Derrick: [00:00:00] Life. You and be life You and

TrevFM: Hello Neighbors. Welcome to another episode of Spread Love fm. Good neighbors, good conversations, and good vibes. I'm your host, Trevor. In this episode, we chat with Florida artist Derek Kearney about scaling his work as well as maintaining the small town feel of the community in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Yeah, I would 

Derrick: like to keep that small town by much as possible. So if you're listening to this, do not move to St. Pete. I wanna keep this all 

TrevFM: down. That's the thing. I hear so many people are moving to St. Pete. I went down there for a couple of events, it's like, 

Derrick: oh, we're, we're full. Stop coming. 

TrevFM: Enjoy for joining a Spread Love fm.

Um, thank you for having me. [00:01:00] Yeah, absolutely. It's been a while. We met up, uh, many months ago and I haven't seen you. I don't, I don't think I've seen you since then. I, I went to one of the art walks. And, uh, I think I just missed you, so how you been? 

Derrick: I've been, well actually, uh, just been doing a lot of artwork actually.

You know, it's kind of weird to see, but you have the camera. But trying to get into like some bigger and better pieces here, you know, with me and, you know, just different types of art and different types of movement things. And also doing some teaching, you know, just getting me busy and, yeah, just trying to like, almost like what you're saying, spread love, you know?

Yeah. It's like, , 

TrevFM: that's what it's all about. Good energy, good love, um, positive vibes. And I know there's a lot, there is a lot of negativity out there, but I feel like the best remedy for that is love and community and all of these good things. I got that vibe from you when I met you at that. Uh, it was open market in, in, um, St.

[00:02:00] Pete. 

Derrick: Yeah. That was kinda. That was like a ton of fun. We were doing the open market on that Saturday, like morning, afternoon. It was a little like, like drizzly, rainy, I remember, but still just a ton of fun, you know, vibe there. And I remember meeting you. You had the van, right? Yeah, 

TrevFM: yeah. Van. I don't have it anymore, but I had it back then.

Derrick: Ah. I could use that, that actually, 

TrevFM: you know, um, I could too . It's funny, I am, one of the reasons I haven't been down to St. Pete. I'm here in Spring Hill, Okay. Which is about an hour north. And I haven't been down to St. Pete because I sold a van. And, um, I'm not as mobile as I, I I need to be. And, uh, I, I do use my brother's car when I need to get around, but it's, uh, still limited on, on that.

So I'm missing St. Pe. Just a vibe there. And first of all, let's, let's backtrack a little bit. What, where are you from originally? 

Derrick: So originally I'm from Neptune, New Jersey. Um, right there on the Jersey Shore, [00:03:00] like next town over from Asbury Park, you know, so all the greats, you know, you're Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovie types, and went through there.

You know, just up from Atlantic City. I came to Florida at H five, moved to a small town, Pak of Florida and it's like northeast part of the state. Yeah. Small town vibe, you know, thing. Um, kind of like Spring Hill, you know, I've had some time to visit there also, but just, it's a really fun place also. Yeah, you know, I've basically been in Florida for most of my life.

I came down to St. Pete actually in 2006, uh, to work a TV job for a television station here and just fell in love with the area. The art just kind of draws you in, I think here you're just like zapped in. So art and sunset really is what kept me here. 

TrevFM: Yeah, and I actually, when you mentioned that, I saw, I.

Just to introduce, uh, Derek, he's a artist. Uh, it's, if [00:04:00] it wasn't obvious in the, in the, uh, title of the podcast, uh, he's a artist and he's also has, uh, clothing jewel jewelry, uh, jewelry. I don't know why that's impossible for me to roll out. Um, Drew will re and, um, one of his, uh, hats, which I really love, uh, which is, uh, the, um, what is the name of the sunset Drum?

Derrick: Sunset Drum circle at Treasure Island. 

TrevFM: Sunset Drum. And that just goes along with that sunset he was talking about. And I actually saw into videos of where, I don't know if it, that's where this hat name originated from, but you are involved with the drum circle, correct. 

Derrick: Yeah, I actually where that, you know, where that piece came from and where the name specially came from?

Every Sunday in Treasure Island Beach, Florida, which is, I don't know, minutes from St. Pete, just right over the bridge there. But every Sunday they have a drum circle and it's been going on [00:05:00] for at least 20 years. You know, same spot there. It's, you know, if you're driving through, there's a Publix across the street, there's a giant slide.

You, you can't miss it. Um, and it goes until sunset. And it's just like a really peaceful, loving time. You know, everyone's on good energy, good vibes, you know, it's, it's a drum circle and, you know, it's a wonderful experience there. Uh, I kind of call it hippie church , because you have to go every Sunday, you know, It's, it's like that religious of an experience of that.

Wow. So, yeah, it just became something. . I sat down, I think it was like the one Sunday, you know, couple years back where I didn't go out there, you know, for whatever reason. I was like, I should make a painting and just sat and recorded it, made the painting and everything, and then had the opportunity to pair up a company where I was able to produce clothing, you know, hats like you mentioned.

Um, Hat shirts, all types of [00:06:00] stuff. Yoga mats, you know, you name it, I can print artwork on it. So yeah, I was able to get hats made with that and have 'em printed everything and it's kind of just become a signature hat for me to wear. And I have like two downstairs right now, you know, type of thing. Um, probably should have, you know, But yeah.

I like my hair though. 

TrevFM: glad we had a whole conversation on with, uh, a, um, entrepreneur from Spring Hill. She was a. Stylist and, um, uh, yeah, that, that was the whole thing. And I, I spoke about why I like to wear hats a lot because, you know, you know, like I don't have too much going . Oh yeah. But, um, that piece behind you is amazing actually.

I, I, I haven't seen that scale actually. Is that new for you? Of all the work that I. 

Derrick: Yeah, this is actually really new for me. Um, just to kind of go into a bigger scale, I got inspired the director at the [00:07:00] Carwood culture, Harold Carwood Arts Center. Um, Over in Tampa, she does a black artist show every year.

And her thing is, you know, with anyone, black, white, green, whatever, anytime they come in there, you know, hey little green art and you know, the first thing she says is, Can you go any bigger ? So, you know, I took like pretty much all the pieces, you know, and the besides that you had seen over for that show.

And I had a couple, you know, or decent sides and I remember, you know, hearing that and I did that. I did that show in April, which is when my birthday is. So I just happened to decide to give myself a birthday present and go a little bit bigger. This is actually a 48 by 48, so it's not my height yet. , um, And yeah, I'll, yeah, I have a, I have a 60 that I'm gonna be working on here soon, which, you know, it's a little bit closer to my height.

So I've always seen the, you know, [00:08:00] you see the Instagram post where it's like the artist sitting there and you know, they're like next to a painting and that says, Yeah, I'm going to that. You know, that's like the new thing now it's just, all right. Um, if I can make it happen on a small scale, then why not make it happen on a big scale then?

Actually, you. Prove that sort of art thing. So, you know, it's wonderful to be able to do it. It it's inspiring to have that sort of challenge. Now, 

TrevFM: I could imagine always pushing yourself and is that a thing, having artwork or you, you mentioned Instagram. Is that a thing to have art when you've. Reached a certain threshold.

Art that's as tall as you are. Is that kind of a ? 

Derrick: Well, you know, and it's kinda even weird to say that like, I mean, this is, you know, I'm exiting Clearwater right now recording this in St. Pete. It's the land of murals. 

TrevFM: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. So all of your art 

Derrick: is like way bigger than you are, you know? 

TrevFM: I love St. Pete for that reason.

That's was, I've been to Spring Hill so many [00:09:00] times and um, in January was the first time I took that trip to St. Pete. I was just blown away. Uh, I think I, I ex I explained it to you. It was similar to feeling I had when I first went to, um, the Wynwood Walls. In Miami, and that just blew me away. And I have never experienced that again until, uh, arriving in St.

Pete in January. And, um, it's just, the city just has a vibe about it that I, I've been to Tampa Bunch and I never felt that kind of energy. And tell me a little bit about what drew you to St. Pete. 

Derrick: Oh, when I originally moved down, . Um, St. Pete of course had the Dai Museum, which they had their original location, which is like on the USF campus.

It was just like a little one story building. Um, but I, you know, I still fell in love with, anyway, uh, so at the Dali [00:10:00] Museum, and they did have a second Saturday Art walk, but they didn't have, you had half the amount of galleries that they did, and it was just really just a local sort of grungy, gritty vibe, you know.

Underground, you know, and that's how the entire city was. All the nightclubs were underground, all the bars, all the clothing shop, you know, it was just a really sort of tight knit, Nobody had really left their corner type of thing, just asleep. Nobody knew about it, and it's been really amazing to watch the progression from then to now.

You know, just artist friends of mine that I'd known even before I even started painting, just happened to know. The person was like, Oh yeah, great. You know, it's nice to see them doing, you know, small scale things and they're out doing murals and they've been doing that stuff for years and they've, you know, they've moved on to doing just apparel and, you know, where I can get, [00:11:00] um, right now I can have a piece of artwork printed on a.

They're painting shoes next to selling that stuff. And you know, I'm like, oh, I remember, you know, kind of drawing my own Nike symbol on my, you know, cheapo white shoes that I had as a kid. Cause we couldn't afford Nikes. Right . And you know, having my mom like you did what wouldn't buy me Nike. So, you know, so now it's like, all right, you know huh?

That's my shoes here. Can I just take them and paint it on there myself, you know, and make it into something. And you know, that becomes, and that becomes a legit thought that we have now as a community here, is how can we just keep things going? And, you know, so nice. You know, we do have. Some great charity organizations that've been helping out, you know, with everything.

Um, over the years crib Pinel has been great. You know, Dunedin Fine Arts Center's been wonderful. You know, there's a lot of people I could probably name through there, just [00:12:00] different organizations, uh, St. Pete, Art Alliance, of course, my warehouse, arts district. You know, I, I live there pretty much when I'm not here.

Um, so yeah, it every, no bad. We go, they go around actually to like pools and just different places and we'll bring arts to kids. Okay. Which is amazing. You know, like you just have a big bus. They'll drive it up like, Hey, we're gonna do art here in your good neighborhood. You know? So it is a lot of this amazing energy that you have here.

We just people and we all have. Lives and jobs and you know, but this is what we enjoy. It's what we love doing, so we do it. 

TrevFM: Yeah. That's amazing. And, um, touching on that, you speak about, um, having something else to sustain you and versus being an artist full time, um, or I'm always curious what inspires or what motivates you to take the path of an artist [00:13:00] versus the path?

A teacher or, Well, you could be both, but , 

Derrick: it's kinda funny you say that cause like my not, you know, we'll say it's a nine to five, you know, we we're all an artist. I, I believe, until somebody tells us that we're not . So, and even then, you know, really until we believe that person who tells us, Cause people have been telling me my entire life things.

I'm like, yeah, whatever. So, You know, I spend my nine to five time for 13 years of it. It was in television news as a video editor, but I always considered myself to be in some form of arts. You know, even if I was just, Alright, I'm just gonna sketch a little something here. You know, I didn't really, I still this stuff, you know, I'm television producer, you know.

But you're still an artist. It's funny that you mentioned teacher because the nine to five quote unquote, that I've been doing since like March or eighth. Yeah, about March has been as a [00:14:00] substitute teacher, you know, All right, Hey, you know what? I got flexibility. So if I have an art show or whatever, I don't have to deal with these kids today, you know?

But oh, I got a free morning. Oh, I can go deal with kids today. , you know, and hey, I can go deal with kids in the morning and come home and work on art in evening and, you know, Right. It, it's just a fun thing. And you know, there's a lot of things that I can say that I've done in my, you know, nine to five time and even art becomes a nine to five mm-hmm.

Um, because that, that's kind of, you know, it's something that a lot of us struggle with is, I believe as artists is still being to keep the passion. But also make sure you have the profit in it, you know, Or make sure you have something to sustain yourself with it or have something else to sustain yourself while you're having that passion, you know?

Uh, cause otherwise it just becomes a thing of, okay, I need to, you know, turn all these projects just so I keep making You're not really feeling them. Yeah. And that's something now 

TrevFM: suffers. [00:15:00] Yeah. That's something that I, I as a, as you said, as a editor, which I. , you know, I consider myself an artist as well.

Uh, that's, that also has a path of sustainability. But the two voices, the two I guess, pulls versus how do I stay true? How do I make sure that my voice and my vision and the message that I want to convey is the one that's most accurate or the most truthful? Versus, I mean, I, I'll even, even this podcast that I'm doing, it's, there's this pull where, is it a vehicle for sustainability or is it something where I just wanna express.

joy and express love. And I found myself very early on, uh, in this process becoming so, calculating about it, calculated about it, and scripting questions and having a follow up, uh, [00:16:00] with the person that I'm interviewing versus how do we help you with the freedom market? And, and then I realized I was just ringing all of the joy out of it.

And I went back to when I first started as an artist. Uh, Well, as a, a artist, quote unquote, in around 2005 when I was a videographer, and just going around and documenting my friends for the fun of it and wasn't thinking about sustaining myself and how much fun that was, and this right now is, I feel like it's a chance for me to get back to that.

So how do you make sure that you stay on course and that your art stays true to your voice and you are constantly striving? In that direction. 

Derrick: Um, yeah, it is tough just to keep yourself, you know, constantly inspired. I think you just kind of have to be constantly working at the [00:17:00] craft in order to like, figure out something new to try.

Um, Yeah. Cause yeah, I, you know, I, I could say like, I reached a point where it was like, right. Well, I'm just gonna keep churning these out. Maybe somebody will buy, you know, this one, you know, it just becomes sort of aware. So if you're just doing the same thing over and over, it becomes monotonous. That's where it just burns about, you know, um, you know, tv for example.

Um, You're doing video editing. If you're just editing the same 30 seconds of news and the same, you know, story or whatever you're done, You know, And I can say I went through that, you know, per say. So I, I didn't wanna do that with art. You know, I want to say, All right, you know, if I'm gonna make art, then I'll figure out something new to trial.

I'll figure out something new to explore. And, you know, for all of these fluid, abstract things that I. I really [00:18:00] enjoy sitting there and just sketching a simple beach by hand. You know, not really that great. I don't really sell 'em to anybody. They're all just gonna sit, you know, Maybe one day I'll make a book of 'em, but you know, they're in pencil, pen marker, eraser.

Um, charcoal, you know, I have ones that I've painted and wood, or on wood, on plastic, on canvases, painted in acrylics, watercolors, oils. I taught myself to paint. Just so I could paint a beach seed for my wall in oil. Mm-hmm. . Wow. So just having that sort of, Right, I'm gonna keep, what can I try next? You know, I, I think this like frache or some of, Yeah, fine.

I'll, you know, when you're a self-start artist like I am, Cause I didn't really go to school for this. So when you're a self Turk artist, it's like, all right, so. What's gonna be my next professor, you know? And it's been a lot, you know, for me it's been a lot of like YouTube and a lot of, you know, books and everything, [00:19:00] and.

Trying, just trying everything. 

TrevFM: I hear you on that. And the, that piece that you did, that's, I mean, that's amazing for me. It's a, and it's, I'm looking at it, I know on a computer screen. Um, but just seeing that scale of it, it's, it really resonates. Uh, you also have the smaller works on the really small ones, which actually I really, really like those block pieces as well.

Where the blocks, Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, to see that you still maintain that feeling like you're being sucked into the work that you maintain. You seem to, as far as I can see, you're maintaining that, that energy. It's really good to see that. And if it doesn't happen and it doesn't work, you know, the failure is also a good thing as well, you know?

Yeah. Um, 

Derrick: I mean, failure means that I have a bunch of really cool things, Hang on my wall. Right. 

TrevFM: You're doing it for yourself [00:20:00] first, right? Yeah. Amen. Um, let's talk about the, the, the St. Pete. Uh, we, we touched on that a little bit, but I wanna talk more about the, um, community there, um, and also about the community in terms of black and brown artists in St.

Pete. And how do you navigate that? Um, And how, what kind of support are you getting from other communities? Is it something that we, black and brown, are working with the, uh, white artists? Or is it more kind of different lanes that you're in? So 

Derrick: we work in the thought of

Mars Black, Bert, Sienna, um, Titanium White Falo blue Falo green. Um, Red oker, yellow [00:21:00] ochre. I'm more of a red oker. Personally. , , 

TrevFM: we're talking about, um, the, the people. 

Derrick: Well, that, that's what I'm saying. That's how we all work, you know? Okay. We see each other more like, Oh yeah. You know? That's amazing. That's a great, Okay, , 

TrevFM: so just so we know, That, 

Derrick: you know?

Oh yeah. You're, you're kinda like a, you know, kinda raw s you're about a raw sienna. Actually, , 

TrevFM: it's funny. When I was a young, the color that I used for black people was burnt sienna. That was it. Mm-hmm. , every black person burnt 

Derrick: you. So yeah, that's kind how we work with ourselves. I love that. And I think that, you know, Because we do have this sort of comradery we do.

It is such a honor to work with, you know, the artists here, you know, the black ones, the brown ones, the benna ones, you know, even the titanium whites, even the, you know, canary [00:22:00] yellows, the. Yeah. E everyone, you know, the greens, I don't know if we even have any green 

TrevFM: artists there, but , I love that because that's what we should all be striving for.

And that's where I hope we get there one day where, yeah, we look at each other not for the color of our skin, um, not for the, the, the places that we come from or the religions that we follow, if you are religious, but for who we are inside and what it is that we all trying to strive for. And I, I, I believe that if we all work towards.

Love and community that these things will become, even if there is something that's to be noticed in terms of, but it'll be noticed like, Okay, he's tall or she's short. You know, it's like, but it doesn't have that cultural connotation to what it is. So I, I, that was one of the best answers to that question that could have asked for, so.

Derrick: Like, like I mentioned earlier, that Carrowood, um, cultural Center, they did the black [00:23:00] Arts. Black Black Arts Matter. That's what they called it. Mm. Um, yeah. Okay. Uh, bam show the Black Arts Matter. And that was in April. It wasn't in Black History Month. It wasn't in Juneteenth month. It was somewhere different, you know.

It was in birthday months for me, so it was totally respectable goal. And if it's not there, it's at another gallery, another, you know, part of the Tampa Bay community even, you know, 

TrevFM: to me it's even more kind of community, um, community oriented, uh, than it is in New York. Like that's where it came now from.

And New York is just so large and so vast. It's just like you, everybody's kind. Attention is being drawn away from any SP specific or particular thing, and the kind of small town feel in St. Pete is something that I think needs to be kind of amplified and appreciated. So, Go ahead. Yeah, [00:24:00] I 

Derrick: would like to keep that small town by as much as possible.

So if you're listening to this, do not move to St. Pete. Wanna, 

TrevFM: That's the thing I hear so many people are moving to St. Pete. I went down there for of events, it's like, 

Derrick: oh, we're.

TrevFM: So you heard it from Derek. Do not come down to St. Pete. It's overcrowded. It's, uh, there's no more op, there's no more vacancies. Uh, there's no room in the end. There's no room in the end. But if you wanna come by and fast through and check out one of his shows, you're always welcome. Um, so Derek, what do you have going on?

What's, uh, what do you have? I know tomorrow or something. Uh, this podcast will air next week, so they'll probably miss that. But, um, tell me what you have happening in the next, uh, couple of weeks. 

Derrick: Really right now cause I'm doing the teaching thing and, um, just trying to get some stuff kind of lined up for the winter show market.

Um, so right now I can just say, you know, second Saturday Art Walk in St. Pete, um, is at the Warehouse Arts [00:25:00] District Association. The, it's called the Art Exchange Campus. You would see me all the giant purple tent, which is like the only purple tent that you'll see there. Giant print flag, you know, raised from that only print flag that you'll see at this place.

Um, so I'm usually like, easy, fun, and I'm there. If I'm not there every month that I'm there, I'll be there in the next few months just because, you know, it's October, November, December, time to go. Um, see, I'll be there the next three. And you know, it's the second Saturday of each month. It's from five to nine basically.

I think actually they might extend the ones out for December. I know, like do a three to nine type of thing. Um, so yeah, I'll have that and you know, pretty much anything else I'll try to make sure I announce, you know, I'll, uh, have my website, social work, I dot. Where I usually try to make sure I keep the calendar up to date with that there.

And also keep, you know, updates on all the, uh, you know, latest pieces. Cause as you make 'em, [00:26:00] you have film 'em, and then you can make art out of 'em or bring clothing or whatever, and then take the little pieces of skin and make jewelry out of 'em, so, mm-hmm. . Um, but yeah, I'll have everything updated there.

And then, you know, of course on the Instagram, You know, all those sorts of things. Uh, it's like social art guide is the Instagram of page I use and. 

TrevFM: The social art guide.com. Uh, you can find Derek's schedule, upcoming events. Uh, can they get your artwork there as well? Purchase? Yeah, you 

Derrick: can get my artwork.

There's a store. You can pick up the artwork, you get scheduled events. Um, I actually have links for, like, videos kinda showing some of the process that I go through to make these. I think I might have the process for this one here, actually either on there or scheduled to come up here pretty soon. This was like,

okay. So I think I spent a week basically mixing the paint. Wow. [00:27:00] Um, took about an hour to get all the paints on there and kind of set another week to Dr. No, week and a half to dry. Two more weeks secure. and then I put a, um, another like varnish on there, which is an overnight, you know, So yeah, it takes a little while to make these.

Wow. 

TrevFM: So you could, you could see that on your, on your on, um, social art guide.com. The social 

Derrick: work do.com. Yeah. You can see the process videos. You can actually purchase the artwork, purchase the merchandise, say the hats and all of that. Um, and see scheduled events. 

TrevFM: Right. That's great. And then you could also pick up, uh, some of Derek's work, uh, some of the older pieces on the Freedom Market that shop as well.

And we try to keep up with, uh, supporting. Our community on that website as well. But um, Derek, thank you so much for joining us today and um, hopefully I'll see you soon. 

Derrick: Thank you for having me. I'll have to get some [00:28:00] new pieces over to you actually also for Freedom Market. Absolutely.

TrevFM: Thanks for joining us. Please follow us and leave a rating and or a review. I would like to thank our show partner. Locals I know.com, helping artists make money, find opportunities, get discovered and develop sustainable business models. That's locals I know. Dot com. Mike Bikes NYC on Instagram, amplifying the voices of activists since the summer of 2020.

Head over to Mike Bike's NYC on Instagram. That's Mike with a m i. And Freedom market.shop, a marketplace led by people of color united in the principles of social and economic justice. That's Freedom market.shop until the next show. See you next time.[00:29:00]