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Octagon
This block is a more complicated version of an old fashioned block. We expanded the squares into smaller triangle shapes to make it a triangle-based fabrication process.
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Nick Mason
Community Organizer
Nick had some experience sewing before, so this block was appropriate for his skill level. Nick is a student who does art projects on the side. He is also the organizer of a reoccurring house art and music event called Sights and Sounds. In this interview we talked about his sustainability project, how to manage community creation, and what it’s like to host large artist events in his house.
So now that we're recording, why don't you tell me your name, your pronouns, and why you think I asked you to be here.
I'm Nick Mason, I go by he/him/his and my relationship to community and community building. This is part of your capstone and community is also a big part of my capstone. I'm doing this composting business model at this point. Composting project with products, services and then some programming. So like events, workshops and a community garden, quote unquote, which is, at this point, just a plastic bin in my backyard. It's full of a few different people's food scraps and a bunch of dirt. So community is also a part of my capstone project and a part of my practice as an artist and designer.
Yeah. I definitely want to talk about that with you. Let's get a little understanding. How much education do you need from me today? Do you know how to sew? Have you done sewing before?
I have sewn things together, but I do not know proper techniques.
All right. That's awesome. So we're going to be doing some really, really simple seems today. All of our seams are going to be a quarter inch and we're just eyeballing this. So as close to a quarter inch from the edge of your seam as you can get. Right now, I am just tying some little knots that will hold the end of our thread when we start stitching. It's just a little basic square knot, something that I'm sure you have seen before when you're tying your shoes. Because I don't want to have to rethread my needle all the time, I usually, so with this kind of double thread, so this is the end right over here. As I sew I pinch down here so that it doesn't come out. So really what you want is to make sure that you're only ever utilizing one strand of thread so you don't really want to sew like this where each stitch has two in it. The only reason it's doubled up is so that you have more thread to work with. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Cool. So this is your needle and when you, sew you want to do it right sides together and the right side of a fabric depends on who's using, but for us, our right sides are the darker sides. So if you see when you dye your fabric, you're going to have a darker on a lighter side. So this is our right side and then the white doesn't have one. So if you see, our one block is made up of four blocks, which is made up of four smaller blocks. We are going to be, for each one of these sets of triangles, putting right sides together and then sewing this same at a quarter inch or as close as we can get. So that's what we're doing. If you have questions, ask me. This is usually a watch and learn type of thing. My first quilt was probably the size of one of these blocks as a baby blanket for you know, a baby doll or something and then you would graduate to something slightly larger. So I usually like to kind of rock my needle back and forth and get as many stitches on it as I can. Nice small stitches. Then once I've got a couple on there, I'll pull it all the way through.
Awesome. Yeah. I did do one project once where was sewing involved. I was unofficially an apprentice, but it was very low key, just kind of helping out a friend. When I was in fine art here at DAAP, our TA for this class is named Mary Baxter. She did this project involving large DIY quilts that she made out of use tee shirts and we sewed a bunch of t-shirts together.
Did you do it by hand or on a machine?
By hand. And she made this huge thing so she just needed a bunch of help.
Well then you're an old hat at this, you know what you're doing.
So I've done it once before, but it became very messy.
And a lot of people will say like, 'Oh well your stitches, they should be perfect. They should be tiny, even little numbers'. But I mean, if you go to an antique shop or something, you see an old quilt and it has these really charming, just uneven, shitty stitches over it. I think it just adds this extra level of impression to me and I think it's great. So your low level of experience is completely fine here.
Quilting is a very cool medium. I don't think about it a whole lot. But I like that you are considering the history of it with this.
Yeah. I think the history is really important. I've read a lot of books about quilting and a lot of them are kind of refuted by historians. Like the fact that these blocks have a name and the names have been around for centuries or that they have these stories and it stayed consistent for centuries. Some people will try to say, you know, 'like that's made up or that never happened'. Because it's not documented anywhere because it's a women's history and they didn't get to write a lot of shit down historically. So I mean maybe it isn't true and maybe a lot of the history or stories of quilting is just folk tales. But I think even if that's the case, I'm okay with that. Cause folk art is beautiful on its own. And folk tales have value even if they're not rote fact.
And by folk tale do you mean something that's like passed down orally?
Exactly. Totally. And one folk tale about quilts, is that they had a place in the underground railroad and that people would sew quilts with certain patterns. You see a couple different patterns in front of you and if you put out a quilt with a certain pattern on a certain day of the week, slaves would know that they could come to your house and be safe. There's all sorts of different codes and things that are really unverifiable, but that fill out this history in a fascinating way.
Wow. I was in new Orleans for a couple of nights over break and we took this walking tour of the city and they were talking about slavery and when the city was first coming up. It's just crazy how much things like slavery imperialism has shaped just everything. How did you tie your knot? Just like you did the other end?
Yeah. So when you're at the end of something, you'll basically do a normal box. Not like you're used to, but you just keep your finger there so it stays right on the surface of the fabric cause you don't want it to come up or anything..... Yeah..... So I definitely wanted to talk to you a little bit about some of your community organizing projects that you've done in the past. I mean I've attended a Second Sunday and a Sights and Sounds thing. Why don't you tell me about that a little bit?
Yeah. Something that I've really tried to define this semester and just in my life right now is what my practice is. I've grown up as an artist and I'm in design school and I make art on the side. And then another aspect to what I like to do is curating events. It's even bled into my professional work. Working at an experiential marketing agency, which is kind of like event design. And I was really inspired. Sights and Sounds is this community based project of a series of events that are somewhere between a house party and an art gallery show. So like a DIY art show and music show- hence Sights and Sounds. What first inspired me to do something like that was I was at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. And one of our good friend Adriana Noritz's friend Bailey Kretz, she and some of her friends at the time had put together this little DIY art show / zine show / poetry reading show called Epilogue. This was like in 2016, I think this was in the winter of 2016 and it was so inspiring to me. One: the event itself was inspiring. Two: the fact that these students just came together and decided to curate this thing was so cool. They had different interactive art installations. Like there was this room full of balloons and when we got there, everyone was blowing up these balloons and they had like 20 of their friends in a room blowing up a bunch of balloons together. And it got to the point where this entire room of this house was full of balloons and we all stood in this room together with these balloons. And then in this crazy mad explosion, everyone started popping the balloons and then the night went on and there was some people playing music, people read poetry, there was art on the walls and it was awesome. That inspired me to get into events like that, but also just inspired me that anyone can make that happen. It's just a matter of organizing people and ideas. So that was the start of what became Sights and Sounds. It was just me being super inspired by this group of friends.
I think that when I go to those sort of DIY galleries or shows, I think it's amazing that all of these young people who have so much shit going on, like they're all in school, they all have lives, they've got families, they've got things to do, but they do also choose to do extra design, do extra art when they don't have to. What do you think drives that community to just put in all this extra effort and make those things happen?
I think just enthusiasm. Cause yeah, we're so busy no one needs to do these things, but it's just out of this pure innate desire to share your ideas. Also, I totally made a pocket. Oops.
So what we want to sew.... You've done the two sides and we want to do is the hypotenuse. So we want to sew it like this and then we open up. That's totally fine. Let's take this one out. I'll tear it up for you with a seam ripper.
Haha. Um, thanks. But yeah, I almost feel like the constraints of being really busy, almost fuel it even more. Like if I had nothing going on, I might not feel as compelled to do something, squeeze something into my spare time. But when I feel like I'm being bound by school, I almost want to break out of it and do something on the side. So yeah, Sights and Sounds is what I named this thing. And it's funny the timing of you asking me to do this interview because I just decided the other night the date of the next one. The next one is going to be Friday, April 3rd, 2020. I think part of it was, you asking me about this, somebody else hit me up on Instagram and asked, 'Hey, what's the next Sights and Sounds?' and it didn't occur to me that other people think about it outside of me, cause I try not to brand it too much. I don't have an online presence for it. What's been really cool to see is that people are excited about it. And I think that's the most validating thing for me is that people are interested in it and they want to be a part of it. And I've just had so much support. I think that's what I'm getting at. Just so much support from my roommates because I really could not have done it without all my roommates just being so onboard. Because the format of this is our house, our sacred place of living and sleeping, becomes this public venue for, you know, 20 to 100 people. And with that comes a lot of cleanup and you know, drink spills. And luckily nothing has ever gotten broken, but it's a sacrifice for my roommates and they've just been so loving and supporting of this project.
That's wonderful. So you are going to do another one in the busy times before all your buddies are graduated. Do you know what you want to showcase there?
So that's kind of part of the thought is like sort of the end of a era with people graduating and school being over and I don't know when I'm going to see this person again or I don't know the next time that I would live in a house like this that I could have a house show of the scale and it just felt right. Doing this capstone project is very reflective of like, 'so you're at the end of your schooling and you must do a senior thesis project that encapsulates your learning'. And I felt like there needed to be one more Sights and Sounds event as closure or something. So yeah, it'll be April 3rd and I think I want it to be (it's not totally decided yet) but I want it to be photography focused. One: out of convenience of installation. Because when everything is a photo, I can batch print them and then there's one way to hang everything up. In the past we've done any medium, any media, and hanging a painting and the framed thing and something that doesn't have wire on the back. It's become a little crazy. And also having to pick up sculptures and stuff. It takes a lot of time. I think photography would be just a more convenient way to do that. Also I want it to be a bit of a retrospective show with photography being this reflective kind of medium.
That can become very nostalgic.
Yeah. Cause I have so many awesome photos from the previous parties and I want that to be a part of it too. And then I also feel like there's we all take so many cool photos while we're, you know, traveling or in school or just from our day to day that we sit on and I want it to be this venue for people to showcase this thing. Which, by the way, that is kind of the mission of sights and sounds. It Is this venue, this platform for people to share something that they might not otherwise be able to. It's kind of the place for the amateur to get his stuff out.
So what requirements do you have when people submit content to you?
It's very open ended. For the original Sights and Sounds it was quite literally 'anybody can be a part of it. You just have to text me' and any and all media is accepted. It's this kind of rejection to the Art with a capital 'A' world of it being kind of exclusive. It's expensive, it's this sort of high minded high society world. And I wanted this to be the exact opposite. I wanted it to be a little sloppy, a little grungy. It's in this dirty old house and I don't care what your art is, you just have to bring it over and then it's on the wall and you're part of the show. It's very inclusive thing.
It's a really interesting way because everyone defines community differently. Like a community could be the people who live in your house or the people who've gone to your school, or it could be the Cincinnati art community. Which like you said, can be a little bit too highbrow. It can be a little bit too exclusive. And I think one thing that I was doing with this project was like, oh well a lot of people get to tell their stories. They go up in museums, you know, they're published or whatever. But it can tend to be kind of the one group of people who've already made it. And so I'm trying to make sure that, you know, with this project I'm interviewing, I'm showcasing young people, people who maybe didn't go to art school, people who made it on their own and things like that.
Maybe Nick Mason should determine that. Maybe all of us should. Anyone who is able to.
Hell yeah. And I've just been so fortunate to be surrounded by such cool, inspiring people who want to make things in their spare time. And luckily I've been surrounded by people who are open minded and who are curious and who are making things and that just happens to be my local community. And from that, great things come. There's great output from all these people.
So if you had to label who your community is, how would you describe that?
My community is twenty-something creatives that are in my program and neighborhood. But I guess beyond that it's like people who are artists at heart, even if they're not an artist by practice. Because I've got some friends who don't make art, but they have the spirit of an artist.
What's an example of that?
My friend Adam. I mean I guess photography would be his art form. I guess I should take that back, but he doesn't draw or paint or anything and he didn't go to art school. But he just has this curiosity for things. Maybe that's a better word. I think it's people who are curious and passionate. Whether that's for art or whether that's just for life. A big part of community is just proximity. So it's who I met in class and outside of class and in the workplace and in my day to day routine of going to the store and going to different places. And I mean, trying to define community is a really interesting question. How would you define your community and then community on a larger sense?
I think one unfortunate thing that can define community is proximity. Like, there are a lot of people out there who are similar minded to us or who would, you know, be amazing additions to our lives. But because this is where we are right now, that's not an opportunity that we have. We can't be exposed to those communities. But I think that is a really good thing too to go out and seek new communities. So one thing I'll do is I'll go out by myself to places that I don't want to be at. Places I'm pretty uncomfortable at or wouldn't normally go to because I want to make sure that if I have a chance to meet someone new and if I have a chance to open up the type of people I know I'm taking advantage of that. And I think that can be a really good way to make new communities and to see what else is out there in the world.
That's really cool that you do that because it's easy to just stay in your comfort zone. In your bubble.
Like this is one thing that I'm super uncomfortable about. Like spending an hour, often with a stranger, who I've never spent time with before. I don't wanna fucking do that, you know?
Yeah. Cause a one on one in a quiet room that can be kind of on the spot.
Yeah. And it occurred to me today that it could also be a very bad idea. Like this afternoon I went to this old church that was completely empty, but the pastor met me there and we walked through this maze of a building and it was very weird and it was uncomfortable and it was this person who I'd never met before. And you know, didn't know personally. But that can also open up chances for vulnerability because a lot of the time people aren't going to be vulnerable in big groups or in places that they already know a bunch of people.
Yeah. I mean you're putting yourself out there by meeting with strangers. So that's, that's cool. How did you decide who you wanted to be a part of this quilt? It's people who are engaged with communities?
Yeah. So basically my requirement for calling up somebody and asking them to meet with me is hopefully they'll have a different perspective than all the other people I've already interviewed. So I'm trying to, you know, not interview the same people over and over again. I'm trying to interview a lot of people that I don't know. And then just the subject that we talk about isn't always the same. Like with you, I want to talk about your community work, your projects, stuff like that. Eith, uh, my first interviewee, their name is Kri. They run this Bathtub Project. It's an art project. And we talked about substance abuse and art. And I interviewed someone who does a lot of research and we talked about death and mourning and the path that leads down to that. So I want to interview people who are engaged with those around them who already have some sort of outreach established, but I'm not necessarily going to talk to them about the outreach. I'm going to talk to them about their thing. Their weird little thing that they know more about than other people do.
That's a very cool project. And thank you for inviting me to be a part of it.
Yeah. You're so welcome. Are there other things? This is your chance to tell whoever might listen to this or check out this project, something important that you can tell them and maybe somebody else can't. Do you have anything like that?
Well, first off, what I think is fun is to try to define things like 'what is community?' What do I think that is in a larger sense. So first off, I think one's personality is based off of their habits. And
So if you have five people that get together once a week and do some kind of activity, the community naturally forms or if you have a group of people that inhabit a building over time and they do things together, community forms. And what I've become really interested in is curating that. Cause a lot of that just happens naturally by things like proximity, where you live. You know everyone will find some kind of job and then you work in this place and then there's a certain culture to that environment. So some things are exactly chosen for you. But what I think is a really powerful thing, and also comes with a lot of responsibility, is curating a kind of community. It's very strategically placing people together in a room with different stimuli around to create a space for something. And for me, what I think is really important are those moments when you're in a room with people and you are inspired by what's around you and you're having conversations about making art or about current issues. Or even not current issues, just feeling good and, and getting to know somebody. While a lot of the Sites and Sounds parties are mostly our friends and extended friend group, I try to mix friend groups and I try to mix levels of professionalism. So for example, with theparties I've had, I've invited students, some professors, some people in the local community who are either up and comers or they are local artists. And it's a chance for people to kind of rub shoulders with other people and learn something. And maybe learn something new. There's a lot of responsibility with curating a community because we've seen how that can go wrong. With things like toxic cults or organizations that abuse their power. So I would say to anyone who is interested in curating an event or having a show is to be very mindful about what the message is. Cause I've always wanted the Sights and Sounds parties to be this positive safe space that anyone can feel comfortable in. And then there's a lot of, you know, as the, as the curator, sometimes there is a bit of policing that it has to be done. And by policing I mean that on the most mild level. But I just once had a friend who got too drunk at a party and he said something inappropriate to somebody and you know, that's something that you have to be prepared to curb.
Yeah. Do you find that there is some amount of policing you have to do just to maintain this? Like you said, it's a safe space. It's a space that you want people to feel comfortable in. Nobody wants to think like, 'Oh, I invited this person in my house and they felt X negative thing'.
Exactly. Yeah. I'm a believer in if there are no rules, there's chaos. There has to be some kind of a moral code. That's a great question to think about. Something that I should maybe do some writing and reflecting on. I'm also a big Grateful Dead fan and I love the Grateful Dead and they are this phenomenon of music that they were just this little DIY group of beatniks. A DIY band that made it huge and they had this insane following and what their music is all about is, you know, love and peace and finding beauty in the world. But what they were finding is that their crowds became these very toxic environments. And there are all these people that came to party and at some point they had to come out and make a statement to their crowds and they had to lay down the law in a certain sense of like, 'this is what you can't do in our crowds;. And Jerry Garcia, the lead singer, he was so adamant about never policing the crowd cause he grew up being this anti-establishment kind of guy. And they didn't like the police, I don't imagine. So he actually refused to be the one to speak to the crowd and another band member stepped up to address the crowds. But Jerry Garcia kind of stayed silent there. And as much as I love Jerry, I really feel like that was one of his biggest flaws was that he didn't.
I guess he kind of let this perfect ideal of not policing get in the way of the reality of sometimes you need to step in and remind people to be cool.
So do your parties have any rules?
I've never felt like I needed to make rules cause I kinda just felt like everyone seems cool. You need to pick up a good vibe in the air. Yeah. I've never made rules but there have been times on a case by case basis that I've had to tell someone like, 'Hey don't do that'. Or 'be careful don't knock over the art'. So yeah, just all to say that when creating a community there has to be a level of responsibility involved and you have to be careful with getting a lot of people together.
Do you think that people will usually be able to sort of intuit that themselves based on whatever space they're in?
I think so. Every show that we've had has had just the most amazing energy and acceptance and I've just been so, so happy with how they've gone and people really listen and people are present and respectful. I mean when I say I've had to police anybody I that is a very rare occurrence because I think going back to what forms of community, while I am kind of curating the space, a lot of it is spread by word of mouth. And I think when you live a good life, good begets good. You reap what you sow. And I just trust and respect my friends so much and anybody that they would invite, I just know that it would be a great person. So we've been very fortunate that we've had amazing people come through our parties and we've met some awesome people. And that kind of goes back into another project I've worked on this semester. This Work is Play Administration project for our friend Luke Weaver. And one exercise that we did for a zine was to write a manifesto. And a big part of my manifesto was habit building, which goes back to community building. And it's like you reap what you sow. If you surround yourself with positive things and you surround yourself with positive people, positive things are going to happen. If you surround yourself with the negative people and you do negative things or unhealthy things, you are going to find yourself maybe feeling very unhappy.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Did you have this manifesto ready kind of in your mind before you were asked to commit it to paper?
No, and I have to thank Luke. I mean I have in person, but now we got it on the recorder. So I just want to thank Luke for giving me the opportunity to have to write a manifesto for something because it was a very good experience. I didn't have something prepared, but once I started writing a lot of dots were being connected and just the timing of it, finishing up school, having to define what I am as a designer and my practices. And putting all of my traits into some neat little package and write a resume and apply for jobs and put myself out there. It's like all these things happening at once is making me really reflect what I am about. And a big part of it is just habit building. And when you surround yourself with good people and a good environment, it is very conducive to good work. And when you surround yourself with good people in a good environment, it's really conducive to a good party. You know, and I shouldn't even say this, but it's all about vibes and when the vibes are good, people have really meaningful conversations and from conversations comes big things.
Can you think of something meaningful that you maybe learned at one of your events? Or maybe a seed that was planted?
That's that's such a good question. Something that I've learned at one of our events...... Well first I'll tell this funny story about just something very like functional. I learned something in terms of when you are hosting. At the end of the night there was this girl who came up to me and she looked exhausted and she looked in pain and she said, 'do you guys have any water?' And I was like, 'I mean we have a sink', but when you're hosting people and it's a formal event, you should probably put out water for people. And that was just a learning moment in terms of if you're going to host, you have to give people basic human needs of food, water and shelter. And if you're going to have a party for hours, especially when people are drinking, you gotta just give the people water. Water is a must and that's a big tip for anyone who wants to have a parties. Give the people water. So that was a big learning moment. It sounds kind of funny, but it's just accommodating and being prepared to accommodate. Another thing that I learned, a little more of a serious note, was it was really late in the night and there was a group of people that were hanging out. We were all talking in the living room and the conversation got a little heated. We started talking about America and the identity of America and patriotism. And there was a couple of people who identified as queer in the room and we were talking about whose responsibility is it to fix the problems in America. And my friend and I were talking about, 'well, I feel like as an American it's my duty to put my opinion out there and an agenda out there and try to make America greater place'. And
That's an interesting example of how these parties kind of can be your exposure to being outside of your comfort zone. Inevitably when you invite a bunch of people into your home, you're going to get people with different opinions than you hear regularly. You're going to get people who aren't living there, who you weren't talking to every day about these things.
And that's super important. You have to see all sides of a story before you can define your belief in something. Or at least try to. At the very least try to read a few different news sources. Yeah. I'd say that was the biggest thing I learned was just realizing that I don't always have to be the arbiter of what's right and true and that I do have privilege as a white male in this world. And surrounding myself with people who are like me. And surrounding myself with people who aren't like me. It's two different environments.
That's very true.
Yeah. So the Sights and Sounds parties, the agenda has always been to have fun. It's kind of the bottom line and not so much activism or anything. But it's a party with a little more going on than just partying. Bottom line is to have fun, relax, take a break from your day to day and see people's art and to facilitate. I think it's been really fun for me to facilitate and to showcase and see other people's art. So with this capstone it's this composting project and I want there to be a community of people that are composting and I'll pick up their compost and maintain a pile in my backyard, and then this pile can grow into a community garden where we're harvesting food that we plant and grow from the soil. It is made of composted parts of all the people that are a part of it. And my project is called Afterlife. Because it is quite literally the afterlife of food. And the bigger picture talks about just the afterlife of our waste and where that's going. So some of the events of program I want to have are composting workshops. So here the bottom line of this community, these events, is to learn something and to become mindful about waste and to teach people how to do something that they might not do. Or if they do know how to do it, just give them a space to compost if they don't have space in their apartment or whatever.
So how far are you going to take this in reality?
I'm glad you asked that question. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with this project beyond school. During school I will make some vessels and then give the vessels away to people. I'll hand someone a bucket and say, 'fill this bucket with your food scraps' and then I'll pick it up. Put it in my backyard. And then at the end of the semester I will have several people signed up for this service and a pile of trash in my backyard. And throughout the spring and into the summer, I want to start a little garden in my backyard, invite anyone who is signed up for the service and has a bucket, to be a part of it. And then have a dinner party with all the people who've been a part of it. We'll make a food from the food grown in that garden and then have a meal together and talk about composting and waste and waste culture and why we throw things away and how we can be better about throwing things away. And then at the end of the meal any food scraps we have left, we'll dump them back in the pile and then have another dinner party in a couple months. And this event, this dinner party, will be called Afterlife. And it's like you're walking into the afterlife. I'll have a lot of candles lit and you know, white cloths.
That's great. Are you planning on staying in Cincinnati after you graduate?
Yeah, actually I may have a job lined up in Cincinnati. It's at Agar in OTR. It's where I co-oped when I was here. And if that works out I'll be in Cincinnati and it'll be really easy to compost because a place like New York, it's not a lot of space to compost. So this is actually a very recent idea and something I'm really excited about. And I'm glad you asked about it. This is a case of community building with maybe a larger picture in mind. A bit of activism involved. Whereas I think parties are very valuable in its own right. But sometimes we can't just always have fun.
But you are taking this thing that makes people a little bit mad. You know, sustainability. People get very intense about it and they make their whole lives about it sometimes. And then I love that you are doing that and then you're bringing it past and looping around until this 'and then let's reward ourselves with a nice dinner party'. Like that's great. And it does just connect back so strongly to the community aspect that exists.
That's a huge amount.
It's fucked up. It's a lot of food waste. And you know, that stat is an estimation and I got that from the EPA website, but I believe that it is probably not that far off from 40%. And if we can have conversations about that at the dinner table, then I think that's a very positive experience.
I'm Nick Mason, I go by he/him/his and my relationship to community and community building. This is part of your capstone and community is also a big part of my capstone. I'm doing this composting business model at this point. Composting project with products, services and then some programming. So like events, workshops and a community garden, quote unquote, which is, at this point, just a plastic bin in my backyard. It's full of a few different people's food scraps and a bunch of dirt. So community is also a part of my capstone project and a part of my practice as an artist and designer.
Yeah. I definitely want to talk about that with you. Let's get a little understanding. How much education do you need from me today? Do you know how to sew? Have you done sewing before?
I have sewn things together, but I do not know proper techniques.
All right. That's awesome. So we're going to be doing some really, really simple seems today. All of our seams are going to be a quarter inch and we're just eyeballing this. So as close to a quarter inch from the edge of your seam as you can get. Right now, I am just tying some little knots that will hold the end of our thread when we start stitching. It's just a little basic square knot, something that I'm sure you have seen before when you're tying your shoes. Because I don't want to have to rethread my needle all the time, I usually, so with this kind of double thread, so this is the end right over here. As I sew I pinch down here so that it doesn't come out. So really what you want is to make sure that you're only ever utilizing one strand of thread so you don't really want to sew like this where each stitch has two in it. The only reason it's doubled up is so that you have more thread to work with. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Cool. So this is your needle and when you, sew you want to do it right sides together and the right side of a fabric depends on who's using, but for us, our right sides are the darker sides. So if you see when you dye your fabric, you're going to have a darker on a lighter side. So this is our right side and then the white doesn't have one. So if you see, our one block is made up of four blocks, which is made up of four smaller blocks. We are going to be, for each one of these sets of triangles, putting right sides together and then sewing this same at a quarter inch or as close as we can get. So that's what we're doing. If you have questions, ask me. This is usually a watch and learn type of thing. My first quilt was probably the size of one of these blocks as a baby blanket for you know, a baby doll or something and then you would graduate to something slightly larger. So I usually like to kind of rock my needle back and forth and get as many stitches on it as I can. Nice small stitches. Then once I've got a couple on there, I'll pull it all the way through.
Awesome. Yeah. I did do one project once where was sewing involved. I was unofficially an apprentice, but it was very low key, just kind of helping out a friend. When I was in fine art here at DAAP, our TA for this class is named Mary Baxter. She did this project involving large DIY quilts that she made out of use tee shirts and we sewed a bunch of t-shirts together.
Did you do it by hand or on a machine?
By hand. And she made this huge thing so she just needed a bunch of help.
Well then you're an old hat at this, you know what you're doing.
So I've done it once before, but it became very messy.
And a lot of people will say like, 'Oh well your stitches, they should be perfect. They should be tiny, even little numbers'. But I mean, if you go to an antique shop or something, you see an old quilt and it has these really charming, just uneven, shitty stitches over it. I think it just adds this extra level of impression to me and I think it's great. So your low level of experience is completely fine here.
Quilting is a very cool medium. I don't think about it a whole lot. But I like that you are considering the history of it with this.
Yeah. I think the history is really important. I've read a lot of books about quilting and a lot of them are kind of refuted by historians. Like the fact that these blocks have a name and the names have been around for centuries or that they have these stories and it stayed consistent for centuries. Some people will try to say, you know, 'like that's made up or that never happened'. Because it's not documented anywhere because it's a women's history and they didn't get to write a lot of shit down historically. So I mean maybe it isn't true and maybe a lot of the history or stories of quilting is just folk tales. But I think even if that's the case, I'm okay with that. Cause folk art is beautiful on its own. And folk tales have value even if they're not rote fact.
And by folk tale do you mean something that's like passed down orally?
Exactly. Totally. And one folk tale about quilts, is that they had a place in the underground railroad and that people would sew quilts with certain patterns. You see a couple different patterns in front of you and if you put out a quilt with a certain pattern on a certain day of the week, slaves would know that they could come to your house and be safe. There's all sorts of different codes and things that are really unverifiable, but that fill out this history in a fascinating way.
Wow. I was in new Orleans for a couple of nights over break and we took this walking tour of the city and they were talking about slavery and when the city was first coming up. It's just crazy how much things like slavery imperialism has shaped just everything. How did you tie your knot? Just like you did the other end?
Yeah. So when you're at the end of something, you'll basically do a normal box. Not like you're used to, but you just keep your finger there so it stays right on the surface of the fabric cause you don't want it to come up or anything..... Yeah..... So I definitely wanted to talk to you a little bit about some of your community organizing projects that you've done in the past. I mean I've attended a Second Sunday and a Sights and Sounds thing. Why don't you tell me about that a little bit?
Yeah. Something that I've really tried to define this semester and just in my life right now is what my practice is. I've grown up as an artist and I'm in design school and I make art on the side. And then another aspect to what I like to do is curating events. It's even bled into my professional work. Working at an experiential marketing agency, which is kind of like event design. And I was really inspired. Sights and Sounds is this community based project of a series of events that are somewhere between a house party and an art gallery show. So like a DIY art show and music show- hence Sights and Sounds. What first inspired me to do something like that was I was at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. And one of our good friend Adriana Noritz's friend Bailey Kretz, she and some of her friends at the time had put together this little DIY art show / zine show / poetry reading show called Epilogue. This was like in 2016, I think this was in the winter of 2016 and it was so inspiring to me. One: the event itself was inspiring. Two: the fact that these students just came together and decided to curate this thing was so cool. They had different interactive art installations. Like there was this room full of balloons and when we got there, everyone was blowing up these balloons and they had like 20 of their friends in a room blowing up a bunch of balloons together. And it got to the point where this entire room of this house was full of balloons and we all stood in this room together with these balloons. And then in this crazy mad explosion, everyone started popping the balloons and then the night went on and there was some people playing music, people read poetry, there was art on the walls and it was awesome. That inspired me to get into events like that, but also just inspired me that anyone can make that happen. It's just a matter of organizing people and ideas. So that was the start of what became Sights and Sounds. It was just me being super inspired by this group of friends.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS WAS THIS IDEA TO HAVE THIS COLLECTIVE PARTY OF ALL MY FRIENDS WHO MAKE COOL THINGS AND TO FACILITATE THEM SHARING THEM WITH OUR LITTLE COMMUNITY.
I think that when I go to those sort of DIY galleries or shows, I think it's amazing that all of these young people who have so much shit going on, like they're all in school, they all have lives, they've got families, they've got things to do, but they do also choose to do extra design, do extra art when they don't have to. What do you think drives that community to just put in all this extra effort and make those things happen?
I think just enthusiasm. Cause yeah, we're so busy no one needs to do these things, but it's just out of this pure innate desire to share your ideas. Also, I totally made a pocket. Oops.
So what we want to sew.... You've done the two sides and we want to do is the hypotenuse. So we want to sew it like this and then we open up. That's totally fine. Let's take this one out. I'll tear it up for you with a seam ripper.
Haha. Um, thanks. But yeah, I almost feel like the constraints of being really busy, almost fuel it even more. Like if I had nothing going on, I might not feel as compelled to do something, squeeze something into my spare time. But when I feel like I'm being bound by school, I almost want to break out of it and do something on the side. So yeah, Sights and Sounds is what I named this thing. And it's funny the timing of you asking me to do this interview because I just decided the other night the date of the next one. The next one is going to be Friday, April 3rd, 2020. I think part of it was, you asking me about this, somebody else hit me up on Instagram and asked, 'Hey, what's the next Sights and Sounds?' and it didn't occur to me that other people think about it outside of me, cause I try not to brand it too much. I don't have an online presence for it. What's been really cool to see is that people are excited about it. And I think that's the most validating thing for me is that people are interested in it and they want to be a part of it. And I've just had so much support. I think that's what I'm getting at. Just so much support from my roommates because I really could not have done it without all my roommates just being so onboard. Because the format of this is our house, our sacred place of living and sleeping, becomes this public venue for, you know, 20 to 100 people. And with that comes a lot of cleanup and you know, drink spills. And luckily nothing has ever gotten broken, but it's a sacrifice for my roommates and they've just been so loving and supporting of this project.
That's wonderful. So you are going to do another one in the busy times before all your buddies are graduated. Do you know what you want to showcase there?
So that's kind of part of the thought is like sort of the end of a era with people graduating and school being over and I don't know when I'm going to see this person again or I don't know the next time that I would live in a house like this that I could have a house show of the scale and it just felt right. Doing this capstone project is very reflective of like, 'so you're at the end of your schooling and you must do a senior thesis project that encapsulates your learning'. And I felt like there needed to be one more Sights and Sounds event as closure or something. So yeah, it'll be April 3rd and I think I want it to be (it's not totally decided yet) but I want it to be photography focused. One: out of convenience of installation. Because when everything is a photo, I can batch print them and then there's one way to hang everything up. In the past we've done any medium, any media, and hanging a painting and the framed thing and something that doesn't have wire on the back. It's become a little crazy. And also having to pick up sculptures and stuff. It takes a lot of time. I think photography would be just a more convenient way to do that. Also I want it to be a bit of a retrospective show with photography being this reflective kind of medium.
That can become very nostalgic.
Yeah. Cause I have so many awesome photos from the previous parties and I want that to be a part of it too. And then I also feel like there's we all take so many cool photos while we're, you know, traveling or in school or just from our day to day that we sit on and I want it to be this venue for people to showcase this thing. Which, by the way, that is kind of the mission of sights and sounds. It Is this venue, this platform for people to share something that they might not otherwise be able to. It's kind of the place for the amateur to get his stuff out.
So what requirements do you have when people submit content to you?
It's very open ended. For the original Sights and Sounds it was quite literally 'anybody can be a part of it. You just have to text me' and any and all media is accepted. It's this kind of rejection to the Art with a capital 'A' world of it being kind of exclusive. It's expensive, it's this sort of high minded high society world. And I wanted this to be the exact opposite. I wanted it to be a little sloppy, a little grungy. It's in this dirty old house and I don't care what your art is, you just have to bring it over and then it's on the wall and you're part of the show. It's very inclusive thing.
It's a really interesting way because everyone defines community differently. Like a community could be the people who live in your house or the people who've gone to your school, or it could be the Cincinnati art community. Which like you said, can be a little bit too highbrow. It can be a little bit too exclusive. And I think one thing that I was doing with this project was like, oh well a lot of people get to tell their stories. They go up in museums, you know, they're published or whatever. But it can tend to be kind of the one group of people who've already made it. And so I'm trying to make sure that, you know, with this project I'm interviewing, I'm showcasing young people, people who maybe didn't go to art school, people who made it on their own and things like that.
YEAH. THAT IS A REALLY GREAT POINT BECAUSE THE THINGS THAT SHAPE CULTURE ARE WHAT'S IN THE MAIN STREAM AND IT'S WHAT'S IN THE GALLERIES AND IT'S WHAT'S ON TV. BUT WHO DECIDES WHAT GETS TO MAKE IT TO THAT POINT AND WHAT BARRIERS ARE IN THE WAY TO GET TO THAT POINT? SO OUR PERSPECTIVE OF ALL OF THESE THINGS IS SHAPED BY WHOEVER IS DETERMINING, WHAT CAN MAKE IT IN TO THE SHOW AND WHAT CAN'T.
Maybe Nick Mason should determine that. Maybe all of us should. Anyone who is able to.
Hell yeah. And I've just been so fortunate to be surrounded by such cool, inspiring people who want to make things in their spare time. And luckily I've been surrounded by people who are open minded and who are curious and who are making things and that just happens to be my local community. And from that, great things come. There's great output from all these people.
So if you had to label who your community is, how would you describe that?
My community is twenty-something creatives that are in my program and neighborhood. But I guess beyond that it's like people who are artists at heart, even if they're not an artist by practice. Because I've got some friends who don't make art, but they have the spirit of an artist.
What's an example of that?
My friend Adam. I mean I guess photography would be his art form. I guess I should take that back, but he doesn't draw or paint or anything and he didn't go to art school. But he just has this curiosity for things. Maybe that's a better word. I think it's people who are curious and passionate. Whether that's for art or whether that's just for life. A big part of community is just proximity. So it's who I met in class and outside of class and in the workplace and in my day to day routine of going to the store and going to different places. And I mean, trying to define community is a really interesting question. How would you define your community and then community on a larger sense?
I think one unfortunate thing that can define community is proximity. Like, there are a lot of people out there who are similar minded to us or who would, you know, be amazing additions to our lives. But because this is where we are right now, that's not an opportunity that we have. We can't be exposed to those communities. But I think that is a really good thing too to go out and seek new communities. So one thing I'll do is I'll go out by myself to places that I don't want to be at. Places I'm pretty uncomfortable at or wouldn't normally go to because I want to make sure that if I have a chance to meet someone new and if I have a chance to open up the type of people I know I'm taking advantage of that. And I think that can be a really good way to make new communities and to see what else is out there in the world.
That's really cool that you do that because it's easy to just stay in your comfort zone. In your bubble.
Like this is one thing that I'm super uncomfortable about. Like spending an hour, often with a stranger, who I've never spent time with before. I don't wanna fucking do that, you know?
Yeah. Cause a one on one in a quiet room that can be kind of on the spot.
Yeah. And it occurred to me today that it could also be a very bad idea. Like this afternoon I went to this old church that was completely empty, but the pastor met me there and we walked through this maze of a building and it was very weird and it was uncomfortable and it was this person who I'd never met before. And you know, didn't know personally. But that can also open up chances for vulnerability because a lot of the time people aren't going to be vulnerable in big groups or in places that they already know a bunch of people.
Yeah. I mean you're putting yourself out there by meeting with strangers. So that's, that's cool. How did you decide who you wanted to be a part of this quilt? It's people who are engaged with communities?
Yeah. So basically my requirement for calling up somebody and asking them to meet with me is hopefully they'll have a different perspective than all the other people I've already interviewed. So I'm trying to, you know, not interview the same people over and over again. I'm trying to interview a lot of people that I don't know. And then just the subject that we talk about isn't always the same. Like with you, I want to talk about your community work, your projects, stuff like that. Eith, uh, my first interviewee, their name is Kri. They run this Bathtub Project. It's an art project. And we talked about substance abuse and art. And I interviewed someone who does a lot of research and we talked about death and mourning and the path that leads down to that. So I want to interview people who are engaged with those around them who already have some sort of outreach established, but I'm not necessarily going to talk to them about the outreach. I'm going to talk to them about their thing. Their weird little thing that they know more about than other people do.
That's a very cool project. And thank you for inviting me to be a part of it.
Yeah. You're so welcome. Are there other things? This is your chance to tell whoever might listen to this or check out this project, something important that you can tell them and maybe somebody else can't. Do you have anything like that?
Well, first off, what I think is fun is to try to define things like 'what is community?' What do I think that is in a larger sense. So first off, I think one's personality is based off of their habits. And
YOUR PERSONALITY IS THIS SET OF BEHAVIORS AND TRAITS AND REPEATED ACTIVITIES AND THAT EVENTUALLY BECOMES YOUR PERSONALITY. IT BECOMES WHO YOU ARE. AND I THINK A COMMUNITY IS LIKE THE PERSONALITY OF REPEATED AND CONSISTENT INTERACTIONS AMONGST A GROUP OF PEOPLE.
So if you have five people that get together once a week and do some kind of activity, the community naturally forms or if you have a group of people that inhabit a building over time and they do things together, community forms. And what I've become really interested in is curating that. Cause a lot of that just happens naturally by things like proximity, where you live. You know everyone will find some kind of job and then you work in this place and then there's a certain culture to that environment. So some things are exactly chosen for you. But what I think is a really powerful thing, and also comes with a lot of responsibility, is curating a kind of community. It's very strategically placing people together in a room with different stimuli around to create a space for something. And for me, what I think is really important are those moments when you're in a room with people and you are inspired by what's around you and you're having conversations about making art or about current issues. Or even not current issues, just feeling good and, and getting to know somebody. While a lot of the Sites and Sounds parties are mostly our friends and extended friend group, I try to mix friend groups and I try to mix levels of professionalism. So for example, with theparties I've had, I've invited students, some professors, some people in the local community who are either up and comers or they are local artists. And it's a chance for people to kind of rub shoulders with other people and learn something. And maybe learn something new. There's a lot of responsibility with curating a community because we've seen how that can go wrong. With things like toxic cults or organizations that abuse their power. So I would say to anyone who is interested in curating an event or having a show is to be very mindful about what the message is. Cause I've always wanted the Sights and Sounds parties to be this positive safe space that anyone can feel comfortable in. And then there's a lot of, you know, as the, as the curator, sometimes there is a bit of policing that it has to be done. And by policing I mean that on the most mild level. But I just once had a friend who got too drunk at a party and he said something inappropriate to somebody and you know, that's something that you have to be prepared to curb.
Yeah. Do you find that there is some amount of policing you have to do just to maintain this? Like you said, it's a safe space. It's a space that you want people to feel comfortable in. Nobody wants to think like, 'Oh, I invited this person in my house and they felt X negative thing'.
Exactly. Yeah. I'm a believer in if there are no rules, there's chaos. There has to be some kind of a moral code. That's a great question to think about. Something that I should maybe do some writing and reflecting on. I'm also a big Grateful Dead fan and I love the Grateful Dead and they are this phenomenon of music that they were just this little DIY group of beatniks. A DIY band that made it huge and they had this insane following and what their music is all about is, you know, love and peace and finding beauty in the world. But what they were finding is that their crowds became these very toxic environments. And there are all these people that came to party and at some point they had to come out and make a statement to their crowds and they had to lay down the law in a certain sense of like, 'this is what you can't do in our crowds;. And Jerry Garcia, the lead singer, he was so adamant about never policing the crowd cause he grew up being this anti-establishment kind of guy. And they didn't like the police, I don't imagine. So he actually refused to be the one to speak to the crowd and another band member stepped up to address the crowds. But Jerry Garcia kind of stayed silent there. And as much as I love Jerry, I really feel like that was one of his biggest flaws was that he didn't.
I guess he kind of let this perfect ideal of not policing get in the way of the reality of sometimes you need to step in and remind people to be cool.
I THINK STAYING SILENT IS LIKE STAYING COMPLACENT. AND THAT CAN BE VERY BAD.
So do your parties have any rules?
I've never felt like I needed to make rules cause I kinda just felt like everyone seems cool. You need to pick up a good vibe in the air. Yeah. I've never made rules but there have been times on a case by case basis that I've had to tell someone like, 'Hey don't do that'. Or 'be careful don't knock over the art'. So yeah, just all to say that when creating a community there has to be a level of responsibility involved and you have to be careful with getting a lot of people together.
Do you think that people will usually be able to sort of intuit that themselves based on whatever space they're in?
I think so. Every show that we've had has had just the most amazing energy and acceptance and I've just been so, so happy with how they've gone and people really listen and people are present and respectful. I mean when I say I've had to police anybody I that is a very rare occurrence because I think going back to what forms of community, while I am kind of curating the space, a lot of it is spread by word of mouth. And I think when you live a good life, good begets good. You reap what you sow. And I just trust and respect my friends so much and anybody that they would invite, I just know that it would be a great person. So we've been very fortunate that we've had amazing people come through our parties and we've met some awesome people. And that kind of goes back into another project I've worked on this semester. This Work is Play Administration project for our friend Luke Weaver. And one exercise that we did for a zine was to write a manifesto. And a big part of my manifesto was habit building, which goes back to community building. And it's like you reap what you sow. If you surround yourself with positive things and you surround yourself with positive people, positive things are going to happen. If you surround yourself with the negative people and you do negative things or unhealthy things, you are going to find yourself maybe feeling very unhappy.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Did you have this manifesto ready kind of in your mind before you were asked to commit it to paper?
No, and I have to thank Luke. I mean I have in person, but now we got it on the recorder. So I just want to thank Luke for giving me the opportunity to have to write a manifesto for something because it was a very good experience. I didn't have something prepared, but once I started writing a lot of dots were being connected and just the timing of it, finishing up school, having to define what I am as a designer and my practices. And putting all of my traits into some neat little package and write a resume and apply for jobs and put myself out there. It's like all these things happening at once is making me really reflect what I am about. And a big part of it is just habit building. And when you surround yourself with good people and a good environment, it is very conducive to good work. And when you surround yourself with good people in a good environment, it's really conducive to a good party. You know, and I shouldn't even say this, but it's all about vibes and when the vibes are good, people have really meaningful conversations and from conversations comes big things.
Can you think of something meaningful that you maybe learned at one of your events? Or maybe a seed that was planted?
That's that's such a good question. Something that I've learned at one of our events...... Well first I'll tell this funny story about just something very like functional. I learned something in terms of when you are hosting. At the end of the night there was this girl who came up to me and she looked exhausted and she looked in pain and she said, 'do you guys have any water?' And I was like, 'I mean we have a sink', but when you're hosting people and it's a formal event, you should probably put out water for people. And that was just a learning moment in terms of if you're going to host, you have to give people basic human needs of food, water and shelter. And if you're going to have a party for hours, especially when people are drinking, you gotta just give the people water. Water is a must and that's a big tip for anyone who wants to have a parties. Give the people water. So that was a big learning moment. It sounds kind of funny, but it's just accommodating and being prepared to accommodate. Another thing that I learned, a little more of a serious note, was it was really late in the night and there was a group of people that were hanging out. We were all talking in the living room and the conversation got a little heated. We started talking about America and the identity of America and patriotism. And there was a couple of people who identified as queer in the room and we were talking about whose responsibility is it to fix the problems in America. And my friend and I were talking about, 'well, I feel like as an American it's my duty to put my opinion out there and an agenda out there and try to make America greater place'. And
THIS PERSON WHO HAS A DIFFERENT REPRESENTATION THAN I DO- HAS A DIFFERENT IDENTITY AND HAS A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE THAN I DO, DIFFERENT PRIVILEGES THAN I DO, FEWER PRIVILEGES THAN I DO- THEY, THEY WERE UPSET BECAUSE THEY'RE LIKE, 'YOU KNOW, CERTAIN PEOPLE HAVE HAD A LOT OF TIME AT THE HELM AND WHO'S TO SAY WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHAT IS RIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY OR OUR COMMUNITY OR WHATEVER'. AND THAT WAS A HUGE LEARNING MOMENT WAS JUST GETTING TO HEAR THIS OTHER PERSON'S TAKE ON THE WORLD. CAUSE I'VE HAD A VERY LIMITED PERSPECTIVE OF THE WORLD.
That's an interesting example of how these parties kind of can be your exposure to being outside of your comfort zone. Inevitably when you invite a bunch of people into your home, you're going to get people with different opinions than you hear regularly. You're going to get people who aren't living there, who you weren't talking to every day about these things.
And that's super important. You have to see all sides of a story before you can define your belief in something. Or at least try to. At the very least try to read a few different news sources. Yeah. I'd say that was the biggest thing I learned was just realizing that I don't always have to be the arbiter of what's right and true and that I do have privilege as a white male in this world. And surrounding myself with people who are like me. And surrounding myself with people who aren't like me. It's two different environments.
That's very true.
Yeah. So the Sights and Sounds parties, the agenda has always been to have fun. It's kind of the bottom line and not so much activism or anything. But it's a party with a little more going on than just partying. Bottom line is to have fun, relax, take a break from your day to day and see people's art and to facilitate. I think it's been really fun for me to facilitate and to showcase and see other people's art. So with this capstone it's this composting project and I want there to be a community of people that are composting and I'll pick up their compost and maintain a pile in my backyard, and then this pile can grow into a community garden where we're harvesting food that we plant and grow from the soil. It is made of composted parts of all the people that are a part of it. And my project is called Afterlife. Because it is quite literally the afterlife of food. And the bigger picture talks about just the afterlife of our waste and where that's going. So some of the events of program I want to have are composting workshops. So here the bottom line of this community, these events, is to learn something and to become mindful about waste and to teach people how to do something that they might not do. Or if they do know how to do it, just give them a space to compost if they don't have space in their apartment or whatever.
So how far are you going to take this in reality?
I'm glad you asked that question. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with this project beyond school. During school I will make some vessels and then give the vessels away to people. I'll hand someone a bucket and say, 'fill this bucket with your food scraps' and then I'll pick it up. Put it in my backyard. And then at the end of the semester I will have several people signed up for this service and a pile of trash in my backyard. And throughout the spring and into the summer, I want to start a little garden in my backyard, invite anyone who is signed up for the service and has a bucket, to be a part of it. And then have a dinner party with all the people who've been a part of it. We'll make a food from the food grown in that garden and then have a meal together and talk about composting and waste and waste culture and why we throw things away and how we can be better about throwing things away. And then at the end of the meal any food scraps we have left, we'll dump them back in the pile and then have another dinner party in a couple months. And this event, this dinner party, will be called Afterlife. And it's like you're walking into the afterlife. I'll have a lot of candles lit and you know, white cloths.
That's great. Are you planning on staying in Cincinnati after you graduate?
Yeah, actually I may have a job lined up in Cincinnati. It's at Agar in OTR. It's where I co-oped when I was here. And if that works out I'll be in Cincinnati and it'll be really easy to compost because a place like New York, it's not a lot of space to compost. So this is actually a very recent idea and something I'm really excited about. And I'm glad you asked about it. This is a case of community building with maybe a larger picture in mind. A bit of activism involved. Whereas I think parties are very valuable in its own right. But sometimes we can't just always have fun.
But you are taking this thing that makes people a little bit mad. You know, sustainability. People get very intense about it and they make their whole lives about it sometimes. And then I love that you are doing that and then you're bringing it past and looping around until this 'and then let's reward ourselves with a nice dinner party'. Like that's great. And it does just connect back so strongly to the community aspect that exists.
YEAH. AND FOOD IS SO IMPORTANT. IT'S LITERALLY WHAT KEEPS US ALIVE AND YOU KNOW, THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND THROUGHOUT CULTURE IT'S A BIG PART OF AMERICAN CULTURE. FAMILY AROUND THE DINNER TABLE AS THIS PLACE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY AND TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS AND RECONNECT WITH PEOPLE. IT'S SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF WHO WE ARE, AND ONE OF MY BIG RESEARCH POINTS IN MY PROJECT IS THAT 40% OF ALL FOOD THAT IS PRODUCED IN THE US EACH YEAR IS THROWN AWAY
That's a huge amount.
It's fucked up. It's a lot of food waste. And you know, that stat is an estimation and I got that from the EPA website, but I believe that it is probably not that far off from 40%. And if we can have conversations about that at the dinner table, then I think that's a very positive experience.