If These Walls Could Talk

Carlos unpacks how despite it being a hard year, confronting financial fears and the racism he has experienced, last year was his most successful year yet. Carlos encourages artists to walk towards their fear, no matter how they might feel. How to take responsibility for our welfare, not be dependent on politicians and those who don’t have our best interests at heart. This has been the year of truth, not so comfortable. Carlos shares with us the chakra system for clearing creative blocks and how he applies this process of removing blocks to his community mural-making process. “We will believe anything except in ourselves.” Website: https://www.carlosrodriguezart.com/ [https://www.carlosrodriguezart.com/] Instagram: @carlosrmk [https://www.instagram.com/carlosrmk/]

This passage that I meant for the book was accidentally left on the cutting room floor: 1. Who gets picked Deciphering which artists are chosen, which creative voices and perspectives are shared in a community is too frequently the result of an imperfect selection process. For example, street art festivals can gain city and building-owner approval for walls, but typically don’t have much in the way of budget to pay the artists. The art that gets made under those conditions is painted by whoever is willing to work for little to no payment, typically younger and less experienced artists who don’t have families to feed. Intentionally curating a diversity of voices is frequently overlooked in the artist’s selection process, especially on privately-funded public mural projects. One community I bid on a project for had brought ten large-scale murals to their downtown, all funded through private donations. However, nine out of the ten artists selected to paint the murals were either white or male, representing only a small segment of the diverse community. Private interest groups can be a boon to bringing artwork to communities, but ensuring the artist representation is well-rounded makes for more diverse perspectives and is vital to ensuring the artwork relevant to the broader community.

You can find Mural Joe here: Homepage: www.muraljoe.com [www.muraljoe.com] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/muraljoe [https://www.youtube.com/user/muraljoe] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muraljoe [https://www.facebook.com/muraljoe] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muraljoe/ [https://www.instagram.com/muraljoe/]

Back with a whole new season of fun, in this episode Morgan unpacks Chapter 5 from her new book, The Mural Artists Handbook, on why school murals hold so much potential as venues for creative mural art. She explains why she is so enthusiastic about school murals that she dedicated a whole chapter of the book to the subject. This podcast highlights the benefits of school murals and possible funding sources for school murals Visit www.MuralArtistsHandbook.com to find out more about Morgan’s new book!

Host: [Morgan Bricca][1] Links: [Web: www.Morganmurals.com][2] [Insta: morgan.mural.studios][3] [Blog www.morganmurals.com/blog][4] Episode Summary: I answer questions posed in an email from an artist in Portland, OR who wants to move towards mural painting. I wrap up this last episode in the season with a list of reasons why I love painting murals.