Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
This is what the world needs now: two free-thinking “seasoned” Black women speaking their truth and inspiring others to do the same. Shaped by 45 years of friendship that began at the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School through the Ivy League, medical school, marriages, divorces, triumphs, parenting queer children, life-threatening illness and many many amazing adventures. Each week, besties Leslie Osei-Tutu and Angella Fraser will push against boundaries in love, culture, careers, faith, politics and out-dated assumptions about women of a certain age. Remember, you’re never too old to change your mind…or your hair! (but more on that later :-)All views are our own and do not reflect the views of our institution/company. Information provided is not intended to serve as medical advice.
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Ep 41 S4/5 Meet Muralist Delia Miller
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Leslie looked at the blank wall in her new pool area and immediately an idea hit her.
She would search for an artist to paint a mural on the wall.
But is that something that people actually do? How does one move a ‘want’ from idea to inception? Leslie’s search led her to the Orlando area based artist Delia Miller. As you’ll learn, Delia’s talents stretch way beyond her 20 years.
In this episode, Delia talks about the rollercoaster ride of her journey to becoming a commercial muralist, the historic significance of her largest mural to date, and her many ambitious pursuits with the support of her Jamaican & Belizean parents.
The Besties have a heart for young folks who pursue their dreams; extending support through encouragement, opportunities and of course buying whatever they're selling!
Delia's website
Delia's 7-story mural in historic Parramore
More on the historic African American community of Parramore, Orlando
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Hey and hey Les. How's it going? It's going really well. Good. Good. Over here too. It's hot as uh hmm. But it's I went out for a walk yesterday and when I opened my door, I was like, what the blazes is going on? I don't know why I thought it had cooled down a little bit.
SPEAKER_02It's funny that you say that because I hear that the East Coast is um had having a a um a heat wave of some type or whatever. I'm still in Florida.
SPEAKER_01Right, right.
SPEAKER_02You'll always know that I'm in Florida because my uh picture is always in my background because I like the orange. But um I hear it's hotter in New York than it is here in Florida. It's about 80 degrees here and about 99 in Fl in New York.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's really, it's really hot, but it would still, it was still. I walked on the the shaded side of this of the street and um had a little moment because that's where I used to walk um topaz. So um, but it was good to just get some fresh air. All right.
SPEAKER_02So it's good to see you. Well, welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_03Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_02With Deb Oat, with Deia. This young lady is wondering like, who are these two old fools? What have I gotten myself into? Speaking of hot, I have a lovely, we have a lovely guest today. I am going to allow this um muralist. I'm not even gonna say that she's a budding muralist, because from what I've learned, you've been at this for a number of years. You are not a new artist. So, Delia, I'd love for you to introduce yourself, tell what you'd like to know, and then we'll get started. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Hi, everyone. My name is Delia, and I am a not budding muralist, like a professional muralist here in Central Florida. And I'm 20 years old and I started painting. I've always been painting, but I started painting murals about two years ago when I graduated from high school. And I really just dived into it in the city where I grew up, a popka, and I started to meet some more muralists in the area, and I got to work on even larger projects. So now I'm painting full-time, and I also like to do a lot of canvas and fine art painting while exploring all the other things I'm interested in.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01And there are a lot of things that she's interested in, apparently.
SPEAKER_02Here we'll get into that. Is are those some of your works behind you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, these are some from um the time where I was transitioning into painting canvas work. And this is also done on wood. This is a painting on wood. Um, and then when I started doing murals. So it was there's a lot of like little skills and tricks and things that go into painting murals that translates from the small canvases to the really large walls.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01I see that one on um your, is that right or left? Your left, I guess. Over your, yeah. Um, because I have this whole thing, which you may not know about black hair culture. So whenever I see depictions of um the love that we share as black folks around our hair, it always um makes my heart smile. So we'll talk about that because you may have to show up in another podcast on another topic.
SPEAKER_00So okay, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I would love to tell people how I became uh acquainted with you and how my home is now graced with your beautiful work. Um, of course, I'm going to put up on our website and on our um podcast page um the picture of the murals that you did for me. And I must say I'm her first residential mural. She is. Let me just tell you, Delia, I am many things, but one of the things that I am, I'm very competitive to a point where it sometimes gets ridiculous. So the fact that I just said that I am your first residential muralist, man, that is so exciting for me.
SPEAKER_01But anyway. Well, if if I if I may, Leslie, I want to ground this conversation um in the um the the step that you took to reach out to Delia and you were there to have this beautiful yeah, to have this beautiful um uh work of art on your um home, but but also to have met this beautiful um young person and your life being enriched by her, by her family, and so on. Um and I want to kind of ground it in um in what our podcast is about. It's about um choosing joy, it's about choosing to have um the the the life that you desire. It's about having things in your life that um just l lift your spirits, it's about making those choices for yourself, um, and it's about um doing that boldly, especially um as we get into our older years. Um it's about making those choices, and that's what Leslie did. And it opened up all of this. She saw something, she really liked it. She was like, Oh, I wonder if.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And she decided to check it out and ta-da!
SPEAKER_02And and and I come at it from a different angle, and I'm glad that you brought that up, Ange, because the angle that I come up um that I start with is that there's something that I want, and then I make the steps to see if it's possible to happen.
SPEAKER_00I love that so much.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And it was as simple most recently as I love being in a convertible. I didn't have a convertible, and I've always wanted a convertible. Now I have two. I've always wanted a convertible, and I just said, instead of spending another summer saying I would love to have a convertible, wait a minute, I can get a convertible. It just never occurred to me that it was attainable. Yeah. Um, I can go so far as to say I've wanted to be a physician since I was five years old. And I just talked about it over the years and talked about it, and I'm like, wait a minute. At 36, at 36. At 36 years old, after having had a career as a high school science teacher, I said, Les, now is about the time. Why don't you try to get into medical school? Wow. You know, yeah, so I remember um earlier this spring, and you and I were sitting in the backyard arguing over whether or not I can buy a table to match my lounge chairs. I looked at the wall and I said, you know, some type of mural would be really good here. And now I have a beautiful mural that really just transforms my stunning, it's stunning. And you know, stepping out from thought and desire to fruition, it wasn't a big step. I Googled muralists in my area, and you really, among other people, came up. I saw some of some press that you did around, I guess, some of your larger scale projects. And then, of course, you know, we all have our doubts. So I said, nobody is coming to this little house in this little town to come and paint, you know. And I just said, I reached out to you on Instagram, and you're like, Yeah, that's something I'd be in. I was shocked. But sometimes it's that simple. You just and this is something you've taught me. Yeah, sometimes just ask.
SPEAKER_01Just yeah, just ask because you can you can deal with the no, but what if you get a yes? It's a yes is is um, and you know, and plan for the yes. It's it's you can get a yes, you can get a yes. Delia, what was that like when you got that that message about?
SPEAKER_00I was um yeah, I was quite surprised because I've had one or two people reach out to me before because most of my mirror, like the mirror work that I get is through word of mouth or past artists I've worked with. But I was like, I had to read it a couple of times. I was like, wait, is she asking me to paint at her house? And I was just really excited, and my mind started racing with a bunch of ideas and things like that. So I was really excited to get on a call and talk with her. But I really agree with your points of reaching out, and it takes a little bit of I want to say delusion sometimes to just really have that the reality in your head. Cause that's how I started with murals when I was in high school. I was in an art club and they had talks about doing murals before, but it never really followed through. And I knew I really wanted to do a mural, and I've never done anything like that before. So that summer, I think closing out with that school year, I emailed my mayor, the mayor of Apopka, and I gave him an idea. And I was like, I've never done a mural before. I'm an artist and I really want to do this. And the idea I had was really special, which I think helped kind of vouch for it. Um, the first black city commissioner in Apopka, uh, he has a park named after him now. And I really wanted to honor that. And he's still alive today. So I was able to meet him and photograph him. And I just pitched that idea. And without doing that, I mean, they they don't come to me and ask me to paint a mural. You really have to like go out there, even though, like you said, a no is possible, but without going out first, you you really never know. And without that, I wouldn't be anywhere doing what I am today.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. And and and not not only is um if you don't if you don't ask, you're giving yourself the no. You're you're confirming the no if you don't ask. You know what I mean? So you give you give you give the yes a possibility when you ask the question. That is, I love, love, love that story, right? It's like you opened your mouth. You like had an idea, and it was only by just opening your mouth and saying, Yeah, and it was hard.
SPEAKER_00I was very shy in high school, and I didn't really especially someone I've never met or like an authority figure or someone higher up than me.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Same thing with reaching out to the muralist in my area. Um, I'm actually seeing her later today. Maureen Huddis has been an amazing mentor to me. And the first way I met her is I just sent her an instant a message on Instagram saying that I really like her work. Would we be able to meet for coffee and I can kind of learn some things about her process?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so two years ago, yeah, we sat down and we've been working together ever since then. And it's very hard to come out of that bubble and like just it is hard because it's it's hard.
SPEAKER_02It takes um self-confidence, and very often we don't have that, so we have to jump over that hurdle.
SPEAKER_00Is that something you guys always had, or did you kind of have to find it?
SPEAKER_01Well, um I'd like to say that um it's it's it it develops, you have to practice it. It's just it's just like grit or or you know, it's um it's leaning into that that fear, a little or a lot of fear. You gotta push against it because if you don't, then you don't have the confidence to know that you can do it the next time, right? So it's it's a practice really of of feeling that discomfort and and doing it anyway. Um, and so we've been doing that over over time.
SPEAKER_02And that's and that's one of the things that Ange and I say to each other um all the time. You're afraid, so what? It's hard, so what? You're tired, so what? And we buck up against those barriers very often. But it your question also takes me back. Ange and I became best friends when we were 15 years old in the 10th grade. Wow. So one of the benefits I've had in my life of having you, Ange, as a bestie, is that I was always able to allow you to push me beyond what I thought were my limits. You know, there's that saying that your grasp should exceed your reach. So if if I'm saying that properly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you it's it's yeah, yeah, you get it.
SPEAKER_02So the point is that when I would run things by you and say, I'm not sure if I could do it, I'm not sure if I should reach out, it might have been um, if I think back to the conversation we had about the mirrorless, you always give me that assent to step out. And we were sitting right there on those lounge chairs. And I said, And you're like, Yeah, that would be nice. And then I started Googling, you know, instead of saying, like, oh no, I don't think you'd be able to afford it, or oh no, I don't think that that doesn't make sense. Nobody's gonna come out to this little town and do this, you know what I mean? So um I think that we've not always had the boldness, but we've usually pushed through and pretended to have it. Yeah, right. And me, I gotta also say a uh a long answer to a short question is that as an anesthesiologist, every case is different, every patient is different. And I need to go into the operating room each time with a certain amount of trepidation about how the patient is gonna do and how the surgery surgery is going to do. You need to have that a little bit of anxiety or tension in order to do your your job well. You never want to become too complacent. So I'm used to a certain level of that. Um, but so what? So I have a beautiful mural.
SPEAKER_01I um I I want to say something else really quickly, too, because um sometimes people, you know, in in our age group, they um they they have some fears about social media and you know, kind of see it as this big bad wolf. And um real real life is is is the real thing and social media is not. And this is another example, and I have many, of um uh using social media to reach people who you wouldn't other otherwise reach and and and get them to be something in real life, in your life, right? So um Dilia was not someone that Leslie knew. Um she wasn't known by her family or anything like that. Um she she saw, she liked, you know, and we we do support um black creatives, um, black businesses. It's it's something that we just do, naturally do. And so, and we and we love young people. Um, we do that too. There's so much to learn um from people like Delia, which you you will see when you hear more about her. Um and and now she's real, she's she's been in Leslie's house. But she met her, you know, on social media. Yeah. Like I have people who have um been been models for my wigs that I met on social media, and I drove up to um one person, um Jane Medley, who's the um 60 plus year old influencer, and I met her online and she said, Oh, I'd love to just um wear your wigs in a photo shoot. And I drove up to Richmond and we did a photo shoot in my wigs. I met her online, and I could go on and on and on, right? You can still use the same filters that you would use in real life to um to filter, and you must do that, who you would let in. But like turn on your spidey senses and um and reach out to people who you think for whatever reason a need or or some desire that you have, and and see, see how it works out. And you can always shut it up.
SPEAKER_02A barrier, you know, do common sense accommodations.
SPEAKER_01Common sense, exactly. The same mother wit, common sense, wisdom, all the things. Um, use them because we wouldn't we wouldn't be here with Delia. We wouldn't, you know what I mean, if if if Leslie had um had kind of stopped there. And and we both push each other, Leslie.
SPEAKER_02And and and I've even had some um people around me say, like, where did you find this person? Like you, you like you just have somebody come to your home. And I wasn't even around when you you and your team to my home to. Oh, I want to talk about that team. I said, I'll leave the doors open, whatever you need, come in and out. Um, Delia stayed locally until she finished her project. And here we are. So, Delia, you did not come alone. You actually came with a team. So tell me about that. So impressive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um I was telling my parents about the the mural idea and the concept I had, and my dad is Jamaican, so he really liked it. And he is in the medical field, but he's creative. He's always been creative um and interested in the arts. So he's always helping me with, and sometimes it's not always the help I ask for, some of like critiques or like you should do this, this little dot right here. So I he offered to come with me to help me because some of the supplies that I use are like quite heavy and it was a drivable distance. So um I wanted to kind of yeah, drive there, load up all of my supplies in the car. And so yeah, he was really helpful. And then two seconds later, my mom and my niece were like, Oh, since you guys are gonna be in the area, we might as well go for a little weekend trip as well. And then while you guys are painting, we could be at the pool or the beach. So I was like, okay. And then like before I know it, it's like a whole family trip. So I can't complain too much because my dad was quite helpful. My mom for a couple seconds picked up a brush um after like relaxing the whole time. But yeah, like if there's really big blocks of a solid color, sometimes it's more useful for me to like work in the detail areas and just give my dad a really big brush of like blue paint and tell him to fill this whole area, and it's kind of like a paint by numbers thing. So it helps.
SPEAKER_02And I had the opportunity to meet your dad, and I did a little interview on him uh with him, which I'll put on our page for our Patreon subscribers. Oh, nice! Yeah, yeah. He was, you know, I said, listen, my mom, everywhere we go, she says, My daughter's a doctor. I wonder how you react when you walk you when you drive around Orlando and you see your daughter's works, you know. So he started telling me about that a little bit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's so awesome. That's so awesome. I have to tell a um a little story, Delia, that um I just started telling Leslie about this like 10 minutes before we started. Um so I um as a young person, I was an artist and and I took classes at um Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. My um my mom signed me up for classes because I was always drawing and putting it up on my walls at home and and so on. And she's she saw my talent and um, and she's still so talented in her drawing. And um so when I was applying to high school, I applied to the High School of Music and Art and the High School of Art and Design. I got into both of those for my art. And after that, I got into tech, um, Brooklyn Technical High School, which is where I met Leslie. And and my brother was going to school at tech. He's two years my senior. And my parents said, Okay, you're going to tech. Done deal.
SPEAKER_02I didn't put up a file because three specialized high schools in Brook in New York, and you have to test to get in, so it's very academic. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, those are the the top three. And and then those two um those two high schools were the top high schools for for art. Um, the um high school of music and art is the is the um the high school that is um became immortalized in the movie Fame. I don't know if you know that movie with um Irene Carr. It's really old, but it was filmed, it was filmed there and it was about those those students.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Fame. I wanna live for everyone. Forever. I wanna learn forever.
SPEAKER_01I wanna learn how to fly.
SPEAKER_02All right, so Delia, one thing you'll learn about us in every episode of our podcast, there's some reason for one of us to start singing. It's usually Ange, but sometimes I'll start singing. So there we had it. We ticked off that box.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad I know. We and we we use singing very loosely because uh neither of us have that talent. Neither of us have that talent. So what I found out, so uh maybe a week and a half ago, my sister reached out, and um, I don't know how she came to find out that one of those high schools, um art high schools, I think it's music and art, um, had closed down. And I don't know how she came to find out. So she said, Ange, didn't you didn't you get into that um um that school for for art? And I said, Yeah. And she's like, How did you learn how to and I'm like, remember mom put me in in Pratt and we'd go there in the summer, so it it gave us all of these memories about the what we did because we had to walk there and blah blah blah. Anyway, so she says to me, you know, uh mom actually came to me and asked me which school I should let you go to, whether she should let me go to tech or to I wanted to go to um art and design. And I'm like, what? Mommy, my Cuban Jamaican mother who education is like is like the highest uh thing. My educator, my um lawyer, uh college professor, engineer, engineer. Those are the four of us. That is what's typical. I'm the youngest. You just fall in line. That she actually considered allowing me to become an artist as my career blew my mind. I'm still I'm letting it like trickle into my spirit like little by little because when I think about it for too long, I get really overwhelmed because it it just speaks volumes to uh how she saw me and and uh just uh I I so and didn't exactly came up when I told you. My mother was like her mother. I mean yeah, um, you know, when when when you're best friends at 15, we met at 14, best friends it it you know, anyway. So when I um see your father being such a part of your uh work and e even even the critiques the Jamaican patriarch. Right, like talk to me about that. Has he always supported you? And yeah, like can you share some of that with us about what what how you see yourself through your dad?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very similar to you, Angie. I academia is very, very big in my family, and I'm the youngest. I have three older sisters, all in their 40s, and they all are in the field of medicine, all did the full college route. And I've always been really interested in academics, and especially in high school, um, I wanted to be like the top of my class, and I did so many advanced placement things in every like all the classes, and I I applied to all uh New England schools, all the the top 20 schools, the Ivy schools, and I was just so confident with all my scores. I didn't apply to any like local schools or any safety schools. And I go and open my college decisions and I'm rejected from every single one of them. And that really like changed my outlook on everything. So it's like, what am I gonna do now? And at that point, I it was really special because I realized how big competition was to me. And I think I was just so competitive, and I all of the things my parents had told me that I that are really important, I instilled within myself and held a lot of my like value in the academia. And I was like, well, if I can't do this, then like what am I? What am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so over that summer, figuring out what I wanted to study, and since middle school, it's always been medicine, changing like every every month. Like, what do I want to study? Like, is it an OBG UI N? Is it a technician? I I really just told myself what I could to keep myself interested in it when I really knew uh it wasn't my passion. And so I ended up convincing my dad to let me go to a a local Florida school, UCF, for mechanical engineering. And you cannot imagine how hard that was.
SPEAKER_01And that's what my degree is in, my undergrad degree.
SPEAKER_00Oh nice. Yeah, I can imagine how hard that was. Like from medicine to engineering, that was a difficult discussion. Um but then yeah, I got into the program. I was studying for a while, and I really didn't love it. And it was also confusing because I I knew that I really enjoyed math and really applying mathematics into different like app like uh natural situations and things like that. But it also I also wasn't loving it. And I really knew that I at this point uh after I graduated high school and I started to do the murals and work alongside Maureen and uh expanded my art a lot. I was like, this is what I really, really like. And the story it was hard because it's like, can I make a living with this? Can I can I expand on this? And a lot of it is the confidence and telling myself that yes, I can. There is a market for it. Art and commercial art is growing so much, and a lot of businesses pay a lot for art and it's valued. And so it was telling myself that doing the market research, then also explaining to my dad again that no, I don't want to do medicine, I don't want to do engineering, I want to do art full time, I want to be an artist. And that was also difficult. But I think at that point he had seen um kind of what I was capable of and the other artists in my area, and and saw that it's yeah, a lucrative thing that you can um make a living off of if you take it very seriously, which I do. And I'm still continuing uh taking classes and um I'm gonna get my degree, but I am really focusing on art and exploring aviation too, because I really want to keep that engineering side of it, but the world of aviation really was really interesting to me, and I I really love it. And so that plus my my art stuff is what I want to do. So I'm telling my dad I want to pursue being a pilot and being an artist is it's still ongoing, and every day I still am shocked that he's the one coming to me now with ideas like, oh, you should do a mural about this, you should do a panic about this. And I was like, Well, who's the artist now? But it's very slow. Yeah. And now that um, and I even paid my dad for helping me with the mural and um my niece too. So it's it's like a it's a slow process, but it's really believing in myself first and making it what it is now.
SPEAKER_02Wow. That's so that's I asked you when I met you about the business aspect of it. You're 20 years old, you're an entrepreneur, you're a professional.
SPEAKER_01You're professional.
SPEAKER_02Where do you get your business skills and knowledge from?
SPEAKER_00I didn't think when I was deciding to be a muralist that I was also going to be an accountant, uh, marketing major, uh, everything that comes along with it. A lot of it is figuring out as I go, and then also the help of like all the mentors and the artists in the area, because there are so many little things that you really just don't know, especially when you're working with larger commercial murals, like licensing and making a contract and who owns the right of it, the rights of the mural. And same thing with pricing, and how do how do I price a mural and how do I justify this price? And from invoices to everything. A lot of it was learning on my own and then asking for help from them, but there's still so much to learn.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow. Like I was thinking, you know, just on the when you were talking about engineering, the the first thing I thought about is the process of expanding your um your art from scaling it from whatever a 10 by 10 to uh whatever. I don't know how how big you go. That is a lot of engineering.
SPEAKER_02I know how big she's gone. Let's say seven stories on the side of a parking lot.
SPEAKER_00Are you serious? Yes, in downtown Orlando and Paramore, just a historically black town. We did a whole black history focused mural, which is seven stories tall. I have a lift certification now. I can operate a boom lift.
SPEAKER_01What? Wait a minute, Celia, you're not easy.
SPEAKER_02What? Yeah, I saw her strapped on and on a scaffolding. Oh man, that is amazing. So when I came to you with my little project, you're like, no scaffolding involved. You're like, yes. Oh my goodness, that's amazing. How did that project come about?
SPEAKER_00That project was also through my mentor, Maureen. Um, the there's a real estate women's group in Central Florida, and they really wanted to honor this area in Orlando that is now very gentrified and it's kind of like the top tourist destination in downtown Orlando. But a couple of years ago, it was all black. And so every there's a lot of portraits on the mural, and each person is an integral part of making downtown Orlando what it is today from the healthcare field, the education field, and even entertainers. We have a lot of famous black jazz musicians that came uh in downtown Orlando and used that green book that showed them the safe places to stay. And uh Dr. Wells was a really big figure, and he housed a lot of those um musicians, and we honored him on the mural.
SPEAKER_02And it was really Dr. Wells.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I've heard of Dr. Wells, yes. He delivered, I think, over 5,000 babies in Orlando, and also did a lot for the hospitality, and even me that I did not hear about him before I did that mural. Half of the people on that mural I didn't hear about before.
SPEAKER_01The history is so so covered, so I uh don't let that's another podcast. Um but yeah, so so you reached out to them and and they yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I had worked with Maureen on another project in downtown Orlando, and she was the first, I was one of the first people that she called to come be part of the team for that. It was me and um two other emerging artists, or three, and they were all black women, which was really cool. So we learned the a lot more about the process and how to operate the lift and the whole big planning and execution that goes into this. A lot of money was raised through the real estate women's group and a lot of big donors like Magic Orlando and Advent Health donated for this mural. So it was really nice to kind of see the the back stage pass of how a mural like that comes to life, and it's definitely everything I learned applies to how I do things now.
SPEAKER_01Wow, isn't that wonderful? How long did it take?
SPEAKER_00Uh, about a whole summer. I want to say two months or so of working every day in the really hot sun. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't want to forget to get all of this information so we can put it in our podcast notes for our listeners so they can look back.
SPEAKER_03For sure.
SPEAKER_02Um, and I'll also I might take a ride there today. Um, and take a I I would love to see it in person. So um, yeah. What tell me where where it is in Orlando?
SPEAKER_00It is on the side of the City View apartment buildings um in downtown Orlando, and I can give you the address. It's on my website, and it's right next to that big parking garage there.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay. But I might take a ride there later on today. Um, because this is what you do. This is what you do.
SPEAKER_00It's also illuminated at nighttime. There's lights installed, so you can see it 24 hours. Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's so cool. I love it.
SPEAKER_00It is.
SPEAKER_02I how do you feel like driving by there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, but how do you feel like driving by there, you know, in the evenings? And let's say if you if you took a friend over there and we're just driving in a car, just happened down that street. And what do you think of this painting? Isn't this lovely? That's what I would do.
SPEAKER_00I love that.
SPEAKER_02So, Ange, the engineer, wants to talk to you about uh your engineering aspirations.
SPEAKER_00Are you in pilot school now? Yes, I'm in flight school now, working on my private pilot's license. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Oh my god. I just can't believe that your dad is allowing all of this.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, that was probably harder than the art aspect to say that like really I want to fly commercial aircraft. And I always have these little interests and these little hobbies, like every couple months. Like I got into welding for a little bit. I really wanted to do jujitsu and so many little things I have. So to tell him I was interested in aviation, I think he kind of saw it as a a little another thing I wanted to do, but I think you're wearing him out. Well, I I think I'm wearing him down.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. This is the time. This is this is the time to do it. I think it's a beautiful, well, any time is the right time to explore your interest. Um, I think it's a beautiful thing when young people kind of um come to understand what they really love early on. Sometimes we we wait so long to pursue our our dreams. Um and so I I love that you're my my youngest is like that too. I mean, he's he's found, you know, what he loves to do, and he's he's in school for it. He's he's um studying construction management. He's always been interested. Always, always. And he he loves it, and he's going through school so differently than if it were something that I imposed on him or that. That's the point. You know, um, and it it's I'm I'm so happy that that he found his um and that he's he's moving forward with it. Um but one of the things that you mentioned too made me see, because we we we often think of you know this or that, you know, it's you're an artist or you're an engineer or you but things intersect. There I am again with the intersections. We have to look for those. And you know, um engineering shows up in you being a muralist, right? You you have to in order to scale, you have to know angles and you know how to project and and and things like that. So it's it's all in you. You don't, you know, you use your your gifts in different ways.
SPEAKER_02Um so it's it's all it's all in there, but also it's a courageous endeavor, um, being honest with yourself of what your where your passions are, and not really caring what other people think of those passions. And then you take the step to express it to your family.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. You know, and you know what? I like this not caring, you can care, right? It they the idea that, and I know you didn't mean it this harshly, Les, but I think sometimes people do like, well, I don't care about what people say, and so if you do care, it's like you can care about what people say. It can it can it can bother you, it can make you rethink, it may even allow you to come up with your counter um proposals differently. It can corrupt you for the conversation, it exactly to think about how what might they say um and and prepare for that going in. So you can care about what people say, but I think that the the point is to not let that stop you from from doing, to bring it in, you can get advice, right? You don't reject advice, but bring it into what your heart is telling telling you, right? And how the spirit is leading you and um uh and still and persist, right? It's the it's the and it's it's not um it's not stopping when there is resistance. It's it's it's doing it, doing it anyway, right? Those things don't have to stop you, they they ought not stop you. That reminds me.
SPEAKER_02Of a conversation I've had with my 15-year-old nephew, Kenji, who was here with me for a few days, and he's really into gaming and coding and things like that. And I've talked to him and I said, you know, where are your what is your passion? You know, what is it that you could you would want to do if you could do anything, you know, and that at age 15 is what you should spend your time and energy doing, you know, and see how you feel about it and what have you, see if it enriches you and brings you joy. Can I do it when I'm tired? Is this what I want to do? You know, those are the the ways that you find your passion as early as possible. You know, if there are no restrictions. I know you said that to um your eldest son. If remember when you said if you could do anything you want, like get talk about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I you know he he went the typical um family route. Um all my children are well, Isaiah has one more one more year, um, but graduated, did well in in college, and um and uh we were sitting around at the dinner table and I said, A Johnny, if if there were no restrictions, what what would you do? And he gave me some half-assed answer, um, A Johnny, money is not an object, place is not an object, just what would you do? And that's when my son revealed to me that he wanted to do acting, voice acting, and that he'd been thinking about it for years. I'm like, you never, never told me that. And I'm like, Do you do you know who's in your village? Like, do you know?
SPEAKER_02But he probably was afraid to tell his engineer mom, Jamaican engineer mom.
SPEAKER_01Well, well, yeah, but I think, I think, and you know, one of the reasons why I became an entrepreneur is to show my children that there are other ways to to to get to the the goals that you have. It doesn't have to be to to work for someone um to get there. You can you can get there in other ways. So so I think he knew that. I think though, um he he is the the the child who um he's great at planning. And you know, when you're great at planning, you're always thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and you plan. Around them, right? You you you you try to avoid them because you're thinking about them. Well, I think that was interfering with his the way he thought about his life. He was thinking about the things that could go wrong, not the things that could go right. And I got him to reframe and like this could actually happen. Well, two years later, A Johnny is living in LA. Um, he um started taking acting classes because of a connection I made for him. One of his his aunties in the village from high school is out there living it up in in Hollywood. Two of them actually connected him, connected him, went to acting school, then moved out there, and now he has an agent. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And he's using so much, so much of the skills that he learned in college. He did political science. But the way he researches, the way he, you know, he can he can um develop his position and say it succinctly. People think that college is just about that particular specialization that you have. But what college can do, should do, and what you should allow your children to see college as is a way to develop as a person, right? To think critically, to to be able to problem solve for yourself, figuring out how to let your money stretch, right? If you just have a few coins, how are you gonna, if you want to buy this thing, get a little side, get a little job, you know, like all of these are part of the development that you get, you know, and sticking to something for a period of time. You know what I mean? Um, those are the things.
SPEAKER_02Sticking to something through adversity or through adverse failure, yeah, you know, right? Because I I said to myself, if I don't get into medical school my first time applying, I'm not sure if I would try it again, if I would apply again. Thankfully, I didn't have to put that to the test. But at the time, here I am, 36 years old. At the time I was a single parent, Omari was however age he was, a little boy. You know, so I had a lot of reasons not to keep trying, you know. Um and I had already started a career, having gotten a master's in education and all of this. But I said, you know what? If I want to be an example to this child and show him what, much like what you were saying, Ange, that the sky's the limit if you can step out boldly. You know, so every time you present one of your ideas to your dad, I think he sees that in you. He sees that you're capable, he sees that you're thought out, and he sees your passion, you know. And then he's also probably tired. Probably that's the helping her paint. I'm listening now, I'm enrolling her in play school, Lord.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Wonderful. Um, I think we're about at the end, but go ahead, Ann.
SPEAKER_01Is it time? Is it time? Yeah. Um I I just um I just want to just really honor you um how you share your gifts with the with the with the world, right? Um, it's it's it is um um it's not a given that you are willing to kind of put yourself out there in such a big way. You are a muralist, you're not just an you're not just an artist, and I say just not in a minute minimizing way, but um your stuff is big. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people see your work, right? I mean, that is um that's such a testimony of um of of courage and belief in in yourself and you know, pushing through. I I know that you know sometimes people think that when you're in big big places or on big stages, um Kim Kim tells us this all the time, you know, she's she still feels that that little bit of fear before you go on stage, before you, you know, um go into a um into a a new production. But it's like you you you still do it. You you believe in yourself, you know your craft, and you do it anyway. And so I love, love, love, love that you at how old?
SPEAKER_0020.
SPEAKER_0120. And she just found this and you have decided to share it with the world and now share it um on Leslie's home. I cannot wait to see it with my own eyes. Um, thank you so much. I'm so very proud of you. Yeah, so proud of you, and we're here as elders. Uh, if you need anything, um, please um include us in your village and um ask away because as we just as we said at the beginning, you may just get a yes. Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you everybody for listening to another creative episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_01Brooklyn
