 Hello to my viewers out there. My name is Melinda Moulton, and I welcome you to Moments with Melinda. Hey, I wanna tell you who we have with us today. We have Will Casocondry, Jennifer Herrera-Condry, and Alexa Herrera-Condry, the principals of Juniper Creative Arts. Hey, guys. Hi. Thanks for being here. We're happy to be here. Yeah, this is terrific. I'm so excited for people to learn more about you and about the work that you've been doing in Vermont. So we only have a half an hour, so I'm gonna kick it right off. What I'd love to do is share with our viewers a little bit about your lives and who you are. You're a family, your husband, wife, and a child, and you are the principals of this incredible arts group called Juniper Creative Arts, and you're putting your stamp of beauty all over Vermont, but certainly in the city of Burlington. So why don't you share a little bit about who you are, where you came from, what's your inspiration, and a little bit about your relationship in your company. No, let's start with Alexa. You can. You can. Yeah. Yeah. My background, I studied photography and computer science in college, and so when I graduated, I joined Juniper Creative because we had launched that semester that I had graduated, and it was just a nice, seamless transition into working with my family and being able to bring my skills that I had been studying for so many years and applying them into the real world. Where'd you go to school? I went to the University of Vermont. I went to graduate. And I graduated class of 2020. Yeah. Okay, Jen, what about you? Yeah, well, I'm originally from New York City. I'm the daughter of Dominican immigrants. I've been in Vermont since 2002. I came here to work for Middlebury College. My background is in multicultural student affairs and diversity, equity, and inclusion work. And a lot of the work that I was doing was using creative expression to help students from marginalized backgrounds find a sense of place. I was literally doing creative placemaking at Middlebury College for so many years, especially mostly with students of color and first generation college students. And that's how I met Will. And our story evolved from that point. In terms of our creative collaboration. Will, what about you? I was born and raised there in Trenton, New Jersey. I moved to Vermont five years ago this year. I met Jennifer in 2012 on an invite here from my niece who at the time was a sophomore at Middlebury College. And she reached out to me and asked me when I come to the school to do a talk about using art as a form of activism. During that time, I founded and was creative director in a nonprofit in Trenton, New Jersey called Sage Coalition. And through that work, we use an art to beautify impoverished communities, not just impoverished economically, but spiritually. And we also looked at that work as a way to build communities from within. Set up pushing people out, work with the people that's there. And so I go up to Middlebury College in May of 2012 and hung out with Jennifer that evening. And we just hung out talking, getting to know each other. It was pretty beautiful. And I moved here four years later when Jennifer and I decided to take the next step in our relationship. And now we, and since officially since 2020, we've been doing this work together, but we've been collaborating since we've known each other. And yeah, so it's been a many, many years of collaboration, not just in community work, but just in life. We've built this life together. We bring all our mutual experience and creativeness into what we do. So you're looking at 40 combined years. You're not saying 40 plus now, because Alexa's in it. You know? But we figure out and continue to grow and evolve in ways where we challenge each other, still sharp and still. So we work seamless because we don't just stop after a project or a mural. We keep finding creative ways just to be in existence with one another. So yeah, everything turns to art eventually. Yeah, in 2020, we founded our business to be creative also based on the work that Will and I had been collaborating on prior to that from 2017. So the first three years of our relationship, we were leading community mural projects. Yeah, primarily in college campuses. Yeah. So you've been able to bring your activism into your work as a family. I wanna tell them, I wanna share with my viewers to learn more about Juniper Creative Arts. You can visit their Instagram, which is Juniper Creative LLC. Juniper Creative LLC and Instagram, you can see so much of their beautiful work. And you can also reach them at info at junipercreativarts.com. So I wanna ask you, how is it working together as a family? I love it. My mom has always been my best friend. So being able to graduate college and getting to work with not only her but also my dad, Will, it's just been amazing. Sometimes Will jokes and says, she's in an MFA program in Castle College. And I'm learning quite a bit. Well, the thing about Castle College is that it's very hands-on and it's on you. We're all adults here and we're all creative, but we also have individual disciplines which have to be nurtured and attended to as well. But that's up for us to make that schedule around it. I can't tell Alexa when to draw or when to paint something outside of a project. I just ask, is she painting or is she drawing? And if so, I would like to see it because art is meant to be shared. So everything we do in the world starts at home. Our nation starts in your home. So we don't promote anything that we don't do. Well, I know, Jen, you shared with me a painting that Will did of you a while back. I mean, your home is extraordinary. The painting and all of your murals, your home exudes your gift of creativity. But tell the story, Jen, of the painting that Will painted of you. And we're gonna have you show some of your work but talk a little bit about the personal aspect of the work. Well, so the piece that I shared with you is called The Water Bearer. It's a painting that Will worked on for three years. Was it three years? Well, two years, two years. It was about two years. I started it. It was a canvas I had originally started while I was still based in Trent. Then I brought it up and once I came up to Vermont, Jennifer and I got together, the energy was just different in it. So I like literally repainted over it and started getting inspired by one of Jennifer's playlists. I was like, Eric, if I do playlists. So I would play that in the studio while I was in there just trying to like, conjure up something to paint. And this image started coming out of a woman carrying a lot, you know? First she started off pregnant. Then she started off with carrying the child in her back which morphed into a butterfly because it was like the child was in a cocoon. So it literally was evolving over these two years and during quarantine is when I finished it. So yeah, and I presented to Jennifer. Now it hangs in front of our stairway. Yeah. Would you say that Jennifer is your muse? Yeah. Yeah, hands down, you know? I tell everybody, you know, people who know me for a long time and they see what I'm doing out here. They see what we're doing. They're like, yo man, the color is like, what's going on? I was like, Jennifer. I was like, you know, I got Jennifer and Alexa as well. Alexa is like the younger version of Jennifer in a sense where Jennifer is very honest about expectations and presentation and just diligence. Alexa is the backup. So when I start to, you know, get into my feelings or become emotional, brood and artist, they pull me out of that. They're like, nah, come on, man. You can call us our echo. Yeah. Yeah. Or a megaphone. Or a megaphone, you know? That's the beautiful thing about Alexa's generation. Like they are not afraid to tell you how they feel. And for our generation, we were trained to hold that in. So for me, for all of us, creative, our creative expression helps us deal with those emotions, you know? So when things, you know, we're only humans. So when we're not seeing out of eye, we typically, you know, first talk about it, give each of our space, talk about it, then find a way to create from it. Yeah. I had the most extraordinary opportunity to work with you for 11 months when you agreed to the three of you to paint the mural at Main Street Landing in the Lakin College and share, you know, the story of how you came to me, because it was so serendipitous of how that happened. And it was shortly after the George Floyd murder. So could you share that story with our viewers? Yeah. You want to go? Well, a good friend of ours who's another mural artist, Mary Lacey, what we understood had approached you about having Will paint a mural in at the Performing Arts Center. And at the time, no one really knew as much, you know, Will is the artist, right? He is the painter. So most of what people don't realize is how much of the partnership we do have, the creative relationship we do have and how we collaborate on mural projects together. So that didn't come forward until we had our first meeting with you, right? And I remember you talking about having this vaulted ceiling and wanting Will to be able to do whatever he thought would make sense that really helped document some of the activism that we were seeing after George Floyd was murdered. And I remember meeting with you and thinking through some ideas and also thinking about the rich history of Black Vermonters in Vermont as well. And afterwards, Will and I sat down and talked and I said, you know, Will, it might make sense to really celebrate and document the history of Black and Brown Revolution and the legacy of which all of the social justice movements that exist today sit on the legacy of all these other movements that and activists and scholars and artists and educators, you know, that are historical figures, but also modern day folks that are still doing the work, whose work informs activism today, right? And many of the social justice movements that exist today that are being carried through by this younger generation now. And that's when we came back to you and said, what do you think about this? And you were like, yeah. And I said, I loved it. And the one thing that I remember that Will, that you all were so concerned about because in the past your work had been covered over or removed. And I remember one of the things that I assured you was that this would be here forever. And then you spent 11 months basically living in the green room downstairs up in that lift and put your heart and soul in this extraordinary mural. And it really is a work of art and more than a work of art, it's a work of humanity. And I cannot wait for everything to open up in a way that people can really see it in a way it needs to be seen. Alexa, do you want to share a little bit about your experience with that? Because that was sort of the early on time that you joined your parents in this work. Yeah, that was what our first really big project that I was a part of and it took so long. But it was so intentional. The time it took, it meant that we were putting blood, sweat, and tears into it. We lost sleep over it. We weren't home. There was a certain point, and sorry to cut you off, but there was a certain point where it was Alexa who was at home maintaining our home. And while Will and I were away, and she would get our laundry, wash up, bring it back. We'd go grocery shopping. There was she'd come up and do some work with us. And everything that we had to do to tag team in order to continue to thrive and survive, I guess, during that time. Stay on track. And stay on track. Well, I remember saying to Will, when he said, because you were changing things, and I said, Will, it's never going to be finished. I said, towards the end there, I mean, you really were dragging. And you were, you know, and it was like getting to be sort of tedious because at the time, and everything else, and you and I said, it'll never be finished. And if ever you want to come back and, you know, touch it up or whatever, or change. Yeah, I mean, there was, we keep looking at it, but it's never like, oh, we could touch something up over in that quarter. No, but you know, the thing about it is that, you know, there is over 100 portraits on that ceiling, right? So in the process of figuring out how to represent these portraits, these people, you realize everybody deserves the same amount of attention, right? Just because a portrait is smaller doesn't necessarily mean it's going to take the same amount of time as something that's twice the size. What's twice the size may take actually less time. So for me, I had to figure out a way to render these portraits so that no matter what, you know, whether some are more refined than others that they're complete, because the portraits are meant to be representative of coming out of stone. Like these are not just portraits, they're mountains, they're waterways, they're waterfalls, you know? So if you're looking at this portrait from a standpoint of like, I'm not just looking at a painting, but I'm looking at a sculpture within a painting, you know? That was my mindset, 21 feet up, you know? Back hurt in, you know, tired, hungry, hot, because during the summer it was sweltering up there, you know? So, and at the same time, you know, trust in my team, you know, when I wasn't physically able to do certain things, Alexa and Jennifer stepped up, base-filled things, you know? Everyone learned how to drive the lift to move in certain positions, because if that wasn't taught, then they would consistently depend on me for everything. And in doing something like that as a team sport, I shouldn't have to be the one to carry everything. You know, Jennifer handled the concept, which was the script. So I always tell people like, Jennifer's the writer, I'm the illustrator. So look at it like a visual book, you know? Jennifer wrote the story. So it was my job, no different. Michelangelo had the book of Genesis as a script, you know? So I never looked at it as so much as unfinished as more so it could be added onto, you know? I can go out there and add 20 more portraits because I can fit them into the stone. So it's not like, oh, the space is a foot wide. Well, it'd be a foot wide portrait, you know? So that was my mindset. So not so much that, oh, it's not finished, is that it can just consistently be added onto. It was literally a living, breathing document of history. It is, and so I want to move into sharing a little bit of your work with our viewers. And again, I want to remind all of you that if you want to learn more about Will and Jen and Alexa to go to their Instagram at junipercreativellc and you can always reach them at info at junipercreativearts.com. Let's show some beautiful images here for our viewers. Okay, so what we're going to be showing is some of our select public art projects and commissions for the past, since 2019. So this is one that we did in Burlington where Pine Street Studios is on, where I think the current farmer's market is, it wraps the entire building. So what you see here is just two parts of the entire building, the one facing, this one here faces the south side of the building and this one faces the Pine Street side of the building. These are all Burlington youth that we, Alexa did a photo shoot with them and we brought them into the mural. What you don't see in this is that it also shows poetry excerpts from some of the local youth as well. And it's in our Afro-Pollinator series. So the three Afro-Pollinator warrior youth in the front. And then Will wanted to show this idea of youth and family joy. So these kids are literally hanging out on one of those old carousels that don't exist anymore because our generation ruined it from the younger generation because they used to play and spin each other and everything was so dangerous. Like the first explained sport, those things were dangerous. They were so much fun. So these three Afro-Pollinator warriors are literally like protecting, they're in the front protecting this joy that tends to get squashed or killed in so many ways where we're losing, well, we're trying, not losing but we're trying to definitely reclaim a certain joy that has been diminishing through and not allowed to shine because of many oppression and racism and other issues. This was another project at the Alchemist Brewery in Stowe. It's almost 1,400 square foot silo. Will tackled this one all on his own. Well, Alexa came through in the clutch at the end because she assisted in helping me seal it. And also just to hop in and me to cut you off, Jennifer. But in order to, this was based off the illustration that I created like a year prior while we were camping at Lake Willoughby. And Jennifer was the one that was like, cause we were already in talks about doing this. And Jennifer was like, yo, that's the one you need to put on the silo at Alchemist. And at that time it was still a simple sketch. So I wasn't that convinced. I'm like, oh, you know, I get to it. It was just getting an idea out of my head. So later that year, Jennifer was like, no, finish it and we could present this. And I did and Alchemist went for it. So we had to use a projector to project the illustration onto the silo and we could only do that at a certain hour. We were out there like three in the morning projecting this silo. And then I had to go up and outline it. So I had some sort of a guide, you know? And it had to be projected in two sections because there was a tree like this. If you see all this greenery here was blocking the ability for the image to wrap the silo. So I had to do one section and then move to the backside and project the other part. So projecting. It's an art in itself. It really is. Because it's, I'm sorry, but it's like, it's math. It's physics, it's all that, you know? You got to work with so many different elements, you know? It's literally like taking the gritting technique in large scale mural painting to a whole other level. You know, which brings us back to Main Street Landing again. You know, none of those two of the portraits were freehanded. The other portraits, I projected everything to like create the composition for Will to then go up and outline the portraits. So that we were able to, you know, make, you know position things in different ways because what I was seeing in my head was difficult to share with Will so that he could see it. So I would literally just take the projector and like aim it in a particular part of the ceiling with the image and say there, I want it there and be like, great. And then he'd go up on the lift and outline the image. And then that's how we got all those portraits up. And you painted it with acrylics, not with spray paint because of our environment. Now look, we're running out of time here. So I was wondering, do you have any pictures of that, of the mural that's in the lobby? Yeah. Okay, so here. So here is, this is like one shot. If you can see it. This is the best image we were able to capture. That's not even the ceiling. Yeah. But you get a sense of the vastness of it. Yeah. You know, I think for us, like you have to, you know, look at it as a puzzle. You know, there were so many pieces, we were adding pieces as we're going. We started off with 36 figures and it quickly swelled. And each one of those figures take time, you know. So once we figured out everyone that was going to be on the wall, we had to, we was like, well, what is going to, how are we going to connect them all? You know, because somewhere, take it from old photographs. So we have models for like Alexa model for Lucie Terry Prince, you know, then we had to figure out like, well, what's the connecting background? And that's when we decided on a nature thing. And having art, because in African spirituality, we believe our ancestors live in stone, live in water, live in the air we breathe. So visually represent that from African spirituality standpoint, you know, also focus in on the Haitian revolution, which was the only successful slave role in history, you know, using that from a place of pride, because especially when our story is being told by people up outside of our culture, it's typically starting with enslavement or trauma and torture. You know, Namanju, yes, these people endured some very serious traumas in their life, but that's more of a story of European colonization and enslavement, more so than the beautiful richness of African culture and people of, you know, from the aspirin diaspora, BIPOC, you know, whatever term you want to use that the richness of who we are from a spiritual level. Yeah. I mean, we really create at the intersection of healing and identity and community and justice and spirituality. I mean, that's who we are, you know, and through the lens of hip hop culture and through, you know, ancestral wisdom. Yeah. I mean, that is the core of who we are individually and as a collective. Yeah. And this mural has an educational component to it. So I'm going to go back. I'm going to go back to us because we only have a few more minutes. That would be okay. Cause I want to talk a little bit about the educational piece too. And thank you. And I'm just going to go to, to our, to our gallery view so we can talk. So we can see each other. Thank you for that. I could spend hours and hours speaking with you about this. So the educational component. So I'm going to go back to that. I mean, I've spent hours and hours, hours speaking with you about this. So the educational component, because after you did this extraordinary mural, spent those 11 months, you know, on your back, you know, like Michelangelo really. Then it was like, how do people know. So talk a little bit about that process that happened. Where when people go in and see the mural, how they, how this, this is an educational piece. Yeah. We worked with you hired a fabricator and we worked with their graphic designer Alexa photographed each portrait and we provided the graphic designer with the files your staff helped write many of the bios and. In the little squares that you take and yeah you're yeah you're you're created the QR codes created the the the files that would link to the QR code with the bios I helped edit some of the bio so that we made sure that. That the pieces of these individual people's bios that were important to us were reflected in that so people really understood why we chose them. Specifically because there's so many I mean we're talking 230 years, you know there's so many people who don't get spoken about that have made significant contributions to. Justice in the world and you know we had limited time there's only so much time there's only so much like square footage. And you know like we started with the original scope was 600 square feet but when we got in there we're like you know. You know it's not going to do with justice and then we went back to you was like hey can we actually like do the whole thing you're like yeah. got the big clock and you took over that wall wrap the whole place you know so. We have to look at it to where you know it was right at the peak of Kobe and everything was shutting down. Yeah, so you know Jennifer and I eventually started looking for the silver lining at all and it was like well we've been gifted this time to do this. You know so let's not abuse this time like let's really use this time because so much has already been lost. So let's make sure that you know 100 years from now this could be a testament of what good came out of all that you know yeah. We even feature some you know their children. Because that is that generation that's the next generation they're going to keep this legacy going until we achieve the justice that we need in the world and we're hoping that it's they see it in their lifetime but they represent that future as well. Yeah. Right now everyone can go when they are able to go to the space, they can bring their smartphones they can scan the QR code, they can read about it. You all are producing the same fabricator is creating a brochure that will be a takeaway where so if someone doesn't have the time to sit there 100 portraits QR code scan and read. They can take something all the way down school groups are coming out to see it so it's an educate where it's becoming we're out of time and I'm so sad about that because I could you know I could spend so much time with you all. Well, Jen, Alexa Herrera, Kazokandri, your family, Juniper Creek, LLC. I just admire you all so much and we were really blessed to have you walk in to our lives and to produce all the incredible work that you're doing around the state and and it will be there forever and ever and ever for for all time so I want to thank you for your time. And to my viewers, please go visit Instagram, go to your Instagram and go to Juniper creative LLC, and you can see all of will Jen and Alexis work with Juniper creative.