 Thank you again. Thank you for joining us this evening for our virtual artist talk. My name is Kendall Taylor. I'm part of the co-curation team for 965. Please take this time to mute your microphone and turn off your camera to reduce any distractions. We will have a few minutes to answer questions after each artist presents, and of course if you have questions we welcome them in the chat section. I would like to begin tonight's discussion with an acknowledgement of Black History Month and of the land we live in Thrive-on. We honor Black History Month with our collective dedication to equity, allyship, and the harnessing of a spirit that aims to disrupt, excuse me, disrupt oppressive systems that affect the Black community. Moving forward requires action. The following is an MSU Denver Office of Diversity and Inclusion land acknowledgement. We honor and acknowledge that we are on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe nations. This area was also the site of trade, hunting, gathering, and healing for many other Native nations. We recognize the Indigenous peoples as the original stewards of the land. Let us also acknowledge the painful history of genocide and the forced removal from this territory. We respect the many diverse Indigenous peoples still connected to the land on which we gather. And thank you again for joining us this evening. Cherie, don't forget to unmute yourself. Is it a team's meeting? If someone doesn't forget to turn on their mic. Thank you, Kendall. We're so happy you're here with us tonight and we're grateful to the artists attending for speaking about their work here. Before we turn it over to the artists, let me tell you a little about the 965 Project Gallery and our current exhibition. The 965 Project Gallery is a student-led space that provides professional development opportunities to MSU Denver students interested in the art industry. Located inside the CDA, the 965 Project Gallery is curated and managed by student employees who are mentored by gallery and museum professionals. We're able to create the entire show from planning to layout and installation to events like this one in which we're able to communicate our artists with the CDA community. For our exhibition, Deeper Than Skin, we sought to find Denver artists who are examining life experiences within the Black community. The culmination of local activism stemming from the summer 2020 and ongoing civil rights movements highlight the continuation of the social justice timeline. This exhibition promotes community perseverance and humanizing actions. This exhibition was co-curated by a team made up of current and recently graduated MSU Denver students, Sherri Myers, Kendall Taylor, Molly Quinn and Sheila Mungai. Tonight we'll be hearing from three of the artists with work in the exhibition, Tyree Jones, Evans, Alex Cintil, and Jasmine Winter. Kendall will lead the Q&A for each of the artists presenting tonight. Thank you Sherri. Now for the super fun part. So again, just a quick reminder to make sure that our microphones are muted and cameras are off. We will be taking those questions in the chat. Didn't kick off the discussion we'll be hearing from Jasmine Winter, then from Alex Evans Cintil, excuse me, and then we'll be hearing from Tyree Jones. So to start us off, Jasmine is a recent MSU Denver graduate. Her graceful use of soft pastel enhanced her ability to discuss issues the Black community faces. Jasmine, thank you so much for being here tonight. Hi, thanks Kendall for that good introduction. Hello everyone. Should I turn on my camera? I don't think it matters. It doesn't matter. My camera's on and off. We would love to see your face, but it's also whatever works best for your connection and your comfort. Okay, so I will turn on my camera. Fun note. This little thing right here, my glasses just broke at the start of this. So that's what that is. Just a little note, there's not like a white blob thing on my face. I just my glasses just broke right before I had to present. All right, so Shades of Black is an extension. It started off as two pieces called Black and Blue that really focused on adolescents. And then I was reached out from Molly to say be a part of the deeper than skin exhibition. And I planned on extending it further. So now it's called Shades of Black. And yeah, so I'm going to get to the next slide. Awesome. Thank you. So I'm going to be reading everything on the screen just for the purposes of that. I know some people communicate differently. It's easier for some people to hear things and some people to see things. So I'll read off the screen and then add additional notes. But Shades of Black is a cultural lens into the perspective of Black childhood and its many shades. The series presents hyperbolic depiction of a select few experiences that have infiltrated Black adolescents' lives and manifested violent, vicious effects in the years that are meant for innocence, ignorance, and carefree behavior. So something just to make a point is although each of these pieces that I've presented here today to you all and created have very specific gendered placements, everything that I am going to kind of break down and digest is something all Black people in the community, regardless of their gender, regardless of where they're from, whether it's African dysphoria or born and birthed in America, they all can experience these types of shades and modes of difficulty that Black adolescents experience. And for each piece, I'm just going to kind of dissect which section of Black adolescents that I really wanted to focus on and why I chose the imagery that I did and the colors that I did. So yeah. Next slide. Thank you. All right. So the first one is called Bang. All of these are made out of soft pastel. This was a part of my first series Black and Blue when I made it in 2018. And this is probably the most relevant one that we're all aware of in our society today in terms of just murder when it comes to Black individuals. And while we're really, really aware of it in terms of teenagers or adults, it also happens to children. They meet massive brutality and death in the community. And oftentimes it is seen within police brutality. And that's such a big conversation now. And it's always been a big conversation since the Civil Rights Movement, since 1955 with the whole, you know, wasn't necessarily police brutality, but with Emmett Tilled and being violated by kind of, you know, white supremacy and dying at the hands of that. So it ranges in a lot of different effects. But the lens we've seen currently is police brutality. But I wanted to focus with the blueness of the skin and the bullet hole in the head. I wanted to focus on just the ways in which it's still prevalent. So the boys looking at you clearly not alive, but still very much so alive, right? Looking directly at you, confronting you. And the bullet hole signifies that kind of the way it's penetrated the community, historically, but also how present it is within the community that children have to leave behind their innocence and carefreeness of just play in order to keep their lives. Because too many times they've been subjected to dying just because they do everything that normal kids do. Kids aren't supposed to know how to do things. Kids are supposed to mess up and make mistakes and do really reckless things. And black individuals, black children are not allowed that space to do that because of the ways historically this land has deemed them as dangerous and animalistic. So that is my first piece. Thank you. The second piece to grown is directed towards sexual assault and the cultural space of sexual assault. Unfortunately, it does have a culture and it has a very prominent place in our everyday world. And anyone can experience it and anyone can be in the dynamic of being a abuser. But for this particular piece, I'm focusing on sexual violence when it comes to adolescence, once again, that innocence, that ignorance of not understanding their bodies and understanding the dynamics of sex and power and what that looks like and when that's supposed to look like something is they take, they get into really, really awful traumatic harmful situations. And we also see that while black boys are celebrated for having sexual experiences at the youngest age of even nine, black girls also experience inappropriate and violent sexual behavior. And they, they're then kind of blamed for it, right? So black boys are celebrated and while black girls could have been prevented, right? Not dressing in revealing clothing, all that stuff, but make make no mistake, even though black boys are celebrated for that, it's still violent. They just don't understand that being in sexual spaces at nine, 10 and 11 with people who are much older than you or have different power dynamics is still violent and abuse. And that kind of goes into the culture of it. So once again, they're a force into these modes of adulthood and being aware of things that they shouldn't have to be aware of yet in order to keep themselves safe. And so I use the red lipstick to kind of talk about that prominent sexual, the sexy red lip and chunky gold earrings to kind of put things on the figure to make the figure look grown with the eyelashes and the lipstick and the earring, but also this very saturated, sad, uncomfortable face in order to propose that while they are put in these spaces, they're not aware of what's going on or why it's going on and it shouldn't be. And this figure's not confronting the viewer because it's kind of this dynamic of them looking at someone else in the room and to say the whoever is in the room dominating the situation, right? As uncomfortable as that is to say, that often happens, right? This whole instance is very uncomfortable. So really pushing that uncomfortableness of the figure looking up and having this face of someone else is there dominating the situation is really what I was trying to do to push that dynamic of sexual violence. And that's it for that piece. Dime bag. So if we don't know what dime bag is, dime bag is just a slang term for a certain amount of weed that you would put in a little baggie. It's usually terms for people who sell substances. So drug dealers and stuff like that. And this one is really focusing on financial stability is a massive concern for everyone, right? Everyone needs to be able to support themselves. But as we have seen in terms of reparations and just generationally with poverty and things like that, Black communities have suffered the hand of that, as well as indigenous as well as Latinx. But they are also a part of that dynamic of generational poverty just as much as generational wealth is a thing. And so oftentimes we'll see Black youth setting aside their futures, setting aside their mental, emotional, physical stability, right? And health to help their parents, help their families survive and be able to eat and have ends meet. And sometimes it is legal spaces, but it's very strenuous and stops them from doing the things that a kid should be able to do, which is go have education, have a life, be with their friends. But sometimes it is illegal. And this also once again kind of puts them in danger of losing that future of their life, right? Whether it be incarceration, which is a whole other thing on its own, or death. So these types of strenuous financial chains that wrap around Black youth, they have to give up a lot that they shouldn't have to being so young, right? And not any fault of their own with their parents or their upbringing. But they are pressured to have an obligation to help just keeping them and their family alive and surviving, right? So having the dime bag kind of stapled into the figure's head with the blood, the blood signifies the detriment of constantly reaching this goal of financial stability, because eventually it's going to cause ramifications beyond anything that they could really consider or understand at that moment, at that point in time, trying to gain whatever money they can so that they can eat the next week. So that's really what that one was focused on. And Hush, last one is really about the common experience that I've had that any, really any person of color had, but especially Black individuals, especially, especially Black women, Black women who identify this lack of being able to hold a motion and rage within you, these natural human emotions that everyone has to experience and live through in their life. The lack of being able to really express those and put those out in the world is how this is kind of exemplifying this. You're denied your emotions and you have to kind of let them fester and kind of push them down because you don't want to be seen as hostile or dangerous and those situations can escalate into you losing your life, you being violently brutalized as we've seen once again within police brutality, but even just in communities and in your home and things like that. Even in schools, you can be really emotionally and sometimes physically brutalized for speaking out about something that makes you angry and that enrages you, something that should, you know, everyone should have access to, you no longer have access to in order to keep your life. So by evoking the red, that's that rage that building up, that really that rage that gets saturated throughout your entire body and then this kind of painful attachment of zippers on the figure's lips to evoke. There's no, there's no way to really express it, right? It's there, but it's painful to keep going back and forth with the experience of letting out your rage, but then being silenced, right? And a lot of that lack of validation causes once again, mental, emotional, physical detriment to a youth's body and experience and the way that they grow up and that torment and trauma is going to affect them long beyond their years of being young, right? So that's really, once again, emphasizing that specific section of blackness and shades of blackness that exist and, you know, really, really just grind down the bare essentials of black youth to nothingness. So that that's that one. So overall, when it comes to my work, regardless of if I'm talking about race or just language, gender, whatever it may be, is getting comfortable with uncomfortable. I am a person who is very comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that's the thing that I try to do when I'm reaching my viewer. In this specific piece, I'm using really, really hyper symbolic imagery to saturate the viewer in what it feels like to be in that space, because there are going to be people who view my work that do not know what it's like to be a black individual and then therefore doesn't know what it's like to have those emotions, right? Have certain things stripped away from you. And so by using that really, really saturated uncomfortable harsh imagery, I am creating a space for the viewer to feel what's actually happening within those experiences, but then also give honesty to what those things feel like. Again, because those feelings are very, very indescribable. And so the closest that I've gotten to actually being able to depict that is through these really harsh visuals and colors that I've chosen for this work. And ultimately, I want people to face it head on, and not shy away, not pretend, not kind of, you know, desaturate it to make it more comfortable or easier to digest and swallow, but really taking all of it in for what it is, because without really experiencing or even realizing what the whole totality of something exists and how it exists, we can never assess it properly and then eradicate it, which is ultimately something that I'm passionate about, eradicating these spaces and creating new ones that oppose the ways in which they've dictated people's lives. So that's the whole of my work and why I do it and how I want people to view it and interact with it. Beautiful. Thank you so very much, Jasmine. That was wonderful. We do have a question. Wonderful. Tyree asks, why do you choose a different color for the skin tone in each piece? And you know what, Amy's question kind of builds on that as well. I'm just going to throw that out to you as well. I think it'll be a similar answer potentially. Did you choose to work in pastels, which has a softness to contrast with the harsh and uncomfortable imagery, or are pastels, excuse me, your usual medium for most of your work? So there is kind of a combination to that. For sure. So Tyree, the reason I chose different colors, it's a play on using colors to evoke a certain emotion, but then also playing on that dynamic of, oh, a black and white type of world that we live in. So I use colors in the black and white to really, really evoke the saturation of that symbol and how it affects the figure, as well as that this idea of like, oh, well, it's just black and white. When really it's not, it's a lot of gray area when it comes to these situations. And then when it comes to the blues and the reds that I use, that was really to saturate the emotion in those specific images. And so I want to just play with that back and forth with the grays and the saturation of color, but then some of them being overly saturated with color. So just like a play of emotion, but then also kind of a topic of how do we actually tackle these things if we only see them as this or that, if that makes sense. And Amy, that's a great observation. No, that's a great observation though that I've never thought of with the softness of pastel with like the harshness of these topics. It's just soft pastel is just something, a medium that I can really push beyond anything that I thought I could push it to. And it just creates a depth and a richness to my work that I found other mediums haven't been able to provide me. So that's really the biggest reason I do most of my works in soft pastels ever since I discovered it. But that's a great observation for the comparing contrast of harshness of subject matter to the softness of a material. That's wonderful. Thank you so very much for your chime Jasmine. That was very insightful. It really brings just new depth to your pieces. And thank you to Tyree and Amy for your questions. Next we will hear from Evans, Alex Centiel. He is a Denver based interdisciplinary artist and current MSU Denver student. His photography focuses on motion, time and the human experience. Alex, thank you so much for joining us this evening. Hey, thank you for the invite. And also thank you for the staff that came out for putting together a show that made the show. When we start, next slide please. So for the show I decided to go with May 30th. May 30th was the third day of the protest in 2020 here in Denver. I decided May 30th because it was the day I feel like was more impactful to me because as you see in the photograph to come, a lot of action happened that day as far as the police and the protesters and how that interaction went. And the way I perceived it was going to go down, but it did not go down that way. Also, May 30th almost didn't happen. The documentary or protest almost did not happen because at the time I had just finished a previous documentary on Michael Hancock. Almost everyone is familiar, but he was a Uber driver back in 2018. He was driving a guy at 2 in the morning, a guy attacked him. And he was a, Michael Hancock was a concealed weapons carry farmer. He protected himself against the guy and then different police did not believe his story. So they put together a story, but in the meantime they kept him in jail for 15 months while they put together the story. And ultimately May 10th of the following year he was caught not guilty. So I documented his family there the entire time he was in jail fighting, fighting based charge. But anyway, so almost didn't happen. May 30th, in my opinion, a lot of questions need to be answered. I saw a lot of people get hurt that shouldn't have not got hurt by police. Just pretty much just the posture that police had that day was just like, it didn't make any sense to me. So I had to document it. And my interpretation of that day, it was a tough day emotionally for me because I had so many emotions running through me. It was like at one point I went into the executive process and at one point I was angry, at one point I was sad. There was just so much going on. Also the police interpretation and tenor that day. That's the question that I hope when people do see these photos, they ask themselves as well as local police, what were you guys doing? What were you guys like? What were you guys doing? Property? Because no property was being damaged. As you see in the photos, people were just out there protesting, showing the force, showing that they were angry and were not at police accountability or whatever. And the last bullet is police accountability. I mean, we need some police accountability. It's been so long and years and there's still a lot of people with families but still waiting for questions to be answered. Next slide please. Yeah, okay. So the first, I won't be talking about all the photos because it's like 19 slides, but some of the photos speak for themselves. For instance, this first photo, some of the little things that you have to pay attention to, like, you know, what it says, if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. I try to kind of like plant the good details in the images or in the scene as well as try to look at it from a different perspective, not from a perspective as from someone outside looking in, but from someone inside, you know, kind of like looking inside. If that makes sense to everyone. Also the first image, I'm sorry, let me go back. So all these images were made on one anti-section. So right in front of the Capitol building, the corner of Colfax and I think it's from Broadway. No, Lincoln, I'm sorry, Lincoln. So next slide please. Okay. So these two images, the image to the my left, I guess your left here, that image reminded me so much of some of the old protest images from like from the Vietnam era. It kind of like illustrates just like what was happening that day. You know, this gentleman in front of me, I remember him, there's another image of him in there somewhere. He was just standing there, you know, and you notice the other guys just kind of saying they just had his hand up. And the old people he was doing, they were just standing there with the hands up and it followed my mind why they were being taken as, why they were being pepper sprayed and why they were being shot by rubber bullets. I myself, as a few times, targeted me and I clearly had two cameras in my hand, really, and around like, I'm sure I think photos, but that line itself, where the guy is standing, that was pretty much the the line between the protesters and the police. Also, if you look to the right image, there's a piece of armored vehicle and it doesn't make sense to me to have an armored vehicle for protesters. Next slide please. Yeah, so some of these images, like for instance, the image on the left was compared to the image to the right, right where that gentleman is in the middle of the smoke, that young woman is to the left of that guy. And that was just the line, people were just sitting in the line and the police were kind of like just pushing him back and just staying there. Next slide please. More, if you continue this slide through and please. Can you pause right here real quick? I just want to say something about the image to the right. The image to the right is the guy that's running, he was one of the people who was, so pretty much the protesters got smart, you know, and they decided, they realized that with the police, we shoot tear gas at them, which comes in like canisters and they would have construction cones and whenever one of the canisters near someone or the group, they'll run out and put a traffic cone over the canisters, so that way the tear gas or whatever does not hurt people. And as soon as he ran out there and they saw him, the police saw him, the police saw him, so they should shoot tear gas at him and I should have to capture it. I mean, I just captured him kind of like, yeah. Next slide please. So hold on, one second. So if you notice an image to the left there, you could see the forefront of the image on the front left, you see one of those canisters exploding and then you see a person kind of like jumping in the ground, but you can see the canisters falling to the left and then everyone kind of like reacted. Sorry, next slide please. I think that's it, right? So the bottom left image was pretty much gives you a view of what was happening again. There was no, I didn't notice any violence on that day as far as the protesters on the protesters side. Again, I was pretty much, I felt more afraid of being heard by the police that day of some natural protesters themselves and I have a history of being in places where it's pretty dangerous and that day it was, it was similar, but again, it wasn't like I was fighting enemies. I was thinking much that it makes sense of what was happening. Yeah, I, so pretty to end this, I really wanted to document what was happening and so for the future generation to have a documentation of what happened at those those days from someone who's experiencing what's happening. So pretty much I've been a victim of police with misconduct, so not from someone who has been as an experienced before. So this is sort of a, so I could totally relate to it and I hope that people could see things through my lens and not from the lens of someone standing at home and in the state or never county or whatever and then just see what they're being with what these people who need me is being given to them. And I hope, I hope these entities spark those questions that we should be asking our politicians and elected officials. All right. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Alex. Beautiful, beautiful photography and to be on the ground like that is so much emotion in front of and behind the camera. And it's almost too much to capture, but you've been able to. We do have a few questions. Hannah has asked, can you please share why you chose to present black and white images rather than color images? All right, good question. So originally, I was documenting the protest and color images because I wanted to get out of these. I wanted to document the current times in color. However, as the protest, as one protest passes after another, and I started seeing the little action of being taken by, by people, you know, related to the big policy change towards, like, for instance, Mayor Hancock, Mayor Hancock, the first couple of days or maybe a week or so, he didn't come out. You know, like, you know, this is your city, man, like, you can come by and say something, only one politician, which is the Leslie Herod, I believe, your name, the only person that came out. So as, so as the days pass, and I started going through the protest, I realized, you know, nothing, nothing has really changed from the, from 1965 and 1966 at the right moment. So, so, so pretty much until something changes, then we'll kind of, we'll have stuff in color. So reason why I decided black and white is because I wanted to kind of like, you could keep it the same as their first civil rights was meant to be. Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much about the continuation of the timeline. Yeah, absolutely. I'll give you a couple more questions for you. Lizette has asked, as far as your process of getting these particular photos, are you just kind of following your heart and taking the pictures of people? Do you have a conversation? Do you tell them you're an artist? Do you take the picture and leave? She just wants a little bit more insight into this type of photojournalism in a way. Yeah. So I had a photography photographer at Metro, Jay, a few years ago. And Jay's something I remember from Jay, he's retired now, but Jay was like, he told me, if it's a public place, you can do whatever you want. You know, like, so, so I took those words and I ran with them. And also, there was just so much going on, people didn't care. And to be honest, I didn't care if I don't remember, well, there are a few people, not this process, but a few after people would say, don't take my photo, not just take the photo anyway. But sometimes, when I'm actually in the moment, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll say fine. And I won't snap your photograph, but they answered your question. I do believe you touched on the confidence and what was, yes, yes, lovely. Wonderful. Thank you, Lizeth, for answering that. We have a couple more questions for you. Sheila has asked, how do you further the narrative inequality, equality at this point? As far as she's noticing the, she can't help but notice the stark differences between these images and let's say January 6th with the insurrection. So again, it kind of speaks to your answer before, but we'd love to hear more about that. I'm sorry, could you repeat the question one more time? Yeah, no problem. Sheila has asked, how do you further the narrative of inequality from this point? Can't help but notice the stark differences in the images from these to let's say January 6th insurrection. It's a really tough question. January 6th insurrection, I feel like there's not much of a comparison between them two, only because I mean, people were, people were protesting different things, you know. We've got this one group of people protesting of an election, whatever it is. We have these group of people who are protesting something that's just happening in Denver, but like, you know, all over the United States and even a portion of the world, you know. But to continue this talk, I mean, I feel like what I've documented is very little compared to very little of what we need to do, besides just pushing it out there. You know, we have to talk, we have to switch up the entire education system. You know, we've got to, we've got to like, we've got to look back and, and, and really address our privileges, right? And that's, it's, yeah, it's a really tough question to answer, but it's just one small part. I hope I was able to answer, just to look at it a bit. Wonderful. Thank you so much, evens. We have one more question to close out before finishing off our panel with the lovely Tyree Jones. But Alex, we were wondering as far as understanding the prolific nature to your photography. We'd love maybe a website to be plugged into the chat, but from this particular day, how many works and how many pieces were you able to capture? Wow. This day, I believe about 2,200 images that I captured. And I didn't say this earlier, but, but, but I wanted, I wanted to say, I wanted to say that Black community photos, these photographs have been sort of like a performance art piece for me. You know, like I said, just being in the space itself, running around, you know, trying to capture as much as I can. And then, and then that's one, one performance, right? And then when I get home, and I have to like, live through the 20,000 images that I take in, you know, and just being there by myself, just being in that moment itself, you know, it's very emotional at times. And even to, even today, you know, almost a year later, I'm still, I still get emotional with nice images and images from one day. And as far as a website, I have some images on the website. I'll plug it into the chat. But yeah, there's, did I answer your question? You very much did. Yes. You do have wonderful scenes of collection. And, and thank you for, for documenting all of that. I appreciate your time. Lovely, lovely. Thank you. Wonderful. And so yes, to close out this lovely panel this evening, we will be hearing from Tyree Jones. Tyree is a Colorado native, a pin artist turned painter who documents the black experience with a vivid use of color and dedication to details. Tyree, thank you so much for joining us this evening. Hi, thank you. I'm really excited. Okay. So yeah, I'm going to be talking about my project, We The Protest. Next slide. So I'm just going to be talking about the project summary a bit. Sure, you can just pretty much show all of the points that I have on here. So It's We The Protest is a group of four portraits depicting protesters that attended the Denver Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. I have the project broken up into two different processes, which is the documenting process and the painting process. And the paintings serve to eradicate stigmas that are perpetuated against black people and the Black Lives Matter group. Some of those stigmas being that we're violent or that it was a mob mentality or that the protests were unwarranted. In my opinion, a lot of the protesters were afraid, but they were passionate and standing in solidarity. And I thought that that was something that was to be admired. Next slide. So I'm going to start talking about the documenting process. And day one was really spent digesting the atmosphere of the protest. It was actually on the same day that Evans was talking about, which is really crazy. If you can show the pictures. So I just have some pictures from the day of the protest. And it was a lot different than the days following, because it was very hostile. The environment was crazy, chaotic. There was a lot of violence. And that was shown on the police side, obviously. When I first started the project, I intended on painting scenes from the protest instead of actually painting portraits. But I felt, especially after the first day, that the scenes didn't accurately capture why people were there. And I wanted to get more in depth with the people and make the project about the people after this day. And yeah, on this day, we were tear gas. They were flash bombs. People were getting injured. It was a nightmare, actually. And I was very scared to even go on the first place. And this day kind of exacerbated those fears. And it made me not want to go back at all. But I knew that I had to in order to kind of show the reason why people are really here. Next slide. So days two through four, these are the days that were a little more peaceful. They were spent actively protesting. These are the days that I recorded interviews with the protesters. And I took some photographs of protesters. There are some photographs of them. So the interviews were more of conversations, I would say, than interviews. I started each one of them with just asking them why they attended the protest that day. And everyone was very open and candid with me. And some were there because they felt that they needed to speak on others' behalf. Some were there because they felt that it was important to show their face despite the fear that they have. And all the conversations that I had with everyone were very powerful. For each portrait that I took, I asked the protesters to pose in whichever way that they felt best suit at them. And some wanted to take on, not to use the word dramatic, but more dramatic poses than others. And some just wanted to be calm and shown as the way that I presented, like that I've walked up to them. Next slide. So now I'm going to be talking about the painting process. First part is prepping and drafting. I started every piece by listening to all the interviews because I had them recorded. And then I would type out the entire transcript of them. This helped me get back into that place of being with them, connecting with them, talking with them. And that's how I decided the background color because the background colors were very important to me in these pieces. I felt that they represented the energy and the personalities that all of the people had given to me when I approached them. For example, the one that's shown, he was very calm. I actually didn't speak to him. He was getting pictures taken by everyone. He just had his sign and everyone was going to him and taking a bunch of pictures. I just asked him, do you mind if I get a photo of you? He turned, took the picture and he just calmly walked away. And I thought that that was so powerful, especially in such a chaotic environment for someone to be so calm. And I really wanted to reflect that in the background. And then, of course, for the other paintings, a lot of the background colors were chosen based off of the conversations I had with them. So, yeah. Next slide. This is the actual painting process. It took anywhere from five days to two weeks kind of depended on how much I connected to each piece. Just go ahead and, yeah. They're all painted on birchwood panels with oil paint. I'm a very methodical painter, so everything was planned out from who I was going to paint on which day, where to start. And, yeah. And so, an example for how, I'm sorry, you go back, Sherry, I'm sorry. An example for kind of how the links depended on how much I connected with each piece or with each person. The empath painting took a little bit longer because we had a lot of the same feelings about the protest, kind of the anxieties that came with the protests, and just kind of being worried for everyone there. And I really wanted to take my time with that piece. So, yeah. There was no, you know, everything's done after a certain couple of days, but it was really all about emotion and feeling with each piece. Okay. Now I'm going to talk about each piece. So, this is We Matter. I talked about this briefly, but this was the guy who was getting photographed. And I wanted the leaves to kind of represent that constant, but slow change, very calm change, kind of like we see with the leaves changing. The blue, obviously, is symbolic of his calm demeanor and his determined facial expression that he was giving me. He didn't have to say anything, but he said so much more, you know, than he could have. Oh, yeah. Next slide. This is the empaths. This was a couple that I met. They were very kind, and they talked about how afraid they were, which really resonated with me because I felt the same exact way being there, but I just wanted to do a project. I wanted to talk about it, and that's the same exact reason that they were there. And I felt a lot of connection to these two individuals. There was a lot of empathy. There was a lot of unity. There was love in our conversation. And I felt like that was really represented by the colors that connect them in this piece. Next slide. This is the speaker. So he had spoken this day to a very large group of people, which I thought was very brave. I couldn't do it. I'm nervous just even speaking right now. And he really felt that it was his civic responsibility to be there for all of these Black people and to speak on behalf of us. And he wanted the change to come from ourselves first in order to inflict change on others. And I thought that that was a very powerful statement. And I think that he really represented that in his pose. He was very thoughtful, and I really enjoyed that about him. Next slide. And this is today, tomorrow, and forever. Their interview had a lot to do with family history, especially on his side. His family spent a lot of time protesting. And his brothers, he talked about how it's impacted him growing up. And his interview was very prolific in that way. He felt that he was doing it for generations to come. And it was not about himself at all. They were there for others more than they were there for themselves. And I think that the message is that all of these people really showed all of the different reasons why people were protesting and that it wasn't just something that was violent and that there isn't this mob mentality. But there are all these beautiful different reasons that people are coming together in order to fight for something. There's all these different stories, and everybody just wants the same thing, which is to be treated fairly and equality for their loved ones and safety for themselves. Next slide. Next slide, Sharon. Next slide. Is it working? Yeah, I'm on the next slide. Do you want me to go ahead and play or do you want to set it up? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see it. My bad. The images are the same on both sides, so the screen cap and that one. So easy to easy to think they're the same. Got it. My apologies. Okay. Well, next I'm going to be showing a video. The video is just comprised of raw footage from the protests, some paintings, some photographs, and some words from some of the protesters that I got when I interviewed them. So take it away. Every time I see some of these people murdered, I see myself. I see my brothers. I see my dad, my cousins. I see my family. I see my friends. I'm trying to do everything in my power to make sure this doesn't happen to the people that I love. I got two shots! There lies matter! There lies matter! I got two little boys that I want to live! So my name's Tyree. I'll introduce myself as well. I just really wanted to know, besides the obvious, what is the purpose that brings you guys out here today? I thought that I wanted to spread a lot of positivity and love and light in the world. I just feel like with all the injustices going on and all the people out here protesting, like we've been in the house for a long time. So there's already a lot of built-up energy just from like corona and then like all the injustices going on. So there are a lot of people who are coming to these protests just really angry and full of hate. And even if you're not angry and full of hate, it's easy to pick up on their energy when you're out here, right? So we decided to come out here and spread good vibes because it's so easy to get caught up in the negativity of the crowd. Well, I'm an educator. I teach middle school and I'm a behavior therapist for every kid up until 18. So for me it's making sure that I am here just as a present so that people can know that I'm here and that, you know, I'm that type of teacher and I can't protest in March but I can't pass out water. Unite! The past, since the protests started, we've had to hear helicopters. The majority of our evenings, even the other night, there was one at like 2 a.m. that woke me up out of my sleep. You hear the sirens, you hear the flash bombs, you hear the fireworks. You can tell when the helicopters are even closer because you can hear, like she said, I've been getting anxiety from some of this to be honest. It is. It's a lot of, and I think it's the collective energy in the air and there was already that freeze in the air from COVID and I think this just like lit a match. Don't just get tired because they don't want to hear it. That's exactly what I go through on a daily basis because people still are just hearing and not listening. As I say, racism still exists, that our Black people are being murdered, that we don't feel as we've mattered. I hear this as a 16 year old little girl and here I am 46 doing it again with my children now and I just pray that this generation can help make a difference but I'm going to stand with them until the difference is made. This whole movement is about really trying to open people's eyes and to push them to use their voice. Everybody likes the fact that they're a part of history and a part of fighting for this change but to me it goes a little deeper than that. It's not so much of the fact that I'm fighting for what the future holds. It's I'm creating the future. I'm either out here doing everything in my power to make sure that my kids and grandkids are going to be taking care of and they won't have to worry about the same things that I'm worried about. Or I'm going to sit my eyes down and wait for someone else to make this their problem and wait for generations and generations and let this pile up some more. History is going to, the future is going to come regardless. You can either impact it or just let it pass you by. Yeah, well thank you guys so much. That was so powerful. For those of you who saw the video, I hope you enjoyed it. Kendall, thank you for linking it in the chat. Wonderful and Tyree, oh that's your thank you. I'll go on to the questions. Give me just one moment everyone in the chat. I'm going to just take a moment to scroll up to ensure that I see everyone's questions. Okay, wonderful. So our first question is from Michael and Michael asked Tyree, is there a particular reason why you chose the specific backgrounds for each piece? Yes, I chose the backgrounds based off of their personalities and the energy that they had given off during our conversations. I thought the colors really represented who they were and why they had attended. So yes. Wonderful, thank you so much. Your next question is from Lizette. She asks, did you keep in touch with them, your subject matters after you took their picture? Do they know their portraits are up at CVA? Yes, I have been in touch with them. In fact, I've stayed the most in touch with the couple from the empaths. They're very sweet and they do know that they are in CVA. I follow quite a few of them on Instagram and they've seen the work and they're very happy about it. I'm not quite too sure if all of them have gone to the museum though. But yes, I do keep in touch with them. That's wonderful. There's a lovely message from Hannah. I appreciate the opportunity to revisit the urgency, anger and fear and emotion of last summer through Alex and Tyree's work. Not much has changed. We are just not in the streets every day anymore. That does have a lot to do with it. I do have one last question for you, Tyree, before we wrap up this lovely panel. Thank you so much for your time. With your current work, with this particular exhibit, there is this element of recording. Is this a process that you will be reproducing for future collections or do you think that it was just to resonate with this particular collection? It's definitely something that I enjoy. I think it depends on the collection that I'm doing. For my paintings, I'll definitely always be photographing something before I paint it. That just resonates with me and that's something that I want in my work. As far as interviewing and having conversations, I think that just depends on the project. But as far as taking photographs and emulating that in painting, that's something that I'm going to definitely keep doing. Beautiful. Thank you so very much, Tyree. You were wonderful. We appreciate you having been a part of 965. Thank you again to Evens and Jasmine. We appreciate your time as well. Cherie, I'll let you go ahead and take over at the ending of this lovely panel. All right. So thank you all so much once more for joining us. Thank you for taking time out of your evening. For any of you who are still students, thanks for giving us some of your homework time. Come by the CDA, please. If you have not seen Deeper Than Skin yet, if you haven't seen the exhibition in the main gallery, it is also exquisite and powerful. And that one is Zanelli Mahalli's Samyama Ninyama, Hail the Dark Lioness. I apologize for any mispronunciation of that. But what I wanted to say is I'm so grateful to be surrounded by all of these powerful works every time I go into work. I also want to thank our artists, Jasmine, Evens, and Tyree for participating in this event and for allowing us to present their work in the 965 Project Gallery. I would also like to thank my fellow curators, Yee team, Kendall, Sheila, and Molly. Thank you so much for your work in putting this exhibition together. And lastly, I would really like to thank the, on behalf of the curation team, thank the CDA team, Ceci Cullen, Jenna Miles, Katie Taft, and Kristen Smith for the opportunity for us to be able to put this together and the support and guidance that they provided during the process. We've kept you five minutes longer than planned, so thank you. We love you. Go enjoy the rest of your evening.