From Graffiti to Galleries: The Artistic Journey of Pedro Amos

Join Sneaker Impact News as we sit down with Pedro Amos, a renowned visual artist and public arts ambassador from Miami, to explore his remarkable journey from starting as a graffiti artist in 1994 to becoming an influential figure in Miami's vibrant art scene. Discover Pedro's unique approach to blending creativity with business, his entrepreneurial efforts such as Miami's Best Graffiti Guide and the Pedro Amos Galleria, and the impact of the evolving urban landscape on his work. Delve into Miami's graffiti history, the intersections of art and gang culture in the 80s and 90s, and the transformative power of art in neighborhoods like Little Haiti and Wynwood. Pedro also shares personal stories, including his upbringing, family life, and the challenges of maintaining art amidst gentrification. Whether you're intrigued by street art culture, urban development, or personal growth, this episode offers a deep dive into the world of graffiti, urban art, and community revitalization.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Sneaker Impact News
• 0:08 Meet Pedro Amos: Miami's Graffiti Ambassador
• 1:17 Art Week and Art Basel: Miami's Super Bowl of Art
• 2:43 The Journey of a Graffiti Artist
• 5:19 Growing Up in Miami: Family and Early Influences
• 7:48 The Evolution of Miami's Art Scene
• 12:28 The Intersection of Graffiti and Public Art
• 34:47 The Hobo Culture and Painting Freight Trains
• 39:31 Exploring Specialty Products
• 39:51 Becoming an Art Director
• 39:57 Basel House Mural Festival
• 40:50 Touring with Golf Carts
• 41:09 The Rise of Graffiti Tours
• 42:08 Iconic Miami Artists
• 43:21 Artistic Identity and Branding
• 47:51 Opening a Gallery
• 48:46 Thriving Art Scene in Miami
• 53:35 Challenges and Business Side of Art
• 1:07:48 Public Art and Community Impact
• 1:10:10 Reflections on Life and Career

Transcript

0:00

Guys, welcome back to Sneaker Impact News. My special guest this week is Pedro Amos. Pedro, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here. So awesome to have you. This is a very special week, guys. We have a talented artist from Miami. Miami's native son, born and raised here. Visual artist starting his artistic journey via graffiti in 1994. Right. Remember those years? Yeah. I was in high school. Before a lot of people were listening to this were born. Yeah. The nineties. Um, Amos has become an ambassador for the public's arts locally and internationally. He's launched Miami's best graffiti guide in 2016. The only artist owned and operated street art tour company in Miami. We're going to talk a lot about that today. He also opened his own gallery, Pedro Amos Galleria in Little River in 2021. The Galleria hosts in and out of the box team building events for corporate companies, ranging from Chanel, Goldman Sachs, to WD 40 and Abbott Labs. Amos specializes in large scale outdoor murals, sculpting, and traditional acrylic, oil, and mixed media on canvas, including this amazing mural here. That's right. Sneaker Impact. That's right. So Pedro, this is so awesome. Um, we're going to get to know you today. Thank you for joining us here. Tell us, how are things going? Good. Everything's going good. Uh, can't complain. We got a lot of, uh, projects, uh, kind of, uh, coming up. Formulating now for, um, for, uh, Art Week, you know, that starts in December, it's kind of the Super Bowl of art, you know, in the world, and we're lucky enough to be hosting it, uh, every year, Art, Art Basel, Art Basel is its own thing, it's Art Week, that really, it's everything else, right? The satellite, uh, pop up, uh, galleries, and just the other events, and Nightlife stuff that happens as well. And who's the, who's, who, as you know, come down here. So that's the same week as Art Basel? It's the same week as Art Basel, right? So it's the first, uh, weekend. Art Basel is the first weekend of December. So Art Week basically is just that whole week leading up to it. And that's what it's always been. But truly after Thanksgiving is when people really start peppering down here and you start seeing things go up. So that's when like the activity level for the art scene really picks up. It really picks up, but a lot of the murals The parties, everything, yeah. Yeah. The visitors in general, we get a lot of visitors in that time of year. I mean, it is, it is the biggest, Basel obviously started in Switzerland, Basel, Switzerland. It was an art show that they had there and they decided to do a satellite Basel. It still kept the name and, and then that was 25, 4 years ago or something like that. Do you remember when that started? I do, I do. Because you've been doing this for a long time. For a long time, but I wasn't involved in that capacity just quite yet, you know, um. I was still, you know, doing just strictly graffiti. I come from a graffiti background. We'll talk about that then. We're going to go through the journey today. Yeah, it's a, it's a, everything I, the, you know, my method was very unorthodox, the way that I've, I've landed, uh, and, and, and crawled and fought and, yeah, my way here. But, um, but, you know, it, whatever doesn't kill you and all that, right? And so it's, it's, it's been, you know, people used to tell me, hey, Pedro, you know, don't run into that wall, you know, you're going to hurt your head. And I was like, Yeah, well, maybe that hurt your head, you know, that my ego was like in such a You're an adventurous guy. I have to see what happens when I do it. You know what I mean? And, uh, and then, you know, then you started remembering as a father, like I remember I told my son stuff like that. And I just remembered thinking, you know, I used to be like, Oh man, that, that, you know, what are you telling me? Right. Like, what do you know? And now I realize, you know, like, yeah, you know, we, we tell the youth stuff like that because it'll, It'll benefit them. But yeah, the point of the story is I'm hard headed, been hard headed for a long time. Nonetheless, all those things that gave me the experience to be able to, to be creative and to, and to, uh, do things on the fly, you know? Yeah, that's an artist's lifestyle mentality. You gotta be thinking outside the box and you're More eccentric than the average office worker. Maybe but Yeah. More than the average office worker. Yeah. But, but I pride myself also in, in, um, in, in knowing how to read contracts. Sure. And knowing how, uh, I've noticed that about you too. You've, you've, you have to make it a business in order to succeed. Well, you, if you want to it to be a career. If you have to be a career, yeah. You gotta make it a business versus just enjoying what you do. And for anyone that's ever asked me, you know, as I became a professional, you know, career artist, anyone that's ever asked me, you know, how, my daughter wants to do this, how, what should she do, you know, study business. Because the passion stuff, you're going to go do anyway, right? Because you care about it, you're going to solicit it, you're going to find people that do it. And remember, I'm one of the last generations that learned graffiti from a human, right? From another person, not the internet. So, you know, older guys, they're, you know, teaching me how to write, you know, and And now it's more of a tutelage thing. Sure, now you can watch a video. Now you go on YouTube and say, I like this person from wherever, and that girl's art from Willis, and then you just kind of bite it, and then maybe you become original. It's hard to be original. Well, I really want to go into your background a little bit first, but not spend too much time as we talked about off the podcast as we have a lot to talk about today with the events coming up and what you've got going on in Miami. So, but you were born here, which I find fascinating because I moved here in 2008, but we're from approximately the same generation and, um, Gen X. Okay. Yeah. I, I graduated high school in 97. Yeah, same. Yeah. Right. No, I would have been 98. Yeah. Right. I would have been class of 98. But you were doing this in the Miami scene back in 94, it sounds like, so tell us like about your upbringing. Um, you have Cuban parents, you told me. You have a sister, a son, a niece, and a nephew. That's right. And you're all born in Miami. And we're all born in Miami. So tell us more. Yeah, uh, Cuban family, we immigrated, they immigrated in, uh, in the 60s here. My mom went to Beach High, my dad went to Miami High, once they came from Cuba. And, uh, and my sister and I were both born here. I was born in the beach. She was born in Hialeah. We like to make, uh, make it. I was born in Mount Sinai. That's incredible. That's a beautiful hospital. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's nice. And so, um, but my sister, again, was born in Hialeah Hospital. Hialeah. Yeah. Just to be clear about that. And then, uh, she gets upset when, when I'm doing it like constantly. So she, um, so she's that. And then, um, you know, I've always, you know, We come from a close family, uh, we're a small family, but we're, we're, we're close. What did your parents do growing up? Um, my, my dad, they're both only children, which is odd. Okay. Um, so I don't really have any aunts, that's what I'm saying, we're a really small family. Small family, okay. Small family, and they're divorced. So, you know, it's like very spread out and, and because of that, you know, and not spread out, but I mean, my father's, you know, in one part of Miami and my mother's in another, but. Okay. You know, as a kid, you know, then you're, you know, you're bouncing back and forth. And then, you know, I was living with him for a while. So that's why I went to so many high school schools in general. I mean, I went to, I went to, I think, nine schools and I dropped out in 10th grade, you know, which is, you know, I mean, I don't even know how I pulled that one off, but I, I, I just, I couldn't, uh, I don't know. I wasn't in it. I wasn't focused. I used to get good marks. Uh, very good marks like up until eighth grade and then uh, and you know, I just get distracted. I wasn't into it. What were your passions as a kid? Was art always a passion? But I really liked it, but it's not like I, you weren't too hard as a first grader. At all. I like baseball cards, collecting coins, stamps. I used to Um, I was out of a very much of a, kind of an ambitious, a entrepreneurial kind of spirit. I would sell like slap bracelets, you know, in fifth grade or, um, in sixth grade I used to, you know, Vanilla Ice came out with the, used to dub his with one of those blank Maxwell's, photocopy the, yeah, or mix tapes or photocopy and then, and then fold it up and one guy sold them but he didn't have the cover, you know, and I did, I had the, cause he had all the lyrics. Sure. Public enemy. I never mind those. Yeah, when I was in high school, I've been popping up around Miami that, um, they didn't finish the project or they opened it up and then they're going to close it. Like they use an example in Wynwood. It's this big building that is for housing, but also, um, has some office space in it and it's new. Um, I forget the name of it, but is it on 29th and 5th? It's, it's like really colorful esque, you know. Oh, really colorful? Kind of, it's got this artistic theme to it. But anyways, it's one of these mega buildings. It's a mega building. Oh, okay. So it's a mega building and it popped up in Wynwood and now they're like, half vacant, 90 percent vacant. Oh, you mean they can't fill, fill the, oh, gotcha, gotcha, I thought they, they were, Well, some of them, they stopped construction. It's, anyways, in Miami, there's just a lot of, you know, projects. So historically, that's been the case always, like, uh, Prime Examples, like, Uh, uh, everything. Uh, you can talk about, uh, the Palmetto, the Palmetto Expressway. I mean, that's been, they've been fixing that for 20 years. You can talk about, um, uh, you know, uh, this, and what else, that's all messed up, that never gets fixed. It's just a constant, constant, you know, like, disarray, and it's like And leveraging of money. And leveraging of money. But, but as I understand it, based on, like, the Citadel group and folks that are coming down here, and, you know Uh, there's a lack of, of, there, there should be, uh, occupancy in all of those places. But to your point about the new buildings, I don't know if you were familiar, or we might have spoken with, about that before, where in Wynwood, any new edifice that's erected, any new building that's erected, any new major reconstruction that they have to really knock down the bones and stuff, uh, that's, that building when, when it's done has to have 30 percent art on the exterior. Oh, wow. By, by code. Yeah, you can't even, if, if you're, if you're, uh, uh, an architecture firm and, and you're bidding, uh, to build this particular building for this company, um, it, the bid itself actually has to have, uh, What's called an urban arts, uh, engineer, which, which, which I am. And then, uh, yeah, it's basically just, uh, the first time I've heard that term. Yeah. Uh, when they told me if I, when they asked me if I was an urban arts engineer, that was the first time I heard that too. That's like what a graffiti artist. But I was like, yes, I am. Yes, I am. I'm definitely that. But I, I, uh, Yeah, you can't even bid, uh, as a company if you don't have that in your bidding. So it has to be like, this portion of our building will have art on it, and this one as well, and this will comply with the 30 percent rule. So that's why you're seeing all these mega murals on these big, on these big walls. Because Wynwood's an arts district. And they don't want to lose the cachet of the neighborhood, right? They don't want to lose that, that vibe. I never knew that law. Yeah, I mean, it was a few years old already. Yeah, so, but that's not, that's not all of Miami though. That's, it's really just, it's that kind of section. Like Coral Gables is its own animal. Miami Beach is its own animal. They still have history rules, historical preservation. Yeah. I mean, so there's something like these coral houses, right? Right. Like the houses that are actually made of coral. I don't know if you've seen them. Yeah. Um, actually one thing as a native I've never done, and this came up the other day, was Coral Castle. I don't know. Yeah. I've read about it. I've never been myself. I heard it's pretty cool. I've never been, but yeah. So you have that, you, you have, you know, these, these historical art deco, like you mentioned and, and all that, you know, you're a product of your environment. You've been here since 08. I've been here my whole life and then I remember painting in Baltimore and some guy was like, Oh, are you going to do one of your Miami, you know, fill in color pieces? And I was like, what is this guy talking about? You know, I didn't. And yeah, but then I realized. Miami Vice Colors. Yeah. It's all purples and oranges. Or the Dolphins. Yellows and teals. Sure. Yeah, like, like this stuff in here. Yeah. Right. We had a lot of that stuff going on. Well, that's it. And Moe, our founder says we're not married to those colors for those that can't see on camera, they're orange and blue. But well, if you notice, I don't know if you ever noticed, I, there was some laying around that you guys weren't going to use and I cut them up and I, and I stuck them onto there as little additives. Yeah. We've got sound soundproofing and over there above your right shoulder. So guys, Pedro did this mural about six or eight months ago in March or so. It was, we started this project in January, but you did it towards the end before we launched in April. Oh, that's right. Might've been April even, but that was a good five months ago. And now we're on episode number 22, I believe you're going to be episode 22. That's good. It's been going good. Yeah. And the first year we've, you know, since January 1st, we're, we're having a lot of great guests. Your, your mural always comes up. So many people are just really proud to sit next to it and they're like, holy cow, this is beautiful. Beautiful. That's great. I'm glad. It's true. Like it just jumps out the what's a sneaker impact and it's graffiti style. Yeah. And so we're going to talk about that today. One of your passions is graffiti and also public art and what the difference is between that and graffiti. And that's an awesome question. That's because a lot of people don't want to jump into that now. Or do you want to also, also how you got started in art? Well, we didn't really get into that, but getting started, it was just a whole episode in and of itself. And I'll give you the broad strokes about it because it was like, again, no internet. You don't know where to go. You don't know who did it. And it was, it was wild as a, as a kid to, you know, like my grandma lived in little, a little Havana and I used to go there on Saturdays, spend the night Saturday night and my parents would pick me up Sunday morning when I was a kid. And, you know, she had a little, a little, you know, three foot wall. And in the morning, there would be all this, like, gang writing, like, Latin King, and this, and that, and then, like, down the way, there was, like, a bubble letter or something, you know, around 8th Street, and I was, like, I walked it yesterday, like, at some point, someone did it, like, and I was very curious, like, who did it? I started looking around, I'll sketch, like, could it be someone around here? You know, you have no idea, and there's all this, like, It's just, so what does it mean, because now it has to mean something, you know, there's from the gang stuff and the pitchforks to like, this bubble letter stuff, like what is the, the, the, how do you decipher this, you know, and I thought that was fascinating, but I've always thought that was fascinating. How old were you when you saw this? Like seven. Oh, seven. Yeah, like little, little, yeah, eight, nine. I started noticing at that age. And then you start going to your, Your friend's houses and they have older brothers and the older brothers, you know, they're into records and breakdancing and, you know, booty to life. The culture as they call it. Yeah, yeah, the culture for sure. And Miami culture and, you know, ragtail. the 90s. All of that, man. They call it Miami Bass. The Miami Bass, for sure. And I had all those records handed me down. So, I would go to see You know, I don't have an older brother, so I would go to see my friends and I would see like a tag on a record or I'd see something and you gotta, you can't be like a nerd about it, like you gotta kind of, Yo, that's cool. Did you do that? You know, and they'll be like, oh, no, he did it over there. And then you slowly ask, how did you do? What did that mean? What does it say? And they'll start explaining to you. The first guy ever, ever, ever to do that, I was my maybe nine years old and I'll never forget his name because it's just a badass name. I've always wanted it on my license plate. It said, Cool Cat. And C O O L C A T, you're not too impressed by the name, but I thought it was the coolest shit I've ever heard. I It must have looked very cool. I don't think he was talking about his cats. I think he was referencing himself. I have, I'm a cat. A cool cat. It's a cat with sunglasses. I don't know. But anyway, he had like this, these really easy, you know, block letters, and I learned how to do it. And I was like, this is awesome. So once you see it, you can't unsee it. You start seeing it everywhere. Right? It's like, and you start thinking it says, and then graffiti at that time, since it wasn't so muddied. You know, I can tell you if you're from Hial, Kendall, Miami Beach, like by the way that you wrote, really, you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like the Hialeah people were much more, you know, scribbly and wild and stuff they had, whereas, uh, the, the Kendall ones were much more, uh, big and readable type letters. Uh, Miami Beach, a little more flavor, but still it's just more color. Yeah, yeah. And, um, wow. And there was there a lot, a lot. There was so much, and you couldn't, you knew who was who, and that's how, you know, it was like a calling card. And, but no one, like, you know. Like my name's not Amos for real, you know. That's my tag. A lot of people think that's my real name, but that's not my real name, yeah. I thought it was your real name. Yeah, everybody else does too, you know, but that was my nom de plus, my tag, yeah, my artist name. Because you don't want to write Pedro, you know, around your house or, you know. Yeah. Because, you know, mom or neighbors or whatever, they'll be like, Oh, I get it. Yeah, you can't, you can't write your name. You know what I mean? So now you're going to clean that up. Yeah, right. They know exactly who it is. You know what I mean? There's gotta make it mysterious. So that was it. You know, it's also about the illegal factor too. Like, did you ever get in trouble? Did your friends get in trouble? But I know now it's become more accepted, but back in the day you would get arrested and you'd get beat up for it, I mean, the cops would beat you up, maybe not. Yeah, no, no, you do, you do, and it still happens. I mean, someone's gonna beat you up about that. If I go to your, you know, to your house, and I do the last supper on your front door, as beautiful as it might be, if you didn't ask me to do it, that's vandalism, right? Yeah. Or a private building, you know, it's just, you're vandalizing someone's property. They didn't ask you to as gorgeous as it may be. And so, uh, graffiti was always in its inception, which by the way, this is one of the only American. Invented, homegrown, and distributed art forms. One of the few Invented in the US by kids. Yeah. Yeah, inner city kids. I didn't know that. Absolutely in New York and um, I know you see it a lot in Europe. And now, I mean, Europe is slaughtered. Yeah, Europe, I mean, Berlin is one of the most slaughtered. I brought a crew, a very prolific crew. A crew is just a collective of guys that paint under the same acronym. Okay. Um, and they're the one up crew and those guys are up just everywhere in the world, um, that's, that's what they do. And they're from, I bring them up because they're from Germany and they paint the autobahn with cars, you know, flying 200 miles past them and stuff. I mean, they're, they're really, they're really intense and creative too. So, tell us about, I think that's a good segue, you got us started, and I have a lot of questions, like how it's become more publicly accepted, the evolution, your evolution, but most importantly, I think we should start off, educate us about the difference between public art and graffiti, and murals. So, graffiti can be public art too, so the easiest way to explain it Right? The easiest way to explain it is that everything's under the umbrella of public art. Okay, everything's public art. Everything is. If it's outside, it's public. It's public art. If you can see it outside, no one invited you inside, that's public art. Whatever it might be, it's public art. Now, there's graffiti, and the art of graffiti, it deals with lettering. You are supposed to be a letter architect. Like, I made, although this is a really chunky letters, I made it to look like if I would have done it with a marker, right? That's what it looks like, right? That's one style. Then you have, uh, people that, yeah, like a chisel tip. Then you have people that do, um, you know, you have different levels as well. You have more, uh, abstract or more, um, wild style where the letters are, you know, Connections, extensions, and things pop out of nowhere and come together in other ways. And it's difficult to read. You got to really hone your eye to do it. That's kind of like the top tier of it. We call those pieces, which are short for masterpieces, right? Yeah. Cause you just don't, I mean, what if you could unlock them? Right. And they have like everything, all the bells and whistles, the drop shadows, the backgrounds, the fill ins and all, all the, you know, all this stuff. And then you have, you know, the middle stuff, and then the lower tier is more like, um, we call them throw ups, throw ups are just bubble letters. We call them throw ups because, you know, you throw them up fast, because no one asks you to do it. That's nothing to do with vomit. That's what you see someone doing who's breaking the law sometimes on a building or something. You've seen it? No, I'm just saying, like, you see it on YouTube. Yeah, usually, yeah, usually they go fast. Because no one else didn't do it. And, you know, I, I compare, uh Or if it's true vandalism, like, you know, PETA will, um, you know, vandalize stuff and put PETA on it. Sure, PETA, that's vandalism. With their spray paint, and they will say, you know, things that are political, and other groups have. I won't just pick on PETA, by the way. No, but, but I mean, that's a great example, throwing buckets of Paint on people's fur. Sure. Right. And also they just go up to the ships. That's one of those songs. Then I think they do things like spray painting too, like on, you know, buildings and stuff and they, they shame and they publicly shame people and, you know, and organizations that are associated with many groups, publicly shaming. I've, I've, I've, I've, in my opinion, since we're talking. I don't think that's ever been a good, a good resource or remedy. I feel like that's Instagram in a nutshell. It could be a publication or public clarification. Either one. One or the other though. Yeah. Cause when lately, I mean, we can talk about all the Miami accounts and that's our, my education lately has been watching, you know, Lifestyle Miami and Only in Dayton. Yeah. I'd love to see what you look at in that little phone of yours, man. You should put that live. Well, mainly cats are in my feed and plants cause I'm a master gardener, but just like your art. No, but I think it's interesting that, um, you know, Miami just has such a big scene. It's really developed. It didn't come out of nowhere either. You know, Miami's always had, even in the, you know, 70s, 80s and stuff, but always had ties to New York, you know, and New York is birthed, like, graffiti and somebody that did graffiti always had an aunt or grandma down here somewhere and, you know, things there. And that's why it really, it really took off, I think, a lot here. Then the people that did it down here, you know, we had a really different scene. Our, our, our. You know, the late eighties, nineties, there was a lot of gangs. Like if there was a graffiti crew, there was gang people in it. If there was, there was a gang overlapping graffiti. There was an overlap between the two. And a lot of great artists are possibly gang members too. Yeah, there are. Because it doesn't make you that you can't be an artist just'cause you're in a gang or just'cause you're doing something illegal. I mean, a lot of that happened, you know, and they like in jail. Yeah. And they're like, you know, oh, this guy paints really good. Yeah, right. And they're like, yeah, yeah. And then that guy turns into the tattoo guy for the gang or the crew. And then that guy might even turn into a fine artist, Mr. Cartoon, you know, have you ever heard of him? He's a, but you know, it could start out illegal. It could start out gangs. And in the eighties and nineties, there were a lot of gangs in Miami, right? It was like, there was 200 plus gangs down here. Yeah. With somehow, with your neighborhood or was it your neighborhood or was it what you looked like? Everywhere. There was like a, there were gangs in Miami beach. I heard. Yeah. South Beach Posse, SBP, rest in peace, cool lady. Yeah, there was a. There were guys in the nicest part of the city. Very, very good guys. Everywhere. You had your guys down south. You had the guys. Everywhere but Brickell. And Brickell? I'm saying everywhere but Brickell maybe. In Brickell they had them too. They had um It's a financial district. Wynwood. What was Wynwood like? Wynwood was like all like just like warehouses, right? Or like just open like Yeah, back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, it was a garment textile manufacturing district. But in Brickell, I'm trying to think that there was, there was a gang, there was a gang called uh Uh, uh, VLB, Vicious Latin Boys, this was their name, and I got jumped by them one day, uh, I got jumped by them one day, Vicious, what is it? Vicious, VLB, Vicious Latin Boys, I can't, I mean, I haven't thought of this in 30 years, um, there's that, and there was another, obviously there's TNS, and uh, that's an old crew. And they were, they were around there, but they were all over the, they were everywhere. Oh yeah, they had like the Shower Posse, they had all the games. But you know, if we had, if you know, there was also moments in, in the cities, so like 95, 96, where I didn't skate, but I hung out with a lot of skaters. Okay, I was going to ask if you skated because when I did it, when I was you hung out with a lot of skaters, but I hung out with a lot of skaters and they're very dear friends of mine. And there was, there was a crew that I was in, uh, that's called DTM. It was called DTM, uh, downtown mafia or downtown Miami, but people every Saturday from West Palm. to Homestead would make their way somehow bus ride to it something and everyone would it was 60 of us. It was like the movie kids. Yeah, like 60. But from all those places to try like, you know, county area would come and meet and there was people in other crews that maybe I beef with but at that Saturday, like nothing that mattered at all. That was some other shit. It was this was more. Uh, they're just there to, everyone was cool, and they were skating amazingly well. And I would just go with all of them and just write on stuff while they were, you know. So you like to hang out? Hang out, and you know, we'd have a beer. I skated a tiny bit, but I was not like a very good skater. Yeah, I know, these guys were clearing like, Twenties steps there and a half pipes and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. In the city I did a little and no one, that's when downtown, no one was in downtown. Mm. So we would jump the fence and so you guys were like downtown. Now it's all like, yeah, it was like ours to do what we wanted and, and there was no one, like literally even since 2010, Miami has changed exponentially. Oh my God. So imagine the nineties, like I heard South Beach in, you know, wasn't, you know, it was more like, um, yeah. Retirees. It was all retirees. Retirees. And then in like the nineties or early two thousands, it started getting all the rich people and all with my, with my mom, the party scene. And Grandma came to the U. S. like in the mid 60s or something, or early to mid 60s? Yeah. My grandma, who was, who was an attorney in Cuba at that time, a woman attorney, imagine that. Okay. She took a job in Woolworths. I don't know if you know what Woolworths is. Woolworths is the equivalent of like a, um, of, yeah, it's what CVS kind of is. They had like a little cafe, they had like a little bed, but you can buy fish there, you can buy toilet paper there, you can buy everything in there. There was, this is 19, early, mid 60s. There was white and black, uh, uh, water fountains. Oh, wow. Miami, and I'm talking Woolworths on Lincoln and Washington Avenue in Miami Beach. Lincoln and Washington Avenue. Yeah.'cause that's what my mom and them, they moved to the beach. Wow. So Lincoln and Washington. Woolworths and, and yeah. And uh, and, and, and, and black people had to go to the back of the bus and like, it was like that, it was like, it was, it was still aggressive. So, and in the eighties, late seventies, eighties, my god. Like south of fifth, which is all posh. Mm-Hmm. That was the, that was where I heard that's a dangerous area. And on the other side of the fence, like on the other side of the coin, yeah, is, uh, is the old people that you were talking about. And I have a real, it was like more of like an 80, 90 year old, 70 year old scene. Now it's like a 20 year old scene. It's heaven's waiting room. You know, that's kind of what you go there for, right? They had like an ice cream store. It used to be called heaven's waiting room. It's just now it's just all commercialized. The rents I was going to just mention quickly, like in our city. Price of a home and rents and you can testify to this as a business owner with a gallery on Northeast 82nd guys He's only six blocks from Sneaker Impact in Little River. We're gonna talk about that your gallery Tell us about like just yeah, I mean Miami's real estate and rents and the Price of living here is should say. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I'll and, and I'll tell you tie in what a dramatic change. So, so to wrap up that point we're making Yeah. So with, with the, uh, old folks at home, so all these buildings that are now, you know, the Ws and the Mm-Hmm. and the, and the whatevers fancy hotels. Yeah. They were, they were these buildings and they all look the same man. And they had all these chairs in the front of the lobby outside. And people would just sit. These old folks would just sit. Smaller buildings meant to create community. And they would just sit. I'm talking like 70s, 80s, you know, year old folks. And they would talk and sit. Now, on the other side, on my dad's side of the family, he has like, I think he had like 13 brothers, uh, 13 aunts and uncles. And 8 of them moved over, like, together, 8 women, and they all lived always in the same building, or in the same block, like, they always, they moved together, right? And the last place they moved was to the beach. And I always say that, moving to the beach, I think, helped them live at least another 10 years, because You know, they get on the balcony, and this was on Collins and 18th. The air is nice, but there's a, there's life, right? And so they would see a limo, right? And this, we're talking, uh, you know, 1999 or 2002 or something. The early days of beach booming. And they would say, yeah, that's when Mint opened. I don't know. I mean. So they were, they lived in front of Mint, which is a real. Washington Avenue, or was that? Yes, it's Washington and 19th. And, and so she said, so they would, and they would lie to each other, you know, she would say, oh, look, there's a limousine, you know, it's true, there is a limousine. And then the other, you know, the sister couldn't get there on time, she, Oh, I saw Julio Iglesias, Julio, you know, and she would tell her some crazy lie, you know, and she was like, really, where, you know, I'm going crazy, trying to figure it out. And that, that, joking, that, walking to CVS to get your medicine. You never know if you're going to see yourself, when you can see Shakira on the corner, or Oprah, Oprah. Yeah, but even that, like, walking to get your medicines, walking to go do your hair together. Being outside, I think that life, obviously the air, like you said, but just seeing life keeps you young. It's a high quality of living in the beach versus some parts of the city where it's more industrial or, you know, packed. But like you said, the price is what it is, you know, and they're constantly going up. And one of the major reasons for it, uh, in this particular part of town, and Wynwood is the art. The art, it's a fact. I mean, this is a proven fact. And every real estate magnate I speak to tells me the same shit. He says, Pedro, you want to get into real estate, where are you guys painting nowadays? And, you know, this is years ago, last time. Oh, we're painting in Detroit, you know, this is like, 2012. Now Detroit is poppin Detroit is all, you know, you know, the Eastern Market, they have a bunch of stuff. They're doing mural festivals. And, you know, the corner of Oklahoma and nowhere because they know that the art will bring the people and then the people bring the money and then the money can start socializing can happen. And, and, and, and, and generating business. Yeah. That's awesome. So people are recognizing the art scene. You can't deny it. Underground versus, you know. Like, more fancier New York City galleries. So I want to learn about Pedro Amos as an art brand. How did you get started with your brand and how did you get your own gallery and how did that evolve? Like, how long have you been open? Because I went to your gallery. You have a basketball court in the backyard where you played basketball, which is awesome. Yeah. And your son and you play basketball. And we actually had a business meeting. You told me we're going to play back. We're going to shoot hoops, Bryan. That's how we're going to have this because we were talking about the art and the studio and the process. And, and I was fidgety. I needed it done as quickly as possible. And you actually said, man, this is awesome. No, but we were both, um, traveling a lot at the time. Yeah. And we were just coordinating schedules, but I came by and saw. But it's so much better. Yeah. And I love the business meeting aspect of playing basketball. Yeah. In the backyard. It's awesome. Of your gallery. And then I could see into your gallery and I walked inside and it's really, really, you know, colorful and beautiful. Thank you. I appreciate it. And you can approach, it's on the backside of the building. Yeah. It's on a, it's not on Biscayne, but it's on a very close to Biscayne, Northeast 2nd. Well, Northeast 2nd, yeah, but even still behind area. Yeah. So, so, yeah, so, um, The, well, the first, the first part of the, of the, of the, yeah, that was like a five part question. Yeah. Yeah. No. Well, how'd you get started? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, so the so started was through the graffiti. Yeah. And then around 20, um, I don't know, 13 or something. I, I was like, you know, something's gotta give, right? Like there 12 and you wanna go full-time into art. Were you doing other jobs? I, I, I knew I wanted to, I never ever thought that I was gonna be a career artist. Oh, you didn't think you were gonna be a career artist? No, I wasn't even on, I didn't know what I wanted to. do but i didn't know that that was even an option that you can do that uh huh i know people that went to school great schools pratt and and mica or mica and all these the one in whatever scad and all that but like None of those people actually ended up being artists, uh, some were graffiti artists. So you didn't go to like an art college or anything? I took a year of art school and I switched degrees to botany. But I did a year of art in my freshman year because I was passionate about art. But you don't have to go to an art college to be an artist. That's the interesting thing. You can be, you can be a world class artist and never have gone to college. And never have gone. And again, I think it goes back to when you, like, like I used to wake up, Yeah. Early, and do a sketch every morning, like, no one asked me to do that, that was It wasn't an assignment, let's say. I wanted to try and be better, get better, I would work on it all the time, and see why Did you notice your talent from like a teenager age? No! I was the worst person ever to start graffiti. So when you started in graffiti you were just a baby learning. What you call a toy. And then, yeah. In your twenties did you develop more your fine art skills? Well, hold on, already at sixteen I had a little style, you know. At sixteen I started getting in a little. But what did it transfer to? At least, at least some parts, like the throw ups and the tags maybe, you know. So how did you get to the point of having a gallery and doing these commissioned artworks and, and, and? I'm doing other types of art, you know, like besides graffiti art. So, so, so, so then after learning that and then I went on a tear of painting freight trains, that's, that's. Oh wow. See, I missed, um, you know, first of all, we don't have subways here, uh, we have the metro but, uh. That's the main opportunity to send subways. Subway cars are like a real classic nostalgic, you know, uh, origin of graffiti thing, right? Interesting. So, we didn't have that. Uh, but anyway, the time I came on the scene, that was already kind of, uh, died out, and we never had it here anyway, but in terms of New York and stuff, that uh, the, the train started, subways. Oh, the subways. Yeah, they really cracked down through the book at people, and you know, it was dangerous and all that stuff. But, you know, trains are trains, and, uh, you know, so we started painting, and again, I learned from the older guys, but we started painting freight trains, and so, the difference is with the subway car, with the city car, you know where it goes, where it stops, and all the other stuff. With these freight trains, we didn't know anything about them, so. In the beginning, we would paint them, and ideally, because documentation, like I always say, is just as important as the actual art, because it can be here, and that you can paint something, it can go away, or it can get buffed, or it can, and then you never saw it, you just have a memory of it. So documenting all this stuff. So you took photos of a lot of your art. A lot of it, but not as much as like the older guys, and I was like, why are you guys, you know, taking so much, and now they have photos of mine that I wish to God I had, and they won't give them to me, and stuff like that, you know what I mean, it's like, you gotta See this, and you get to see it from a distance, you know? They have the slideshow projector from the 60s and 70s. And I see the comedy in it now, but uh, so that part of it, and then painting the trains, the freight was incredible because what we found out was that they just don't, you know, go across the city, like the freight trains go to Canada, they go to Mexico, they go to Maine, they go to Georgia, they go all over, you know, Kansas, and it became an international, you know, I mean a domestic thing, like. Writers, like graffiti writers from here, would send, you know, would, uh, do their chains. But if you lived in Long Beach, let's say, and you caught our train, you took some, some good, decent pictures, when you get enough of them, you send them to this one guy, who was, uh, the president of our graffiti crew, Baser here. And you would get this package from Kansas City or from Long Beach or from Denver and all of a sudden you open this pack and it's like a train that you did in the summer two years ago, now it's all weathered in Denver and there's snow all over it. Oh wow. And so it's like, you could see, you know, how it traveled and weathered and it was like, oh my god, this went all across the country. Whoa. This is badass. So that was like the first thing. Plus, when you learn how to Paint trains, it's not fair, like everything else is just easy, like a flat wall, trains have ruffles, they have, you know, Well, that container you did outside of Sneaker Impact, is that what you mean, where it has like, Yeah, ruffles, yeah. That's ruffles, where it's on, like a container you put on a ship, just like a, yeah, it's got an indenting and outdenting of a, Like a snaking of the actual container. Yeah. So it's not a flat surface. No. I saw when you were painting it with all the spray paints that you have, which I want to ask questions about too, you know, um, but basically what, what's like one of the coolest stories you have from that era? You know, do you have anything, anything really interesting happened? Do you ever see a UFO? Did you ever come out a chupacabra? Did you ever have a. Do you ever see a celebrity, I mean, anything, like, do you have any crazy, like, you know, thing, you saw, like, some kind of crime in action or something and had to become Batman or anything? No, I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm not out there. Any cool stories? I mean, it's so, I mean, you're out in the middle of the night, I'm sure, doing trains in the middle of nowhere. You must have seen, like, some crazy stuff. I mean, I mean, it's just, where do you even, in terms of, in terms of, in terms of the freights and those freight trains and stuff like that, like, there's no one out there. Well, there's everyone out there, dude. There's a culture out there. What do you mean? The hobo culture is real. So what's going on out there? It's just hard to say. At the time, imagine, picture this, you know, I'm in North Florida, let's say, I'm in Tallahassee, and there's a train yard I used to paint a lot there, and, you know, uh, you go and you, yeah, we would bring a hammer and stuff like that just in case someone would jump at us. But the first time I ever went to that yard, I mean, there's two bodies on the floor, and I'm looking at my friend like, hey, what are you doing? He goes, just walk over, just walk over. And I'm like, well, you first, you know? And then, so he did it, that was when the other guy did it, and of course, when I go, the guy wakes up. We're like, no, no, we're just here to do that. Just a homeless person or something. Yeah, and then they get around that way. I was thinking they would run into a family. Maybe they have warrants for their arrest, maybe they're just, you know. A vagabond of sorts. A vagabond of sorts, and you know, the hobos is real. Vietnam vets. The hobos, yep. Yep. Yeah, you see him with the stick in the the little, yeah, the knapsack. Knapsack. I mean, those guys are no joke. These are different. These are kids nowadays don't know about that stuff. these guys, I mean, and then so I was, was so obsessed with trains that wow, you got really into trains. And this guy, uh, is, he writes Gs, he's a very fame, he probably has the most traits in ever painted in the us. I mean, unbelievable. He was my roommate. He is older than I am, but. He was my roommate in college, and, uh, for that one year, and we moved to the apartment, Superhood apartment. that we used to park at to go to the train, we moved to that building just to paint trains. So we didn't have to drive. We can just go through the bushes. Yeah. And go paint. And in the daytime, when you go through those bushes, you see little forts, like there's a guy who would, you know, cut, you know, these, these sticks and put them to impale you if you try to run through there. Those are all Vietnam vets. Wow. You know, I had a guy tell me that I said, you're Amos, right? The next morning I went to take day flicks. Graham is right. I said, yeah, he said, that's a nice piece. I said, oh, thanks a lot. I saw you painting it last night. Wow. No kidding. So you started to get a name in the, um, train. Scary part is that he was behind me the whole time. I didn't know he was there. That was the issue. I don't get it. So how did, how did the train artwork transition to getting a gallery, Pedro Almas Gallery? That's like the big tie in. How did you get off the streets to the front entrance? That's such a far jump, right? It's a big jump? Is that 10 years? It's more. More. Okay. So, from, you know, we're talking, we're still painting, and have no career ambition for this, or even thought it was possible, to, you know, 20, I don't know, man, 20, uh, what year is it? 24? We're in the year 2048 actually right now, Pedro. I've been a career artist for I'd say for 12 years. You've been um, a career artist. Does that mean you have the gallery? That means that that's only my job. That's your full time job for over a decade now. That's incredible. That's incredible. In some capacity. I've had the tour company, uh, Miami's Best Graffiti Guide, which is another way that kept me in there, because again, I started it just as a graffiti guy. I didn't know The other stuff that's how you got to you know, and then I learned about it. I appreciate I knew the graffiti guys that turned muralist Yeah, but I didn't know everyone else right and then I learned the incredible artists from internationally So you and that kept me on the forefront of things. Okay, right cuz I'm doing tours. I'm looking who's active who's not I'm explaining it, you know that as you know, the more you explain you learn as well Tell us quickly about the tour. Is it in Wynwood? How long was it? There's a public just come and pay a ticket and yeah, you can them www. larryweaver. com You can book online. We have two products that, that we, uh, that we have. We have the, uh, the, the masterclass, the, uh, can control crash course where we actually teach you how to use a can, can control crash course. Mm-Hmm. And you, and you, uh, and you spray paint on a wall that we have. Wow. Okay. Um, and that's, and that's 60 minutes. And now keep in mind to your original point that like how much the paint cost. So this is not the cry lawn and Rustoleum that we remember from like Home Depot. And I said, okay, this is like, um. We use Montana, or Loop, or, um, these are seven, eight, nine dollar cans. Higher quality paints. Higher quality. There's low pressure, high pressure, different nozzles that spray fat or spray skinny. I mean, it's very technical now. But anyway. Specialty stuff. That's all nerd stuff. But yeah. It's cool to know that it's not just the stuff you grab from Home Depot. No, it's not. There's finer products. And it's funny when people grab the can and they go, shh. Oh, it's not, you know, it must be broken. It must need another thing. And it's like, no, well, it's the same, same can. You just have to, you know, use it a certain way or it goes slower, you know, depending on the thing. Uh, so that was the, the tour company that kept me on the forefront. Then I became art director for Basel House Mural Festival, which was huge. Uh, what's Basel House? Basel House was the largest mural festival in the world, uh, for four years. Is it travel? No, it's here. It's only in Miami. And it's, and it's, uh, what we used to do is, um, all of Moe Shimano's property. So from 25th, all the way to Arsicola. You know that Arsicola plant? Yeah. And I know where the moniker, where his base is, where they do three points. Oh, there, for that one. Okay. And then so when you go down to the expressway, that big lot there used to be the old Arsicola plant. Okay. I've been to Arsicola. Yeah. Like above and beyond and others. There you go. That's the same venue. So interior, I curated it outside, most of it. And then those four blocks over there. And, you know, international artists, 50 artists from, you know, a bunch of countries and, uh And I liked everyone. Graffiti, portraits, abstract, I want everyone there. I just wanted them to paint top to bottom and be fresh, you know? So you take people on a tour? Is it one Take on a bus? How do you do it? No, we have golf cart, we have a golf cart. It's super chilling. Yeah, it's golf cart is uh, So you take a couple people at a time, or a big group of people? It's five people. Yeah, it's a six person golf cart so you have the driver, and then you have five people in the golf cart. So you get the experience. And it's a different perspective, man. Yeah, it's better than being in a big cart. Since we started in 2016, there's now like five tour companies now, you know what I mean? It's like, and I used to get mad, because I come from that mentality. My friend leads a bicycle tour guide in Little Havana, but I think they mainly focus on restaurants, but he does show them graffiti too. Yeah, there's culinary tours, and you have to talk about it, people want to see it, you know. But my whole thing is like, when I started the company, I just thought, I just thought like, it's almost disrespectful that, you know, I get it, it's not on purpose, but they're just taking pictures, putting their foot on the wall, and then, you know, doing yoga poses, and then they have their dog, but you don't know who did that, when they did it, how they did it, what it means, the purpose of it all, and when you hear it from someone who knows, that I hang with them, or they sleep over, they crash at my house every now and again, and Then it's different. You get to really get into the why of it all, right? And that is the education and that is what ultimately makes this what it is. It kills the stigma. It kills the negative connotation that graffiti's always had. Now you're an insider too, right Bryan? There's some millionaire artists, multi millionaire, they're huge artists, like Alec Monopoly, who are some of these big artists that are like in the DJ world, you talk about like David Guetta and all these people, who are like the big names, I mean there's some big names, right? Like Pedro Amos. I'm just saying it's, your name is coming up big. That's why you're on the podcast. I asked, I have a new, a new neighbor, um, at the gallery, like on the building next door. It's a, it's a nice wine bar called Maji, M-A-G-G-I-E. Maji. Yeah. It's a wine bar there. And, um, I told him, man, you know, I wanted, I wanted, can you gimme a DJ night? I've always wanted to be Mm-Hmm. a dj, like, uh. Not a real DJ, I always wanted to have like a show on a radio for two hours, but now with podcasts and stuff, I guess I could do it. Yeah, yeah, anyone can do it on Twitch. Yeah, so, but as far as I've met, um Uh, A Hole? A Hole. A Hole? The guy who does the eyes? Yeah. I met him one time at one of his events that he did in Wynwood. And then I know there's a guy who does the oranges and he's in our building. We've talked about that, I forget. There's just a lot of iconic Miami artists. And that's another thing too as an artist's career, if you want to get into like the specifics of But with Art Basel, there's so much money to be made, of course, too. So there's money and then there's iconic things. Well, there's two things. I'll tackle the first one first because You know, I've never wanted to be known as the X guy, the guy that does blank, and like, oh that's, yeah, oh yeah, he does that. And, and I know A Hole does characters, and he does stuff, but he's got that one brand new But it's pretty much just the eye, which is No, he does way more than that. Yeah, he does Well, it's like a pattern. It's a pattern. That's like what he's known for. He's known for It's the eye. That, that thing. Okay. Even though he's got this whole No, he was an awesome guy. I hope he sees this podcast. He's doing better than ever right now. He like, came and talked to each of us. You know, at the event, there was a DJ there. It was super awesome. It was on like a Saturday afternoon. It was just like, walk into this place when we were walking Wynwood and you just got to meet the artist and he was showing off all his artwork and it was selling for a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. I'm good for him. I'm really proud of him, man. You know, lots of money. Like him and I are the same generation. Uh, he's also from Miami, born and raised. He's a few of us. Out here they represent and, uh, and man, he's really The guy who does the roses too, I forgot his name. You know the rose guy? No. Okay, there's a Fallen Rose, I think I've met him once. There's a bunch of great artists. And so like, I don't know if you ever saw it, when you went to my gallery, there's this, I have a character too, but I, when it started getting really popular, I stopped. Okay. Because I didn't want that to be the thing, you know? Get typecast in a sense. Get typecasted, right? And it's like, that's all. But at the same time, people appreciate that because they don't have to think so much. It helps it catch on faster, or Alec Monopoli has that very Monopoli style. I know he's more commoditized, just like people, you know. The thing with that is, and I, like, the orange has its appeal because it has a history with the Miami Orange Bowl, right? That Atomic Bowl. Yeah. The Eyeball, his name is A Hole, but he's been doing that Eyeball forever. A Hole Sniffs Glue? Isn't that right? A Hole Sniffs Glue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just remembered his name. Yeah, A Hole Sniffs Glue. Uh, funny name. And has that, and then, but he's, he created that, that he created all the, there's a whole series. It's like a smashed orange, it's like an orange that's like gotten flattened a little bit and it's got a face on it. Uh, no, um, Atomic. Oh yeah, right. Sorry, just for the people that haven't seen it. So that's a take of the Orange Bowl. You were saying it's based on the Orange Bowl. But then, but then, uh, you know, the Monopoly. The ALC Monopoly is like what you see kind of like in Miami Beach, around like a quarterback coming by. That's from, that's from, uh, Warner, Warner Parker. What's that, uh, the Well, yeah, the Monopoly game. But how do you do that without getting sued? I mean, I, I don't know. I know Romero Brito, he's got licensing agreement with like, uh, Disney and stuff like that. So I don't know. And I have a character named La Batasucia, the party duck, which is from Miami, like Patta Sushi is a thing. Su Yeah. Tell us what that means.'cause I've seen it on Instagram. Yeah. Doesn't it mean? Yeah. Doesn't it mean like, dirty something? So, so it's a double. I'm a so, so, so patta means duck. Oh, really? But it also is, is is foot pva or pa? Pata. PATA. PAT. Okay. PATA means foot. It also means foot. Right. Um, you know, it means F And so, uh, and then suya or su means dirty, uh, in feminine. Suya is the feminine of, of, of dirty, right. So when women used to leave, uh, the clubs, you know, at five in the morning and they take their heels off and they're walking down Collins and Washington Avenue and their feet are getting dirty, we call those CIAs. Okay? And that's how that happened. And so it's a very Miami thing. The character that I, when she's her inception, she's has a nips slip, very weathered. You know, they call'em cGAS nowadays. cGAS, yeah. In Hial. IGA doesn't have to be a Pata though. I don't know the difference, I just know, because I'm like an outsider. No one does, no one does. You can watch videos on Hialeah and how they speak there versus how they speak in other parts of the world. So the chonga, if we want to get into the chonga, has to do more with like They wear like sandals and like chancletas. That could be chonga esque behavior. Chonga esque behavior, okay. Yeah, but you could also have like, a chonga is just maybe like, you know, I see a tennis skirt with Fila sneakers, you know, plastered kind of hair, um, Big hoop earrings, uh, lipstick, liner that goes way like above the thing, that's the more chonga style is what I'm saying. Just trying really hard. The Batasusias, it doesn't matter who she was, she could have been an executive secretary, she could have been whatever, but she's just a wretched mess when she comes out. She come out of the club like just completely disgusting. Needs to be hosed down. Yeah. Um, so that was a character of yours that is a character. Was it a woman or was it not one that I play. One that I draw. Yeah. Okay. So Miami's best graffiti guide. Did we talk about that? Yeah. So there, so then there's that, that part of it. Yeah. I wanna make sure we hit all that. Uh, yeah. No, we nailed that one. We nailed and there's that, and then there's, and then there's curating the gallery and, right. And then there's curating the, um, the ba, the gallery. Yeah, let's talk about the gallery. We still got three minutes left. And then the gallery is my, my, you know, I never ever in my life said, Hey, uh, one day I'm gonna get a gallery. It just felt like at the moment it was the right play for me and my growth. And I Open the doors on um, officially for everyone, December uh, of twenty one. Okay. So this is what's coming up on my third year. It's a good time to open and after the whole shutdown you got back open. Yeah! Yeah. And you know, as, I don't know if you, as you know or may not know like you know, we're we're We were working down here. Oh, everyone worked down here. I mean, we got a couple weeks off of work, but most of the nation shut down in Miami. Just social distance. I was getting, you know, a lot of domestic, uh, uh, clients. Well, all the activity was coming here because of our, um But I mean from obscure, from Maine, from Kentucky, from like Rand, Arkansas, where people were coming here. It was really wild. That was when the real estate market blew up was 2021 when all the New Yorkers and the California people moving here. But art scene has taken off because I know a couple of artists downtown and in Wynwood personally besides you and you all have thriving businesses like I'll give a shout out to my friend David Banegas. I don't know if you've met him, but I met him through my friend. Who lives in his building and it's right next to, um, the Novikov, the restaurant. He has, he has an art gallery at the ground floor of the Novikov building, where there's a condo building. My friend lives, I got to go to a couple of his parties. He had me DJ one time and he has clients that come in and he throws, and he just does art, commissioned art. So I've seen, and then my friend Gal O'Ree and. Gal, that's the first name, G A L, Ori is his last name, Ori, and then he has Art Gal, Ori, in Wynwood. So he's Israeli. So I've gotten to meet a couple of cool artists over here. I also know, I want to give a shout out to, um, My friend is, uh, cause this is the artist series kind of, is um, gosh, what's his name? It's Do What You Love. Um, you know him? What's his name? Oh my gosh. I'm gonna, I'm so sorry. But, um, he's, um, he's Russian. My good friend, Sergei. And he has a brand called Do What You Love and all of his paintings say do what you love. And he, has done very well in Miami. And, and so I've just seen artists doing very well here. That does well, making it a full time career and it can more than pay the bills. And I don't care what you say about actors and artists. Cause everyone comes and you see this and we're all fresh and then it's all crispy. Do you, I don't know if you remember, do you remember how dirty I was huffing paint in here? We threw down, we had to move all the furniture. We threw down everything covered in paint. We were doing it at midnight. And when we paint outside. Side. But at the end everyone just sees that beautiful thing. So they don't see all the, the, the work, the real backend. Mm-Hmm. work. You know, the layers, the pound layers.'cause you started out with a totally different color than red and white. And this black texture, which is super cool for those at home that we'd have to zoom in, but it looks like, almost like, um, like hair. Like a web, almost. It looks like, yeah, like a web. Or marble, or marble. Yeah, it gives it that kind of age, but it's great. The texture is beautiful. In fact, it does seem like it has some type of hair. I did, I tried to give it some texture. I can see up here, just put so many different tiny little, like, it's almost like, um, like a spider, no, not a spider web, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, a spider web, though. I think it's actually called spider. It's super cool. So if you get really close in, you just see incredible detail. And then when you get out, you see Sneaker Impact. And that's the other thing, when you're painting, right, you're a foot or so away, and you're painting on such a large scale, so you gotta walk, you know, back to actually see, oh, if that's wonky or not, or if that makes sense. From the container outside, you do the same thing. You're painting a 20 foot trailer, or 30 foot, you have to, you know, Yeah, this has become But that happens, you know, you learn how to do that. Like, for me, it happens with painting trains. Like, I know if I go from here to here to here, that I can fit my name in this. You know how to scale it. For us, you guys, I think we're easier. Now, there's some things that used to be taboo. Like using a projector, you know, like a couple of friends that are muralists and they use projectors, but they're more hobbyists. They aren't like, uh, but I, you know, they do use you'll hear people say, you know, that no one says it anymore, but oh, that's cheating or though that's this and that and it's bullshit. It's like in DJing. They don't want you to use a sync button ever, but it frees you up a little bit to get more creative. You know, I mean, also it allows more people to get into the art scene unless you're going to make it like, oh, you have to be able to draw a 30 foot, you know, like Disney character. Well, I think that everyone, if you're going to do it. If you're gonna be a career artist, like, you sh if you're gonna be a career DJ, you should know how to spin two turntables and a microphone. Yeah, you know Without the sync button. If you're gonna d if you I know how to paint with stock tipped Rust Oleum and it'll come out great, you know? But I don't have to. So you're saying the fundamentals have to be there to be a career I think you're better served. No, you have to be, otherwise you're a fake artist or a fake DJ. You know, there's people that make it that never know, like, who the hell am I saying? Well, we're not gonna throw our names at you. No, but like a John Mayer, somebody that, not John Mayer, but someone that never, I don't know, he didn't learn, but he learned it another way, an orthodox way. That guy crushes, you know, you know, I mean, I can't name you one of his songs off the top, but I know that that guy's super famous and very successful, you know? No one can be an artist, to be honest. Your body's a wonderland. Oh, John Mayer. Yeah, that's, um, yeah, that's Coldplay, right? Or something. No. Oh, a different artist. Whoops. But so you have that, so, and again, for the people that say, oh, well, I was, I wasn't born with any artistic, uh, you know, bone in my body. Well, like, you're not born an accountant, right? You're not born, you know, any You can evolve into an artist too. You can evolve into an accountant too. Yeah, you can evolve any direction. Yeah, that's the point. Some people evolve more into art later in life because they slow down, they take the time. It's really cool to make a career out of it because you hear of the term starving artist, and that's probably what 90 percent of artists or 95 to 99 percent of artists are starving artists, and that they have to work as a bartender too or as a, you know, in an office and they're doing their art, you know. And you got to pay the bills. You got to pay the bills. We're not trust fund kids and we don't have the We didn't hit the lotto, and we didn't, there's, there's, there's not How does it work then? Do you have to just project them at a time in a year that you're going to sell 10 to 20, everything. So as much activity as possible, just have different But that therein lies the issue that I'm going through now is that I've built all these things and I have them on. I'm trying to keep all these balls in the air. And that's, that, and that's, that's, and that's the business side of things. You know, sadly, 30 percent of what I do is the creative part. That should be the other way around. You know what I mean? Like Miami's best graffiti guy. Miami's best and, and, and, and all the, uh, you know, but just emails, text messages, proposals, contracts, meetings, uh, all of that is, is, is part of it. You know, and you have to do that well. And that's where a lot of people fail. Like yeah, you have to do it yourself first. Right? And then you'll get a team eventually as you get here. I did Brito. Brito must have a team. He can't, he probably would spend more, oh, he has an army. His percentage of his time being creative. But that's hopefully the goal, right? Is to, that is the goal and that, and that is the enable yourself. What I'm attempting, that's what I've been, I'm kind of been writing the ship for the last seven months. And then trying to get that to go that way and, and, and do more of that. But I also don't ever want these other things to fall through. These are great products. I mean, we have Miami's Best Graffiti Guide app that documents, during the pandemic, you know, we couldn't do tours. So, we decided to make an app. So, we plotted the whole city. Wow. And then, from those plots, uh, the mural that's on there, or whatever that artwork was, and then it says, you know, there's drone shots, there's stills, there's who did it, when they did it, what it all means, how to contact the artist, and in the great majority of the cases, you have a voiceover of the actual artist telling you what it means. Oh, cool. Right, because we know them, right? Wow, so you get some voiceovers. But more importantly Yeah. That same plot is now catalogued, right? So, you know, prior to, uh, if we have the pictures, and then post, so that's it. And now some of these walls are not even there anymore. Some of these walls are new buildings, or it's been torn down, or there's something else there. The evolution of the city. And the evolution of the city. And that's, to me, I mean, that's, that's cool. That's very cool. And then of course you have like artists, like this is the artist's early work. This is his latest work. Or it could be that it could be on 26th street and second Avenue. This was here in 2020. And then in 21, this was here and then 22, and then it shows you and you can see just how, and you forget, man, you know, like there's been so many, just, And Wynwood has the top tier artists in the world all gathered in one place. And it's bigger than most art districts by far. Most art districts are three squares. It's hard to describe to people who haven't been to Wynwood. It's just like, it's actually almost bigger than Miami beach. I mean, it's become that way because of all the nightlife, the street performers, the food, the music, the music scene's huge there. The food scene's huge. There's. Everything for, it's like where most of the tourists go now is either, you know, Miami Beach and Wynwood. And the one part, and even more so Little Havana and Wynwood has really started to get big too. And that's crazy, that's a stat I just saw recently. It's on the border, so they border each other ish. Uh, yeah, they kind of border each other, yeah, but it's just like people are not really going to the beaches often anymore. I mean, they have to go as a tourist, you have to go. Well, it's a daytime activity, and then at night you go to Wynwood more. And Wynwood Brickle. It's a big deal. Now, so the city's changing. The city's, the city, and now, I mean, I think that when my son's 20 years old, like in, uh, six years or so, I think this, this area by, like, the, that little grundle between, like, Design District and Wynwood, like, 40th Street, Northwest 2nd. It is still Wynwood. Okay. It's still Windwood Midtown or whatever they call. Yeah. But it's still Wynwood more than Wynwood, but it's like the old Wynwood where there's all houses and stuff like that by like 30 seconds. And that's gonna be where the nightlife is gonna be by 40th moving north a little bit. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. That way when you cross, uh, uh, 36 that way. And also Little Haiti, which we're in part of, is blowing up the art scene, is in little hay. They're always documenting it in the last five to 10 years that it's really Mm-Hmm. The real estate, it's, you know, sometimes it's unfortunate and that local businesses get forced out and then sometimes it's good and that areas are getting cleaned up by massive amounts of money coming in and art being commissioned and galleries opening up. It's a very interesting conversation. Haitian community is right here. It's a very interesting, it's a very interesting scenario the way that that played out. So we were always warned, you know, you've heard of, you know, Soho and all that stuff. Gentrification. And Williamsburg and gentrification and things like that. And so you're like, all right, well, we'll be on the look. Because if you notice. There's none of that. And there's no McDonald's or Starbucks in Wynwood, there's none. It's Panther Coffee. There's Panther Coffee, Zach the Baker. The Derek the Fireman. That's right. Right? Zach the Baker. And what's cool is that, you know, that city gave us, as local businesses, an opportunity to do our thing. Zach the Baker, which is a great story. When he first started, they gave, instead of a fixed rent, They would, they would make him, uh, pay a percentage of sales. Now, as a new business, my first sale, when I started Miami's Best, my first sale was 5, 000. My first sale, it was to IBM, we did like a team building event. I was like, oh my god, we're gonna be rich. I think that same September, I think we made like 18 or 32. And I was What's going on? Yeah, I didn't realize how Miami fluctuated in tourism so drastically, you know, and we always had something. And it takes a while to build a business. We had, yeah, man, and especially as that, so as that, you know, the leases, the property owners at the time. That's a very, that's a very cool thing to do, you know, for a percentage of the sales. A percentage of the sales. And he's grown so big now. I mean, I used to work in a restaurant. Zach the Baker, Whole Foods. At Whole Foods now, you know. Yeah, he's become a regional organization. And for people like, instead of bringing like one of these big tour companies, you know, we were the official tour Wynwood Walls, our name, Miami's Best Graffiti Guide, our name was on the gate for years. Yeah, it's a great name. It was dope, you know. So people can go on a website or Instagram, either one? Yeah, to book a tour, yeah. You have Miami's Best Graffiti Guide and you can book a golf cart tour, walking tour, we do school tours. And then the graffiti classes, we do them in my gallery because it's just more comfortable. Yeah, we do them here. That's cool. Yeah. Um, but it, but it's unbelievable. So then you have that section going on and so they, you know, there is no Starbucks, but what happens is, yeah, we're talking about the gentrification of like Overtown in little Haiti and stuff. Yeah. When, when I had, you know, my, I just gave up the keys to my studio, uh, a couple months ago. I've had this place for three years, but I had that place for eight years and they overlapped for three years. You had one in Wynwood? Yeah. On, on 26th and fourth studio. And now what that place is like, you walk out and, and Pastis is on the right. Mm-Hmm. Momo sign is in front of me. Uh, on the left, the immediate left, that building, it doesn't have a sign but that's the TikTok headquarters. Oh, wow. Yeah. I didn't know that. And then, and then half a block, uh, on, on 26th and 5th, there's a glass building. Which is funny because, you know, you have the new coating, you have to have 30 percent art on the exterior. So where do you put that? On glass? Under the parking lot. They got over by putting, you know, glass. So, you know, they're still finagling things, but anyway, that's, uh, top two floors, Google, and then the one under them is, is, uh, PricewaterhouseCooper. Wow, the big accounting company. So you're just getting all these clink glomerates coming in now. And I knew they were there because I'm doing team building events. I'm doing talks, artist talks, and stuff with them. And they want to get immersed in the community, I'm sure. And they do, but then they come in and the rent is very high, and then that trickles to everyone else. Sure, and they're buying munches all of a sudden and dinners and everything going on. I can't, I mean, maybe there's someone out there, but I'm fairly certain I'm the last person that left Wynwood, uh, as an artist, as a Was the rent just getting too crazy there? No, mine mine wasn't. Why not? Because I was trying to be frugal. I was, uh, I was The art scene doesn't have to be I just picture it as like, in Miami Beach. I actually ended up, after living in the beach for 15 years, I was like, Not really being, I could afford to live there, but then if I didn't have a car, it'd be a lot more affordable. I have a car and, you know, so I have some of the amenities of the city, but if you don't need a car My thing was, I'm one person. It's the spot to be, but it's not, the art scene isn't limited to just Wynwood in Miami. The whole city is an art scene. So, so yeah, so I'm one person and I, I Oh, versus a collective or a Versus like, you know, several people running the, you know, uh, the tours. I'm one person. Other people running the gallery itself. Oh, okay. And, uh, it's just me. And then I have like three or some odd employees that float. Um, okay. But, but that's what I'm going, what I'm gonna change. And you had two galleries at one point. I had a studio and a gallery. A studio where you did the work and the gallery. But yeah, and I wanted to keep it that way, that way you walk in there, you know?'cause in the, in the studio it's nice and all people like it because they see the mess. They go, oh, that's the process. They like the process. But like, I don't like, I like. It properly shown, I like everything organized, and so, you know, I wanted the gallery to be that, but now I'm working on, I don't know if I had stuff, I was working when you came in. It looked very much like a showroom to me, it was very creative. I had something there, yeah, because it doesn't look like a traditional gallery. It's more like an extension of my living room. Yeah, conversational pieces everywhere. Easy, you feel normally, like you don't feel uncomfortable there. No, it's not a stale space or a Like, you know, don't sit on the couch. Sterile, yeah. At all, it's very welcoming, there's always nice music, you know. Yeah, actually the showroom's not very cool. Very cool vibe. Absolutely. We'll get some, we'll put some video in. If you have a little video, send it to me and we can just, I like to show a couple video clips. Or even do some B roll with you in it, bro, so you can walk through there. Yeah, we'll come and do some B roll there. That's easy. I think we got a couple behind the scene photos of you doing this piece and the one out in the parking lot too, which, and you're going to do some more work at Sneaker Impact, it sounds like, with Moe? We're going to wrap this whole building. Okay. So for, Basel, the initial, Basel, no, Art Week. Uh, we're doing, which is like four months away above I, you know, I've been here for three years. Like I, like I mentioned, and you know what I do when I get into a new spot is like, I go explore and I've been in every single building within like a 20 block radi. So you're like six blocks away from us. About Mm-Hmm. something like that. I'm 82. Yeah, we're on 75th. So seven blocks. Yeah. And how did you meet Mo, our founder? Um, met Moe through, no. Because you said you were exploring the area. No, I'm, no, but I met him via a friend of ours named, um, Dev. You know Dev that does, um, Squeaky Clean. Yes, I met Dev. Yeah, and he was like, you guys should meet, and so he introduced me to Moe, he's a really cool guy. Then Moe invited me for some For some hummus one day or some salad or something bar that he has here. And then we walked around, he showed me the venue and, uh, and, and, uh, he went back to the gallery. You guys saw it there. But yeah, the gallery was a huge, huge step for me. I, now everyone's coming here. But three years ago, Wynwood was in the thick of things and it was going so well that I was like, I need to just have a backup. We're what, two or three miles north of Wynwood here? This is a little river. So Wynwood, you could call it 29 and we're on 72. So, 75th to 82nd. So, and Wynwood's 29th. Yeah. I love it. How many blocks is that? Oh wow. In my head. That's about 50 blocks. No, 40 blocks, but it's only two to three miles. No, I'm kidding. No. Okay. So it's, it's, it's about. Anyways, it's two to three miles to the south. Um, we are in an area called Little River. That's right. And Which is the end of Little Haiti. Which is the heart of Little Haiti. Five blocks. And yeah, there's also a lot of art in this area. Oh, Citadel is right there. And that's like, and also Magic City and Ironside, a lot of very eclectic startup type places where a lot of interesting startups are in the area. I think it's Yeah. It's a good area to be. It is. And even the old established spots, for example, uh, Shoe Gallery. Shoe Gallery is an institution, they were in downtown forever. And they just moved over here to 79th and 10th. Shout out to Danny. Uh, he's been there since forever. And then, um, the sneaker store, right? Yeah. PR Sneaks mentioned him. Yeah. Ray Guzman, one of our guys. Yeah. The sneaker store. Yeah, for sure. And then you have, um, what's another big, big dog that came over here that we're, oh, well, ID Art, which was the art store that, you know, that people would buy stuff, um, in downtown. That's over here now. Yeah. Um, 79th. They have that magic city design area that's close by, right? Right. Where they do some Art scene. Yeah. And, and, and even club space set up. The stuff they're building here is wild too. It's, it's unbelievable. I've been looking at buildings lately because what I don't want, and I don't know if we used to talk to this offline, but no, that was Moe, um, for the same thing to happen to, well, it didn't happen to me, but to everyone else is, you know, you help build up a city, you help build, revitalize a neighborhood through art, through education of art, through, you know, goodwill. And, uh, you know, the property value goes up and the owners say, Hey kid, thanks for coming. Yeah. Uh, you know, rent is now seven times more. Oh, you can't afford it. Oh, well, shoot, that's a joke. They don't honor any relationships. They don't honor any previous almighty dollar. Yeah. Good goodwill towards fellow collaborators at the end of the day. And they don't. I had a job that you, that you'll appreciate this. I had a job. Don't care as much about it. Say again? People don't care. Just like the, you know, the lawyers and the, the new organizations, the, the parent companies and the, the big. And I'll leave you with this because this place, this place Yeah, we have about five minutes. Remember me now, remember me. I'm telling you. This is going to be the first of several episodes with you. This neighborhood is going to be something positive. It's going to be something monumental. It's a little industrial right now. It is, but it's not. We're right by a dairy plant. MacArthur Dairy is our neighbor. MacArthur Dairy, well, Moeshi Which is very old. As I understand, Moeshi And these guys that bought their property, they're still running the business there. The same guy that bought half a liter. Yeah, it still has milk going through it. Yeah and, yeah, there's one cow there that if you wanted to explore you could do it. I've never, no man. I'm from Wisconsin. I'm used to cows. I've seen a lot of cows. You know cows? I've never milked one but we used to talk about cow tipping. Well listen, I want to go on a tour of it. I want to see what that's about. It's a massive looking factory, like you'd see in a cartoon. Like all these giant tube, like metal tube of like the silos vision, like milk in there. Yeah, there's MacArthur Dairy is our neighbor. I'd love to paint it. Okay. So there's a lot of like warehouses. There's public housing across the street from you. These yellow buildings we want, it's housing too that um, yeah, there's a lot of like, you know, section eight housing and stuff like that, but busy road to northeast second. But we wanna make it, we wanna make it attractive. We wanna make it, you know what happens with public art is that if there was shady shit on that block, it'll go down the block. Because there's light, there's attention, there's art, there's fresh coat of paint, and so, y'all let me take just down the block, and it keeps happening, you know, and that's good, especially through like Public Service Arts, which is the non for profit that I launched last year, that, we do the same thing we do anyway, we just do it for underprivileged or underserved communities, you know, that's the, that's the only, and right now we're working on this, on this neighborhood of Little Haiti, and so, We want to bring all that stuff. We do free tours for schools. We do classes, free classes, leadership panel discussions, like, not just of artists, of urban planners, real estate people. Like, what are you guys thinking, you know, because we need to know, right? And we need to learn how to work together. And like, buildings, like, do they hire you to sometimes teach? Do the art on the building. Of course. Yeah. That's what I do. It's called public art, what I do for living a lot. That's, and you also do the traditional canvas, right. And I do canvases and I, and I do, uh, you do sculptures. Wood cutting. Yeah. Sculptures and stuff. Cool. And, uh, started to mixed medias, mixed media. Try to play with different, this is mixed media, just cutting that thing. Yeah. This is mixed media.'cause you put up some soundproofing pieces in there. Yeah. And there's marker. There's, I throw everything at it. Do more, do more than just, was this acrylic. It was, uh, this is a juicy little paint marker that I found. And then there's like little spray paint and brush. Brush. Cause I see like where you slopped down like a heavier amount. Yeah. Because you don't, you don't want to spray in here, bro, because it's just too much. It's, you know, it's indoor. It's you huff paint. You know what I mean? Yeah, how is that, quickly, the health factor of being an outdoor arti I mean, an indoor, like, some artists have struggled from, what is it, blood poisoning in the past? I'm a huge, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a big thing with the, I'm a, I'm a huge fan of safety, I mean, I, I love wearing gloves, I love, uh, you know, if I, the mask and all that stuff, I just never do it because I forget to put it on, and the same way I forget to turn on. But you have it all and you use it safely. I have it, I have it, it's there, it's close by, and I just, by the time I get going, I And then I'm halfway done and I'm like, crap, I forgot that. Indoor especially. Indoor I will put it on. You have to. Like I, it's so busy. You'll get so, it'll hurt your head I'm sure. But it's just, it's too much. I remember the one, the one day I sprayed in here, it was a short day for me because I couldn't take it. And I went outside for a little while. So switch it up to your roof because it was intense. Yeah. We need ventilation here and a nice fan. I'm going to get us a fan, but, um, well, this was incredible. We got a couple of minutes left. It's 1 45. I know we talked about, um, I could stay another five minutes, but I want to learn a little bit more about like your view about the world and sustainability, your other passions outside of art and like your vision for the future of the world, like hope your belief in hope and love and how does, you know, Pedro Almos tie in more than art even to. Living and leaving an amazing mark on the world. Yeah, no. Loaded question, man. I appreciate it. That's a big question. No, but it's a nice one to ponder, right? And so The future. And so I, um, I, I made a, a choice, you know, when you're, when you were asking me like, how did you get into career and this career? Mm-Hmm. and stuff like that. I made a choice a long time ago to, um, to, to be happy. And I wasn't, I didn't need a yacht and I didn't need a Porsche, and I didn't need a Rolex. I didn't need any of these things. I just wanted to be happy. I want my son to have, miss, have nothing missing, have every education, food, clothes, and, and all that support, most of all. Right? And, and, uh. And I said screw it man, and you know, I just, I went that way, and I was so at peace with that, and then in working in, in like film, I used to do scenic background for like Burn Notice and Graceland and stuff, all the graffiti you see in the back, that's how I figured out, yeah. That's how I figured out how to do this because I would get paid like 120 to be a stand in and I would get paid 900 to do graffiti in one day. You know, I was like, something's gotta get done. Different levels of pay. So, so I was like, yeah, let me figure this out, but there's not enough work here for that. But nonetheless, that gave me my way and then the tour company and I was, I was doing that and I've been Steady income from that, I'm sure. Yeah. And I didn't expect anything, but you know, to be happy, I'm out, I'm, I'm having my time. Work hours are mine and, and my day is mine. Yeah. I was let say you're very independent. Very much so. And that's hard for people that are, you have freedom that are not focused. Right. That are as being an entrepreneur because you have all the availability to do anything and you know, and so you gotta, you know, have a, have that kind of discip plan determination. Yeah. So, so there's that. But the thing is, Brenda, once you do Mm-Hmm. What you like Mm-Hmm. You do it well. And when you do it well, people notice, and when people notice, they want to, to, to purchase from you because you do it well and you care so much, and then all of a sudden, dude, the money comes. Right? And I'm not saying it's raining money all the time, huh? Momentum and just taking pride in your work. Taking pride in your work. Doing great work, one by one. And taking pride in your work, and everything, I tell them, everything is work. Like, everything is work. Driving a bus is work, or being a cameraman is work, or, or even hosting parties. Raising your son. Any of that is, all of it is, is work. Now, what work would you rather do? You know what I mean? I'd rather do, I'd rather paint, I'd rather educate about painting, I'd rather travel the world and paint, I'd rather do paint scenario things, you know? Um, that's what I like. I like creating. Then do the accounting and the management of the pay, pay. I, for the moment, I mean, I have to, but yeah, that's much, it's part of it as a business owner, but my job, when you ask me what I do, I don't say I'm, I'm an accountant, you know what I mean? But you have to account for expenses. You're running a gallery. Yeah. I'm sure there are a lot of expenses. I have two LLCs and a couple of side companies and I, nothing like an art gallery, but that's, it's incredible, the courage it takes and I'm sure the financial responsibility and yeah, but being a father, I think you have a great ground, you know, you seem very grounded and, you know, other artists are. Maybe getting caught up in the party scene and hopefully I did all that though, you know, I'm from here remember So like, you know, there's people that they move down here and they don't know what to do with themselves 15, 20, 30 years ago. Yoga in the morning or Club 11. Like where do we go? You know, they go nuts and like I did all that. I've been doing that since I was like 14, 15 I've been doing that kind of stuff. So like Where it's kind of, now I like my privacy, I like my safe spaces, I don't know how long we're going to be here, you want to live the best life, spend the time with the people that you actually care about, I've made it a point to solicit people that are either doing what I want to do, or have done what I want to And maybe they weren't the greatest people, or maybe they were awesome, but I take whatever I need from that and I keep it moving, you know, the other, the other just pivotal moment is once you know that no one's gonna save you, once you know no one's gonna throw you a life vest, Once you know that you're alone and then you gotta do it or not, that's very motivating, right? Like there is No, that's a good point. One coming for you. Yeah. You have to be able to take care of yourself and, and you have to be able to take care of yourself. And, and, and it's important to, and I think, you know, part of that, and, and one rule of thumb is just like, you know, if you do right, you know by you and you know what's right. Everyone knows what's right and wrong. I, I feel deep down as that. You're never gonna go wrong. You're never even if you're if your deal failed or something failed like you won't be wrong for that You will not be wrong, right? Okay, it's important to live live a good clean life and attempt Good energy and good practices integrity and everything practice morals and scruples. That's good, man Yeah, and the hero's journey, I know you talked several times about you know struggles But that's the hero's journey, right and you're being an artist you are on a journey. We all are on journeys we are and I think we're all artists, but I think that we wanted to feature today, we're all artists in our own way. You could be an artist of finance. Yeah, I agree. Or you know, an artist of being a mom, or a motorcycle repairman, but you are an incredible muralist and graffiti artist and entrepreneur in the Miami community, so thank you for coming on. I'm honored to have this as our official artwork of Sneaker Impact. Pedro Alamos is the artist. Pedro Amos Galleria on 82nd and NE 2nd. Check out on Instagram. Give us a shout out for your Instagram. So yeah, we have Pedro underscore Amos. You just look up Pedro Amos on Instagram. Pedro Amos Galleria. And then there's Miami's Best Graffiti Guide. Um, and Public Service Arts is a non for profit, make a donation, help us clean up the city, help us revitalize forgotten neighborhoods, and book a tour if you're just in town, or it's a great gift as well. We also have merch, original art pieces, and uh, thanks so much for having me on, it's been fun. This was awesome, Pedro. We're gonna do it again, there was so much more I wanted to talk about, but this is great to get to know you today. For sure, man. Take care, buddy. Thanks, bud.