Hi, Jade.

- Hey, Matt.

(laughs) - How are you doing today?

- Doing great.

It's interesting being on this side of the couch this time.

(laughs) - Yeah, yeah.

You know, you've been interviewing a lot of artists, and you've been busy yourself as an artist, so I thought it was time to, like, you know, catch up with you.

- Yeah.

- [Matt] So remind everybody, what do you do?

How would you define yourself as an artist?

- Oh, wow, yeah, that's a big question nowadays.

I would say I'm a visual artist.

I work a lot in visual design, whether it be illustration, graphic design, or muraling.

That's a big one; a lot of folks know me for my - Big one.

- murals.

I also am a painter, and I do a lot of, like, strategic planning within the arts as well.

I do a lot of consulting with, like, strategic planning of arts.

How does arts impact our economy?

How does it impact our businesses?

So I try to play a little bit in both worlds, both the actual physical visual art world and then the background with the logistics and making it sustainable for people.

- Wow, now I know, - Yeah.

- like murals, like you said, that's a big part of what you do.

What is it about murals that you love?

- I love painting big.

You know, as a kid I always was like, "Ah, man, "I love drawing on a piece of paper that's, like, "8.5 by 11, but I wish I could go bigger" because I personally have never been good at details, like small details.

So when Capital Walls, which is a mural initiative led by the Albany Center Gallery, and I believe the Albany Barn, Tony Iadicicco, and I believe Kristen Holler created this amazing, just like, mural initiative where they just get emerging artists and just be like, "Hey, here's a mural.

"Do your thing."

(Matt laughs) So Tony kinda hit me up, and he's like, "Hey, I have this wall.

"Jeff Ewell has this wall.

"Do you wanna paint it?"

And I was like, "All right, bet, let's go; let's do it."

It was like 100 feet giant, giant (laughs) wall space, corrugated aluminum, dead of October.

It was cold, but it was my first mural project I've ever done and ever since then, it just clicked.

I was like, painting big is definitely what's for me, and it pays enough that I can survive off of it as well.

- Yeah, I mean since you've been on the show, you've made some big career changes.

- Yes, I have.

- You took the leap.

You kind of stepped aside from the day job, and you are a full-time artist.

- Yes.

- Wow.

- Yeah, I know.

(laughs) - How that sounds, that seems kind of scary but also very exciting.

So tell us how that's been.

- So, it's been great, you know, definitely took a little encouragement from several acquaintances, friends, and people who I just do art next to.

And so, yeah, after, you know, since getting out of college, I think, when I was 21 to like not even like 31, I believe I was just working in an office, whether an admin, whether in corporate, or whether in, like, some type of federal or government position.

I also worked as the director of placemaking and public art for the art center for a stint.

But none of those jobs really matched what I wanted to do.

You know, I really wanted to be able to break the chains of, I don't know, just being able to just be free within my thoughts.

Not really having to work within the system, whether it's being bogged down by white supremacy within a lot of institutions, bogged down with the corporate-ness within institutions, and bogged down with the people last.

You know, I'm a very people-first, artist-first type of a person, and that's the type of approach I appreciate, so it's been really nice to be able to take myself out of those environments.

And those environments are not bad.

They just did not match what I wanted to do.

And what I want to do is just be an artist that is able to take, or an artist that's able to create a foundation for other artists to succeed.

So how can I teach other artists what I've learned to be as successful as I am?

And I'm still learning, myself, to be honest.

(laughs) But, you know, it's really nice to just be able to feel free and to be able to work in something that I'm very, very, very passionate about.

- Yeah, and you know, there's kind of a misconception about being, you know, a full-time artist and, oh, that must be fun, but it takes a lot of work to be free.

- Yeah.

- So what advice do you have for others who might be thinking about taking that leap?

- Prepare, you know, like, (Matt laughs) before I even leaped, I made sure I got a CPA, all my taxes were together.

I made sure that I had enough funding to support me for the next year.

You know, I paid all my bills and everything for the first year.

You know, you need definitely a few thousand dollars for that.

Making sure that I had gigs lined up.

Making sure that I am emotionally immensely sound.

I got a therapist, you know, 'cause it's a big leap to do this by, you need to have emotional, mental, physical, and financial support and making sure all those things are in line is what helped me because I did have all those things.

But it took me, I would say four years to build up to all of that.

Like, it's not something that's quick, you know?

And it feels like I did it really quick and off the gun, but I really didn't.

I was really methodical about it.

I sat on it for a while.

I saved, I saved, I saved.

I grind, I worked, got all my affairs in order.

So I think it's just really preparing yourself and understanding what you need to be prepared for to be solo, you know?

- And you're happy with it?

- Oh, yeah, super happy.

- Beautiful.

- [Jade] 'Cause honestly, the happiest I've ever been.

My girlfriend's ecstatic.

She's just like, I haven't - Awesome.

- seen you this happy (Matt laughs) in a while because it really does feel nice to have control of what you do because I have a personality, I have ADHD, spectrum, all these things that make it a little bit difficult to work in a extreme structured environment.

So I'm always a person who says, "If you want something and you don't see it "somewhere else, try to make it yourself."

And that is something that I live by.

So I didn't see an institution or anywhere where I fit in that worked for me minus state work, but you know, kind of boring after a while.

So that really didn't fit in with me because it does get boring working for the state for a little bit.

But you know, building my own foundation, building what I wanna see is what, you know, I wanted to try to do, so yeah.

- Great, well, switching gears now, Jade, you've interviewed around 50 guests - Yeah, quite a bit.

- so far, artists, creatives of all kinds.

So what have been some of your favorite interviews or what have you taken away from all these creatives that you've talked to?

- I would say my favorite interview would probably be Eugene.

That's one of my favorites just because Eugene O'Neill is a person who I've worked with side by side for a while.

So it's really nice to see how him and I have grown artistically together.

So Eugene is a muralist and an art educator.

We run a mural program called Amplified Voices together.

We also travel and run other programs together and do a lot of consulting work side by side.

So having interviewed him and then seeing the growth since that interview, which was what, like maybe a year ago at that has been pretty amazing.

And then, just being able to interview all my friends.

You know, I've had a lot of friends on here that I've interviewed, and I've also made a lot of friends, you know, interviewing on here, too.

Like folks with the SPAC or, you know, any organization, I tend to keep contact with a lot of these people, too, 'cause I'm like, "Whoa, you're an artist.

"I'm an artist; like, let's not lose touch," you know?

- Yeah, that's great.

- So gaining relationships have been really great as well.

- So we've got a minute left.

What are some upcoming projects that you wanna share?

- So the big one, we got a $10,000 grant, Grow and Thrive Grant, from the Arts Center of the Capital Region.

With that grant, we are going to run a program from my Amplified Voices Wellness and Art program.

We're gonna run a program with the Connect Center youth, where we're gonna teach 12 students how to paint a professional mural within that space.

- Wow.

- So, yes.

- Wait a minute, I wanna learn a little bit about how to do that.

Can I show up?

(laughs) - Absolutely, yeah.

Bring the whole crew.

The kids would love it.

But yeah, so we're just gonna be there I think seven days just painting, learning from each other.

There's a big wellness component of that, too.

So my program, Amplified Voices, has a big wellness component.

So you can even come do some yoga with us in the beginning of the day before we paint.

So yeah, and then we're gonna kick it off with a big old party and the big piece that's different about this program from any other program that I've done is that we've created a hybrid piece to it where after the physical painting and everything is done, we're actually gonna provide consultation to the students that opt in, how to build a resume, how to build an art portfolio, and how to survive in the business of public art.

So we're not only just taking these students and teaching them, hey, here's how you paint a mural, but here's how you actually become a muralist as a career if you want to.

- Wow, that's awesome, Jade.

- Yeah, so it's gonna be great.

- Well, I can't wait to see that happen.

I can't wait for you to teach me some skills.

- Yeah, me too.

(laughs) - Stay tuned for that, everybody.

(laughs) Thank you, Jade, so much for joining me today.

- Thank you so much.

(laughs)