Inspiration in Action with Marius Valdes

Last time we had Marius on was episode 16, Sept 26, 2012. Now at episode 470. We have had many years in between and Marius has done MANY things. Lots of murals, lots of illustrations, books, so many things. I can’t wait to see what he has done and who has inspired him.

This series is fascinating to me because I love seeing how people learn, how what they are experiencing, reading, and seeing influence and effect their art and design. His characters are lovable and joyful. Marius brings that joy to walls through his murals, bookshelves through his books and illustration projects, and anywhere else stickers can live. You can get your own stickers, art, books, and more by visiting his website.

Marius is a full professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and has been teaching design and illustration to the students there for over 15 years. I can’t wait to see what else is inspiring Marius and what keeps him from burnout, keeping his creative juices flowing.

I hope you will join us for this LIVE show Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 7:30pm GMT / 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT / 8:30am in Hawaii. All you have to do to join us live is click the link sent to your inbox. To join the family and participate in the LIVE show is to sign up to get the link at https://creativesignite.com/signup

LIVE on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 7:30pm GMT / 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT / 8:30am in Hawaii.

Questions for Marius

1. Marius, can you give everybody a little background about your art/illustration and what you do? 
   
2. How has your work changed and evolved over the years?
   
3. Can you see a direct correlation to what you make from who inspires you? in terms of materials or where your murals are located? style? process? or is it more subject matter?
   
4. What have you made and what inspired those things, can you show us a link between a person or event or thing that started the spark? I am excited for you to talk about your process of getting ideas and executing on them in ways that are new to you. Do you regularly try out new technologies or new materials?
   
5. If you could tell someone how much their life or work has inspired you (dead or alive) who would that be and what would you tell them or ask them about?

Listen here

Ways to Connect with Marius

To Buy Art: www.joyouscreatures.com

www.mariusvaldes.com

@zoovaldes on Instagram and Twitter
https://instagram.com/@zoovaldes

Transcript

[00:00:00] diane: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Creatives Ignite and I’m excited. Date, do you know the last time I had Marius EZ on, he had been in a How magazine featured? I don’t remember what year that was. Do you? Nope. Okay. So, um, you were teaching at, um, South Carolina then, right? 

[00:00:24] Marius Valdes: Yep, that was my first year.

[00:00:26] diane: That was your first year? So that was 2012. So [00:00:30] he was 

[00:00:30] Marius Valdes: Oh, no, five years. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 

[00:00:32] diane: Okay. You had been teaching five years. 

[00:00:34] Marius Valdes: Yeah, 

[00:00:35] diane: but he had, um, he was episode number 16, so 

[00:00:42] Marius Valdes: any gray hair back then? 

[00:00:43] diane: Oh, that’s true. Uh, I, I did, ’cause I had my first one when I was 14, so I can’t really say that to anybody.

[00:00:50] Everybody, I’ve always had gray hair. I’ve just colored it. Anyway, so it has been a long time and you have done a lot of different [00:01:00] things. We both went to the same grad school, but we didn’t know each other in grad school. So we have some similar, um, memories that from, uh, that building that we were all in.

[00:01:11] And I remember you were on the third floor, right? Like Mm-Hmm. When we’ve talked about that. Um, but you make some really cute, fun characters and some end up on paintings. Some are murals, some are posters for clients, some are, um, [00:01:30] uh, you’ve made stickers. You’ve made little three dimensional clay figurines.

[00:01:35] Mm-Hmm. You’ve had many art shows and I love. When Mina, who also works with you now, um mm-Hmm. She had come on and she did this, not intentionally, but it was so awesome when she kind of talked about some of her inspiration or who really inspired her in her work. I was like, I wanna make this a series. And [00:02:00] from then it has been, it, it’s been really fun.

[00:02:02] And Arius and I were talking yesterday about how, um, this is a good exercise. I actually wish everybody would do this. Mm-Hmm. And, because I just think it’s fun to kind of pull, like, oh, I saw this, I learned this, or I read this book and this inspired me to do blank. Or this in, you know, had me trying something else.

[00:02:24] So we’re kind of wrapping or not wrapping up. We’re we’re starting this, we did it, uh, [00:02:30] last week and then we’re just continuing on. But Marius 12 years. A lot has happened in 12 years. Yeah. Yes. So, so I’m excited. I will you just fill us in for anybody who isn’t familiar, they’re gonna get real familiar and we have a lot of slides, so we’re just jumping in and I’m gonna interrupt you to ask questions.

[00:02:51] Sure. And if y’all have questions, I’m just gonna hold the chat. So I will interrupt myself to, um, have the chat for [00:03:00] y’all. So Marius, just give ’em a little bit about your background and who you are and what you do. 

[00:03:07] Marius Valdes: Yeah. I’m from Charleston, South Carolina. Um, I went to University of Georgia for undergrad.

[00:03:14] I worked for four or five years in Charlotte, in Charleston, in Richmond before going back to grad school at VCU. Um, after VCUI taught at USC Upstate for a couple years, and then I moved up, uh, to Columbia or actually say [00:03:30] down to Columbia. And, uh, been here ever since. Um, I’m going into my 19th year of teaching, which is insane.

[00:03:38] And, um, yeah, I think what you said earlier, uh, I, I have a gazillion slides. I think I’ll cover a lot of this, but I just make a lot of different things and I kind of think of things as being project based. So, um, you know, I’ll work on something with my hands and then when I get burnout on that, I switch the computer and then I get burned out on that.

[00:03:59] I [00:04:00] go back to working with my hands. Um, and fortunately I always sort of seem to have a place to kind of, um, land these projects, whether it’s for a client or for a grant or for, uh, art show of some sort. Um, and yeah, I just try to keep busy and when I’m not doing art and design and teaching, I’m usually on a soccer field watching my kid play soccer.

[00:04:25] Um, so that’s a big part of, of my life too, which that’s something we talked about a little [00:04:30] bit yesterday. Yeah. Because I wanted 

[00:04:33] diane: to know, in all these years, how has he not burned out? And he said, oh, I’m gonna cover that. And I said, okay, good. I don’t need you to answer it today. But we did talk about some of those things.

[00:04:42] And I think, um, because this is not everybody has as long of a career right? As uh, what you have, but it has it, there is a challenge in kind of having this, um, other side. You have this other part of what you do is your teaching [00:05:00] and you’re really, your time is not your own as when you’re, when you’re in during a semester.

[00:05:06] So 

[00:05:08] Marius Valdes: yeah, it’s hard. I mean, it’s, it’s, you know, I, I have, I have ways of working with that schedule. Um, but you can’t rely on it because things pop up when you don’t expect it. And before you know it, you’ve spent your day trying to figure out who’s gonna teach a class because your instructor just took another job somewhere, you [00:05:30] know?

[00:05:30] Um, so. It’s, it’s, you know, I usually work in spurts and I think one of the things that’s really important, what you just said too, for people watching this, especially students, is this is a career was worth of stuff. This is not stuff I did in the last year. This is like, this is like a years and years of, of work, you know?

[00:05:52] And, 

[00:05:52] diane: and most of the people here have been in, around and in business for over 10 years, some [00:06:00] over 20. So you are among your people here. Uh, maybe people watch on YouTube. I always just think of it’s just y’all who are here live and if you didn’t know you can actually come live. But, um, but like, uh, Matt Wood who just said, Hey in the chat, he’s been doing illustrations for a long time as well.

[00:06:19] And so I think some of the things is that, um. But it is, it’s not like something you’ve just done. You’ve figured out certain things. You’ve written for grants, bills. Yeah. [00:06:30] 

[00:06:30] Marius Valdes: Right. And I, I think, I think I’ll talk, I think that’ll be covered a little bit in, in my, in my talk. So, um, you know, again, I, I show a lot of pictures because I think that’s, I’m a visual person and I think it’s more interesting to sort of see things.

[00:06:43] So, um, hopefully that will work. Well, you wanna 

[00:06:47] diane: dive in? 

[00:06:48] Marius Valdes: Okay. Awesome. So, uh, yeah, so I’m at the University of South Carolina. Um, I just got a full professor a couple years ago, um, which is nice. And, um, I have [00:07:00] gone my, I’ve worked under a couple different names on projects, zoo Valdez, secret Species, Valdez Art, Joyce Creatures.

[00:07:07] So if you Google any of those, it’ll take you to stuff. 

[00:07:10] diane: So why so many different names? 

[00:07:12] Marius Valdes: Great question. And believe me, that is the bane of my existence right now. Um, so, um, I originally started calling myself. Zoo Valdez, because my first name is so hard to spell right. Oh. And I was [00:07:30] thinking what would be the easiest way if someone wanted to find me, and valdez.com was taken, so I thought I’d make mostly animal-based characters.

[00:07:38] And I kind of think of them as a zoo of, you know, collection of animals. 

[00:07:42] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:07:43] Marius Valdes: Um, so I, I started using Zoo Valdez and that caught on pretty well. But then I was getting a lot of phone calls from people asking if I like, had animals for parties and stuff like that, you know? So, um, 

[00:07:55] diane: you’re like, yes, but they’re on a canvas.

[00:07:57] Marius Valdes: Yeah. And then these other names I’ve kind of [00:08:00] come up with like secret species, you know, Wantables, the Joyce creatures. I kind of think of those as being projects. And I think also for academia, something I’ve learned from some of my colleagues is that sometimes it’s good to have sort of your creative commercial work as a separate thing so it doesn’t get mixed into the academia.

[00:08:19] Um, and I’ve always kind of liked the idea of trying to launch a brand. That’s something that’s kind of its own thing. Um, and, and, and it’s fun for me, the [00:08:30] designer to kind of design for those things, which I’ll show you as we get into this too. Okay. 

[00:08:35] diane: What? It’s great answer. 

[00:08:36] Marius Valdes: Yeah. All right. So lemme see what is, okay.

[00:08:39] Uh, I wanted to give a shout out to my friend Bob Wetz, who designed this typeface you’re looking at. It’s called Valdez Germond. You can buy it from Sketchbook B. Cool. Um, and I want to go all the way back. And what’s interesting about this talk is I’m gonna show you the first thing I ever designed. I’m gonna show you the last thing I’ve designed.

[00:08:57] Okay. So I think that’s cool. But to go [00:09:00] back, I want to go like to the core of the foundation of my soul, of, of, I think why I’m a creative person. And I’ll start with my mom, who, um, my mom was a, used to write letters like crazy. I mean, she would. Write letters to everybody. She was from England, so she would write a lot of mail, a lot of letters back home because it was cheaper.

[00:09:20] And I think she invented emojis because she was, like, even in the eighties, she was doing all these kind of crazy little cat, you know, [00:09:30] icons and heart smiley faces and stuff. Um, when she passed away, I got the sticker made. She always signed her letters with this little heart smiley face. So I, I got some stickers made for her to give those out.

[00:09:40] And then my dad, um, I used to sit in this rocking chair with him. He would read to me comics, whether it would be Spider-Man and the Hulk or uh, the Sunday comics. And, you know, Charles Schultz is definitely kind of like on the Mount Rushmore for me of, you know, my favorite artists. [00:10:00] Um, so if you look at my work now.

[00:10:03] You’ll see that I have a lot of colorful stuff. I have a lot of character stuff. I have a lot of negative, kind of flat, big open things of color. I like text when I can use it. Um, but I like, I like kind of weird type. I like hand drawn type. Um, so I think that really does kind of go back to like being a kid and being exposed to this stuff.

[00:10:24] And then in terms of my love of characters, um, besides Snoopy, [00:10:30] I would say like Kermit and Cookie Monster are like two of my favorite characters ever because they seem like, they seem like real people to me. Like they don’t Mm-Hmm. I don’t see them as being puppets, you know? And I think Kermit really does, besides me sounding sort of like Kermit the Frog, I’ve been told I sound like him a little bit.

[00:10:46] Um, besides like, you know, sounding like him, the, the characteristics of Kermit, like the kindness, the kind of openness, I like that aspect of him. And then the cookie monster, definitely I’m obsessive about [00:11:00] things and. Kind of crazy, you know, scattered. So I think they represent me kinda well. And I really love the simplicity, like Jim Henson’s sketches his early work.

[00:11:10] Um, just the simplicity of it again, like, I appreciate this so much and like, I’m kind of one of these people whenever I see this, and you’ll see this from some of the other people. I like. It just, it just makes me happy and it, and it excites me and it makes me want to be creative. Um, and so this is a, a spread for my [00:11:30] sketchbook.

[00:11:30] So if you look through my sketchbook, what you’ll see a lot of is just characters. I mean, that’s pretty much my kind of language. Um, I draw these things, the way I sign my name, it’s just sort of automatic for me. Um, I can’t, I, I don’t draw on perspective. I don’t do landscapes. I don’t do realistic things.

[00:11:51] I just, this is what I gravitate towards and I, and I don’t really fight that. Um, so characters is kind of like my first big influence and I. [00:12:00] We touched on that, but when I got to grad school, I started looking at characters a little bit more carefully and a little bit more considered, and sort of looking at how they’re used in branding and designer toys and commercial clothes and advertising and whatnot.

[00:12:16] And I discovered an organization from Germany called Phytoplasma. And Phytoplasma is this international organization that celebrates character design from all over the world. Um, and looking at [00:12:30] them, it really exposed me to just, you know, people like me who make work like me. And, and there’s so much of it and it’s also different, and it kind of helped me learn to embrace what I do.

[00:12:44] Um, and also coming outta grad school, I, I’ve been working on some characters and some character designs. I came up with these characters called the, the un wantables and, uh, like, you know. Contrary to most designers, I tried to make these things lumpier. Like I designed these like [00:13:00] with vectors, and they were perfectly smooth.

[00:13:01] And I was like, they’re two perfect. I want them a little lumpier, a little bit weirder. Um, and I was making packaging for them. I had these boxes, silk screened, um, and I would make these and kind of display them in exhibitions and then give them away to people or sell them. Um, and that led to other characters like egg chotsky.

[00:13:22] He’s the eggs with legs, he’s protein for the imagination. Um, 

[00:13:27] diane: but this also the, the whole [00:13:30] unwinnable thing in giving away people, giving something away at the end of an exhibition is really unheard of. Like that’s not, so it’s really pushing, um, the boundaries or the of what, uh, an exhibition was. And I also thought that was interesting.

[00:13:47] You’re like, well, I just think it’s fun to give them away. Right. 

[00:13:51] Marius Valdes: Yeah. Because, you know, I, first of all, I’m a, I’m a bad businessman, so any business people watching, like, yeah, this is probably not the smartest way to do it. [00:14:00] But I will say this, that whenever I post one of those unwinnable on Instagram now, people will send me pictures and say, I still have mine.

[00:14:06] It’s sitting, it’s been sitting on my computer for, you know, 10 years or whatever. Um, and I like to make things and get them out in the world, like mm-Hmm. I don’t wanna bring paintings and things back to my office. I don’t like, I like collecting other people’s stuff. I don’t like collecting my own stuff.

[00:14:26] If I were to do a tour of my house right now, you would probably find two [00:14:30] pictures in here that are mine, um, in this whole house, you know? So I like to make things and put ’em out in the world and kind of see what happens. And that has served me really well. I mean, that, that is kind of like led to other opportunities and it’s kind of like a leave behind when you go on an interview.

[00:14:47] Mm-Hmm. You know, you wanna leave something with people, remember you by. It. I think it, I think it’s helped me in some ways. Um, but some of the things I’ve done with these characters too is use them to draw from. And [00:15:00] like, for example, making this inspired me to do this drawing, which I submitted into a Korean competition.

[00:15:07] I won the grand prize. I got a check for a million yen and I didn’t want to cash it because I was like, this is so cool. I’m a millionaire. You know, but it, I think it would ended up being like 500 bucks or something. Um, but it, you know, again, it’s kind of that connected thing where it’s like I kind of make these things and inspires me to do something else with it and try other things.

[00:15:29] [00:15:30] Um, after the unwinnable I made sort of a different character. ’cause again, I just wanted to explore doing this and trying to get, do it differently and better every time. And, uh, came up with this character’s called the secret species. Um, the 

[00:15:45] diane: non-action 

[00:15:46] Marius Valdes: figure, they’re, they’re non-action figures. That’s right.

[00:15:49] And, uh, and what I used these for mostly was to, to go into an elementary school and I would give these to stu, the kids, and they would write stories about it in their English class, [00:16:00] or I would give them clay and they would make their own characters and write, um, stories about ’em. So it was kind of about using it for literacy and stuff.

[00:16:09] And, and again, like when we talk about my mural work, this project led directly to a relationship with an elementary school to do a mural later down the line. You know? So everything you make is kind of an opportunity to make connections and do different things. 

[00:16:24] diane: Would you seek those teachers out to go and talk at the school, or [00:16:30] would they come to you?

[00:16:32] Marius Valdes: Well, they came to me through a third party who knew both of us. But, but they would, that person took this work to them and said. You guys should do something together. And you know, and again, it’s just putting it out there. You know, uh, that person was an art education professor who knew the art teacher at a school.

[00:16:53] Um, and now I have kind of a body of work that, you know, I could approach a school and say, I’ve done this [00:17:00] for a school, kinda do it for your school. And that, that kind of happened actually last year. Um, and I make different additions of these. So like, for example, uh, I was giving a talk here in Columbia and it was my first time doing a local talk here, and I wanted everybody to take something home with ’em.

[00:17:16] So I made like a hundred of these guys. Um, 

[00:17:19] diane: so then who’s funding that? Is that just outta your pocket or are you getting a grant from the school or doing a something else? 

[00:17:28] Marius Valdes: It’s a mix. So like [00:17:30] when I’m working with the school kids, there’s usually grant money involved. When I give a talk and I make those, what I might do is I might give away a hundred and then make an extra 50 and sell those myself on website or at home.

[00:17:42] And then, so I try to fund everything with grant money myself. I very rarely dip into my personal family money for these projects that you’re looking at. Um, and some of this stuff, the incentive too was trying to get tenure and get promoted and all that stuff, right? So some of, some of it isn’t an [00:18:00] investment, 

[00:18:00] diane: right?

[00:18:01] And that’s one thing we have to do is we have to win awards. The international things, you probably wouldn’t have entered that competition had you not been a professor, maybe the drawing Exactly. Competition. 

[00:18:11] Marius Valdes: And, and I budget for that every year. I always set aside five, five to 600 bucks a year for stuff like that.

[00:18:16] Um, and you know, in terms of giving things away, I had, I was asked to do a really big show at, at Miami University in Ohio, and it was kind of like a retrospective of all my unwinnable and secret species [00:18:30] work. And I wanted to give out more, so I didn’t, I got tired of making the clay figures ’cause it really does hurt your hands after a while.

[00:18:37] So I just started doing these little drawings and made these little envelopes and there was sort of like a box with like a thousand of these little hand drawn, you know, each one was an original hand drawing, so you could just take one with you when you, when you went. Um, and I love, I just, I enjoy doing it.

[00:18:52] Like there’s something about it that makes me happy to make these things and to know that they’re going out into the universe, you know? Mm-Hmm. Um, [00:19:00] but then again, like also designing a poster for the show. This won some, I can’t remember what it award this one, but this won something. These things won. I think they won like a best of an A IGA in show that we had in Columbia.

[00:19:11] So, um, again, it’s sort of like if you’re not getting the kind of client work you want to make, like find a reason to make it for yourself and, and I’m the client and that’s always the most fun, you know? Um. In terms of designers, artists, and illustrators, um, it has to [00:19:30] start with, uh, my man here, Gil Ser. Um, Gil is literally the man who I would not be a graphic designer or an artist, probably without Gil.

[00:19:40] And if you look here on this, this is the first thing I ever made as a designer. Um, I was at the College of Charleston. I was originally gonna be a psychology profe, uh, uh, major. I took an art class. I had never taken an art class before. I loved it. And, um, I [00:20:00] remember telling my parents I was gonna change majors to art, and I thought they were gonna freak out.

[00:20:03] And my dad was just like, you know, do what you love and you, and you’ll do good, do well at it. And he said, but let me talk to my guy at work and ask him about options for careers and stuff. And the guy told me to look into advertising. So I joined the College Charleston Advertising Club, and they had a competition.

[00:20:22] It was like design a, a poster or a flyer for the club. And the best one that’s selected by Gil will win a [00:20:30] paid $1,500 internship with Gil Schueller. And, uh, I won. I was really at that point, I just wanted the money. I was like, I, I’ll go. That’s a great job. And Gil just was like the coolest guy ever. Um, I would go in his studio every day.

[00:20:46] First day I was there he asked me to cut a matboard. I proceeded to immediately slash my fingers with an exacto knife bleed everywhere. Um, but he would just like have me answer the phones. But he would make me read a [00:21:00] stack of communication arts annuals while I was doing that. And then he kind of was the first person to show me like, oh yeah, I’m doing a logo of a truck.

[00:21:08] I’m gonna trace a truck. I’m not gonna actually just draw it freehand. I’m gonna use tracing paper on. And computers were just started, this is like back in 1992, I think. Computers were just starting to kind of work into his, his studio. Um, but the thing about Gil that I love so much, besides him just being a really great guy, he’s a real character, really just, just a good [00:21:30] guy.

[00:21:30] Um, I just love his work. I mean, his work is, it’s always a little bit, I I just always kind of describe it as funky, you know, and it’s like, he, he’s, so, he’s a master at the computer and the digital, but he’ll bring his hand drawn stuff into it and he starts everything with kind of big sketches. Um, and I love the way he does these absurd things like putting a cowboy on a fish.

[00:21:53] diane: Yeah. 

[00:21:54] Marius Valdes: So, um, you know, this flying alligator for us, a music venue, [00:22:00] um, and fun fact for everybody, if you’ve ever heard of the Charleston RiverDogs Minor League baseball team, I named that team when I was interning for Gil. Uh, they were having a competition. To name the team. And they had two names. It was The Swamp Dogs or the River Rats.

[00:22:19] And I said, it should be the River Dogs. ’cause like everybody has a a, a lab in Charleston. And he took it to them and they were like, yeah, that’s it. Um, and Bill Murray owns [00:22:30] that team. So I keep telling Gil every time to see, I’m like, dude, can you get Bill Murray to get me a letter? Like, thanks for the name or something, you know?

[00:22:37] But, um, yeah, but, but check GI out. He’s great. He’s a good guy. And he came and gave a talk, um, to our students a couple years ago and it was great. And we, we’ve had a, we had a retrospective show for him at our, at our gallery, which was really awesome too. 

[00:22:50] diane: Okay, so how did you get to Georgia? Yes. If you were at College of Charleston.

[00:22:55] Marius Valdes: So Gil said, look, if you like design, you wanna do this, you have to leave [00:23:00] college. Charleston. They don’t have a program. He’s like, you don’t wanna do advertising, you want to go into design. And at the time, Georgia was a really great place, a really good program, um, and. Also, I’m a huge music fan. I love REM and I was like, Hmm.

[00:23:14] Georgia or Auburn. And I was like, I think I’ll go to Athens. Like I’ve heard of Athens. Like that’s like a cool, in the 90, early nineties, like Athens was almost the next Seattle. Oh yeah, right. 

[00:23:24] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:23:25] Marius Valdes: So I moved there and when I was there I found, you know, kind of discovered other [00:23:30] designers that were really influential to me.

[00:23:32] Robin Ray from Modern Dog. Um, again, very similar to Gil in the sense that there’s a lot of hand done mixed in with typography. You can tell she knows how to design both ways, but I love sort of that juxtaposition position of the two. And, um, Stephan Sagmeister. Mm-Hmm. Someone that was really interesting to be exposed to, just sort of seeing this guy.

[00:23:56] Who thinks outside the box and just was doing weird stuff, you know, cutting with a [00:24:00] razor blade into his body and yes, writing people’s faces and stuff, you know. Um, also fun fact, I get, I got to hang out with Sagmeister at Starbucks for three hours one day, and he is like the nicest, most wonderful, warm human being you will ever meet.

[00:24:18] I call him the bono of design. I, I swear to you, it was like, it was almost like life changing, hanging out with him. Like my daughter at the time was very little and at the end of his talk I brought my [00:24:30] daughter up. I said, could you just please like lay hands upon her just to give good vibes to her, you know?

[00:24:36] And uh, and I got this great picture of him holding one of my eggs Chotkis characters in my office, which is funny. Um, I love that picture. Yeah. And then David Carson. Um, so I think the theme for me, one of the things you’ll see in my design work is I. I can design for really clean corporate stuff. I mean, I know how to do that.

[00:24:55] I understand the rules of typography, but I’m not really interested in those things. [00:25:00] Like I really love the stuff that looks like it has more character or that someone has kind of put their, their artistic background. That’s, that’s why I always tell the students who are like advertising students of Minor in design, I always say the, the background, the difference between us and you is that our foundations is an art and it adds just a level of kind of, I think warmth and funkiness and creativity to what we do, you know?

[00:25:27] diane: Mm-Hmm. Um, 

[00:25:29] Marius Valdes: in terms of [00:25:30] illustration, uh, Gary Baseman was a huge influence me when I was in college. Um, we actually were had an assignment where we had to call an illustrator and I called him just outta the blue and he talked to me for like three hours and I. I was like, dude, I have to off the phone. I can’t afford this phone call anymore.

[00:25:46] Like it was just back, you know, you were 

[00:25:48] diane: paying for long distance. That’s right. 

[00:25:51] Marius Valdes: Yeah, it was, it was. That was a brutal phone bill. But he just gave me so much like, support and um, and I met him years later at a, I did a [00:26:00] workshop with him and he was not as nice at that workshop, but, uh, but back at that time when it was very influential, uh, to me, and also what I love about him is he’s kind of gotten out of illustration and now he’s doing things like art shows and making toys and products and illustrating games and animation.

[00:26:19] So I kind of take from him that he doesn’t just do one thing. He does a lot of things. Um, Mark Todd is an illustrator I really love. I 

[00:26:28] diane: I think you turned me on to [00:26:30] him years ago. Um, maybe in 2012. I love him too. 

[00:26:34] Marius Valdes: Yeah. And I preached to my students like, I’m like, you know, they’re worried about they can’t draw well enough.

[00:26:39] And I’m like, go check out Mark Todd. Like. He has this fun, like, drawing in your notebook during class vibe, but it’s so good and it’s always so effective. And, um, it’s just, he makes these really kinda low tech toys too and stuff. And, uh, I just, whenever I’m, whenever I’m hung up, I just go look at him and he, he inspires [00:27:00] me to make more stuff.

[00:27:01] Um, David Schley, uh, humor I think is an important part of my work. Um, I don’t take myself seriously too much. I don’t take my work too seriously. I try to make people laugh. I’ve been at shows where people don’t know that it’s my show and I see them walk by and they’re laughing and stuff like that is so important to me.

[00:27:23] Like, that means more to me than anything, than any award, you know? Yeah. So I think that goes back to like, [00:27:30] I really do think of myself as a failed cartoonist. Like that’s probably what I wanted to be as a kid growing up and I just never did. You know? Uh, but, but his dark humor, I like that. That runs in my family.

[00:27:43] We have my, my brother and I have a very, very dark humor that, uh, I mean, we don’t share it with many people ’cause they would think we’re odd, but, um, David Bates is a painter, uh, from Texas. I was at a conference and I had two hours to kill and I [00:28:00] went into this museum as someone had told me about, and I walked into this show and his artwork, literally one of the few times in my life that I could not speak because it was like he was, he makes the kind of art I, I wish I had the skill to make, you know, and what you can’t tell by this picture is these paintings are ginormous.

[00:28:20] Like they’re really big. Oh yeah. Um, and when you see them all in one place, the colors, the bold graphic lines, the black heavy black outlines and stuff, [00:28:30] um, it’s like, he’s like a really skilled version of what I would like to do in my own head, you know? Um, so I, I really like him and I like that he makes work.

[00:28:39] About, you know, communities and specific audiences and stuff. That’s something else that’s kind of coming a little bit more into my, you know, my world. Um, so lemme take a quick swig here. 

[00:28:52] diane: Oh, right. When you’re gonna take a swig. When you put that slide up, that’s like my friend band always. She’s like, I’m gonna have to get back with you, Diane.

[00:28:59] [00:29:00] I’m like, what? I cannot wait for the end of the story. It’s the cliffhanger. Okay. Tell us. 

[00:29:06] Marius Valdes: Alright, so when coming outta college, I was working for about four years and, and you know, and I was working for design and advertising agencies. The most of the work I was doing was kind of like commercial real estate, uh, car dealerships, things like that.

[00:29:24] It was not really sexy work, you know, occasionally were you 

[00:29:26] diane: drawing stuff on your own? 

[00:29:29] Marius Valdes: No, no, no. I, [00:29:30] this was, I was working for agency, so I was doing, I know, but 

[00:29:32] diane: like on the side, were you making these characters? 

[00:29:35] Marius Valdes: Well, here you go. This, this is why this book changed everything. I was not doing that. I was not doing that at that point.

[00:29:41] At that point I was just doing my work and coming home and, and I was really frustrated because I could not figure out how to get to that next level where I was doing my thing. I couldn’t, I didn’t have a style. 

[00:29:54] diane: Mm. And I 

[00:29:54] Marius Valdes: couldn’t figure that out. And then I went to a bookstore and I found this book [00:30:00] called Raw Creation.

[00:30:01] Um, it’s about outsider artists. And as I started going through it, it reminded me of my love of Howard Finster. 

[00:30:08] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:30:08] Marius Valdes: Um, and the thing I loved about that book so much was it was these people who never went to college who were not skilled trained artists, but they felt compelled to make stuff. And they just made, and they didn’t worry about it.

[00:30:23] They didn’t have money. They would just paint on a piece of wood or find a, a log or something. Right. [00:30:30] So that inspired me. I would come home from my, my day job and I would, I found like this big box, like out by the dumpster, and I brought it home and I ripped it up and I went to Michael’s and bought some paint and I just started finger painting just, just as like a fun release.

[00:30:47] And I would just make these random things. And after I made ’em, I would give ’em to my, my best friend at the time, guy named Jared, um, who had an office and we created this kind of little mini gallery in his [00:31:00] office and like, oh 

[00:31:00] diane: my gosh, this is awesome. 

[00:31:02] Marius Valdes: Yeah. And like no one really saw it. And this is probably like nine, this is probably 2001, 2002.

[00:31:08] Um, but what happened was this guy named Carter McMillan, this, the guy on the left here sitting on the car hood. He, he was in, uh, an office next door to that, and him and Jared were friends and he would come over and he asked me to make a, a, a painting for his office. So I kind of 

[00:31:25] diane: Where, where were you?

[00:31:26] Like what, where was your location? 

[00:31:28] Marius Valdes: This is Charleston. 

[00:31:29] diane: Okay. You’re [00:31:30] back in Charleston. Okay. 

[00:31:31] Marius Valdes: And, um, and Carter used to own the music farm, which was a really well known, famous club in Charleston that’s had tons of big bands on the way up. Um, so Carter started asking me to make paintings for his office.

[00:31:44] And then he had kept in touch with the new owners of the music farm and they were gonna do a 10 year anniversary of, um, for the music farm. And they asked if I would wanna do a calendar of paintings for each band playing, and then they would have the [00:32:00] band sign the paintings and they were gonna auction ’em off.

[00:32:03] diane: Wow. So, 

[00:32:04] Marius Valdes: so I started doing that and it, and we did that one month and they raised like $10,000 or something. They were like, man, everyone loved that. Do you wanna do it again? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I did it for like 10 months in a row. I was making 30 paintings a month. And so what you’re seeing here is kind of me.

[00:32:23] I had to switch from finger painting, finger painting my finger chart to hurt. Um, but I would just take over this room in my girlfriend’s [00:32:30] house and then I would take over every room of her house. And I just started doing these things in like a year. I made like 300 of these. Oh my gosh, that beaver.

[00:32:39] Exactly. And 

[00:32:40] diane: arms. I love him. Beavers are my, my thing. 

[00:32:44] Marius Valdes: And, and that became, um, man, 

[00:32:47] diane: I see your style in some of these early ones. Wow. That chicken, 

[00:32:52] Marius Valdes: right? And I was telling my students, like, it was the first time that I was like, oh, this is mine. Like this. Yeah. This is [00:33:00] my look, this is my style. As crude and as rough as it is.

[00:33:05] People were into it and people liked it. And here you can sort of see what they looked like together, finished, 

[00:33:10] diane: they looked awesome. It’s hard though, even at this time. So this is maybe your 25, 27, I don’t know how old you are at this point. 

[00:33:20] Marius Valdes: Yeah, yeah. Probably, probably four 

[00:33:22] diane: years outta school. What, what year did you grab what It was probably 

[00:33:25] Marius Valdes: 20.

[00:33:25] It was probably 23 because I, I was a six year plan because I transferred. 

[00:33:28] diane: Okay, so [00:33:30] you were 23 when you were working back in Charleston, making these things? Yeah. Okay. So I think so, yeah, that sounds about right. So to I that there’s a lot, like, you know what, because you know what, um, you know what the, uh, the traditional art is and even being, working in, in that.

[00:33:53] Um, in, in design at that time it wasn’t, there were David Carson and there were, but there was a lot of [00:34:00] backlash. Like some of my professors did not like David Carson. Yeah. And there was a lot of like, that’s not good, you know, you can’t do that. And so it has, yeah. There’s a lot to be said about having the confidence just to go out and do this.

[00:34:16] So I think that little show, um, in Jared’s office, you know, that was like a fake show, sort of, uh, or wall that gave you confidence. Then when his friend saw it and you made something and it [00:34:30] was like, your confidence is building, this is a big, this could be really, it could have been a pivotal point of Oh yeah.

[00:34:38] If it didn’t go well, but you just, were all in. 

[00:34:42] Marius Valdes: Well, but you have to remember, and this goes back to to Gil Schueller. Gil was like, dude, those are awesome. You know? 

[00:34:51] diane: Yeah. 

[00:34:51] Marius Valdes: And, and I looked up to Gil as like this, he was my Yoda, you know? Yeah. So the people that that, that I was like, [00:35:00] you know, close to and liked, they were supporting me and they were like, dude, you gotta do more of that.

[00:35:05] That’s great. Keep going. And I think doing the sheer repetition of it was kind of reinforcing it. But the irony of this is that this is what I started winning design awards for. Like, I won my first Addie, I got into the communication arts illustration, annual, I got into print, regional design annual with finger painting.

[00:35:24] It was like, I was like, what? Right. But it just, my friends that were supporting it, it was now being [00:35:30] critically Yes. Recognized by people. Um, so I was having a lot of success with it. And so what I do, I moved away, I moved left Charleston. Um, but Richmond was equally like Richmond. People really got my two and.

[00:35:43] I would go to these art markets, they were like on a Saturday, and I would show up with like 20 paintings and I would leave with nothing. And people hated me there because they were like, what are you, like, what are you doing? I’m like, I don’t know, but it paid my rent this month, you know? So, um, I, [00:36:00] I don’t know why people liked it so much, but it led to client work and it led to sort of me starting to refine it.

[00:36:06] So the Charleston Animal Society was like, Hey, could you do a, a poster for us? And that turned into an annual thing, which I did that for like four or five years for them. 

[00:36:15] diane: But this is on the side. This isn’t through your employer. Yeah. Fine. You’re not doing this work. Okay. Right. 

[00:36:21] Marius Valdes: Yeah. And the reason I left Charleston was because my wife and I, my back then, she was my girlfriend.

[00:36:27] We were both working at an ad agency that went, they [00:36:30] went out of business and, and my bosses at that place were also Bobby Bostick. If you’re watching Bobby, uh, was super supportive and really cool and, you know, he was like, Hey man, can, can I buy that, that vanilla ice painting you made? I’m like, yeah, sure.

[00:36:45] You know, and so like, I had good support and people knew what I was doing on the side and they knew it wasn’t interfering on my day job and my wife. But they weren’t 

[00:36:53] diane: asking you to do that at your day job yet? 

[00:36:56] Marius Valdes: No, no, no. Not at all. Okay. Um, no, that [00:37:00] wasn’t really until, I mean, I’ve never had a day job where anyone asked me to do that, actually.

[00:37:04] This kind of just, I kind of made it happen on, you know, just doing it. Um, but now that’s that kind of style. Like when I do do design work, like this piece here, you know, I’m gonna try and make the logo be a little bit more hand done. Even though I’m respecting the rules of design, I understand how to design.

[00:37:23] Wait, I have 

[00:37:24] diane: another question that’s not on the sheet. Sure. Okay. So you’re doing this now, um, so you’re still [00:37:30] doing it on the side. You have a full-time job doing design in Richmond, right? 

[00:37:35] Marius Valdes: Yep. 

[00:37:36] diane: And you’re doing this on the side, you’re making new connections. And I think that that’s key in this. So you, I think of you as more extroverted.

[00:37:46] Do you think you’re more extroverted? 

[00:37:49] Marius Valdes: I, I can be for small amounts of time. 

[00:37:52] diane: Okay. So, but what I’ve 

[00:37:53] Marius Valdes: learned is I, I am much more introverted than than I ever realized until Covid. 

[00:37:58] diane: Yeah. But people, but [00:38:00] people don’t, um, scare you. You don’t mind talking to people, right? Oh, no. But there’s something about your, just you being friends with Jared, right.

[00:38:09] And then you being willing to show him what it was and being like, Hey man, wouldn’t that be funny if I’ve had like a little gallery show at your office? Or maybe he said this, or whatever. He said that, yeah. Yeah. He asked me to, but like in. Having someone who could, so you have some good friendships, I think is what it is that you’re open.

[00:38:28] And how has [00:38:30] community or the role of community, because I think a lot with stuff like this, if you didn’t have anybody looking at this stuff, it could just be building up in your garage, right? Yes. Yep. So, but you went out to the art markets, uh, in, uh, Chaco bottom or wherever it was in Richmond, and you would sell your stuff.

[00:38:52] Like how does community play a role in you getting the word out of who you are and what you do? 

[00:38:59] Marius Valdes: Well, I [00:39:00] think what it was, I mean, again, it’s like, I, I always say that I just enjoy making 

[00:39:04] diane: mm-Hmm. 

[00:39:05] Marius Valdes: And then I wanna share it. Mm-Hmm. And, and so I think what I do is I, I kind of have these periods where I make a bunch of stuff and then I have to figure out how to get it out.

[00:39:14] And, but like, how long 

[00:39:16] diane: are these periods 

[00:39:18] Marius Valdes: like. It just depends. I mean, like, like now it’s usually like the month of December and then the summertime and maybe spring break, you know? ’cause I work around my school schedule. 

[00:39:28] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:39:28] Marius Valdes: Um, [00:39:30] back then it was sort of like, I’d come home from work and, you know, maybe on the weekend if my wife was doing something, I would stay home and paint.

[00:39:38] You know, I also work very quickly. I mean, like, let’s face it, the stuff I’m doing is not like, you know, a hundred hour oil painting. It’s, it’s like, I like the to be fast and loose and, and immediate with it. Right. Um, if I, if I take too long on something, it just dies. It, it gets stale, you know? Right. Um, [00:40:00] but in terms of the community, I mean, I, I don’t know if I think of it as community back then, as much as it was, I was just hustling and trying to figure out how to pay rent, you know?

[00:40:08] diane: Mm. 

[00:40:09] Marius Valdes: And it was sort of like, okay, I can either paint all weekend and go to an art fair, or I have to get a job. You know, outside like a second job outside of my day job where I have to go. You know, like when I was in grad school, it was like, I can either do work study or I could sit at home and paint and I would paint, you know?

[00:40:29] [00:40:30] And, and that kept me from having to get a real job and it was paying all my bills. 

[00:40:34] diane: So, 

[00:40:35] Marius Valdes: um, so I mean, I, I talk a lot to my students about hustling and kind of creating opportunities, and I think I’ve really benefited from that. Um, I think these days it’s a little harder because there was no Instagram or Facebook or anything back then.

[00:40:50] So now we’re inundated with options of where to spend our money and buying something we like and tracking things down. 

[00:40:58] diane: But it’s also, go [00:41:00] ahead. 

[00:41:00] Marius Valdes: Well, I say back then it was a little bit more like. Oh, there’s an art thing. We need to go to it because there’s gonna be artists there and we can buy art, you know?

[00:41:06] But 

[00:41:07] diane: I also think you didn’t take yourself so seriously. Um, and maybe that’s also that they’re, they’re buying that joy, and I know it’s like joyous, uh, cre creatures or creations or 

[00:41:20] Marius Valdes: Yeah, joyous creatures. Well, it’s joyous 

[00:41:22] diane: because they are buying your joy. It’s like, oh my gosh, I did this, this was really fun.

[00:41:27] And then when someone buys it, [00:41:30] they feel that fun. Like there’s something, you know. 

[00:41:35] Marius Valdes: But the other thing is too, I should say, this was never my main gig. Like it was always a side gig. So I always had a day job. I, I always had something until I went to grad school. And then grad school was kind of my main thing.

[00:41:51] And then I was just trying to make enough to, to kind of get by on, and I, but I had student loans, so I. I’ve never, I’ve never in my life tried to just make a living off [00:42:00] just my art. And I think that would definitely change things for me if I did in terms of, I think I’d be very productive. But, um, you know, this is something for the viewers to know that we talked a little bit about yesterday.

[00:42:13] You know, there’s a lot of things I don’t think I’ve ever tried to do with my artwork because I don’t feel like I have the time to, to pursue them properly. 

[00:42:20] diane: Right. And 

[00:42:21] Marius Valdes: I don’t wanna put myself out there enough that I get inundated with opportunities or commissions or clients and then I [00:42:30] can’t balance my life, you know?

[00:42:31] Right, 

[00:42:32] diane: right. And, and one of your alumni is here, Benji’s here. So it’s good to have Benji. All 

[00:42:37] Marius Valdes: right. My man. The house What? Benji Mitchell. Ben Mitchell, or Yeah, 

[00:42:42] diane: yeah, yeah. 

[00:42:43] Marius Valdes: Alright. We, we call him house. 

[00:42:45] diane: Oh, okay. 

[00:42:47] Marius Valdes: Um, I’m 

[00:42:47] diane: like, he, I said he was in the house. Yeah. Okay. And he said that you were real serious. The most serious, which I think he’s probably laughed.

[00:42:56] Not true. 

[00:42:57] Marius Valdes: Most likely. [00:43:00] Very, uh, one of my best students I’ve ever had. So, um, and smartest because look, he’s here today. 

[00:43:04] diane: I know, 

[00:43:05] Marius Valdes: but you can, I got to meet him in 

[00:43:06] diane: person at Creative South. 

[00:43:08] Marius Valdes: Oh, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. I heard he went, that’s so cool. 

[00:43:11] diane: I know. Keep going. 

[00:43:12] Marius Valdes: He’ll, he’ll be speaking there in a couple of years, I’m sure.

[00:43:14] Yeah. So anyways, so like the characters and that kind of love of stuff, that’s kind of creeped into my professional work. And when you get commissions, you know, they, they usually look sort of like a little bit more refined version of what I do. Um, 

[00:43:29] diane: but there’s a [00:43:30] lot of humor in there. Yeah. I think the humor is huge for me on, and that’s the other thing that I love is that it is like you’re this, um.

[00:43:42] I don’t know, bottle of energy. And then you’re giving these, and then you’re, people are taking, you know, you’re giving them something to take away as well. And I think there’s something that we get to, we receive when we, um, own something of yours or [00:44:00] buy, you know, you give us something, even if it’s a sticker or a, you know, I, there’s something spread when you are, um, doing that stuff anyway.

[00:44:10] Keep going like a disease, 

[00:44:11] Marius Valdes: you know? Yeah. 

[00:44:12] diane: Like a disease. You’re a disease. 

[00:44:16] Marius Valdes: And, but the funny thing about that too is I can tell you right now that because I’ve made so much work, I will have people tell me, I rented a beach house in North Carolina this weekend. I went into the room and like the room was done up in your fish [00:44:30] or something like that.

[00:44:31] And I had a student a couple years ago who was like, do you do dog portraits? And I said, well, I used to occasionally. She was like. We’ve had one of your dog paintings in our house for like 10 years, and I never made the connection until just now that that was something you painted. So it’s, that’s kind of cool, you know, is you put this things out there and, and see what comes back.

[00:44:52] Um, yeah. Or even Mina, like Mina found a painting I did at VCU, like, just like goofing around. I [00:45:00] left it there and she found it in the basement and it’s like at her house now, and I didn’t know her then, you know? 

[00:45:06] diane: Yeah. It’s 

[00:45:07] Marius Valdes: weird. So, um, I just feel like every time I make something and put it out there, it, you just never know what’s gonna happen with it, you know?

[00:45:14] diane: So let me ask you a question before we get into children’s book. Children’s books, illustration Sure. Or Illustrator, whatever. Anyway, did you, are you having, like, are you an active sketch booker? Are you drawing in sketchbooks or are you like No, I just take [00:45:30] Amazon boxes. 

[00:45:31] Marius Valdes: Yeah. I, I, I draw all the time. All the time.

[00:45:36] diane: Oh, good. 

[00:45:37] Marius Valdes: Yeah. As a matter of fact, I mean, like, if you go on, um. If you go on Instagram and you see something that says meeting notes. 

[00:45:44] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:45:44] Marius Valdes: That’s usually during a meeting. That’s all I do now, is I try and fill a page and all my colleagues know I’m doing it and they’re, they, they’re cool with it, you know?

[00:45:52] But, um, yeah, I draw a lot like when I’m watching tv Mm-Hmm. Um, a lot of it’s bad. I mean, you know, which is what sketchbooks [00:46:00] should be. 

[00:46:00] diane: Mm-Hmm. Um, 

[00:46:02] Marius Valdes: and, uh, but I, I, I’m a firm believer in sketchbook practice. I think it’s a matter of fact. That’s one of my last sections on this presentation. 

[00:46:09] diane: Okay. Keep going then.

[00:46:10] Marius Valdes: Yeah. Um, and it’s because of people like, uh, William Ste. Now, I’ll tell you, this is probably my favorite artist period. Like when people say, who’s your favorite artist? William Ste. I, I just, there’s something about the way this guy draws. [00:46:30] Um, he’s a children’s book author. He, he, he created Shrek. Hmm. Um, there’s just something about.

[00:46:36] His line quality, his colors, the characters he comes up with. Um, it just, I, I don’t know, it just energizes me. And then Delphine Duran is another one. Um, I love her kids’ books. I love her sketchbooks. The two of them just make me want to draw, you know, and, and they, it’s like we’re speaking. My dad is, my dad [00:47:00] was Cuban and when my grandparents would call, he would answer the phone and all of a sudden he would just start speaking in Spanish.

[00:47:07] And it just sounded alien to me. ’cause he didn’t speak the Spanish to us. And it’s sort of the same thing where like, when I see this type of work, it’s just sort of like, oh yeah, I get them, you know? 

[00:47:17] diane: Mm-Hmm. Um, 

[00:47:19] Marius Valdes: and from looking at their work, it has inspired me to try and make my own kids books. Um, I’ve, I’ve done three kids books.

[00:47:27] Two of them were self kind of like Kickstarter or [00:47:30] grant funded. A third one I did for the school, which was paid for, but I don’t think it turned out very well. So I’m not showing it here. Um, because it was a terrible story. Um, sorry, but you’re 

[00:47:40] diane: writing the story also. 

[00:47:41] Marius Valdes: Yes. And what I like about kids’ books are I feel like they are the best way for someone like me to create a world or create characters and put ’em into this self-contained thing, this little, you know, interactive thing.

[00:47:57] Um, and it’s fun [00:48:00] and, but it is very, very challenging. Um, so like, this is a book about, uh, secret species. This is to encourage kids to use their imaginations. Um, this is a book about, this is Bird Break. This is about a book about introversion and it’s used for parents to have conversations with their kids about if they’re introverted and kind of talk to ’em and tell ’em that’s okay, you know, 

[00:48:25] diane: I love the textures and stuff.

[00:48:27] So is this one, um. [00:48:30] So both of these were self or Kickstarter or grant funded and then like where could somebody buy this book if they wanted to? 

[00:48:38] Marius Valdes: They’re both sold out. Um, I’ve been asked, so 

[00:48:42] diane: good luck on used bookstores, so Yeah. 

[00:48:45] Marius Valdes: But if you come to Columbia, um, well actually the Bird Break book, part of the grant was that I would send these off to every, uh, every public library in South Carolina and kids museums.

[00:48:59] [00:49:00] So if you go to any, any library in South Carolina, you should be able to check this out. 

[00:49:04] diane: Okay. So let me ask you a question then, from this, did you have the idea to do a children’s book and then you found a way to fund it? Is that kind of how this worked? And did you find that grant or was that something like, how would, if somebody else, if, uh, wanted to do something, they’re like, that’s really neat, but I don’t know how to do that.

[00:49:24] What would you tell them to do? 

[00:49:26] Marius Valdes: Well, I think the first thing is, is you have to think about the [00:49:30] concept and how it relates to an audience. Mm-Hmm. And I think the reason why this one was, I, I’ve written a million grants, I’ve been rejected a million times. But I think what was good about this one was I, I was able to find lots of evidence and lots of support, you know, academic or scholarly stuff that kind of talks about introversion.

[00:49:53] And so for me to say that I’m an illustrator and I want to create something that’s gonna help [00:50:00] therapists and kids and their parents deal with sort of a social mental topic, um, I think they were just like, here’s money. You know, go make that right. Um, and then the other part of the grant for this was that I said that I needed to really learn how to use procreate so I could work with my students and I.

[00:50:19] I said I, I wanna challenge myself to make this book with, you know, procreate from, from beginning to end, uh, which I did. And so that was a great way to teach myself how to use, [00:50:30] use an iPad and work with a, you know, I, I’ve never done that before. 

[00:50:34] diane: Yeah. 

[00:50:35] Marius Valdes: So, um, and then the cool thing too was I made a compilation, ’cause I drew on, on the iPad.

[00:50:41] You could see the entire book from start to finish. 

[00:50:43] diane: Oh. 

[00:50:44] Marius Valdes: Be drawn. You know, which is kind of, so, um, so we built a website. It had links to other organizations that deal with introverted kids or mental, mental health. Um, and it was just a lot of fun to work on. You know, I, I love drawing birds. Birds are [00:51:00] so fun to draw and, and none of my animals are based on any kind of accuracy in any way.

[00:51:06] You know? So like, it’s just, you know, two two a beacon wings and it’s a bird, you know? Right. Um. And then the school also, they took, some of the school has a thing called Cocky Reading Express, and they took the money. They’re 

[00:51:21] diane: the game cocks just for anybody who doesn’t. Yeah, that’s why we checking over there.

[00:51:25] Marius Valdes: Um, now the funny thing about kids’ books that I’ll share with the, with the audience [00:51:30] is that the biggest problem I have with kids’ books is that I hate promoting them because little kids are so hard to talk to for me, like they, like I could sit here and talk to a hundred people our age no problem. But to go in a room full of kids is terrifying for me.

[00:51:49] Like, because wow, they go off script, um, so fast. You go in there with a plan of like, we’re gonna do this, and then they just start asking you like the weirdest questions you can ever expect. [00:52:00] So like, for example, right here in this picture, I was showing them the original art and then I said, do you guys, I’m gonna pass these around.

[00:52:08] The teachers were like, no, I won’t. And it turned into complete chaos because every kid was like fighting over the paper and stuff and, you know, so 

[00:52:16] diane: yeah. 

[00:52:18] Marius Valdes: But I will say that I have a list of book ideas and I think that is the next thing I wanna work on, is kind of a kid’s book, another kid’s book. So that’s, um, I have an idea for [00:52:30] bird break.

[00:52:30] I wanna do a sequel called Bug Break. 

[00:52:32] diane: Mm. 

[00:52:33] Marius Valdes: And, uh, ’cause bugs are fun to draw. And then, um, I’m gonna be working, I think with another professor at USC who is our former poet laureate of South Carolina. We’re gonna, we’re talking about working on a book together called the Mon Monkey Club. So keep up to date on that.

[00:52:51] So that takes us into cartoonist. Um, besides, you know, the obvious Charles Schultz influence, bill [00:53:00] Waterson genius, Patrick McDonald genius. I love these guys. Um, again. You talked to me about like the joy and happiness and stuff. I think I get that from reading cartoons growing up. Like my, like the comics used to make my dad laugh really hard.

[00:53:16] diane: Mm-Hmm. I 

[00:53:17] Marius Valdes: think that like, there’s, I think that rubbed off on me that I, like, I could get my dad to laugh, you know? Or this would get him to laugh if he read these things. So I think that I like that. Um, I read The New Yorker every week just for the [00:53:30] cartoons. Mm-Hmm. And the illustrate. They’re great. Um, ed Steed is, uh, my current favorite cartoonist, and he just has sort of that, that William Steed kind of crazy, beautiful, energetic line.

[00:53:46] Mm-Hmm. All these really weird kind of characters that are also somewhat really appealing, you know? Mm-Hmm. Um, 

[00:53:57] diane: oh, that’s really dark 

[00:53:58] Marius Valdes: humor, you know? 

[00:53:59] diane: [00:54:00] Yeah. 

[00:54:00] Marius Valdes: Um, and people have always asked me like, why don’t you do your own cartoon? And I, I try, I’ve tried. These are some of mine where what I would do is I would go through old comic books and I would cut out kind of ridiculous word bubbles and I would tape them down, and then I would try and draw a cartoon out of it.

[00:54:16] diane: Mm-Hmm. And, 

[00:54:17] Marius Valdes: um, I had, I had so much fun making these, like, these to me were like one of my favorite things I ever worked on, but very few people liked them, you know, and I couldn’t really sell ’em, you know, so, yeah, it’s [00:54:30] hard. It’s, yeah. I mean, being a cartoonist is not the most lucrative gig in the world.

[00:54:36] Um, and I’m just not that funny, like when I’m writing stuff like this, so I gave it a shot. I kind of, you know, I liked him, but eh, um, but cartooning again, has played into my work. So like, when I’ve been hired for editorial illustration, you’ll see a lot of my stuff here. Like, like for example, this one here, I mean, that’s such a rip off of Calvin [00:55:00] Hobbes in my mind of him.

[00:55:01] You know, a little kid flying through the air. Um. I’m gonna show you some sketches here. This is sort of my, I love 

[00:55:07] diane: the proportional sketches. I really push that in my glasses. 

[00:55:11] Marius Valdes: Yeah. These are real accurate, but, um, I 

[00:55:13] diane: love the scissors. 

[00:55:16] Marius Valdes: Yeah. But you can sort of see, so these are 

[00:55:17] diane: approved, so these g get approved, you give them the small one, and then they get these, 

[00:55:22] Marius Valdes: these are my thumbnails for myself.

[00:55:24] Mm-Hmm. And then I clean ’em up a little bit and put ’em into this format and send them to them to approve. [00:55:30] 

[00:55:30] diane: Were those with marker? 

[00:55:32] Marius Valdes: Uh, these were drawn with just a ballpoint pen on a piece of paper. 

[00:55:35] diane: And then how did you get the gray though? 

[00:55:38] Marius Valdes: Uh, scanned them in and, and Photoshop that. Oh, okay. 

[00:55:40] diane: Okay. Yeah.

[00:55:41] Marius Valdes: Just, just to kind of show it color might look like. And then I love that. Here’s the final. Um, and then, oh, I love that one. This is the piece that forced me to go digital, because I did this one with, this one was actually like 24 by 24, and I painted the whole thing [00:56:00] and the, the art director came back and said.

[00:56:03] That tail looks just a little bit too long. Can you shorten it? And I was like, well, I have to repaint the entire thing because I can’t cover that black up. And she was like, okay. And so at that point I was like, I have to learn another way to work. So now a lot of times if I do things like this, I’ll actually maybe ink something, scan that in and build it in layers.

[00:56:22] In Photoshop or, or even now just use procreate. Oh, this is a, this is a piece about bedbugs. [00:56:30] Um, and what was great about this was my wife is from Maryland, so this little, this was a, a for a section in the, um, travel section, but this was on the front page of the Washington Post, like, as, as like a little blurb.

[00:56:44] You know, 

[00:56:45] diane: I love their, their expressions. The bug is so excited and so happy, but I love that. 

[00:56:54] Marius Valdes: Yeah. And I don’t know how we’re doing time ’cause my daughter just walked in from school, but. Um, I’m getting closer to the end [00:57:00] here so we can, you know, we’re okay. Okay, good. Alright. Uh, music and space. Um, I think for me, um, music is a huge inspiration when I make work.

[00:57:12] I don’t ever paint or draw or do anything without some kind of music playing. Spotify told me that Noel Gallagher was my favorite artist last year, which I agree with, but I usually kind of like to listen to sort of rock experimental things with lots of little cool weird sounds in it. [00:57:30] Anything that’s kind of upbeat, um, to get me kind of energized.

[00:57:34] And it also kind of reminds me to take chances. Like this is a band called TV on the radio that I just learned about them a couple years ago and I was obsessed with ’em for like months because they’re just, music is just so all over the place and it was so adventurous and it just reminded me to be like that, you know?

[00:57:51] And so I, I try to keep that in mind when I’m making, um. Then this past December, I was fortunate to, [00:58:00] to, uh, to be asked by, um, my favorite band in high school. Like a local band was having a 30 year reunion. They asked me to do a poster for them, and that was like such a treat. Um, ’cause I mean, I, that was like my musical awakening as a kid to go see these guys.

[00:58:16] I think this is the best duck I’ve ever drawn in my life right there. Um, and then, then this, I like 

[00:58:22] diane: the guy playing the drums. 

[00:58:24] Marius Valdes: Yeah. And that, that guy, uh, his name’s Jeff and he’s, he lives in Florida. He’s a great, great drummer. He is [00:58:30] also a puppeteer, which is pretty cool. Um, and this is the last thing I’ve made, uh, just a couple weeks ago, my friend Mac, um, part of the reason I got into design was because I was not a musician, but I wanted to play, I wanted to be a part of the music scene, you know.

[00:58:47] And so I have done a lot of design work for bands and, um, my friend Mac. He’s a Nashville songwriter. He has a new album coming out, and he asked me if I would do some singles for him. Uh, [00:59:00] cover art for whatever. So these are some of the ones, you know, I pitched to him. I think he’s using this one and this one.

[00:59:07] Um, cool. But that’s the most recent thing I’ve done. And then in terms of space, um, I’m not in my office right now. I’m, I’m actually at home. But I always love seeing artist studios, you know, and the, one of the best perks of my job at USC is I have a huge office space. Um, so I use this a lot. And I, I collect [00:59:30] books, so I have a wall of just inspiration.

[00:59:32] When, when you asked me to do this thing, all I did was walk in my office and look at my bookcase, and I was like, Mm-Hmm. Okay. That, that, that and that. Um, I have a huge collection of comics and artists I like. I used to collect a lot of vinyl toys. I’ve kind of put some of those away recently. Um, I like art concept books for movies and Star Wars and stuff, because it’s.

[00:59:53] So different than anything I do. Um, and then in the summertime I will take over a [01:00:00] classroom and I’ll have a huge studio that any New York artist would kill for. Um, and then I’ll use my office during the school year. I’ll just take it over and use it as I need to put stuff on the floor on desks. Um, during Covid I was working out of a closet in my carport.

[01:00:17] Um, I don’t use a lot of fancy stuff. This is my easel is is a box and someone left in a, my garage of a house I bought. And, you know, I use plastic cups and [01:00:30] stuff and uh, you know, I just kind of adapt to whatever, whatever my work calls for. So like during Covid I would just sit in the hallway and, you know, draw there if I need to.

[01:00:42] Um, when I was working on the kids’ books, I didn’t need a lot of space. I just needed things to kind of put thumbnails and 

[01:00:48] diane: yeah, up 

[01:00:49] Marius Valdes: to kind of plan it out. Um. People have asked me to paint weird things before. Like, this is a car I did for Spoleto back in 2000. Um, 

[01:00:59] diane: cool. 

[01:00:59] Marius Valdes: [01:01:00] And, uh, I’ve been asked to paint like the backdrops of theaters, you know, so it’s all about hustle, you know, and I think that’s one of my other inspirations is people at hustle and have passion projects, you know, and that do it consistently.

[01:01:17] Like I, I really admire people like that. Um, I was showing my students this recently that these are all the different things I do to make money and to kind of create opportunities for [01:01:30] myself. Um, I study a lot of people that I think make really great art, and I will look at their work and see how they’re selling it, how they’re presenting it.

[01:01:39] Um, so I’m always trying to learn from what, from successful people. Um, I’ve had an Etsy store where I sell paintings, I’ve done commissions for, um. State Museum. I’ve sold arts and craft shows, you know, small galleries, big galleries. Um, I just had a show [01:02:00] here in Columbia where I had like 200 paintings like this.

[01:02:03] Um, 

[01:02:05] diane: wait, what about the bags? Like you did these, this bag thing? 

[01:02:09] Marius Valdes: Yeah. So I was using this paper bag to wipe all my brushes off when I was painting the bigger pieces. 

[01:02:14] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[01:02:15] Marius Valdes: I like the way the paint went onto the paper bag. And I, so I just one day did a bird like for fun and hung it up and sent a picture up to my wife and she was like, that’s awesome.

[01:02:25] Do more of those. So I, because those 

[01:02:28] diane: are super, if people are [01:02:30] looking for something affordable Yeah. It’s still big Mm-Hmm. Um, but these obviously maybe aren’t as, uh, archival, but 

[01:02:39] Marius Valdes: No. 

[01:02:40] diane: Um, 

[01:02:41] Marius Valdes: or at all. They’re fun and they’re, they’re fun. You can just hang in with a Thumbtack. Yeah. Or. If you were to cut the handle off.

[01:02:47] Um, I, I saved a couple of these for myself, which I never do because I want to get a couple of ’em framed. I just love the way the color pops on the paper. It looks Oh, yeah. And they look good together. You know, it’s real easy to put ’em up like that. [01:03:00] So it, it was a last minute thought. I literally did that the weekend before the show was installed and Wow.

[01:03:06] And, and that was one of the things people were taking selfies in front of it, you know. 

[01:03:10] diane: Oh, cool. 

[01:03:10] Marius Valdes: Um, murals to me are just big doodles, you know, so it’s same thing, but it’s just a bigger space. Um, but the thing about doodles that are great is people do pay more money for doodles, like, I mean, for murals. Um, so I do some of them with like traditional paint on [01:03:30] panels.

[01:03:30] Some of, some of it’s digital. Um, this is digital. This is digital. This was one at our Richland Library. Where it’s made, the, the murals made of 1500 bookmarks. I drew half and then the community drew half. And then with just 

[01:03:47] diane: Sharpie, right? 

[01:03:49] Marius Valdes: With just Sharpie. And then these two interns here, um, Rachel and Ash.

[01:03:54] Ash. And they, um, they helped, uh, compile ’em all together and colorize some of it. [01:04:00] Um, but it’s pretty cool. Yeah, it looks really great. The, the file size on this was, um, six gigs. Wow. It was a six, six gig Photoshop file. The woman who worked at the, um, actually I won’t tell that story that that’s too long and whatever, but it was a, it was a huge undertaking, but if you see it in person, it’s really, really cool.

[01:04:22] diane: And this is in the Richmond Library? 

[01:04:24] Marius Valdes: Richmond Library in downtown Columbia. Okay. And, and the thing about that was, I was asked to do this [01:04:30] because I, I had made a proposal library, got a bunch of money to renovations, and I had proposed doing a much, much smaller version of this at another branch. They liked it so much, they were like, we wanna do this in the main, the main library in our kids’ room.

[01:04:43] Um, kids in teen, teen room. And the cool thing about this was when this came out and I started posting pictures of it, I got a call from the South Carol, um, the MUSC Children’s Hospital, and [01:05:00] they had seen it and they were like, man, we’re building a brand new children’s hospital and we have tons of blank walls.

[01:05:05] We should talk. And they originally commissioned me to do just like pieces for the hang in the exam rooms, but they were talking about like, oh, we’ve got floors of wall space. And I didn’t hear anything from ’em for like a year. So I, I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if they didn’t like these or, or whatnot, but I think they just got really busy.

[01:05:25] And, um, and so then an opportunity for a grant came up and I [01:05:30] called them and I said, Hey, I, I can probably get $10,000 to do a mural for you. And. It’ll pay for everything. And they were like, yeah, that would be great. So I worked on, on that for them. And these are all animals of South Carolina. And the cool thing about this was they liked it so much that then they commissioned me to do other murals.

[01:05:53] And so again, it’s that thing where you give a little something and hopefully something good comes back to [01:06:00] you. And it, and it did in spades. And I can tell you that, um, the thing about doing this is it’s like this really is truly the best audience you could ever have. The sad thing is the only people that ever really get to enjoy it are people that are pretty sick, you know?

[01:06:17] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[01:06:18] Marius Valdes: Um, but to know that, like a friend of mine who had to take his kid to the emergency room and get an X-ray, and this is, this is in the hallway by the X-ray machine. Um, you know, so to [01:06:30] know that like you can distract somebody when they’re going through like something really kind of scary and tough.

[01:06:35] Like that was a really rewarding thing and that, that really just kind of encouraged me to really put a lot of work into it. And then they opened a satellite, um, health facility somewhere else and they asked me if I could do something in their lobby for that. Um, so again, you know, offering to donate my time and, and get a mural paid for with a grant led to doing a ton of stuff for them.

[01:06:59] [01:07:00] Um, and they were great to work with. And I’ve won several, um, graphic design USA health, uh, awards for that. 

[01:07:08] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[01:07:09] Marius Valdes: And um, and that’s something I’m interested in kind of looking at now is doing more work for healthcare and stuff. It’s, it’s really, I mean, I just think it’s a fascinating kind of, um, place to show, to, to share your work and make work, you know?

[01:07:23] diane: Well, and it takes that unexpected, the total cold, [01:07:30] uh, facility, which we want it to be clean, but. It 

[01:07:33] Marius Valdes: could not boring. 

[01:07:34] diane: Right. And not so like, life sucking, you know, like Yeah. 

[01:07:39] Marius Valdes: And it’s also a visual landmark for people. ’cause if you’ve ever been to a hospital, it’s very easy to get lost. Oh yeah. Like we, we joke around about go down the, the hallway and take a ride at the big ass frog, you know?

[01:07:51] Yeah. Right. Like, people, people know that frog is like, oh, I go take a right there and it takes me to the, to the elevators, you know? Um, right. [01:08:00] All right. Now I’m getting to the very, very end here. So if you’re still here hanging out, thank you for being with us. Um, sketchbooks you asked earlier, I do believe sketchbooks are super influential.

[01:08:10] They’re super important. Um, I draw on them all the time, and I have a bunch of paint canvases in my office. I’m gonna go paint this week. Today I was like, what am I gonna paint? I was like, I don’t know, I’ll just go open my sketchbook and, you know, find some really great characters out of there. 

[01:08:25] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[01:08:26] Marius Valdes: Um, and use those.

[01:08:27] And these will often be turned into [01:08:30] stickers. Um, and those are just fun to give away or sell for a couple bucks or whatever. Mm-Hmm. But like the last thing I did for the children’s hospitals, they needed an activity book for their kids. And so I got a grant project, I was gonna do a kids book, but they said what we really need is an activity book and not a kids book.

[01:08:47] Like something will help the therapists. So I just went back and looked at my sketchbook and I just kind of said, I’m gonna make basically an activity book out of all my sketches and random things that I draw. [01:09:00] And um, and it was very, it was very fast, easy project because I had to do this all the time, you know, 

[01:09:08] diane: I love that.

[01:09:10] So I read it as buses. Uh, there’s my dyslexia coming in. I was like, birds versus buses. And then it was like, you know, bugs that have all those legs. Those were the buses. Anyway, that was just, uh, yeah, I like that. 

[01:09:23] Marius Valdes: Yeah. Um, so stickers and then we made these postcards. The kids can, um, send them to [01:09:30] their favorite doctor or nurse.

[01:09:32] diane: Oh, that’s nice. 

[01:09:33] Marius Valdes: It’s just things that help them kill time, you know, and then they can also express themselves. And then the very last thing, um, in my office, above the space where I usually sit and kind of draw and brainstorm work, I always, when I was a kid, I collected comics and I got away from it for a while.

[01:09:51] And then recently I’ve, I’ve kind of gotten back into it because I just love all the cool covers and artwork that [01:10:00] is made for comics. And I don’t even really read them so much as I just kind of collect them because I think the covers are just so, they’re so interesting. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. It’s just like, it’s in a style that I can’t do, you know?

[01:10:13] Mm-Hmm. Um, but I, I really love, like, there’s certain artists I like, but I love the typography and I love the compositions. And I mean, when I saw this Batman as a kid, like this cover, like I’d never seen anything that looked like that before. And a couple years ago when I saw this [01:10:30] cover of Spider-Man, it was just something I like, it just made me like, I don’t know, just, it just want, makes me wanna be creative.

[01:10:38] I, I can’t explain it any other way than that. Mm-Hmm. Um, but I, I just kind of keep a, a rotating kind of thing of different covers on my, on my thing there. I put covers a New Yorker on there and, and it is just stuff to remind me when I’m making my work, like go for it, you know? Be energetic, don’t be afraid.

[01:10:59] Mm-Hmm. Um, [01:11:00] it’s something to aspire to, I guess you could say. Yeah. 

[01:11:03] diane: I love that. 

[01:11:04] Marius Valdes: Yeah. So, oh, and then last thing I will say is, um. My favorite award that I’ve ever won is I got into American illustration a couple years ago for the bookmarks I did at the library, but one of the bookmarks was Spider-Man. So it was to me like such a full circle thing, like, man, the biggest award I’ve ever won that I’ve always wanted to win.

[01:11:27] I got it with that thing that my [01:11:30] dad used to read to me when I was sat in the rock. Yeah, so that was like really cool. Full circle. 

[01:11:37] diane: I love that. 

[01:11:38] Marius Valdes: Yeah. So anyway, thank you guys. I’m, I know that was long. I’m sorry if I went on too long, but, um, 

[01:11:44] diane: no, lots of people loving this super fun. Um, I wanna make sure that they all know how you can stop your share if you want.

[01:11:51] Marius Valdes: Okay? Yeah. And if you have questions and you gotta run, just email me and, you know, we can talk about anything you wanna talk about, [01:12:00] email, zoom, whatever. 

[01:12:01] diane: So I’m gonna, um, tell, I’m gonna spell out these. So, um, tab Bayard, if you wanna buy, actually, if you go to either one, Marus Valdez um.com, we’ll go over or joyous creatures.com.

[01:12:15] Mm-Hmm. It, it takes you to the same place. It’s just a forward, hopefully. Right? You don’t have two websites. Okay. Thanks you. Um, and then you can connect with them. So if somebody was going to email you, would they email you at. [01:12:30] South Carolina or, okay. 

[01:12:32] Marius Valdes: zValdez@gmail.com. Okay. Or I’m on Instagram or z valdez and you can direct message me there.

[01:12:39] diane: And Valdez has a s on the end. Z-O-O-B-A-L-D-E-S. Um, yes. Yeah, the nth on that one. I’m trying to write. Yeah. Zoo valValdez@gmail.com. I just think it’s, you have done a lot, you have a amazing body of [01:13:00] work, but I also love, one of the things when I’m thinking about how this came, um, to be is that, or like the, the hospital thing.

[01:13:10] It’s like they, or the library, you had a grant or you said, Hey, this is a good idea, or you did something small and then somebody else wanted you to do something else. You did something and then you. They said they had something else, and you kept that in your mind when you read something about another grant and you’re like, [01:13:30] Ooh, this would help them.

[01:13:31] Instead of it just being about you, you’re really thinking about, Hey, how can this better the community? Or how can this better, um, the experience? And that’s the designer in you of trying to make, um, this space and the experience better and communicate something to those kids or the families, um, or even the people that work there.

[01:13:53] So I, I love this and I can’t wait to see what you do next. 

[01:13:58] Marius Valdes: Me too. [01:14:00] 

[01:14:00] diane: So for, I usually ask this at the end is what is the plan? What is, um, and you had told me, um, the other day that you’re like, I don’t know. I have, there’s a lot of opportunities. I’ve kind of in between and Mm-Hmm. So we didn’t really get to talk about this, but I do wanna, since I talked about it in the beginning, how do you not burn out?

[01:14:20] Marius Valdes: Yeah. So one of the things that has helped me is that I have a daughter who’s now 17, but for the last 10 years she has [01:14:30] been, uh, doing travel soccer. And it’s insane. And for those of you who have small kids, don’t do it. Um, unless they’re really good. Um, which my daughter is really good. Um, and it has forced me to have to take breaks because we go on the road.

[01:14:49] I, when she was younger, couldn’t drive. I’d have to take her to practice four nights a week. Um, you know, when I’m, when I’m making work, I’m not gonna do it sitting in a car. Like I, I’m, I’m not [01:15:00] gonna, I might do doodle my sketchbook or something, but you know, if I take my daughter to Florida for a weekend, that forces me to have some downtime and it’s really healthy.

[01:15:10] And I think the other thing I did when I was, when she was little was I would try and work very hard. To do everything I was gonna work on between nine and five, so that at five o’clock I pick the kid up, go home and it’s family time, you know? And um, and, and, and it takes discipline to kind of do that.

[01:15:29] And [01:15:30] now what’s happened is my daughter is, she’s driving herself, so I’m getting more and more time back now, and another year she’ll be in college. So I think I will have to learn how to figure that out a little bit different. Um, but that is, I think forcing yourself to have breaks or having something, even like the comics for example, like that’s just kind of a, a, a silly hobby that sometimes like, like every Wednesday I’ll go down to my local comic book shop and talk to this guy that owns it.

[01:15:59] He is this kind of [01:16:00] lovable, grumpy guy. And that’s just kinda like a nice little break of getting away from the normal stuff and, you know, go to a comic con on the weekend and walk around, look at stuff, just taking little breaks, things that are interesting. I play the guitar a little bit. I’ll come home and.

[01:16:14] You know, strum the guitar and stuff. Like, it’s just a different set of, um, creative muscles. 

[01:16:21] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[01:16:21] Marius Valdes: And I’m also a huge basketball fan, so I will watch a lot of basketball 

[01:16:25] diane: Go 

[01:16:25] Marius Valdes: Duke. Go Duke. I’m a big Duke fan. Go [01:16:30] Celtics. Um, you know, I, I, I think like having that kind of healthy, those little hobbies I think on the side are really important because if you don’t have those things and all you’re doing is working, the work is just gonna get stale and feel like drudgery, you know, so Well, and 

[01:16:47] diane: it, it, I love the one thing that I’m pulling.

[01:16:50] I don’t ever listen to music when I’m, I’m not a big music person, but, um, but I don’t listen to music. But I, but I think that, um, [01:17:00] I like that you were listening to people that were reminding you to be adventurous. Yes. And, and I think that there’s something I. To that. So what else? I wrote, uh, what can remind me to be adventurous?

[01:17:13] And then I said, what makes, um, me or anybody here, like what makes you, when you look at it, you just want to draw like, oh my gosh, I’ve got to record this, or this is inspiring me to make something. And I love that you just started with boxes. [01:17:30] You, um, I mean, a long time ago you just started with a big cardboard box and you just saw it as an opportunity to play and you just went with it.

[01:17:39] And I, I love how it’s, you know, you’ve really embraced the play and spreading joy. And anyway, we’ve had a great conversation. Of course. But 

[01:17:51] Marius Valdes: yeah. Well, thank you. Hopefully it won’t be 12 more years. Amen. Let’s 

[01:17:54] diane: not let it be 12 years. I, uh, super appreciate you Marius, and uh, just thanks [01:18:00] for being willing to.

[01:18:01] Because it takes a lot to do all that 150 slides, but I really appreciate you doing that, going the extra mile. 

[01:18:10] Marius Valdes: Well, uh, thank you for having me. And, and I, I loved what you said at the beginning. I think it, for me, it really was a nice exercise to think about who are your influences and why do you do what you do?

[01:18:22] And I mean, I, I kind of went through this a couple years ago when I was going for tenure. It kind of forces you to look at your career and kinda [01:18:30] write about it, but doing this where you’re like, you know what, I’m gonna talk about TV on the radio today. Like, that’s not something I do in academia. But you know, that weird synthesizer sound on the third track of their second album, like, that’s just as important to me as, you know, salt ass or something like that, you know?

[01:18:50] So, um, yeah. You gotta tap into those things. 

[01:18:53] diane: Yeah. And I like the unexpectedness, so you’re always kind of breaking those walls for me of like [01:19:00] what a art exhibit was or how you can put bookmarks on the wall or ask people to be part of something. And I like for the bookmarks, I remember when that was and it was like small enough where people didn’t feel like, oh no, I can’t do anything that big.

[01:19:15] Right. Like it was, it was easy enough that it was something that they could get lost in, but then they could also point to and be like, I made that one. Yeah. And I think stuff like, that’s really important, but you’ve always been like that about, [01:19:30] um, bringing people into the fun and I maybe that’s where the being funny ’cause it’s not really funny if nobody’s laughing with you, you know?

[01:19:39] Marius Valdes: That’s true. That’s true. So that’s a, that’s a great point. I mean, like. I think that is that thing, like you make something and you, I, I like to share it. Like I don’t wanna make it in a room by myself and no one ever sees it. I mean, that’s just, uh, I don’t know. Like, I, it, it’s, it’s interesting you say that, like sharing it is an important part of it, you know?

[01:19:58] So yeah. 

[01:19:59] diane: The sharing of [01:20:00] mean, I liked when you were like, at, they’re at there and they’re laughing. They don’t know who I am, but they’re laughing and it’s like, oh, I, it, that makes me feel good. Because then that’s something that is, it’s a, a multiplier, you know, like, yeah. It’s just, it. When it, it’s just like your dad, you said, oh, when if I can make my dad laugh, or he would laugh and when we were reading Calvin and Hobbes or whatever.

[01:20:27] Right, right. And it would be like, whoa. And I think it [01:20:30] is, it’s just the way you look at life and that’s how, you know, Calvin and Hobbes or any of those. I think a lot of times those why they’re so good is because it’s like, oh my gosh, yeah. If only I had thought of that. Yeah, yeah. Totally. But anyway, I love that you’re confident and that you, but I mean, like the paintings, if you guys look like they’re not all just flat, right?

[01:20:53] The characters have, um, multiple colors in their heads sometimes and [01:21:00] they really are beautiful. And I wrote that book down. I hope that I can, that book still exists. The outsider art, um, or the raw creation outsider artists, that one. 

[01:21:12] Marius Valdes: It does. I, I’ve, I’ve seen it online recently. I think it’s about 30 bucks, so you can probably still get 

[01:21:15] diane: it.

[01:21:15] Okay. I can, I can afford 30 bucks. 

[01:21:18] Marius Valdes: Yeah. All right. 

[01:21:18] diane: Well Marius, I hope that we get to see each other sometime soon and thank you so much for doing this. And next week we have Damien Williams and he’s gonna do the same thing, but it’ll be different because it’s [01:21:30] somebody else. And, um, I’m just thankful that y’all stuck around for an hour and a half and I hope y’all have a great day and I hope you do this, um, too, because I think this is a really neat exercise.

[01:21:41] So I hope you take the challenge and do this for yourself. Alright. 

[01:21:47] Marius Valdes: Alright. Thank you so [01:22:00] much.