in and that that's it?

SPEAKER_00:

You will I would say yeah, I would say so. Okay. I mean, because I mean once I start gluing, I can't really like stop because uh the canvas is ruined and I have to for sure. I would have to start all over again. So once I figure out the design, yeah, I have to really be happy with it.

SPEAKER_02:

How how expensive have it got making mistakes?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I actually haven't made many mistakes at all. Good for you, yeah. Fingers crossed. Goof for you. I I haven't ruined any shoes, thankfully. Because I've done I mean I've done a uh like a twelve thousand dollar shoe, uh the Red Octobers I hung up in ComplexCon. And I actually that was pretty nerve, you know, nerve uh wracking to to work with, but sure. I uh yeah, I mean I uh luckily I just kind of feel very confident in my technique to take up our shoes and be good with that.

SPEAKER_02:

Well it shows, it shows, man. Just for business advice and and life advice, just in general, you know, looking back, what's one lesson for yourself or or or just anybody listening, you know, maybe every entrepreneur should know before opening their business that's that's maybe helped you out in the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I would say like originality is a huge thing. I agree. Yeah, I would say like there's a lot of you know, people that will find inspiration in other people's stuff, and it's very close to it. And I would say photography is a very big world of it. So uh like landscape photography, like you can see a bunch of different like different photos of the same thing, right? Yep. But what's your take out of it? Yeah, and I was kind of getting sick of it, to be honest. And when I figured this out, I was like, this is something that's never been seen, I've never seen before. I've never seen it either. That's why I wanted to have you on the pod, yeah. Yeah, I've done a lot of research. Like once I came up with the idea, I'm like, I need to figure this out and see if somebody had done this before, and I couldn't find anything. And I was just like, this is cool. Yeah. So that was when I started taking it places and seeing, showing it to people. Yeah. And uh that's when I felt like I actually had something going. And yeah that just the feeling of creating something original, just it's a a lot, it's just very it's very it's a lot more fulfilling than just doing other you know, the same thing to other people.

SPEAKER_02:

I agree. One percent. How do you feel about all this AI stuff where you can especially in the artist's world, they could scrape everything, your social media, your whatever the scenario is.

SPEAKER_00:

And there's there's times in AI that I feel like it's appropriate, but like as far as like art, it sucks.

SPEAKER_02:

I I don't like it. Yeah, I don't like it. Yeah, on on that aspect. I love AI on a lot of other stuff, but not the art style. I feeling the emotion of what you guys do and the details around it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, like I I'll use it to kind of research things.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh me too, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But I wouldn't uh I don't really use it for like like artwork to present it as my own, you know. So I've I've have y used it for like marketing. Okay. But not for me, but for like gy turkey. Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, sure. I for like the restaurants and stuff, I've used it for that. Yeah. But then I kind of just stepped away from it and now I'm doing more like actual photos and stuff. I get it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I think you can feel that emotion behind a lot of stuff. I feel like that yeah, I you know, can't capture that yet. It's I'm I'm nervous down the road that it will be able to capture it.

SPEAKER_00:

But right now we're at a point where it's just like it you can kind of tell it's AI. I mean, it's easy, it's easy. I mean, maybe the older generation can't, but it's like I I can tell you. You have a trained eye, yeah. But excuse me. It's uh yeah, it's eventually I know they have like these video AI videos now, the generators are coming out, and it's like you can't even tell at all.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's like they're too good, man. They're too good. Like they was they were mentioning something to me. I was talking to a friend of mine earlier that was doing some stuff at our basel in in Miami this this past weekend, and he was saying the same thing. Like, they've got so much stuff in AI that you're like, oh, this is this is scary. Yeah, very scary. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm a fan of it at all. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Keep doing your thing, man. You're a rigid original, but I love what you said about that. Yeah, I always ask every guest about the best food in Vegas and favorite restaurant. You mentioned Jive Turkey. Yeah, yeah. What's your favorite restaurant, whether it's off the strip or off the strip, besides Jive Turkey? Or is it Jive Turkey?

SPEAKER_00:

It's tough because I I have uh I have so many places.

SPEAKER_02:

Me too, man.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm a b I'm a big foodie. I mean, so I would say Chinatown is hands down like one of the best Chinatowns in the country, in my opinion. I agree. There's a ton of restaurants down there. Yeah. But I don't know. Have you been to Wild Fig yet?

SPEAKER_02:

Wow Fig? I don't think I've been there yet. No. Okay, that's a good barbecue spot. Okay. You gave us some new ones in Summerlin. Okay. Wow. You said Wild Fig?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Okay. I think it's the best barbecue spot in town. Okay, I love here. So they just there was a pop-up in so it was a pop-up called La Barbecue La Barbecue. Okay. It was a it's like a Michelin star barbecue spot from Austin, Texas. Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, and they came into the uh Fountain Blue. Okay. And so I mean my wife went to it. Yeah. I wanted to compare like a Michelin star rated.

SPEAKER_02:

Aren't you really from Tennessee too? Did she have some Tennessee?

SPEAKER_00:

Is she from no she's she's from Rhode Island?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, Rhode Island. Are you from Tennessee too?

SPEAKER_00:

Um I'm from well, I was born in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02:

Born in Tennessee. Okay, I was gonna remember reading something about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. But I grew up in Florida. Okay, got it. But so we went to the place because I wanted to compare it to Wild Fig. Okay. I honestly think like Wild Fig is better. Like their sides are amazing. That's good stuff. They give you free cantaloupe juice every time you get eating. Okay, you speak in my language, man. That's good.

SPEAKER_02:

I got one spot for you to go to if you like Chinatown. You ever been to Tatra Nakamura? I'm saying it right. Tatera Nakamura. Chef Kenny, you have to ask for him.

SPEAKER_01:

Chef Kenny.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it's a sh it's a uh it's a it's an Italian Japanese fusion kind of restaurant. It's really, really, really good. Really good. You have to check it out if you like if you like uh the Chinatown area, man. Yeah, it's it's awesome. What else, man? What else can if anything I forgot to leave you out leave you out on, man, that you want to share it at all that maybe I forgot to ask you.

SPEAKER_00:

I honestly I'm just such an easy person. I had no idea. You calm, man. You calm.

SPEAKER_02:

You're very zen. You're very zen, Al.

SPEAKER_00:

I I don't really have much to talk about.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I could talk to you for days about shoes, but uh well the the the cool thing is we like showcasing, you know, the cool people. That that's our goal. So Chris and I, my wife Daryl, you know, that's why we established you know Vegas Circle is we wanted to showcase and put the spotlight on, you know, people that are impacting the culture. That's the whole goal. If it's short and sweet and be able to share what you're doing, and then people can check out your artwork, man, because it's it's really cool, man. It's really cool what you're doing. And it is our original. So I'm glad you said that. So where can people check you out at, man? Can you share some of your social handles and things like that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So my Instagram is Deadstock Anatomies, and then it's the same for online, deadstockanatomies.com.

SPEAKER_02:

And uh keep uh tabs on Al Baker, man. Are you gonna be a complex con again next year, man? Or is that was that one and done?

SPEAKER_00:

I heard it's going back to LA.

SPEAKER_02:

Is it really?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I heard it's going back to LA.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I did not know that. Oh, I hate to hear that.

SPEAKER_00:

I wanted in our background. I don't know if I was supposed to say that, but I I yeah, there's I get it. I wouldn't mind, I wouldn't mind going to the LA one depending on it would just be a lot, it would literally double the cost.

SPEAKER_02:

I know it would, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it would double the cost of you doing it. So it depends if I get a sponsor, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

I get it. Definitely pay attention to L. Baker, check out his stuff, man. Amazing artist, doing some great things, man. So we support what you're doing. Check us out at thevegascircle.com and um subscribe with us, man. So appreciate your time, brother. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you very much. Appreciate you.