 It's Thursday morning. I'm Jay Fardell. It's Think Tech and more than that's Community Matters. And we are joined today by Zoom, by Derwin Leyva. Derwin is an artist here in Honolulu. Good morning, Derwin. Hey, good morning. Glad to be here. Okay. You're my favorite artist actually here in Honolulu. Thanks. I appreciate it. So we wanted to find out how COVID has affected you because it's affected everybody. It's certainly affected us. We've learned a lot here at Think Tech. We've improved some systems. We've extended our range to people all over the world. And that is, you know, to me, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. Anyway, so I wanted to know how it's affecting you. I know you spend your time in the studio and you create and you think and you have these moments of creativity that result in the beautiful paintings you do. But tell us how your life has changed. Well, the part that affected me the most is the exhibitions and the show because now look to the problem that we have in everything is being canceled. I had a show in April in New York and that was canceled. That was postponed to October, maybe to April next year. Then I had another exhibition in Milan in Italy and that one got postponed. I had another exhibition in Rome, which also got postponed. So pretty much all the art shows around the world has been canceled or has been postponed for a later day. So that's how mostly have affected me, which, you know, there is probably not going to be any show this year. So that will give me more time to work in the studio and definitely next year are going to have a lot of painting to show. Oh, okay. Well, maybe it's not all bad, but what does it mean to you in terms of the development of your art, your reputation, your art sales to have all these exhibitions canceled or delayed possibly indefinitely? What does that mean to your career as an artist? Well, I mean, you know, I don't think that is, I always try to look at the positive things. Like right now, I'm not going to be doing the show. But like I said before, you know, give me more time to make more paintings. I spend more time in the studio now. So I'm definitely getting prepared for, but I also have affected the way that I'm painting right now because a lot of my work, I always include a lot of people. That's one of the main subject music and people in my paintings. But then later that I'm here at home, and I start working on things that I see around the house. So I start doing some still life, and I start working on some paintings. I do a lot of the cityscape, but then I don't put people in it because whenever I go out to the street, I walk around the neighborhood, all I see is the houses. So everything is empty. I start incorporating some of that into my paintings, a lot of the painting that I don't know how they're just the cityscape. And I put some musical instruments in there, but then that becomes the space for the viewer so they can jump into that cityscape and walk through because there is nobody there in the painting. It's just the cityscape. And then I started a new series of painting around my house. So like right now, I started working at Big Canvas, the one that I have in my background. That one is five feet by four feet. And so I'm using elements of my house, different areas of my house to do this kind of like sequence of paintings that I'm going to be doing. And he's all like sitting in my house and then different areas. And all of them going to have like a window, a balcony. We have viewed to a different part of the world because that's what I see every day. Even though that I'm inside my house, I still can see friends, Italy, all these other parts of the world that I want to visit or I want to be there. So I'm going to be putting this into my paintings and then I'm going to be doing it from every area of my house. So your whole world has changed and you're visual in the sense that you really need to have the visual stimulation of the people, the places, and so forth. And if you don't have them, well, you look right in front of your nose and you look and see what your surroundings are. I find that very interesting. You don't do it by recollection, you do it by what is there now, today, right now. Yes, yes. I mean, I try to incorporate a lot of things of the life, you know, like the daily life into my paintings. Anything that happened to me, like I always incorporate into the paintings. So I want to unpack on a couple of things before you go. You talked about interview people, yeah? It's not just looking at them, it's talking to them. You want to have a conversation with someone personal and use that as a material for your creativity. Am I right? Yes, yes, I do. So what is that? You need to be with the person. You need to sit in a chair opposite the person. You need to stand on the street corner and look at them and have a conversation. Is that, what do you need to have an interview? Oh, I mean, not, I mean, I would not call it exactly, it's an interview, but like a lot of the times when I talk to people and, you know, having a conversation and I get an impression from that person could be, you know, any specific thing about that person, you know, maybe the hair is something that caught my attention or, or, you know, the way that a person talks, things like that, that I try to incorporate into the painting. So I get elements from that, just from talking to people. A lot of the time I just, it's kind of like a respond to people conversation when people come and tell me, oh, see this, see your painting or, oh, I like this idea, you know, and sometimes there are things that I don't even think about it, you know, they see something completely different. So give me that feedback. Then automatically I incorporate in the next painting, I start putting into my paintings, everything that they tell me, that they, you know, I never saw before, and then I just start putting into the paintings. So that's, that's what I love talking about with the people. But what about Zoom? What about Zoom? What about having conversations on Zoom? I, I suspect you're not having that many conversations on Zoom, but do you spend time with Zoom? Well, I start doing a class, kind of like a class, we're not a class, but getting together, we, a lot of artists, and we do it every Wednesday. And we spend like about three hours together in the studio. So we can see everybody's work, we can talk about everybody's work. And then that way we kind of give each other feedback and everybody can see what the other artists are doing. And you get inspiration from that too, eh? Yeah, yeah. That's another way for me to get feedback on my work, you know, the point, things that, you know, they see different that I don't see, and then I, you know, I incorporate into my work or not. A footnote to that, when is that later on today? We have chamber music, Hawaii is going to come around. And so what do you do with a chamber orchestra? What do you do with a string quartet? What do you do if they're not actually together? Well, you have everyone on his own Zoom. And they play together because they can all hear each other and they play together and it's really beautiful. And I would hesitate to say that it's almost as good as if they played in person. And so it's this collaboration among the members of the, of the chamber music group that allows, on Zoom, that allows them to continue, you know, in their, in their creativity. And so it's the same thing with you. You have a bunch of artists, they're all on Zoom. You learn from that. You, as a result, you have, you have a process that may be different, maybe arguably even better than, see, I have to turn on the chat here because, because there's a question and I need to get the question. Ah, okay. Yeah, I have a question for you. Okay. Question for the host to ask, why isn't art categorized as essential business in crisis times? Oh, there's a very interesting question. I guess you're not characterized as essential. And what does that mean to you, Der? What's a good question? What does that mean to you in terms of your business? That is definitely a good question. I didn't think about it until you mentioned it now, but normally we're used to, you know, the public system, the schools, whenever they have a problem with a budget or anything like that, usually the first thing that goes is the art department or things like that that they consider not essential, you know, music, art. But I will argue that probably that's one of the most essential things for human life, you know, because people that don't have art, don't have music, you know, they are like the most saddest people in the world. You know, if you go back in history and you see like the Vikings, you know, a lot of the people don't study them because they didn't have art, you know, like other, you know, like a different, like the Romans or some of the other cultures, because art is very important. And a lot of the time, the reason why we study different cultures is because they are, you know, it's not because of the essential business of selling fruits or anything like that is because of the art. Yeah. So what do they say? A great state deserves great art. A great community, a great society deserves great art. And it's sometimes it's hard to put that in words, but there you go. And so, you know, the idea of not being able to get out as you would, not being able to have the impressions and the stimulations as you would. Does that change your art now? Being indoors all the time? Does that change your art? Is it the same? Is it better or worse? How do you compare it with the ordinary times? Well, definitely the whole thing with being inside the house have changed. I think I would say that have opened my, you know, my view, the way that I see art now, because now I'm trying different things that I didn't try before, like, you know, like doing a still life. That's something that I was not attracted to. And now that I'm inside the house, I'm not seeing a lot of the people and things like that. Then I decided, well, I got to paint objects around the house. And when I see something, oh, okay, I like that. I got to put it into my painting. So I start getting more involved with the still life. And like I say, when I do the cityscapes, then I'm not putting any people in it, because when I walk around my house in the neighborhood, I don't see anybody. It's always empty. So that's what I'm doing. And that's how I have influenced my art. Yeah, so it strikes me that when they write the books about you, Terwin, this will be your COVID period. It's a new period in the development of your art. You have new influences, new orientation, though. You feel it? Yeah. And I think that will be my subject for next year. So right now, the next show that I have planned, which I don't know if it's going to happen, but I was invited to the Biennale in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And that's going to be in October. So I don't know if that's going to still going to happen. But if it doesn't happen, then my next show will be in New York April next year. And I want my subject of all my painting, well, most of my paintings, it's going to be this period where we are inside the house, where we cannot go out. So it's going to be about the quarantine and just staying inside the house. Well, I know you're a self-contained guy from my experiences with you, that I wonder if we could dig a little deeper and talk about your own state of mind here. Because everybody has had a change in the state of mind. For example, you referred to your, I think you referred to your childhood a little while ago. And I have the same experience. My mind flies in the time of COVID. And I think of things that happened to me years and years ago that pop into my brain in kind of a recollection. And I wonder if you have this kind of experience, Baudelaire and Proust, the French authors and poets, they talk about this, about how they revisit their childhood and how they see things in a completely different and more expansive way while they're alone. I don't think it has affected me in that way. Because I use everything around me as an inspiration. The COVID-19, I just see as another phase of my life. I don't see as any problem or anything like that. I mean, I stay at home pretty much painting all the time. So that hasn't changed anything for me. It's just the subject matter, which I see a little less thing that I used to see before. So now I'm kind of like transforming that into my paintings. But mentally, to me, this is just a phase of the life. And I don't see as anything different. I guess because I come from a society where I've been through a lot as a child that this is not, I don't see as a big problem or anything like that. It's just another phase of life. Like everybody else. Let's talk about your life as a child and so we can get some context on that. You say you've been through a lot. And I recall that you were originally from Cuba before you immigrated to Hawaii. Can you talk about your life there? Well, definitely. I mean, the life in Cuba is completely different because I mean, it's a different society, different culture. And as a kid, you grew up with essentials. I mean, the person that you see, you barely have like YTV. We weren't getting good connection on that. We weren't getting good connection on that. Can you start to answer my question again about life in Cuba as a child? Yeah, life in Cuba definitely was completely different because it's a different society. It's a different culture. And being a communist country, I mean, there is a lot of lack of food and other things that we're used here in this country and we give for granted. So just basic stuff, like a lot of the time we didn't have electricity or we didn't have water. And that was just became normal, you know, not having electricity and not having water in the house. That was normal. And not having food was normal. Open in the fridge. And the only thing that you have in your fridge literally was water and ice. You know, that's the only thing that if you were hungry, you ate ice. And if you were thirsty, you drink water. You know, there was nothing else in normal. So a lot of the things when you grew up in a society like that where, you know, you just live with the minimum. A lot of the times, then, you know, coming here to the United States and see how wonderful these countries and everything they have to offer, then, you know, when you come into other circumstances, you know, like what we're having now with the COVID-19 and things like that. Yeah, well, it's a difficult time, but still you have a lot of other things that you wouldn't have if you were to be in another country, you know, because having the COVID-19 problem and you would be living like, you know, in another country where you don't have food, you don't have anything else. Then that would be a lot worse. So it's a different perspective for seeing things. Well, you know, it is, but it is a social experience and one of the elements is your contact with other artists. And actually, we have another question I want to post to you that came in on the chat here. So the question is, you know, do you have fellow artists that you compare notes with? And what who are they? What artists do you look up, who look you up by phone or by Zoom? And, you know, what do you admire them for a particular reason? And what what is the context of your conversation about your respective art? Well, when it comes to art, I study and things like that. I like a lot of the old stuff. I look at a lot of the old masters, but today's day what I do, you know, to keep me motivated and to like keep talking to another artist, I go to the Honolulu Academy of Art, you know, on Wednesdays, they have like a class for like an old class over there. And then I just go over there to share with the other artists, there is another maybe 15, 20 people in the class. That way I go around, I can see everybody's work, I can talk to them about their work, and then they come and talk to me about my work. And that's kind of like a way for me to keep myself motivated and keep talking to another artist and seeing different type of art. So I get an idea from, you know, what they're doing, different subjects, completely different from what I do. And then that also gives me perspective to my work, because I kind of like see and pick from everyone, you know, like I learn from everyone. A lot of the times I talk to these students, which for them, they're kind of like, they think that there's, you know, they're studying and they got nothing to offer, you know, their paintings are, they think very simple. But when I look at those paintings, then I get ideas or stuff that is different perspective from what I see in my paintings. And then I, you know, I learn from them and they don't realize that. But when I talk to them and I kind of see their work, I kind of get a little bit from everybody. You know, it sounds a little bit like, like journalism, where journalists are always looking for a story. Whatever they're doing, they're looking for a story, an element here and an element there, you know, looking for things that would interest other people. It sounds like the same thing that you're talking about. So, you know, the other thing I wanted to ask you about is, you know, the art world in general, is it, is it changing the art world in general? Do you think that people are having the same experience that you're having other artists? You know, for example, I don't know if you watch television, but whatever media you get, there's, there's all kinds of emotional messages there. And they affect us all. I can, you know, personally, I can tell you they affect me. And I feel we're in a different world now. It's not just another chapter in Darwin Leiva's art. It's everything, everything is different. And as soon as I feel that we recognize that, the better off we'll be in terms of dealing with the reality. Okay, so how do you feel about that? How do you feel about the world? And your feelings about the world, aside from the physical objects, the artistic, the light, the shapes, the form that you see, and that you incorporate in your paintings. What about these times of COVID? What about the masks, and the illnesses, and the death, and the hospital scenes that we see almost every day in the media? Do you incorporate the mood of that, the emotional power of that? Is that, is that happening to you too? Yeah, you know, definitely that's something that have changed the world. And I think this is something that is going to change forever the world. You know, this is one of those events that change history, kind of like 9-11 changed history in the United States. We start doing things differently after that. Then I think this is one of those events in history that is going to change life for everyone. We will have to adapt, you know, and I see all the people that are getting sick and everything like that. So definitely the way that we do social life is going to change. The way that we interact with each other is going to change. And that's not something that's going to go away in a month or two. That's something that is going to take some time before people can adjust to that. So and that's affecting the whole world. I mean, that's not something that affects only one person. That's something that is affecting the whole world. But I mean, I think that eventually we will come out of this, you know, like the world have overcome some other problems that we have in the past. I mean, different plays and things like that that we experienced many years ago and, you know, we overcome that. So now, I think we will overcome, but I know it's a hard situation for a lot of people and I know that is, you know, very difficult. Yeah. Well, do you think that the objects reflecting this period of all the, you know, the pain and the trouble of it will find their way into your painting? Will I see face masks in your painting? Yes, yes, you will. That's, you know, and that's one of the series of paintings that I'm doing inside my house. I was kind of like brainstorming, like all the different plays, okay, I will do here one, one in the living room, one in the night room. And then I was thinking, okay, I will do one in the porch. But then I was thinking, well, if I go out to the porch, then I have to use a mask. So, you know, 80 sitting on the porch, we have a mask on it. Or, you know, like every time that I do any painting with the person outside, then it will have to have a mask on it. And that will just represent this period that we are in right now, definitely. That's the role of the artists is to translate the reality in some special way, to interpret the reality for the rest of us. And the reality is changing. And therefore, you know, your view of the world that you're painting, your expression must be changing as well. So how do you see the future for yourself, Derwin? You know, I know it's hard to say, it's certainly hard to say what's going to happen in that variable that's beyond our control, really. But how do you see the future evolving in your art and in your life? Well, I think for my art, you know, all these the cancellation of all the shows and things like that, you know, I don't know if it's like kind of like a step back. But I think eventually all those shows are going to happen. So I will have to catch up, you know, this year is going to be a slow, but I think next year probably is going to be a very like fast paced year for me as an artist. And that's what I see, you know, if everything, if we overcome this problem that we have in now, and we in some way go back to what we used to have as a normal life, you know, definitely we're going to have some restriction. But if we overcome that, I think next year is going to be a year where I'm going to have a lot of shows and a lot of opportunities that I'm not going to have this year this year, you know, I guess it's going to be kind of like the stock market, you know, sometimes up, sometimes down, and this is a year that is going to be down for me or for, you know, not for me only for any artist, because I don't think that anybody's doing any show, any exhibition, anything like that. So this is affecting a lot of people, you know, and well, next year will be a good year. So yeah, it's sort of like the economy in general. And I suppose as the economy does better, more people are out there buying art, which is ultimately important to you, because that's what you do. And I would imagine that while the economy is down and out the way it is now, nobody's buying art. Am I right? Or are people knocking on your door these days? Well, no, you know, a lot of the shows that I do kind of ask the venue for me to sell my work. And by not having that, then I will have to shift to online selling. So now actually I'm working with a company from New York, we're setting a new platform to start selling my work through them on the internet. So that's kind of like a work in progress. I'm going to have it set up maybe for next month. And then we'll see how that works. So I was going to be shifting from going in submissions into going online and start selling online. Well, while we've been talking, our engineers have been showing pictures of your art because we have a collection of the pictures of your art. I noticed while I'm watching that you're a very Latin, high vitality, high color style, always includes musical instruments. And so always, well, I shouldn't say always, but most of the time. Can you say why are there musical instruments in your art? And are you continuing to include them? And do you think you will continue to include them? I do always use them because to me, music is very important. I mean, I think music is important to everyone. Everybody listen to different type of music. But when we do listen to music, make us happy. And that's what I want to represent in my paintings. You know, no matter what the situation is, no matter what the subject in my work is, I always want to have that element of happiness in my painting. And that's what I put the musical instrument. In my case, I use musical instruments that are typical from Cuba, you know, a lot of times. But it's just a representation of the music because I know, no matter what kind of music you listen, either if it is classic music or rock or any other type of music between that stream, then you listen to it because it makes you happy, make you feel, you know, different. And because I think it's important to everyone to have that, I always put it into my paintings. And yes, I will continue to put it into all my paintings. I always try to find a way to put it in there, even if it's just, you know, like a small representation of it. But definitely. That's wonderful. Make people happy. What a great thing in life. And it is uplifting. And I'm so glad we had this conversation. And I'm so glad we connected. And I'm so glad to learn more about you as I have in this half hour. So, Dervin, where can I look more for your art? Do you have a website or a place where I can take a look? Yes, definitely. I have my website, which is my name, derwinleiva.com. And then also a lot of my, the things that I do daily, I post it in my Instagram, which is derwin underscore Leiva. And that's normally what I pull, the most updated work. And that's where people can see my work or contact me a lot of the times. I get a lot of contact to the internet. Yeah, Dervin, it's always so refreshing to talk to you. I'm so glad we connected today. And I want to do it again soon. I wish you all the best. I wish you well and stay well. Will you please? Thank you, Dervin Leiva. Thank you for coming. Thank you, Gabe, for inviting me. I know. It's a pleasure being on the show. Aloha.