Artist Decoded by Yoshino

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Carlos: Carlos Torres has been tattooing for over 20 years and is mostly self-taught. Early in his career, Carlos worked at a couple of tattoo shops before he got his big break at So. Cal Tattoo in San Pedro, CA. It was there he learned the most and built his tattoo portfolio. Carlos specializes in black & grey realism and surrealism tattoos and loves creating original pieces of art. In addition to tattooing, he enjoys photography, painting, sculpting, teaching workshops, and traveling. His travels to international and domestic conventions have earned him awards including Best Small Black & Gray, Best Large Black & Gray, and Best Backpiece. In October of 2017, Carlos opened his own studio, The Raven and The Wolves. This fine art gallery and tattoo studio is located in the heart of downtown Long Beach and is home to 8 artists. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Carlos' start in tattooing
• The power of mentorship
• Apprenticeship in the tattoo practice
• Intuition and learning to be in-tune with your gut
• The ever-changing nature of tattooing
• The art of tattooing in relation to other mediums
• Carlos' love for realism
• Being a "loose painter on skin"
• Mastering a medium
• Mood and stress having a factor in tattooing
• The human element, and subjectivity towards ideas
• The clients desire for a tattoo, versus the artist's interpretation and advice
• Carlos' recent work within oil paints
• Freedom
• Growing up in the ghetto
• Staying positive in the midst of life
• Teaching making you a better artist
• Being informed by toggling back between art medium
• Covid-19 and Carlos' time spend thinking about lif
• Taking time off and implementing fresh ideas into your ar
• Creatives becoming caricatures of themselves
• Having child-like sensibilities with your art practice
• "Holding onto your dinosaurs
• Observing people losing their creative instinct
• The cliche's of adulthood
• Storing ideas and inspiration

www.artistdecoded.com

Carlos' Instagram

Carlos' Website

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Sophia: Sophia Rokhlin is an author, speaker, and nonprofit organizer dedicated to supporting the conservation of indigenous wisdom and territory. Through engaged botany and ecology, she bridges the worlds of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science. She is a Program Coordinator at the Chaikuni Institute, supporting sustainable ayahuasca cultivation and reforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. She is a co-author of When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism, and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance (Watkins, 2019) on the global spread of ayahuasca. She helps coordinate Folk Medicine, a live-stream benefit for communities of the Amazon rainforest impacted by COVID-19. She sits in the Ayahuasca Community Committee for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Her research appears in publications including the New York Times and the BBC. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• The beginning stages of Sophia's work with indigenous people groups
• How human communities understand and grow in community with each other
• The differences between the "American path" vs the path that indigenous people groups take
• The association of wavelengths and the togetherness of individuals
• How western culture has lost a sense of togetherness
• The concept of reciprocity
• "Sowing seeds for the future, while living in the present"
• Capitalism and the approach to success
• Coronavirus and it's affect to our larger structures
• Working together in teams
• Happiness
• Technology and social innovations
• How indigenous people groups approach health and wellness
• America viewing health in an allopathic way
• Environmentalism
• The romanticization of interconnectedness
• The traditional and modern uses of Ayahuasca
• Meditation, present-mindedness, and prayer
• The loss of ritual within modern society
• Being honest with yourself
• Living in a world full of tools, but having the lack of community to utilize them
• Human wisdom
• The mindset of jumping from interest to interest, rather than going deeper into a context
• Art being an expression of exploration

www.artistdecoded.com

Sophia's Instagram

Sophia's Website

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About William: William von Hippel, Ph.D., grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and then taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He has published more than a hundred articles, chapters, and edited books in social psychology, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, the BBC, Le Monde, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and The Australian.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• William's start in social evolutionary science
• The fear we experience being attributed to evolution
• Technology affecting our evolution
• Social vs. technological innovations
• The difference and similarities between hunter and gatherers and us now living in the modern world
• Great ideas being found
• Sexual selection within evolution and how it has shifted with the influence of dating apps and the internet
• Maximizers vs. satisficers
• Finding the fundamental purpose of your life
• The meaning of life
• Coronavirus and self-isolation
• The evolution of collaboration
• Being present-minded
• The fallibility of memories
• Sociopathic tendencies within humans
• The cost of empathy
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and self-actualization
• "Killing the Mastadon"
• How art and science fit within evolution.
• Objectivity
• The acceptance of the truth
• The end result of science and art being incredibly similar
• The concept of the "starving artist"

www.artistdecoded.com

The Social Leap

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About CJ: Cj Hendry (b. 1988) is a New York based artist originally from Brisbane, Australia. Globally renowned for her large-scale, photo-realistic drawings of consumer goods and immense, interactive exhibitions, she has developed a dedicated following through her unique brand of technical mastery and conceptual depth.

A self-professed "lover of products", Hendry is heir to the Pop Art tradition that firmly established depictions of everyday objects and mass culture in the art historical canon. In the footsteps of Andy Warhol, Hendry generates instantaneously appealing images that celebrate kitsch aesthetics and it's ubiquitous presence in contemporary digital culture. More recently, the artist has incorporated new subject matter to delve into deep-seated concerns and anxieties of current society. After seven years of studying architecture and finance in Australia, Hendry abandoned the endeavor in 2014 to pursue art full-time. She has since presented 6 solo exhibitions across Australia, the U.S., and Asia. In 2017, the artist collaborated with esteemed fashion house Christian Louboutin to present her first works in color during the 2017 edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Adaptability
• Not being bogged down by life and "going on with the show"
• The dynamic of achieving greatness without falling into individualistic, isolated, and greedy viewpoints.
• Discipline, and its relation to our daily life.
• The importance of community, and how opening yourself up and allowing people to be involved with what you are doing brings about a particular level of freedom.
• The concept of creative energy - Being relaxed, calm, and effortless within your life and art practice.
• Art not about being able to draw something well. Rather, art being more about the conceptual nature behind it.
• Creatively letting go of what others think about you, and doing work that is fulfilling for yourself within art.
• The concept of working hard and living humbly.
• Triumphing in the midst of defeats.

www.artistdecoded.com

CJ Hendry's Instagram

CJ Hendry's Website

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Anna: Anna Park is a contemporary artist based in New York City, creating pieces that blur the lines between figurative and abstract work.

Creating a dazed, yet emotional experience, Anna's central content revolves around larger bodies of people within social settings while provoking a vaporous and ethereal sensation.

Her most recent work takes on a new form, having a larger, tangled, and fragmented abstraction that envelops the viewer as the cacophony of black and white charcoal reveals intimate messages relating to society and the people we interact with.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• The inspiration behind her most recent work describing them as an "amalgamation of people"
• The desire for "the viewer can become the voyager"
• Anna feeling that the inspiration for her new body of work can be attributed to her living in New York City
• The dynamic of paintings feeling nostalgic and how our subconscious draws from past memories without truly knowing why
• Work and life during the quarantine
• The dynamic of creating art in a self-fulfilling way vs creating art specifically for other people
• Anna's upbringing moving from multiple states and her interactions with her mentor, Bruce Roberson, and how he "taught her everything" and how it solidified Anna's desire to be an artist
• Gratitude surrounding Anna's move to New York
• Submergence within different cultures
• Community
• Power structures and how toxic masculinity has permeated the world and made it difficult to empathize and move past our hierarchical viewpoints

www.artistdecoded.com

Anna Park's Instagram

Anna Park's Website

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Ryan: Ryan York is a Doctor of Philosophy, postdoctoral scholar within the department of neurobiology at Stanford University, and an author of over a dozen publications. His research is focused on the evolutionary genomic basis of brain and behavior with a specific interest in the courtship behaviors of Lake Malawi cichlid fish. Having a passion for music and working in constant collaboration with individuals such as Justin Daashuur Hopkins, Ryan borders the line between highly intellectual compositions and spontaneous, free-flowing, and seemingly primal soundscapes Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Ryan's work as an evolutionary biologist, and his specific project working within computational methods in understanding behaviors
• Applying concepts used within artificial intelligence and using them for work in other areas of science
• The overlap of art and science
• The idea of repeatability
• Collective consciousness and collaboration
• Provisional answers and the unknown
• Continually shifting based upon your ever-changing context
• Scientific having ties to elements of spirituality
• Free will
• Humility
• The power of the mind
• Philosophy of science
• Different levels of understanding
• Dogmatism
• Placebo's having a similarity to art
• The subconscious vs analytical instinct
• Slow vs fast understanding and experience
• Creativity being an exploration of what the world is

www.artistdecoded.com

Ryan's Stanford Profile

Ryan's Instagram

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Daniele: Bolelli reads a passage about fear from his book, "Not Afraid: On Fear, Heartbreak, Raising a Baby Girl, and Cage Fighting" Daniele Bolelli (born January 11, 1974) is an Italian-American writer, university professor, martial artist, and podcaster based in Southern California. He is the author of several books on philosophy, and martial arts, including On the Warrior's Path. Known for his writing since the 1990s in Italy and the early 2000s in the United States, Bolelli rose to greater public prominence in the 2010s, beginning with his appearances on popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience. He went on to create his own podcasts, and has hosted The Drunken Taoist since 2012 and History on Fire since 2015. Bolelli holds M.As in American Indian Studies and history from UCLA and California State University, Long Beach, and did postdoctoral research in history at Cardiff University. As a professor, he has taught a wide variety of courses in the arts, humanities, and social sciences on topics including Native American history and culture, Taoist philosophy, and Ancient Rome. He teaches at CSULB and Santa Monica College.

www.artistdecoded.com

www.danielebolelli.com

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Jerome: Acclaimed and revered painter, Jerome Lagarrigue, was born in France to a father who was an illustrator and a mother who was a writer and journalist. Being rooted within a world of creativity and culture, Jerome's life - from youth to adulthood, can be described as a type of compelling metamorphosis, including experiences both from a creative and racial point of view which directly saturates his current work as a painter. Finding love within depicting movement inside of his work, Jerome continues to create powerful work that calls into question particular aspects of the world we live in and frames the subtle and reflective essence of human beings.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Jerome being exposed to two different cultures, and how it offered both confusing and later, harmonious element to his life as a whole
• The topic of race – its objectivity, functionality, horrific nature, and the struggles that have come with being associated with a specific race
• Jerome's upbringing - living both in France and Harlem, and how he was always drawing as a child
• The effects of social injustices on racial identity
• The layered nature of the social justice protests and riots
• Capitalism shaping the way we live our lives
• The genesis of creativity
• Decisions of engaging in a subject matter
• Searching continually within art
• The power in saying no
• Creative instinct
• The wave and the weight of the reaction to coronavirus
• Captivation within the movement and process of painting
• Stanly Kubrick's process and its relation to creativity
• The growth from the mentality of seeing the world as either one or another absolute into viewing the world as being "gray"
• An Individual's desire to be comfortable rather than be challenged
• Jerome's decision to paint riots
• The connection of energy, nature, and humanism within paining
• Feeling, rather than reacting

www.artistdecoded.com

www.jeromelagarrigue.com

Jerome's Instagram

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About CJ: CJ Johnson is an acclaimed Speaker and Digital Marketing Consultant, servicing Fortune 50 clients worldwide and a prominent digital influencer with hundreds of thousands of online supporters. CJ is best known for creating successful influencer marketing campaigns as both an influencer and a Consultant, helping content creators and companies maximize their ROI. As a successful influencer, CJ uses his voice for creative storytelling to provide inspiration, digital marketing tips, and work/life balance advice in our modern era. As a Consultant, CJ specializes in digital brand strategy, creative campaigns, influencer marketing, future of work, diversity & inclusion, and trend forecasting. His work specializes in the technology, fashion, lifestyle, political, travel, and entertainment industries. Currently, CJ is a GQ Insider, Google Next Gen Policy Leader, and a Digital Marketing Consultant to innovative companies. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• The joys of having a daughter
• Couch surfing while finishing college in Los Angeles
• Finding success through design and conscious actions
• Doing marketing for tech companies
• How money plays into an overall idea of success

www.artistdecoded.com

www.cjjohnsonjr.com

www.instagram.com/cjjohnsonjr

https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Steven: Steven Assael (born in 1957), is an award-winning American painter, credited most for his masterful artistry within his figure work and modern re-envisioning of the neo-classical, naturalist, and romantic techniques of old. Being captivated with what the human form and image represent, ever-changing and seemingly random elements and deeply rooted emotional intelligence, Assael traverses what it is to be human, and the subtleties included within an organic connection. Assael's latest work includes his collaboration between himself and his represented gallery titled "Now We Meet Again" which focuses on individuals presenting images of loved ones, or individuals of significance to Assael through Zoom calls. Working through the purpose of the painting, Assael paints not only the image, but interweaves the very emotional framework and intentions the recipient presented beforehand. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Seeking out advantages within painting and connecting with people during quarantine
• Separation bringing us together
• The intimate process of working with models and how they directly or indirectly affect the painting
• Allowing for change within his overall creative vision
• Teaching painting over Zoom
• What makes a good teacher
• The search for finding the right questions to ask
• Experience motivating change and providing a renewal of what you want
• Creating situations of exploration for oneself
• Extracting the right vocabulary while creating
• The element of control and power that children express when drawing different objects
• Understanding the dynamic of copying a subject while painting, and how that evolves into a deeper exploration of shapes, tone, atmospheres, and the figure itself.
• Giving breadth to form
• A great work of art being infectious
• The nature of romanticism
• Working from life being an "inquiry into your own humanness"
• The idea of questioning and rebelling within a visual outlook
• Human nature
• The environment of New York throughout the last forty years, and how it has changed
• The importance of theatre and the work of actors
• Symmetry and asymmetry, and its importance within artform and observation
• "Everything is everything" approach to life
• Learning what to see flowing into learning how to paint
• Nature being sporadic, and how we must become "like water" in order to succeed in our strategies in life
• A commercialized outlook within the art world
• Art becoming entertainment
• Faith and doubt
• Questioning of spirituality and existence

www.artistdecoded.com

www.stevenassael.com

www.instagram.com/stevenassael