Visual Noise: Walls Talk - Forge Fury

In this episode of Visual Noise: Walls Talk, TRP613 and Urban Ninja sit down with Toronto street artist Forge Fury, an artist whose vibrant, abstract style has become instantly recognizable across the city's streets.

Known for his bold use of color, energetic compositions, and ever-evolving creative approach, Forge Fury has made his mark through stickers, wheatpastes, murals, and a variety of other artistic mediums. His work brings a burst of life to the urban landscape, turning overlooked spaces into eye-catching pieces of public art.

The conversation explores Forge Fury's artistic journey, from discovering street art to developing the unique abstract style that has become his signature. He shares insights into his creative process, the inspiration behind his work, and the importance of experimentation in keeping his art fresh and exciting.

Beyond the streets, Forge Fury is a passionate sports fan, with a particular love for soccer. TRP613 and Urban Ninja dive into how sports culture, competition, teamwork, and the energy of the game have influenced his outlook as an artist. The episode uncovers the surprising connections between the worlds of street art and sport, where dedication, passion, and community play equally important roles.

Listeners will hear stories from Toronto's street art scene, learn about the challenges and rewards of creating public art, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the mindset of an artist who is constantly pushing creative boundaries.

Whether you're a fan of abstract art, sticker culture, soccer, or simply enjoy hearing the stories behind the artists who shape our cities, this episode delivers an engaging conversation full of creativity, inspiration, and plenty of laughs along the way.

Join TRP613 and Urban Ninja as they connect with Forge Fury and explore the colorful world of one of Toronto's most dynamic street artists.

Music credit:

“Funk Groove Music” by Alex Gus via Pixabay

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

What's up everyone? Welcome to our podcast Visual Noise Wall Talk Ninja Trip here. What's up, Ninja? Yo, what's up? How's it going? Good, I'm good. Good, good. Uh nice to see you. So in our podcast, we interview street artists, we talk about art. Welcome to the show. I think, ninja, you should introduce our next guest. He's a good homie of yours and mine, of course. But go ahead, Ninja. Uh yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Probably the first street artist that I've met. It's Forge Fury, O Aka Forge.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

How are you doing, man? Good, good. Good to uh catch up with you, gentlemen. It's uh it's it's been a minute, but uh always always happy to chat some uh some good street art. Oh yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

So tell the listeners about you, what do you do, where you're from, give us some info about you, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

We know, but yeah, uh well, fair enough. So Toronto, born and raised, did a little detour in uh Montreal for about three years, but uh back in uh in all that, so an abstract artist, just a random doodler that turned into just give me something to draw on and I'll draw on it. So that you know started with canvases, but then a little adhesive piece of paper uh slid my way, and I was like, oh, these are fun. So started doing handmade stickers in like 2012, I want to say, maybe. And then, you know, all sorts of uh printed stickers and uh wheat paste and all the all the fun stuff that we can uh get our hands on.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

What got you into the stickers? Like, how did you like did someone just say, hey, this is how you do a sticker?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

It's it's uh it's more random. I think I've you know kind of just always noticed graffiti and street art in in general, was starting to do just like spray paint on canvas and uh just kind of started exploring with that, and then uh I was buying all that at our lovely friends at Collective, and um, they were actually the ones that gave me the first uh rolls of stickers. They had some, I think they were like UPS uh labels. 228. And uh no, even not even 228s, like these are just like I think they were like four by six size labels, like blank labels, like totally blanks, uh-huh. And then uh started drawing on those and then started hoarding, you know, whether it be stationary labels or all sorts of you know, dollar store, like hello, my name is stickers. And then my sister lives in the US, so I was getting uh those bricks of 228 sent to her place every you know few months. I'd go see her and come home with you know, like 750 uh blank uh 228s. So got to see a few different sizes and styles of those, and actually just got my sister found three bricks that I had forgotten about because they were like the 2013 labels. So wow had to been ordered, had to been before 2016. So they were sitting somewhere in her house, and uh, so I just literally got those last week. I was like, whoa, that was like nostalgia. I'm like, kind of feel like I have to go back and uh bust into some of those. So next time I see you, Ninja, I'll I'll have some uh for you, and uh same same for you, trip. Um but uh yeah, no, I was kind of like I'm feeling nostalgic, like I've got to go bust out a uh chisel uh tip uh sharpie or pilot marker and uh go to town on some of those.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

That's what I started on too, you know, 228s and just blanks and same thing. I would hoard every possible sticky thing I could ever find. And um yeah, just you know, because when you're spending money, you just you want it to be as cheap as possible.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Oh, absolutely. And and the thing is, like most of those like thin paper ones, like A, they're super cheap, they stick pretty well, and you know, half the time they're not gonna stay up long enough to get faded anyway. So true, you know, you kind of just whatever with that, and then from there, I I can remember how I found this like company that was like called like Sticker Canada, even though it was like literally shipped from Korea. Um, some like drop shipping uh that I did my first two sticker designs with, and then um on on Instagram found someone who was doing like cheap uh thermal prints and um may or may not have purchased said printer uh like a year or so later.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Correct. That is Gus uh printing, right? Yeah, Gus.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

The funny thing is, then I was talking about this the other day. I'm like, Ninja and I bought this printer. I've actually never seen the printer itself. Um because you picked it up from uh where I was working at the time. This is like what, like six, six years ago, seven years ago. Oh my god. And um you picked it up, and I've literally never seen what it looks like. I was like, here's the box. I assume you know what to do with this. Um, because I I I don't know how to you know do any of the printing stuff, but uh it was just one of those things where they were not interested in kind of doing it as a business, and we wanted to print a lot of stickers for ourselves. Yes, pretty much, pretty much, man.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Well, thermals and thermals are are special, you know. They're just like they have that different feel, that different look.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

They almost feel handmade, but not quite, you know, like yeah, it it's somewhere in between because like they last pretty well, they stick easily, like they're not like an eggshell, like they're super easy to peel off. They've got a shine to them, but they also do have that kind of handmade look because you are just doing like black and white. So it forced me to think of that kind of hand-drawn style where it is just here's a black marker, black ink, or black whatever tool you're using, whether that's paint, and then you just start designing in in black and white, and then I started buying like square sketchbooks and things like that because in my head I was always designing for a sticker for a long time. I would same thing, even when I started with um Procreate and got the iPad and the Apple Pencil. I was like thinking of that square shape, and then I'm like, how do I just keep designing for this shape? Because to me, I'm like whether it's a size of a business card or like a uh you know, uh a name label or it's a wall, you always just adapt to the surface you are. Like, I don't kind of when I'm drawing, I don't necessarily have my full like this is my character or this is my like vision for it. It's kind of just start doodling and and kind of fill in the blanks from there. So for me, it's you you just design to what whatever the spaces, and for many, many well, I mean, even still, I'd probably still design in that square. Think of that square and kind of how to fill it. Now, even when I do canvases, half the time I'm looking for that that square design just because it's become so ingrained in me that I'm like when I see something else, I'm like, okay, now I gotta think about how I'm gonna lay this out. It's like everything just always comes back to that that square, so it just becomes your your language.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yeah, that's true. I'm the same way as well. I'm I find that when I usually do a design, I kind of make it like a four by four, like it's gonna fit in that dimension. A perfect square, you know. I'm thinking ahead, like, okay, it's gonna print properly instead of like you know, you make a design and you have to make it fit, right? But this time if you're thinking ahead, it's changed my life.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Are there any uh recent street artists out there that you like or inspired you or past uh street artists?

SPEAKER_00 7:52

I don't know, because I I don't see a lot of abstract artists out there, which is I I sometimes get clowned on for being abstract and not like, oh, what does that say? Uh you know, from like you know, graffiti people and and things like that. For me, I think I my original inspiration was always Keith Herring, where it was kind of really quick drawings, um, because if you spent too much time on it, you wouldn't have time to do the next one, and also just kind of being identifiable. Um, whereas like if you look at any of his pieces, you see like two lines, and you're like, you know, it there's no question on who it is. So I think for me it's always just trying to do different things, but still kind of be identifiable as you know the patterns and shape guy when it comes to just kind of abstract design and and and feel. So I would love to see more abstract artists kind of doing street stuff. I think you see it in backgrounds, and I've done you know collabs where it's like, hey, can you do some of that stuff in in the back and then and I'll draw you know around it? I'm like, or I'll draw over top of it. I'm like always happy to do stuff like that because I think it's just fun to kind of mix in you know the abstract with with real world. But no, I mean I I would love to see more abstract uh street art in general, it's just not something you really see enough of.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

I think, yeah, I think it's very unique, and I and you know, I'm like trying to rack my brain of someone that's similar, and there's not really anyone similar, you know? And and that makes you so unique. Um, I do have to say, when when Ninja and I are together, we're putting your stuff up, um I always will be like, you put that shit upside down, like what the fuck? You know, like I'm always we're always fucking with each other.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Uh because we have no idea what I can't tell you how many times I'm like when when I've been tagged in something, I'm like, oh the fuck is that sideways. I'm like, that's why, like on canvases, I'll try and put like a signature in the bottom right corner to be like this way, this way. Um we always try.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

We're always like, oh, is it this way, is it that way, or flipping?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Some of the designs, honestly, like sometimes they'll see it in a different way than I intended, and I'm like, no, it actually looks good that way. And then there's I've got one where I'm like, every time I see it, I'm like, I feel like a it's almost like an abstract take on a head. So to me, when I see it upside down, I'm like, it's glaringly obvious that it's upside down. Whereas some of them, I'm like, eh, no, it looks fine that way. If you don't put a um a direction to it, you you are leaving it open to to interpretation. And I think when it comes to abstract, I'm always curious, kind of like what does someone see first, or what's the focal point that someone uh hones in on. Because when you're doing something that's very pattern and shape-based in the abstract, is my goal is for you to see something like not necessarily different every time, but like you know, I'm always curious kind of where that focal point is for someone else, uh, and kind of how you know some people interpret it. And you know, I I I you always get like kind of funny responses. I think um, you know, I've heard people say like, oh, it looks kind of like a bird, or something. I'm like, okay, that's not what I was intending, but you know, it's uh that's your vibe. Um I mean, as long as someone's not just saying like, oh, I could do that, then I then I listen to their opinions uh you know intently just because it's I think it's fascinating to hear because for me a lot of it is just it's that subconscious like doodle, you know, even if I'm taking it more seriously, it's still you know something that I'm just kind of vibing with and and just kind of putting out there. And yeah, and that's kind of why I enjoy doing it, is it's that like it's that zen moment you get from from art or you know, expression. It's just kind of being able to just go with that flow and and just kind of chill out and and and lose yourself in in the piece.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

How do you feel when someone covers your art on the streets?

SPEAKER_00 11:50

It's weird because a lot of times I I think we we've joked about this, and obviously the people who listen to this don't know this. For a while, there was a a very heavy campaign of go vegan or vegan equals murder or meet equals murder kind of stickers around the city. Yes, and I I feel like that was the majority of the people covering up my stuff. So for a while, I kind of made it my my mission every time I saw one of those stickers to have something to cover theirs. Because I I look at it as like you know, putting kind of art on concrete or like kind of like ugly surfaces and trying to bring something that if if you're walking or wandering, you'll notice, but not necessarily something that everyone sees. I haven't had really many people like write on my, you know, like write over it like you know, toy, and which I've seen on other stuff, or really covered up. So I think the few times I have seen it, I'm just like I will uh note that and take that down. And uh if I see your sticker again, I'm definitely just gonna throw one up over it. And uh, you know, but I will say I like I don't have like major beefs on the street with with people doing that to my stickers. Never really have, whether that be in Toronto or when I was living in Montreal, it was like didn't really have that. I think you know, you you definitely have ones that get ripped down and peeled and well Montreal painted over because they don't bother ripping them down, they just coat some black paint over it and call it a day. That stuff, you know, obviously you can't take personally. I think there's definitely times where you can see someone's try to uh especially on like when you've had like the nicer like die-cut stickers, someone try and peel it off to take it for themselves, and that's fine. I mean, I I'm not gonna be mad at that, but I can't say that I've had a lot of of my own stuff kind of defaced or covered up, minus those militant uh vegans.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

But um go vegan.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

I don't have an issue with vegans. Let's just be clear. He's vegan, but I just have I just have issues with the go vegan stickers uh going up over everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

I feel I feel less annoyed when it's like not a another street artist, you know. Like it's still annoying that it's like a vegan or like advertising, but I feel like they don't even know because they're just like oh no, advertising and they don't care. But another street artist, it's like, yo, like you know better, you know, like that's intentional, yeah. Unless you're 12, you know, but you should know, like, I'm sorry, but you need to know these things, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, and and so when I started putting up stickers, I would honestly a lot of times put them on literally like virgin surfaces, like there wasn't like 15 other stickers in in the way. I think it was probably more with you ninja that started doing it, where it was like, Oh, let's just put up us and our friends in places so that way you kind of create like a collage. But like sure, so when I started doing stickers, it was like I would look for blank spaces, like I would look for places where there wasn't a ton of stuff up there. So when someone put a sticker up over that, that's intentional, yeah. Whereas like, you know, you you you put up a bunch of wheat paste or or stickers, and then all of a sudden, like an ad comes over it, you're like, it's one of those it is what it is. Those guys are are gonna just you know, that's how they make their money. They're that's that's what they're gonna do. So I I don't um I don't get butthurt over that, but uh no, it's it's it's kind of like I'm always like there's so much space, like why would you do that? Or like I'm also not the kind of person who puts like 15 of my own like sticker in one spot. Like sometimes you see like those, like it's almost like a wallpaper of like shitty tags, but I fucking hate that.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

I don't like there's been a couple times where I've seen like an entire like mailbox covered, it's kind of cool, yeah. Um, but to me it's just selfish. It's like, dude, like it's also like that's a waste of stickers, man.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

That's a lot of stuff. Yeah, instead of putting 50 stickers on one mailbox, I'd rather put one sticker on 50 mailboxes, you know. Like, obviously, that's just to me, because again, it's it's about putting art in places where it's not expected. Like, I don't drive, so I walk around the city a lot. I always notice like little weird things around, and that's kind of where I, you know, really started wanting to put up my own street art, was just kind of making those spaces for people wandering who who also might just see something and be like, oh, that's cool. Um, and that's why I've never put like a brand or like you know an IG handle up. It's kind of like it's not about building some like mass you know brand. It's it's about putting art in in places that you're not expecting it for the people who actually value seeing random stuff in random places.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

I totally agree. I I I despise the like elitism of the art world, you know. Like I hate how you have to go pay to see a Van Gogh or you have to go pay to galleries. Like, I think art should be free, and that's why street art is so beautiful, because you know, like if you don't want to look, don't look.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Yeah, 100%. And also, we're not getting up in the same places as Van Gogh uh by by any means. You know, in in Toronto, I think even the the art shows that I've done, like I would say probably half of them are either like pay to enter or you know, some some form of like pay to play to kind of even get your your work seen. So it's kind of you know, I always look at it as there's probably more people who have seen my sticker art than my canvas art by like a million degrees.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

You know, it's so hard to sell art, you know, and oh 100%.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Like I've you know spent full days in you know Kensington doing like you know the uh pedestrian sundae and sold like three canvases on like an amazing day. And it you know, it's not like those canvases were thousands of dollars either. You know, it's it's never been about making money. It's like to me, I would I've probably given away more canvases to people than I've sold just because stickers, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Imagine I can't even put a number on the amount of stickers I've given away. Like I cannot. Like I would thousands and thousands.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

And but I enjoy doing that too. Like, you know, I haven't really done trades in forever because I don't even know if people still do those, uh, because postage is expensive. But you know, like even doing like you know, sticker shows around the world where you know it's like you send like 10 stickers to you know somewhere in in Europe, and then you know, a month later you see uh you know a collage of stuff, and you're like, if I squint carefully on that bottom right corner, that's me. So that's why I'm like, I I think more of my art's been seen through stickers than really any other way, like even with social media and and and things like that. It's you you're getting eyes on it to to a whole different audience, and also you know, when you travel to a place and you you put up some stickers or give some to people when they you know they're traveling, so it's kind of like I had a list a while ago. I don't know if I still have it. I feel like it was in like Google Keep of like all the cities that I know that my stickers have been in, and it's just kind of like I look at it and I'm like, there's places that I've never even been that you know my stickers have been in, and that to me is always cool. Um, you know, there's so many places where I'm like, I would like to travel there, but I have it, but you know, my my artwork has everywhere been seen there. So it's it's kind of one of those things where the cheap and cheerful nature of you know, and and the the size of stickers kind of makes it easy for for that to spread. And I think that's you know, one of the things I love about you know stickers in particular. I mean like wheat paste it great because again, you get you know a bigger surface, um, a bigger piece, but like stickers to me has just always been that like accessible, easy kind of thing. And also I can't see myself you know making glue in in my kitchen and making a terrible mess uh you know to to make wheat paste. But uh it's fun to make the posters for it, but the actual like uh the the the the paste part of it, I'm like uh that's just not gonna, you know, it's it's it's not gonna fly in my house. But uh I used to make it like what? Sorry. I used to make it a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Yeah, because there's like there was like a kitchen at work, and I was just like fucking reviewing their pots and pans. Oh be fucking making it in the staff room and uh it's a fucking mess. Now we just use that pre-mix stuff where you mix it and it's like so much easier now that you can just you know buy it from Home Depot or whatever. Yeah, yeah. It's it's more of a grind, and I think it's you know, it's a it's one more step that a lot of people don't want to go through.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Um, for sure. And trust me, I'm definitely that person who doesn't want to make that big old mess. But uh no, I I think sticker's weather again, it's it's kind of like um, you know, you you find some some you know, anything with an adhesive backing, and you're like, oh, okay, I think I could make something out of this. You kind of just makes you kind of like, hmm, what else could I do? Uh do this on. And it's like I I look at you know, things like um even like at the dollar store, those like shelf liners. I'm like, hmm, that's an adhesive. I'm like, hmm, I could probably draw on top of that and and and make something out of it.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

So I used to like save like watermelon stickers and I try to like peel off like stickers on like yogurt or whatever, and like I try to just keep everything, you know, like yeah, yeah, just crazy, but I'm a little crazy.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Hey, if it works, it works, man. It's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Well it's sticky. Yeah. I want to ask you a question. I haven't asked anyone this because uh street art and sports are often not really linked, you know. Like artists mostly are not into sports, and I know you're a sports guy. Same. Are the Raptors gonna beat Cleveland? How's how are the Blue Jays gonna do? How do you feel about the Senators uh making the playoffs and not the leaf? Uh you know, all those fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Um I'm hopeful on the raps. Uh I watched the last game and it kind of crumbled at the end there, but uh still still feeling decent about it. I mean, uh I'm hoping we can get past the calves and uh make make an interesting run. You know, I this year's been kind of up and down. Like I was talking to a buddy of mine who's uh who's a reporter, like a sports reporter, and in in early on in the season, he's like, we're gonna be a 500 team at best. I figured so. And then, you know, we we had an amazing run, and then it kind of tapered a bit. I'm like, I feel like we are a team that can get to like the second or third round. I don't really see us making like a uh a deep run for the title. Blue Jays, it's a hundred and sixty-something game. So pretty much. I know. Oh wow, it's it's it's one of those like we we could go on an epic run or we could you know shit the bed three, four times before the season's done. Yep. I don't think we'll make it to the World Series this year, but we'll see. Hopefully they're at least a competitive team because there's nothing worse than having like 50 games left and knowing that nothing is gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Well, baseball too, like halfway through the season, you kind of know if you're good or not.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Oh, exactly. And it's like I can I I understand why why people jump on the bandwagon and then jump off. Because yeah, like to watch like 60, 70 games of a team doing okay is not uh it's not enjoyable. Not fun. Um yeah, the Leafs, I I honestly I haven't really watched much hockey. Like when before I moved to Montreal, everyone's like, better not become a Canadians fan, and I'm like, don't worry. The least of your worries. Um, you know, hockey is kind of like I'll watch it if it's on, but I don't necessarily make like a big effort to watch it. Like, I'll probably watch some of the playoff stuff. If anything, I'm probably more excited about the Toronto Tempo, just getting that WNBA team. I think um women's sport has been super exciting and interesting the last few years. Like um seeing it more with footy. Like, I'm a huge soccer fan, so kind of seeing what's happening like in in England and like their leagues, like the women's arsenal team has like sold out the like the same stadium as the men, they've had you know amazing ratings, and like I'm going to the tempo home opener and standing rooms ticket just to be a part of it because I think it's you know it's exciting. I think um, you know, we all remember when Vince Carter came to the wraps and everyone got like crazy excited, and now like you look at it like 20-something years later, and you have all these guys in the NBA who are Canadian who always reference the fact that when we saw Vince Carter, we you know, we we got into it. So I look at kind of something like the tempo being maybe that guiding light for Canadian women or Canadian girls who want to play professional sport and actually see the potential to make a living doing it. And I think that's something that like you know, I remember like some of the soccer leagues we had, you know, back in the day is like you have to work a second job even to be a professional athlete. And I think WMBA was probably like that for for a while, and you know, I think just having that professional route gives people that like desire, like you know, when I was a kid, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna be a baseball player. Yeah, we we we saw how far that went. Um but you know, kind of having um having that that that route, I think is super exciting for you know women of Canada or girls of Canada um to aspire to, and I think that's super exciting. So as much as I'm excited about the Raptors and and the Jays and stuff like that, I think something like the tempo is more exciting just because it is blazing a new path, hopefully, for the next generation. I'm I'm excited to see kind of what it's all about. Thinking about it, like when I was a kid, like I would go to like sports camps and then I'd go to like art camps. Like my parents kept me busy because I was one of those people who just always had to be busy doing stuff, otherwise, I was probably a pretty annoying kid. So I you know, I would alternate, like I would do like uh, you know, like a week of like painting or like pottery, and then do a week of baseball or a week of tennis.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Yeah, I would go to pottery and classes and drawing, and then I would go do sports camp.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

And so I I know it's weird, like a lot of people, like you know, you were saying, like a lot of people are either you're an artist or you're an athlete. I'm like, I don't know if I'm necessarily either, but I do do appreciate uh both. So it's it's one of those things where I'm like, it's it's good to have a mix of both, but I'm not really like a super competitive person when it comes to like sports or even even anything really in life. I try and be a little more chilled, you know. I think there's good bits that you can learn from from both sides of that and and just keep your mind open for both.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I totally agree. Okay, yeah, I wanted to ask you, uh, how do you define success as a street artist?

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Uh that's a tough one because I I never really approach it of being like, is it successful or not, just because it's such a potentially temporary endeavor, whereas like you could put up the coolest thing and it's like by the time you come back there the next time it's it's gone. So I think success is just having you know being tagged in in posts, or you know, having people want to see your work or want to see your your art is um you know, whether it's someone asking you for stickers or someone putting their sticker up beside you and being like taking a photo and tagging you, and just acknowledging that you know you've created something that is interesting to others. And I think that's really what it's about is you know, like we've been talking about kind of just putting art in places that are unexpected, or just putting art out there just to be seen. So I think just to be seen and acknowledged is really I guess that would be like to me as as successful as you can be, because it's not obviously not for profit, um, it's not for fame. I think um, you know, just that recognition and acknowledgement and and meeting other artists and being able to kind of you know chat like we are now, just kind of about creating. I think that's definitely how I I think I would probably have to define what what success is, you know, people wanting to collaborate with with you and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah, it's it's so interesting because basically everyone that we've asked that question to says the same thing, you know, it's not about fame, it's not about money, it's about passion, it's about the love of the game, you know?

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Yeah, yeah, oh absolutely. It's it's again, it's you do it because you love art, you do it because you want to share your work in a way that's you're not asking for permission to be to be seen. You're kind of just saying, like, here's my stuff. Please don't rip it down or or put something up over it. But you know, it that that's really all it is. And yeah, again, I'm not I'm not surprised if someone's found a way to uh other than like obey to make money off their sticker, all props to them. You know, you you obviously have people who do make money off of things like stickers, but like I I don't think there's many people who are like, oh yeah, I'm a sticker artist. And that's you know that that's how I get all my all my shit. You know, it's like I don't think there's anyone that reached that level. And if there is, I'm hoping that they write a book about it, because you know, so that way we can we can all figure out how to replicate, but no, it's it's it's about meeting people, it's about you know sharing your work, and yeah, I think just just kind of just being noticed for for what you do.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

I think people don't understand the grind, you know, that that we go through and that we do, and you know, it's it's like I said, it's the love of the game. Are there any last words you want to leave the listeners with?

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, I think um it comes down to just create, don't overthink it. Find your outlet, find whatever it is that you know makes you happy about creating, whether it's visual art, singing, definitely not gonna be singing for me, but you know, uh, you know, whatever your outlet is, you know, I think there's for me when I was starting to just do art in general, it was very much about this like mental health piece where I was like, I found it being calming and and you know, really enjoying when you just kind of zone out and and and create. Um, and then you, you know, that that dopamine hit you want to keep repeating. So um, you know, even if you're like, oh, I don't know what to draw, or I don't know what to do, it's like just do something, it's better than than nothing, and it can lead to different paths or different avenues. Like it's all about experimenting and and just trying to do it. So there's definitely days where I'm not motivated to do it, but when you do, you definitely feel better. So just just create.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah, I totally agree. Well, thanks so much for joining us today on the visual noise walls talk podcast. See you next time. Peace. Yes, peace.