Casual Temple

TRANSCRIPT

(Transcript is auto-generated; errors are unintentional.)

00:00:00 Brooke

But there is plenty of stuff out there like there's these AI pages and it's they're making. They're just making it prompts every day. I don't know if they're, like, tightening.

00:00:09 Brooke

Them up in Photoshop.

00:00:09 Brooke

Or they're just making this whole beat of a specific aesthetic, maybe like for 50-60 style art eye art. It's cool.

00:00:20 Brooke

I like looking at it. It's cool, but it obviously doesn't feel the same. It's like a.

00:00:24 Brooke

Real art thing I.

00:00:25 Brooke

Think it makes.

00:00:29 Brooke

Physical art more valuable.

00:00:38 Merrily

Thank you all for joining us here at the Casual Temple. Our guests today are Brooke and Chase Lawrence who are a married collaborative artist duo who live and work in South Carolina.

00:00:48 Merrily

States the Lawrences are sculptors and oil painters who are interchangeably and simultaneously work on every piece together to create highly ornamental and imposing pieces of art. Their work explores new expressions of biophilic design, cryptography, esotericism, and allegory through the use of paint.

00:01:08 Merrily

And unusual innovative mediums, brick and chase, welcome to the casual temple.

00:01:17 Merrily

Thank you. Well, just going to kind of jump in and ask the first question because I've seen videos on Instagram of you two kind of working on your different pieces. And so I'm wondering how you divide the the labor of each piece between the two of you?

00:01:37 Merrily

How that works?

00:01:40 Brooke

So sometimes we'll work on the same piece at the same time, but.

00:01:45 Brooke

Most of the time it depends on how big it is, and lately we've been working.

00:01:48 Brooke

On huge pieces.

00:01:51 Brooke

Constantly for the past year so.

00:01:52 Brooke

They do not weigh more.

00:01:54 Brooke

But there's some days where chase is like working on sculptures outside. And I'm like in the studio working on paintings or vice versa. And sometimes that changes just during the day we're.

00:02:04 Brooke

Super fluid about it.

00:02:06 Chase

Yeah, a lot of times. I mean our work now, like for the current series we're doing for this exhibition, everything's really big so.

00:02:15 Chase

We're more or less like working on everything at the same time.

00:02:19 Chase

But we definitely will like kind of bounce around like she's on this painting. I'll be on the sculpture and then kind of switcheroo. But a lot of.

00:02:26 Chase

Times we will.

00:02:27 Chase

Be working at the same exact time.

00:02:31 Chase

You know, it's a lot of area to cover and.

00:02:35 Chase

A lot of the things we're we're doing, like the processes are.

00:02:41 Chase

Kind of like two man jobs. If you want to be efficient about it, so you know, like we're using a lot of like, dry. Well, I won't say dry but like.

00:02:52 Chase

Mineral earth pigments. So just, you know, any kind of natural pigment that's made from.

00:02:59 Chase

Different things. Like uh.

00:03:01 Chase

Titanium dioxide, chromium oxide.

00:03:05 Chase

Iron oxide, which is basically just rust, all that kind of good stuff, so we'll need to cover like a six foot statue and like this type of.

00:03:15 Chase

Medium. So it's a lot easier if you know we're both kind of going around at the same time, but.

00:03:22 Chase

Yeah, that's kind of a intricate insight to how we work.

00:03:29 Merrily

OK, cool. I.

00:03:29 Merrily

Do have a question now that I'm thinking about because I've seen some recent work of you that you're you're we're working on. Or maybe it was just an old video, but it had like Moss on it.

00:03:43 Merrily

Do you have OK say I bought this piece do.

00:03:45 Merrily

I have to.

00:03:46 Merrily

Missed it? That was something that I was speaking about.

00:03:49 Merrily

When you're putting it on there.

00:03:52 Brooke

More recently, it's like.

00:03:55 Brooke

How do we market this to clients?

00:03:59 Chase

Well, it's less about marketing. I would, I would say just more about like how do we want.

00:04:04 Chase

The expectation to be once it's in your possession.

00:04:10 Chase

So at the at this time like we still are about like 6 months or so away from the exhibition, so we.

00:04:17 Chase

Kind of have a little time to figure that out, but we've had pieces that we finished about six or seven months ago.

00:04:24 Chase

And we've kind of seen like what they've done. So like you were saying, they're covered in Moss and likins and.

00:04:30 Chase

Fungus, even like all kinds of like real.

00:04:34 Chase

Materials taken directly from nature and some of them are preserved and then a lot of them are still living and the great thing about like a lot of mosses and lichens, is they don't, they don't really ever die. They just kind of go dormant.

00:04:51

They they have like.

00:04:51 Chase

Spores that are like resting there. So like you're saying, if you miss them and they get just enough UV.

00:05:00 Chase

They will.

00:05:02 Chase

Begin growing again so you could do that at this stage. Like if you if you just bought one right now you couldn't missed it and keep it.

00:05:11 Chase

But we also have methods we've tested out for preservation, so we're kind of leaning more on.

00:05:18 Chase

Preserving the botanicals so that.

00:05:22 Chase

They are not high maintenance, but there is a really awesome kind of conceptual factor with leaving some of them alive, depending on what the sculptures about, I'm sure we'll get into this, but we work a lot like this whole body works all about alchemy. So.

00:05:41 Chase

There are some pieces where it makes sense to let the vibrant green living.

00:05:46 Chase

Botanicals kind of.

00:05:48 Chase

Fade and wither because when they do they turn white and they're bleached.

00:05:54 Chase

Which when we get into that, it's kind of like your albedo.

00:05:58 Chase

Stage type of stuff. So there is something about that that I really like and I think.

00:06:05 Chase

We're going to leave some where it is they are living.

00:06:10 Chase

Or dormant or whatever they've they've kind of withered into like a bleached white. No, there's no chlorophyll going on. Everything's kinda.

00:06:19 Chase

You know, it's just taking its natural course and it and it is what it is. So it's pretty interesting because they'll go from, like, green and blue and then they'll.

00:06:26 Chase

Go to stark white like snow.

00:06:29 Chase

So it really changes the whole aesthetic, which I think is kind of cool to have.

00:06:34 Chase

A transition there.

00:06:38 Chase

And stuff like that is also just really popular in art, especially now like.

00:06:44 Chase

The the big collectors and institutions love kind of funky.

00:06:50 Chase

Innovative things like that. So I think it all kind of.

00:06:56 Chase

Lends itself.

00:06:59 Chase

To that world, if that makes sense. But I don't know if that answers your question. But uh.

00:07:05 Chase

You know they.

00:07:05 Chase

Could go either way, like if you were like I.

00:07:07 Chase

Really don't want to take.

00:07:08 Chase

Care of this? What do we?

00:07:09 Chase

Do you, you know you could be like?

00:07:12 Chase

We can say, OK, well, we'll we'll preserve it for you. So it's really not that hard to preserve it, but cool.

00:07:16 Merrily

Got it.

00:07:21 Merrily

I guess you know you did talk a little bit about sort of the direction of these pieces of art that you are doing. I personally love it because it's kind of esoteric and talking about all chemical subjects that are really love. Can you talk about what's inspiring that work these days?

00:07:40

Wear it again.

00:07:41

Do you?

00:07:42 Chase

I don't want to over talk. I can easily over talk book.

00:07:44 Chase

So I'll give you like a fair minute to collect yourself.

00:07:47 Brooke

He's a lot more fun.

00:07:50 Brooke

But I I.

00:07:51 Brooke

Like I talk to her, it's just easier he communicates. It's so much easier. Just raise it up.

00:07:59 Brooke

Yeah, we, we, well, the past couple of years we've been looking at a lot of optimism manuscripts and specifically splendors, all this is what it has been inspiring. A lot of this series. But then we've been reaching beyond that and just.

00:08:13

Looking at.

00:08:14 Brooke

Like I said, other manuscripts and.

00:08:18 Brooke

Other interpretations of the process.

00:08:27 Chase

Yeah. So the interesting thing about this body work is it really all started with.

00:08:33 Chase

Do you know?

00:08:35 Chase

Do you know that Instagram account, curio esoterica?

00:08:38 Merrily

I don't think I'm familiar with it.

00:08:41 Chase

Ohh you gotta look, look him up.

00:08:42 Merrily

Yeah, I will look.

00:08:43 Chase

Well, he's a friend. He's a friend of ours.

00:08:47 Chase

And he's like uh.

00:08:51 Chase

Man, he is such a wealth of knowledge on these subjects and you know he's.

00:08:58 Chase

He went to like Drexel and he's all into.

00:09:02 Chase

I think he's like a master librarian. Yada yada. Anyway, he started the whole Cheerios Enterica channel as like a kind of, like, essayist, writing outlet focused on a magic and esotericism and.

00:09:17 Chase

Alchemy is a huge subject that he.

00:09:21 Chase

Really goes into a lot. So we started this whole project as a kind of collaborative project with.

00:09:28 Chase

Curiosita and we have a friend named Guy Sechrist who he's from Cambridge and he's a historian of science and he has a special focus in alchemy and.

00:09:50 Chase

I think it is so.

00:09:53 Chase

You know, he's very well read on alchemy from a pre chemistry perspective and just, you know, what is it? Where did it come from? Why did it ever exist, blah, blah, blah. But I think he's he's.

00:10:13 Chase

Maybe less interested in the more like magical.

00:10:18 Chase

Application as far as you know and definitely not like a Union perspective.

00:10:22 Chase

I don't think.

00:10:22 Chase

You're really just very into like the Carl Jung and alchemy vain. But as far as like, museum stuff and historical context goes, he's like the guy. So we all kind of connected and we're trying to figure out like.

00:10:39 Chase

How do we team up and create this project?

00:10:43 Chase

UM.

00:10:44 Chase

And so that's kind of the origin of it. And we just went crazy with it. And then, you know, guy.

00:10:53 Chase

Comes over to America and is now he. He's a professor at at the University of Tennessee.

00:11:02 Chase

And so he's been going through a lot. And then Danny, who is the curiosity, terrific guy, he is. He just got a new job.

00:11:10 Chase

And is starting a new project, so we're actually talking with him this week or next week, so I'll have more info on that. But we ended up just making tons of work with this whole kind of direction about alchemy just generally.

00:11:29 Chase

UM, so it's 20 pieces.

00:11:32 Chase

And then we ended up getting represented by a gallery in Fernandina Beach in Florida, which is on Amelia Island. And so we're like, let's just you know, we gotta have work. Let's just do a a show. So we're doing like a solo exhibition next year there.

00:11:51 Chase

And we can give.

00:11:51 Chase

More details about that later, but the.

00:11:54 Chase

It really just turned into our own thing. So our friends that we just talked about aren't as involved at this point.

00:12:04 Brooke

But really like key and.

00:12:05 Chase

But yeah, they they kind of got us going. So that's kind of where it all started and.

00:12:06

Thinning of the.

00:12:12 Chase

UM.

00:12:14 Chase

It feels good to have such a solid start with them because they really helped us finesse the direction and.

00:12:21 Chase

Think about this and think about that. You know, from a a more academic side because we were we, our goal is to do a museum show and you know, like at the Huntington Library or something like.

00:12:32 Brooke

That, yeah, we were going to go for a.

00:12:34 Brooke

More academic focus show.

00:12:38 Brooke

Which would be amazing, but I.

00:12:41 Brooke

We're not like quite there yet. I think after we have more solo shows.

00:12:46 Brooke

That could be something.

00:12:48 Chase

Yeah. Well, the main thing is, like, we gotta make a living, and we've spent like, an entire year full time working on this. So we've really like.

00:12:54 Chase

Have to sell it, right?

00:12:56 Merrily

Right.

00:12:57 Chase

Really. Uh, just go straight to a museum and not have any income so.

00:13:04 Chase

Yeah. Yeah. Our material costs are very.

00:13:06 Brooke

And then they just.

00:13:08 Chase

Very high. So it's definitely a labor of love. I mean you.

00:13:11 Chase

Couldn't do it. We couldn't do it any other way because.

00:13:15 Chase

There are times where you.

00:13:17 Chase

You pay out of pocket, you know, even though we we are full time artists, we still.

00:13:23 Chase

You know, pay out of pocket for all of our material expenses and things like that, so.

00:13:30 Chase

Hopefully that will change soon, but.

00:13:35 Chase

But yeah, I I don't know if that answers the question either. But you said or asked what uh is inspiring.

00:13:43 Chase

I think a lot of that.

00:13:44 Chase

Angle is is the answer to the question though because.

00:13:50 Chase

Have worked a lot with the academic world on this. These types of subjects. I mean, I'm sure you know that YouTube channel esoterica. Justin sledge. So that kind of thing is really.

00:14:05 Chase

Kind of our world.

00:14:07 Chase

But then we're artists too, so we kind of have a crazy like Middle Rd. there. So there is a lot of like personal experience and personal spiritual insights that.

00:14:19 Chase

That we connect with and really are passionate about.

00:14:24 Chase

Illustrating or communicating to some degree with our work, but then on the other hand, it is also at least in our opinion, thoroughly.

00:14:35 Chase

Researched and.

00:14:39 Chase

You know, we we know more or less what we're talking about. And then the, you know, the further you get, the more you realize that's not actually true, but.

00:14:48 Chase

You know, I like to at.

00:14:50 Chase

Least try my best.

00:14:52 Chase

Though you know, we're pretty, we're pretty versed in like, you know, manuscripts and codices and the historical context.

00:15:01 Chase

How it applies to, you know, all the religious traditions.

00:15:05 Chase

And God.

00:15:07 Brooke

We talk about it every day.

00:15:10 Merrily

It definitely shows because your work. I mean, I love seeing the process of of how some of these pieces come together because there's so much detail in there.

00:15:21 Merrily

And it's like you hidden like all these like cool things and uh, it's so good.

00:15:25 Brooke

Yeah, I love what we love more than anything is for the people from these types of communities start starting to follow us and see our work and appreciate it because we know that they understand it on many different levels compared.

00:15:39 Brooke

To someone who's.

00:15:40 Brooke

Just an average fever of art.

00:15:43 Brooke

That's just been really exciting. It's having this connecting with all the people.

00:15:48 Brooke

In the in that community.

00:15:49 Brooke

Has been really.

00:15:51 Merrily

Cool. Yeah, it's basically you're making it for those.

00:15:54 Merrily

People is how I see.

00:15:55 Merrily

It because it's so good, yeah.

00:15:58 Chase

Better, worse. But it feels good just to have those types of viewers and people appreciating the work just because.

00:16:11 Chase

You know, it is kind of lonely in this realm of yeah material.

00:16:17 Brooke

You can't talk.

00:16:18 Brooke

To anyone about it, really.

00:16:20 Chase

Yeah, well, and especially where.

00:16:21 Chase

We are, you know, it's.

00:16:23 Chase

Based in the South is.

00:16:29 Chase

Tougher crowd.

00:16:31 Merrily

Tougher crowd. Yeah. And I think one of the tenants is or at least in sort of I know a magical process is maybe in the alchemical process to you about kind of keeping silent. And it's mainly around like, because people don't get it and they're going to think you're all. Yeah.

00:16:50 Merrily

So I.

00:16:56

OK.

00:16:56 Chase

Yeah, first.

00:16:57 Chase

That is definitely part of it, but you know it's it it it is what it is and always has been that way as far.

00:17:06 Chase

As we know so.

00:17:07 Merrily

Yeah, for sure.

00:17:08 Chase

Nothing new under the sun.

00:17:12 Merrily

Well, I guess another question I was having around because I believe if I remember correctly, you're both Pisces.

00:17:22 Chase

Wrong I am.

00:17:23 Merrily

Ron oh, I could have sworn you.

00:17:25 Merrily

Both were Pisces.

00:17:26 Chase

But Brooke is Sagittarius.

00:17:28 Merrily

Sagittarius, OK.

00:17:29 Chase

And then if we're doing Vedic astrology, I'm a Leo and you're a cancer. Well, that's our ascendant sign.

00:17:35 Merrily

Oh, cancer. Oh, OK.

00:17:38 Chase

Is kind of what other people perceive.

00:17:41 Chase

You as so.

00:17:42 Merrily

Right, right. Right. That's.

00:17:44 Chase

Right. But yeah, I mean, if we're just going like Western Pisces and I and I think that.

00:17:50 Chase

Very true and always seems to describe me well.

00:17:52 Brooke

Yeah. It's like there's a.

00:17:53 Brooke

Feeling I see. But even with like a lot of Western astrology, we just we don't really read a lot about it awhile. Lot outside like.

00:18:02

Me and.

00:18:04 Brooke

All that like it.

00:18:06 Chase

I got both I mean.

00:18:07 Chase

I think.

00:18:09 Chase

I think they both kind of meet at certain points and.

00:18:14 Chase

Are the same thing, but the Vedic incorporates like *.

00:18:19 Chase

Formations on and I I have found that to be more reliable and.

00:18:27 Chase

Predictive, like energetic phenomenas and things like that. So I do think if you're trying to kind of see what's coming without, you know, obviously you're not predicting the future exactly. But I don't want to the idea of like, oh, these energies are going to be going around. So people may be behaving this way or what, you know, whatever Vedic is like.

00:18:47 Chase

Top tier for us, but I always just tell people I'm a Pisces. I don't tell people I'm a Leo.

00:18:57 Chase

So yeah, anyway.

00:18:59 Merrily

Oh, no, I thank you for correcting me and all my because I was thinking or the question I had that I was going to ask was around the communication part because I'm a Pisces. So I was applying that to the to the question, but because it's hard to communicate.

00:19:17 Merrily

Like with yourself. But you too have to communicate with each other and kind of.

00:19:22 Merrily

Be on the same.

00:19:22 Merrily

Page and I know there's artistic differences that probably occur. So how do you work with through and with that?

00:19:33 Brooke

Like a daily obstacle that you have to work through because.

00:19:39 Brooke

Different artistic opinions that are both valuable.

00:19:44 Brooke

But sometimes one person.

00:19:45 Brooke

Is just writing. You're not. I'm very, like, OCD. Psychotic about every step of the process.

00:19:53 Brooke

But Chase is like.

00:19:54 Brooke

The most relaxed person ever on Earth.

00:19:57 Brooke

So I think that's why we even are able to work out work this out so well because.

00:20:05 Brooke

I'm freaking out about something like he's just.

00:20:07 Brooke

Not gonna get to that level.

00:20:09

At all.

00:20:10 Brooke

And so it.

00:20:11 Brooke

Just we kind of meet in the.

00:20:12 Brooke

Middle there, you know what I mean? Yeah.

00:20:15 Brooke

Not similar in like so many other ways, but.

00:20:19 Chase

Yeah, it's always interesting to hear the other side.

00:20:22 Chase

Tell you how they feel about it.

00:20:24 Merrily

Yeah, right.

00:20:26 Chase

To me, I mean, honestly, I just, I think it's.

00:20:31 Chase

Pretty perfect. Most of the time. Like I don't I. I mean, yeah. Like there are things we don't agree on sometimes. And we'll have a little tiff or whatever about she thinks this goes here or looks better this way and I don't or whatever but that's not.

00:20:48 Chase

That often.

00:20:50 Brooke

It always feels like it's we're Better Together so.

00:20:52 Chase

Yeah, I yeah. Well, it's always good to have an extra set of eyes as an artist, but especially I figure out, like, you know, you're out of school when you don't have critiques anymore and you don't have professors and you don't have all these people being honest with you because, like in our school, it's pretty brutal. Like, they'll just be like, your **** sucks. But. But you're a good artist.

00:21:12 Chase

We know you.

00:21:13 Chase

Can do better, but This is why it sucks and they'll tell you and you know you have a lot of raw.

00:21:19 Chase

Critique and so.

00:21:21 Brooke

I'm definitely like a very harsh critic of our own work because it's our own. It represents us, you know.

00:21:27 Brooke

I want it to be.

00:21:27 Brooke

The best it can be, yeah.

00:21:30 Brooke

Definitely come in at that angle.

00:21:32 Chase

And naturally, we do that to each other.

00:21:33 Brooke

But it's like for the sake.

00:21:34 Brooke

Of our self improvement.

00:21:39 Chase

Brick can be tough, but I'm sure I can be too, because I'll come out of nowhere and be like that looks messed up and she's.

00:21:45 Chase

Like what?

00:21:46 Chase

But but it's nice because you're kind of double filtering yourself, so you know you might think it looks so good and then.

00:21:55 Chase

You know, Burt comes along and it's like, no, it doesn't. It could be a lot better. And then you fix it and it and it does get better. So that's really the the main perk and.

00:22:06 Chase

We understand that. So I think we communicate in our job and lives better because of it. So like we don't take it personally usually I mean.

00:22:18 Chase

It's just part of work so.

00:22:22 Chase

But yeah, I mean I I think that.

00:22:26 Chase

It's also just so much more efficient, so I'm all about it like I never.

00:22:32 Chase

Ever prefer to work?

00:22:34 Chase

By myself entirely at this point.

00:22:37 Chase

But I can't imagine doing anybody else but.

00:22:40 Chase

It's almost like you are one unit 1 being so you know it's very a spiritual thing too.

00:22:50 Brooke

Especially for the series now with.

00:22:53 Chase

Ohh yeah.

00:22:54 Brooke

Masculine and feminine energies.

00:22:56 Chase

Yeah. You know, alchemy scene Alchemy is a very.

00:23:00 Chase

Sexual thing, not in terms of, like we're having sex, but like what it really has to do with male and female.

00:23:10 Chase

Energies and.

00:23:12 Chase

The coming together, the uniting of opposites and all that kind of stuff. So it is kind of like too perfect that.

00:23:20 Chase

Our art right now is revolving around all of that and so.

00:23:27 Chase

Yeah, it's just fascinating because every day we're getting so many new insights on.

00:23:32 Chase

Oh my gosh, this means this and this is like an example of it in real life and how this works.

00:23:39 Chase

But you know as above, so below type thing it it kind of infinitely goes down and up. So just as much as I say that it means all these other things too so.

00:23:49 Chase

I don't have like 1 definitive.

00:23:54 Chase

Explanation of what alchemy is, but I think it's more of a a system of understanding the nature of reality and the patterns that govern.

00:24:06 Chase

The ultimate reality in the universe, if that makes.

00:24:09 Merrily

And one of my next questions was around like what are some big questions that your current artwork is looking at, but it sounds like you already talked about that.

00:24:20 Merrily

Yeah, we're doing well. Is there anything that?

00:24:24 Merrily

In in addition to alchemy and maybe the the hermetic principle of masculine and feminine energy, is there some other things that are? Well, I guess you don't to explain everything.

00:24:34 Merrily

But is there?

00:24:39 Chase

We can.

00:24:40 Chase

But you want to answer that first.

00:24:48 Chase

Well, what is the?

00:24:51 Chase

What is the work?

00:24:57 Merrily

Like kind of what is the some big questions that the the pieces that you're working on are trying to answer?

00:25:04 Chase

That's what I was trying to say.

00:25:06 Brooke

Part of it is like trying to connect with our human history and.

00:25:10 Brooke

Like trying to discover.

00:25:15 Brooke

Like what our spiritual potential is.

00:25:19 Brooke

In this lifetime, for, for us and for the viewer and anyone else just trying to.

00:25:33 Brooke

Things that have been.

00:25:36 Brooke

Intentionally failed.

00:25:39 Chase

Yeah. And I mean alchemy is probably like the.

00:25:43 Chase

Most obscure symbolic kind of.

00:25:48 Chase

Concept or or phenomena that I know of.

00:25:54 Chase

It reminds me of like looking at all the symbols on like government buildings and money. It's like it's like, what the hell is all this?

00:26:02 Chase

Like something you know, they're there for a reason. But like, what is it? How do we understand it and speak that language? So it really is a, it's like learning a second language and it's taken us.

00:26:16 Chase

Gosh, it's been almost like 4 years I think of.

00:26:21 Chase

Pretty, uh, pretty much. Almost like every day.

00:26:26 Chase

Familiarity and.

00:26:28 Chase

Use of the material to even get anywhere with it so.

00:26:33 Chase

It's not. It's got to be something you just can't stop learning about. I think you can't like even, you know, someone comes in and wants to learn about alchemy or whatever and.

00:26:44 Chase

You know, here's a lecture, or here's us talking about or whatever. It's like. You just aren't gonna get it. Like, even I, you know, I could tell you, you know, all this stuff that makes total sense to me at this point. But it's I just can't communicate it to you unless you put in the work it that it takes to understand it.

00:27:06 Chase

But I think that's on purpose. I think that's kind of the the beautiful, tricky thing about it and a lot of these things, you know, this goes into even, uh, all the ceremonial magic and all the different orders, even, you know, Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism and and things like that.

00:27:24 Chase

You have all these degrees from neophyte all the way up to master and everything, and they're there for a reason because it's like Mr. Miyagi karate kid. Stuff like you just can't understand until you really put the work in. You know you can't. You just can't communicate these things.

00:27:44 Chase

Directly, even even when you try like this, you know I'll think I have the words. I can communicate that to you. But if you don't have the.

00:27:52 Chase

Not you specifically, but anyone. If you don't have the.

00:27:58 Chase

I don't know, like the repertoire of.

00:28:03 Chase

Terms and enosis, you just really can't.

00:28:08 Chase

Exactly comprehend. You know what's being said there. But anyway, I I digress. I think that's on purpose and is the nature of it.

00:28:19 Chase

And that's kind of why, you know, they say you have to be initiated. Everything's about initiates you you know, so when you're initiated, you can move on to the next phase or whatever. So.

00:28:36 Chase

Yeah, it's just.

00:28:38 Chase

It's a lot. And uh.

00:28:43 Chase

But it's also why everything is paradoxical, too, because it is also very practical. Like, there's so much. There are aspects of it that I I can explain that anyone can resonate with and then be like, wow, that's so beautiful. And that's so poignant. And just, you know.

00:29:00 Brooke

And that's what makes the art work work and makes it alluring to people, I think.

00:29:05 Brooke

Because there's an innate attraction to.

00:29:07 Chase

Yes, for sure. Yeah.

00:29:10 Brooke

This type of subject, whether people are.

00:29:12 Brooke

Like fully worried better.

00:29:15 Chase

If it didn't have the practical application, I don't think that this would be a very smart subject to work with in our career because obviously you want to sell work you want to.

00:29:30 Chase

Be known for your work, etc. So if you're choosing something too obscure and.

00:29:34 Chase

It just you.

00:29:35 Chase

Can't connect with it then that's not very smart, but.

00:29:40 Chase

That's the beautiful thing. Like I said, it goes infinitely up and down as above, so below type thing.

00:29:46 Chase

It is. It is just as accessible as it isn't accessible and I think that first practical.

00:29:54 Chase

Resin resonance that people have with it is like the invitation.

00:30:02 Chase

To the initiation, so to speak. So you know if they really take to it and you're like, I love this. It's beautiful. This makes so much sense to me. Then we can have that second kind of level of knowledge and go from there.

00:30:19 Chase

But yeah, I think I think that is mainly.

00:30:26 Chase

Idea with with it conceptually I think Alchemy explains a lot about.

00:30:36 Chase

Everything once you.

00:30:39 Chase

Really get into it. And my biggest question is the age-old. You know, where did we come from? Why are we here?

00:30:49 Chase

Why don't we have good answers to these questions, even though all these people say they have good answers, they just still don't really make sense.

00:30:59 Chase

So yeah, a lot of the decoding.

00:31:03 Chase

Ultimate reality type stuff.

00:31:04 Merrily

Yeah, small things. I I liked your example. I know it was very pop culture, but it was such a great example of like Mr.

00:31:07 Merrily

Little small.

00:31:16 Merrily

Miyagi and Daniel.

00:31:17

Yeah ohh I see.

00:31:19 Chase

That one all the time, yeah.

00:31:20

You do.

00:31:21 Chase

Because that is what it is all the.

00:31:25 Merrily

Yeah, Daniel didn't know until he had to keep repeating and like.

00:31:30 Merrily

Wax on, wax off, yeah.

00:31:34 Merrily

Great. I guess so kind of talking about how you we talked about sort of the conceptual of your of the artwork, how do you decide when something's finished? I know that's like a thing with artists that I know there was.

00:31:50 Merrily

Some either article or show. I had watched about leaner. Davinci like having a problem with stopping some of his artwork or something. So how do you decide it's finished?

00:32:03 Brooke

I think it that answer is different.

00:32:06 Brooke

For any artist.

00:32:08 Brooke

And let's do one last paint strip that's.

00:32:13 Brooke

It's never that.

00:32:16 Brooke

Simple and there's been so many times where working on something and we're like, yeah, it's it's almost finish. It's like 95% of the way done 90%.

00:32:25 Chase

Never say that.

00:32:27 Brooke

It's like uh, we need to start over in this.

00:32:30 Brooke

One area just.

00:32:32 Brooke

Brings it back down to being like 50% done like we've done that with this Mars centered sculpture that.

00:32:41 Brooke

We're doing right now.

00:32:43 Brooke

You're under it so many times.

00:32:46 Brooke

Yeah, there's been many times where.

00:32:48 Brooke

Like yeah, it's almost done. No, it's not.

00:32:50 Chase

It's not. I think that question.

00:32:54 Chase

Doesn't have one answer.

00:32:55 Merrily

Yeah, it depends on the.

00:32:58 Chase

Piece, yeah, it depends on the piece. Usually it's a matter of.

00:33:05 Chase

Form if it's sculpture, you know, it's like if you turn the lights down and you just see the silhouette.

00:33:11 Chase

You really need to make sure that that looks the part. Is it balanced? Does it have all the elements of design that kind of make an ideal sculpture, unless you're intentionally not making an ideal sculpture. And then there's weird under realized rules even within that.

00:33:29 Chase

Yeah. And the art world has got its own weird.

00:33:33 Chase

Mystical kind of rules that like.

00:33:37 Chase

You have to be initiated. You can't under. You just can't understand them. Even we don't understand them.

00:33:42 Chase

All the time.

00:33:44 Chase

So you always have to be thinking about stuff like that, but I think.

00:33:51 Chase

Usually you just know.

00:33:52 Chase

It's like it almost is like a.

00:33:55 Chase

A spiritual thing, like when you just give it over to God and you're like I trust it's done. I got to stop, and that's probably what Leonardo is having a hard time with. It's like.

00:34:06 Chase

When do you just give it?

00:34:07 Chase

Up because we've had these paintings where it's like you're just looking at it for hours and hours, 100 hours, maybe more and.

00:34:15 Chase

You've been trying to work all these problems out because it is like problem solving constantly. It's very mentally taxing.

00:34:22

At least you.

00:34:23 Chase

Know the type of work we do. I don't know. Like for abstract painters, it might.

00:34:26 Chase

Be different but.

00:34:29 Chase

You just you've looked at it so much, you almost like. Can't even see what you're doing, and you'll you'll throw in the towel and come back to it a month later and.

00:34:38 Chase

You're like, wow, this is.

00:34:40 Chase

So good, like, I didn't even see it then. Or you'll be like the one thing I I couldn't figure out was this one little thing. And then you go over and you just. And that's another reason why I having two people is great because I might be in that place and then brick.

00:34:53 Chase

Walks, right?

00:34:53 Chase

Up to it, and it's like and.

00:34:55 Chase

Then I'm like, oh, my God, yeah.

00:34:58 Chase

That's what it was like. We do that.

00:34:59 Chase

For each other all the time. So.

00:35:02 Chase

And that's it's the best to be in that position when you just walk up and you save the day and it's like effortless.

00:35:09 Brooke

That really feeds your ego.

00:35:12 Merrily

OK.

00:35:12 Chase

You can't let that happen, but.

00:35:18 Chase

Especially with your wife.

00:35:20 Merrily

Right.

00:35:22 Merrily

Oh, so I.

00:35:23 Merrily

Like, yeah, I think we did chat a little bit about this piece. The Mars piece you're working on.

00:35:30 Merrily

But personally, so I've been trying to locate a Mars statue for my own altar, and oddly enough, like I, I really love this Greek store that I've been buying all of my my statues from, but they don't have an A Mars one and I was like, why do you not have Aries?

00:35:48 Merrily

Why you not have?

00:35:49 Merrily

Others. And it was it's a hard one to find. I think people and this is just me trying to find a Mars statue for myself. People have a hard time with the Mars energy. I think they I they feel weird having an altar.

00:36:04 Chase

Well, I'm glad you said that because we have a a very small like this big like Mars.

00:36:06

OK.

00:36:12 Chase

Statue that'd be perk for that and.

00:36:13 Chase

We could put our little artistic spin on it and send.

00:36:18 Chase

It to you.

00:36:20

Yeah, yeah.

00:36:21 Chase

So we actually have this part, it's casted in like resin and it's painted like a a bronze tone.

00:36:28 Merrily

Ohh really?

00:36:29 Chase

But we might change it, you know? I mean, we'll make it into, like, a miniature little art piece, but we were going to actually use it on this piece and we.

00:36:39 Chase

It was one of the things where you just like looking and you're like, no, it's it's done like the forms done. We're not adding anymore detail like that to it. So I just I have this and I have a bunch of wolves and different things.

00:36:50 Chase

Too all our symbolism there, so we can definitely.

00:36:57 Chase

Hook you up with that.

00:36:59 Merrily

Oh wow. Wow, now felt special.

00:37:03 Brooke

Sense how it's been hard to finish that piece considering the correlation between the actual meaning of it on the sculpture. There's a battlefield.

00:37:15 Brooke

Here like right here, these people battling against each other and there's angels. And then there's a flipped upside down version of.

00:37:22 Brooke

The same thing happening.

00:37:24 Brooke

And then there's the Horsehead. And then there's the pedestal that's on. But it's all like one big sculpture, but.

00:37:32 Brooke

Yeah, just the general.

00:37:36 Brooke

Intensity of.

00:37:38 Brooke

The the Red Dragon symbolism desire. There's war happening.

00:37:46 Brooke

Definitely not something that's like peaceful and.

00:37:52 Chase

Well, I don't know, it's.

00:37:55 Chase

That's a deep one because, yeah, like you were saying, Mars isn't a.

00:38:01 Chase

Hot day of the Year, Energy to work with because well, it actually literally is a hot one. But you know what I mean, it's not very popular because I don't think people take. It's not immediately.

00:38:18 Chase

Understood is like I want more of that.

00:38:21 Chase

But you know some some people need.

00:38:23 Chase

Do need more of that? Like really meek, meek and mild types can use a little of that, you know.

00:38:28 Chase

Everything has its place.

00:38:31

OK.

00:38:31 Chase

Perfectly balanced wheel, so to speak, and I know you know that, but.

00:38:39 Chase

I think that like the Mars.

00:38:42 Chase

Energy is really valuable for.

00:38:49 Chase

Understanding desire.

00:38:53 Chase

But it but it's also like desire itself, so it can be a little a little tough to work with if.

00:39:00 Chase

That makes sense.

00:39:00 Chase

I mean.

00:39:03 Chase

Because, I mean, if you take.

00:39:04 Chase

Like a Buddhist philosophy, which is, you know.

00:39:08 Chase

It's synonymous with so many things in.

00:39:10 Chase

The occult world.

00:39:13 Chase

The ultimate idea is to not desire anything so.

00:39:18 Chase

It's to get over Mar, the Mars energy.

00:39:24 Chase

And then if you go into like Gnosticism, you know, Mars is like a an Archon or whatever. So there it is almost like levels in a video game of like attributes that we have to experience understand and then we can overcome them and move past them, understand their place. And then the I guess the.

00:39:45 Chase

Complete harmonization of all is almost like Nirvana or a blissful state where.

00:39:54 Chase

Nothing is surfacing above the other, it's just all.

00:39:59 Chase

Even, you know, maybe I'm totally wrong, but that's kind of like my current working understanding of the on a very.

00:40:09 Chase

Shallow base but.

00:40:13 Chase

Yeah, yeah, like Mars is always synonymous with war and violence and aggression and fire and red and conquest and things that, you know.

00:40:25 Chase

Historically, aren't.

00:40:27 Chase

People aren't proud of and things like that. Kind of like dominating.

00:40:32 Chase

Others so.

00:40:35 Chase

Yeah. So I mean, but, but that's not exactly.

00:40:38 Chase

That's not like just what it is, but that's what everyone seems to get out of that.

00:40:41 Merrily

Right.

00:40:45 Merrily

Yeah. And because I think you two are artists because Mars is also, you know, at least in the sphere of Mars or Aries or he's responsible for creativity too, which is, like kind of surprising, like, really that energy.

00:41:01 Chase

Yeah, Mars is like the fire, which is the creative force which is sexual energy actually. So it's kind of like the masculine sexual energy. And then when you go into like kundalini and, you know the.

00:41:18 Chase

Caduceus type of energy flow going up from your root. That kind of like initial like fire. Is that like Martian energy?

00:41:32 Chase

And so, you know, if you don't have Martian interview, you're not.

00:41:36 Chase

Creating anything you're not creating babies. You're not. You're not fertile. You're not able to. Even as an artist, create anything with your hands or as a.

00:41:46 Chase

Builder, you know, build whatever it is a temple, a house, whatever. So I think.

00:41:53 Chase

And that's a beautiful thing about Acme too. Is it kind of school? If you really get into it, it schools you.

00:41:57 Chase

On all of this type of stuff.

00:42:00 Chase

And that's how I even understand.

00:42:03 Chase

To even have a conversation like this about?

00:42:05 Chase

Any of this?

00:42:06 Chase

Is kind of through that so.

00:42:11 Chase

Yeah. I mean, I think that's a fascinating aspect of it that no one.

00:42:14 Chase

Thinks about is.

00:42:14 Chase

It is. It's a sexual energy and it's a.

00:42:18 Chase

Create a force and that is what sexual.

00:42:20 Chase

Energy is is.

00:42:21 Chase

At the beginning of a creative force. So.

00:42:26 Merrily

Well, thanks for walking through the creative energy of Mars and talking about that. So that's really cool. Thank you.

00:42:34 Merrily

So Chase, when I was looking at some of some older interviews that you've done an artist that you mentioned that you really like as Alex Pardee.

00:42:45 Merrily

UM. And So what? I was looking at is our. I was like, whoa, it's very like there's a lot of energy and like bright colors and not something I would think like that you would for whatever reason would I have the idea of you that does it it does it.

00:43:00 Merrily

Jive together. But so why? Why Alex pardee? What? What about his work that you?

00:43:06 Chase

Well the my.

00:43:07 Chase

Main thing with Alex Pardee is that.

00:43:11 Chase

He was the first artist I ever saw that changed my life so.

00:43:17 Chase

Honestly, like now I love the guy. I've met him before. He's a super good guy. We almost worked together on a project two years ago and.

00:43:25 Chase

He's just awesome, but like.

00:43:28 Chase

I've definitely we've grown in like different directions, I guess, and he's a much older than me too. So I was a huge fan.

00:43:35 Chase

Of him when I was in middle school.

00:43:38 Chase

And like now I'm like turning 30, so getting older and.

00:43:45 Chase

Yeah. So.

00:43:47 Chase

I don't know. Like you just naturally like.

00:43:50 Chase

Change overtime and I don't know. Like I loved his.

00:43:56 Chase

McCabe like but.

00:43:59 Chase

Almost like paradoxical.

00:44:02 Chase

Style because he was like putting like rainbows and teddy bears and like, really.

00:44:07 Chase

Cute. See colorful, like happy stuff with like, really dark. Uh, kind of scary stuff revolving around death and, you know, kinda.

00:44:17 Chase

Just like.

00:44:18 Chase

Bad vibe. So I always loved that. I was always like, such a little rebel when I was a kid, so I just thought that was so ****** and I never seen any art like that ever. Not even anything close.

00:44:32 Chase

So it really.

00:44:35 Chase

I just remember like the first day I saw his work. This was like back when, like, Myspace was huge.

00:44:42 Chase

And everyone is on Myspace and.

00:44:45 Chase

Like YouTube was like a new thing and he had like, made some time lapse videos of him painting murals and stuff like that. And I was just, like, addicted. And I I just started, like, copying him and.

00:44:57 Chase

Like he influenced my style so much. That's how I like kind of learned to draw.

00:45:02 Brooke

Yeah, like anytime chase does. Doodles or anything, it's.

00:45:05 Brooke

Very much in Alex.

00:45:07 Merrily

'S style. Oh wow.

00:45:09 Chase

Sketches. Yeah, it's like.

00:45:10 Chase

My little kid like style.

00:45:10 Brooke

It's totally different from our painting, sculpture stuff, but it's I feel like all of my stuff still has a little bit of that wind supply aspect.

00:45:20 Merrily

Yeah, because of him.

00:45:22 Chase

Yeah, I love the whimsy and the, but also the creepy, weird kind of seriousness of it. But anyway, I don't know. Like I just. I just loved it at the time and it just spoke to me. And and I devoured anything he put out and and then my dad actually took me to meet him when I was a.

00:45:39 Chase

Sophomore in high school.

00:45:42 Chase

And I just asked him a bunch of questions and like, he gave me some drawings. I actually.

00:45:46 Chase

Have one.

00:45:47 Chase

Right here.

00:45:51

That's so cool.

00:45:51 Chase

He did.

00:45:52 Chase

And I gave him, like two of my drawings.

00:45:57 Chase

And he was like, dude, just keep keep doing it like you'll figure it out. It'll, you know, he kind of told me some, like, generic advice but.

00:46:04 Chase

But it really like gave me everything I needed. I was like, I can do this and I will do this Alex.

00:46:09 Chase

Told me.

00:46:10 Chase

I could so.

00:46:12 Chase

You know, to me it meant a lot.

00:46:14 Chase

Yeah, but as I went like I went through high school, he was still heavily influenced all my work, all throughout high school. But I I did take it very serious. I started like a clothing brand and made decent money doing that when I was still in high school in college, I was like little art entrepreneur Guy.

00:46:33 Chase

And that was all I cared about and all I wanted to do. But then when I got into college, they kind of destroyed me and, like, turned me into this, like, little.

00:46:44 Chase

Like art history freak. So I started learning about all the great artists throughout time and all the great paintings around the world and all the great sculptures and blah blah blah. And I started getting way more into like academic art.

00:46:59 Chase

Which I was like I said, it was always such a rebel. I always never gave a **** about any of that. I didn't want anything to do with it. I hated it. I was.

00:47:05 Chase

Like I never want to go to the loop. That's ********.

00:47:08 Chase

Uh, you know, like I just want to, like, spray paint on the wall and, like, draw *****. But you know, it refined me. So, so to speak. So I got refined and.

00:47:21 Chase

Reformed and then.

00:47:24 Chase

You know you always.

00:47:25 Chase

Have that love of your childhood. Kind of.

00:47:31 Chase

Innocence and rebelliousness and that raw energy, very marsy and.

00:47:38 Chase

And so that explains my whole thing to Alex pretty like now. Like, if I just discovered him now for the first time ever, I don't really.

00:47:44 Chase

Think I I would be that into it.

00:47:46 Chase

But I mean, dude, I love the.

00:47:47 Chase

Guy he like.

00:47:48 Chase

He's a huge part of who I am.

00:47:51 Chase

He is in the Hall of Fame to me.

00:47:54 Merrily

Yeah, basically like a lot of formative stops in your life. He was there. That's really cool.

00:48:00 Chase

And well, and I was a big skater and like I skated my whole life and that type of art is just so skateboarding and.

00:48:08 Merrily

Oh yeah.

00:48:10 Chase

Kind of punk rock, so yeah.

00:48:14 Merrily

Well, thank you for sharing that. That was a very I appreciate the background on Alex Purdy and you. So Brooke, who is an artist that is kind of similar to your, do you have one that was kind of a similar influence?

00:48:31 Brooke

Here and there. But there's also like.

00:48:34 Brooke

I remember. Yeah, I don't, really.

00:48:36 Brooke

Think about this a.

00:48:37 Brooke

Lot but there.

00:48:38 Brooke

Was one girl at.

00:48:39 Brooke

My high school.

00:48:42 Brooke

And she was like, several years older than me that my mom was teaching her, and she was an artist. And she was showing me her stuff and that.

00:48:51 Brooke

Had a similar.

00:48:52 Brooke

Effects that Alex Hardy had on him.

00:48:56 Brooke

And she.

00:48:58 Brooke

Just fit all these paintings that fit in drawings of fishes. And like these girls and stuff and.

00:49:03 Brooke

Something about it?

00:49:04 Brooke

Like, really? I thought she was like, the coolest person ever, and she inspired me so much and I did start, like, copying her.

00:49:09 Brooke

Stuff for like.

00:49:10 Brooke

Years. So I got to call it. I mean, till I got into further into high school art classes, I started like going beyond that.

00:49:20 Brooke

She definitely inspired me a lot and she does like textile art stuff now, but.

00:49:27 Brooke

That was someone who inspired me when I was younger. That was definitely.

00:49:31 Brooke

Part of why I still stuck with art though. Art was.

00:49:34 Brooke

Like the only thing I.

00:49:35 Brooke

Felt like I could.

00:49:35 Brooke

Do since I was like.

00:49:36 Brooke

A very young child.

00:49:41 Brooke

Artists that do inspire me, since, like college that I've always loved.

00:49:45 Brooke

Is that Sanski and Francis Bacon?

00:49:50 Brooke

Those two I I just always look to their stuff and.

00:49:56 Brooke

They have this sort of energy in their work that I want to emulate in my own and in our our work.

00:50:05 Brooke

Of Francis Bacon, like his work is, well, both of their.

00:50:09 Brooke

Works are very.

00:50:13 Brooke

Dark and extremely raw emotion.

00:50:17 Brooke

Just unfiltered, very rough.

00:50:20 Brooke

And can be disturbing even points, but I do really.

00:50:23 Chase

Yeah, very intense, very intense.

00:50:25 Brooke

Love work like that.

00:50:28 Brooke

Something about it speaks to me. I don't really have the words to describe why that speaks to me so much, but.

00:50:34 Chase

Hey, me neither.

00:50:37 Brooke

They're definitely big inspirations to me and they have been for years, always will be, I think even in the worker making now, I look to their separate inspiration all the time.

00:50:49 Brooke

They're just like legends.

00:50:53 Merrily

So is Francis Bacon, and was it Kandinsky or?

00:50:57 Merrily

Or did I hear that wrong? Oh, mess.

00:51:02 Chase

Since this law, I don't know. I don't know how to actually say it.

00:51:07 Chase

But it's like.

00:51:08 Chase

Zdzislaw beksinski. He was a Polish artist. Tragic story about him, but definitely look him up. You.

00:51:17 Chase

Will love it.

00:51:18 Chase

That if you.

00:51:19 Chase

Don't you probably have seen this stuff before, but.

00:51:23 Chase

You, I mean, you'll go down a rabbit hole. That dude has hundreds of paintings, and they're in.

00:51:25 Brooke

He's definitely gotten.

00:51:29 Brooke

Stuff unless and every single one of them just.

00:51:33 Chase

Yeah, on another level.

00:51:35 Chase

Yeah, I love that Polish stuff.

00:51:36 Brooke

Like he, he's gotten more popular recently, and then with AI art stuff you see a lot of like kind of renditions of.

00:51:44 Brooke

Like his stuff.

00:51:46 Chase

Yeah, he's definitely.

00:51:49 Chase

You can tell like a lot of AI art like people are typing his.

00:51:52 Chase

Name and it.

00:51:53 Chase

Has like that exact vibe, but you can tell it's like not real and kind of off.

00:52:03 Merrily

Well, I will try to Google.

00:52:07 Chase

Yeah, I'll. I'll send you his name.

00:52:09 Merrily

Oh, cool. Thank you.

00:52:09 Chase

In the.

00:52:09 Chase

Chat but it is.

00:52:12 Chase

Not a, not a intuitive spelling of his name. It's.

00:52:16 Chase

Like, really, really great.

00:52:17 Brooke

Not at all.

00:52:19 Merrily

Well, I'll look forward to it to seeing how it's spelled. And then?

00:52:22 Merrily

How it's pronounced so?

00:52:26 Merrily

OK.

00:52:29 Merrily

Well, cool. So another thing that I saw when I was kind of, you know, looking at some old interviews was the, UM, an NFT collection that you created, but it sounded like maybe Brooke, you were the one that kind of did most of the work the.

00:52:44 Merrily

Digital work on it.

00:52:47 Merrily

So they kind of like tops baseball cards, but they looked like comic book art like Daniel Clowes or that kind of stuff. I love comic art, so I was like, wow, these are so cool looking.

00:53:00 Brooke

I like too, especially like the older stuff and like the 70s, eighties.

00:53:05

And they'll.

00:53:05 Brooke

Be it it's art.

00:53:08 Merrily

Yeah. Ohh my gosh.

00:53:09 Brooke

It was inspiring to me in college too, because I got super into illustration and sequential art and I really considered if I should get into comic art.

00:53:20 Brooke

But it's very difficult path. I didn't love it.

00:53:25 Brooke

Enough for that.

00:53:26 Brooke

Yeah, yeah. For that project, I really both did a lot of stuff on it, but part of it was me teaching chase how to use Photoshop in certain ways to do the stuff I was.

00:53:38 Brooke

Doing and then.

00:53:40 Brooke

From there, but.

00:53:42 Chase

Yeah, I did most of the backgrounds though.

00:53:44 Chase

Like 100.

00:53:45 Brooke

Percent. Yeah, but I I had a lot of experience prior to that with Photoshop, digital painting and just illustrative stuff on that. So it did make it a lot easier for that project.

00:53:56 Brooke

To to do all those cards.

00:53:59 Chase

Yeah, yeah. And then like obviously that was like a project for like my brother.

00:54:06 Chase

So yeah, he was like the first rookie athlete in sports history to have an entire, like set of cards.

00:54:15 Chase

Made around him so it was like a big deal and he like invited us to be the artist for the whole project and it was super, Super sick and surprising I was.

00:54:26 Chase

Like no way.

00:54:28 Chase

Because I you know, I just never.

00:54:29 Chase

Really thought about how our.

00:54:32 Chase

I mean, we're super close. We're like best buds.

00:54:34 Chase

But I just never thought like how our careers would kind of collide and like there would be any type of thing like that so.

00:54:44 Chase

That was amazing.

00:54:47 Chase

Yeah, it was cool. But like, you know it, obviously you look at the.

00:54:52 Chase

Work and it's like that's not.

00:54:54 Chase

Really like our style or like what what we do. But it was like, how do we?

00:54:59 Chase

Use our skills to create this thing, and it's like a family affair, type of cool collaborative project.

00:55:08 Chase

So we did that. But uh.

00:55:11 Chase

But it was a lot of fun that.

00:55:12 Chase

Was a really great year.

00:55:15 Chase

Lots of traveling and fun stuff and.

00:55:18 Chase

Met so many cool people through that whole process. That's actually how we almost worked on a project with Alex Pardee because he works for tops like constantly.

00:55:29 Chase

And so they actually get him to do, like, his sick, weird, like kind of horror movie, 80s, like, kind of style on baseball cards, so.

00:55:39 Chase

He has, like, tons of these baseball cards he's done in his, like, Crazy Monster, weird style.

00:55:50 Chase

Yeah. So that's kind of.

00:55:53 Chase

The behind the scenes, I guess on that.

00:55:56 Merrily

Yeah, they're really cool. I again because I love comic art so much. I was like, these are so like looking through all of them. They're.

00:56:03 Merrily

Just really beautiful and.

00:56:05 Merrily

And the color was like it was good, yeah.

00:56:11 Brooke

I'm obsessive about color.

00:56:13 Merrily

Ohh it shows.

00:56:17 Brooke

Comic stuff.

00:56:20 Brooke

Just the color with telling the story.

00:56:22 Brooke

Is so important and.

00:56:23 Brooke

You know how, like, literal interpretation of that.

00:56:23 Merrily

Ohh yeah.

00:56:28 Brooke

I love that.

00:56:30 Brooke

Type of color use, especially like the WATCHMAN style.

00:56:35 Brooke

Yeah, totally. It just makes sense to me.

00:56:38 Brooke

It's like how it should look. I'm in my mind. I'm like, that's how.

00:56:42 Brooke

Everything should look.

00:56:46 Merrily

I mean, you can't go wrong. It's a classic for a reason. So it's a good it's a good basis, yeah.

00:56:52 Chase

Dan Allen Moore is I just like him as.

00:56:56 Merrily

Oh yeah, he's so weird, but so cool. Like.

00:56:59 Chase

An old.

00:57:01 Merrily

Yeah, cool. So the next question is around AI art because it's it's super hot topic lately and you both are artists. So I'm like dying.

00:57:15 Merrily

I know what each of you.

00:57:16 Merrily

Think about AI art.

00:57:19 Brooke

Ohh or not?

00:57:22 Brooke

The biggest haters ever of AI, art or anything but like some of it is.

00:57:29 Brooke

So it could definitely be annoying, but there is plenty of stuff out there like there's these AI pages on Instagram.

00:57:34 Brooke

That people are making.

00:57:35 Brooke

They're just making prompts every day. I don't know if they're, like, tightening them up in Photoshop or anything, but they're just making this.

00:57:42 Brooke

Whole feed of a.

00:57:43 Brooke

Specific aesthetic like maybe like for the 5060 style.

00:57:49 Brooke

Art, AI, art and it's cool. I like looking at it. It's cool, but it obviously doesn't feel the same as.

00:57:56 Brooke

Like a real.

00:57:56 Brooke

Art piece.

00:57:57 Chase

I just, yeah.

00:57:58 Brooke

And I don't think I think it makes.

00:58:03 Brooke

Physical art more valuable.

00:58:08 Chase

That's a plus.

00:58:09 Merrily

Yeah, for sure.

00:58:11 Chase

I think it's just changing the whole landscape of or it's adding in like a whole new.

00:58:16 Chase

A whole new dynamic, I guess to art and.

00:58:21 Chase

The creative process I know, like early on the whole intention behind a prompt based like output for like like a visualization. It was to help inspire artists. So it was like type this in. It'll kind of give you like a kind of a starting point but very vague you know.

00:58:41 Chase

Maybe you have some like.

00:58:42 Chase

Really strong use of these colors and a basic kind of shape or figure or whatever. It was just kind of more like to get you going and be like OK, now you are an artist. Make an art piece out of this inspiration.

00:58:56 Chase

And now it's gone to full blown, like you can just.

00:59:00 Chase

Type anything in and get you know the most amazing thing but.

00:59:06 Chase

What people don't really realize, too, is like there's an art to making the prompts, because, like, if you or I just start typing in prompts like we'll probably get a bunch of, like, really crappy stuff that looks doesn't look right. You gotta know, like, the secret formula to what it what it is you want. But I mean, I think it's actually really useful.

00:59:27 Chase

Or assisting like.

00:59:31 Chase

Composition and color theory and just, you know, kind of the the basic skeleton of an art piece. But on the flip side, none of the great artists through history ever used anything like that. So you almost feel a little bit like well.

00:59:48 Chase

Is my stuff less than? If I do that, but also like it just spins to yard like.

00:59:49 Brooke

Three months.

00:59:55 Chase

Who cares?

01:00:00 Chase

I I really what? It's annoying I think is.

01:00:03 Chase

All these.

01:00:05 Chase

People that are just like constantly posting the AI stuff and they're not telling you like this is AI are and it's almost like they're they're trying to say like they did.

01:00:14 Chase

It or something?

01:00:16 Brooke

Like videos on Instagram like it's like an old video.

01:00:22 Brooke

Of like a singer, you know, like Selena Quintanilla like her, her videos. I've seen people constantly using AI to like sharpen the video and enhance it. And it looks so weird and not real. I hate that. That's what I hate the most about.

01:00:37 Brooke

AI is everyone's doing that and I think it looks good and it looks like ****.

01:00:42 Brooke

It's like ruining what it is supposed to look like. Like. I see stuff like that all the time. That's like a really specific thing, but I've seen it with other.

01:00:52 Brooke

Older musicians and.

01:00:57 Brooke

Just in general like I know cameras, they have like an AI technology that helps.

01:01:04 Brooke

Filling things if the photo is like blurry or something or far away, but sometimes that can like.

01:01:10 Chase

Yeah, our phones have that.

01:01:11 Brooke

I don't know how.

01:01:11 Brooke

Much I like all of the AI stuff constantly, but.

01:01:15 Brooke

Some of it's cool.

01:01:16 Chase

Well, the crazy thing is it's like just kind of started in the last like year and a half. I well, I won't say it just started, but like it's really taken off and gotten super popular in the last year and a half and now it's like everyone's using.

01:01:28 Chase

It like a ChatGPT is another.

01:01:32 Chase

And I mean, I've messed around that. Like, that's amazing to me. I'm like, holy ****, this can, like, literally write a book in like, 10 seconds. And it has very few, like, weird errors and things like that.

01:01:46 Chase

But you know there you can all like.

01:01:48 Chase

It's just retraining us to like, spot things. I think too, because I always know when something's AI. For the most part, especially if it's like a picture like.

01:01:56 Chase

Video there's so many like dead giveaways like that never gets hands right? It'll they'll be like it never gets text, right? Obviously it'll just look like some weird alien language.

01:02:06 Chase

And those things are going to get better and they'll probably, you know, in a year or two be totally a thing of the past. They'll probably be so good that we won't even know anymore. I don't know.

01:02:19 Chase

I guess I I think you know with great power comes great responsibility. So you know, just use it in a in a way that's a legitimate tool or or just have fun entertaining thing. But you know, don't and.

01:02:33 Chase

Try to act like you're.

01:02:35 Chase

Creating this from the ground up and I mean.

01:02:39 Chase

It's not going to work like, ever you'll.

01:02:40 Chase

Get found out if you do that so.

01:02:44 Chase

Yeah, it is weird but and also last thing.

01:02:47 Chase

Like Burke was saying about the like Instagram pages, it'll be like a whole and an account with this aesthetic. And it's just.

01:02:53 Chase

Like a I post.

01:02:55 Chase

Picture post after picture post and it's like.

01:02:58 Chase

Like 60 Space Monster sci-fi or it's like.

01:02:59 Brooke

It's cold, but it's like.

01:03:02 Brooke

I love those. They're cool. But they're also that soulless.

01:03:05 Chase

Well, I was saying like they're cool like mood boards, almost. So that might be like a whole new, like cultural thing. That starts happening is like now we go on Instagram and we look at AI pages to get ideas.

01:03:20 Chase

Whatever vibe we want to portray, or you know, I.

01:03:22 Chase

Don't know like how.

01:03:23 Chase

Pinterest Kind of is for people.

01:03:25 Brooke

Interest has gotten bad with AI stuff. I don't know why they're not filtering out. Some of it is like like the other day I was trying to look for some like older anime illustrative stuff and I could not find anything that was real.

01:03:40 Brooke

Like 99% of it was actually all anime AI stuff was like what's happening like.

01:03:48 Brooke

Where where's the?

01:03:49 Brooke

Actual stuff I used to see months ago.

01:03:54 Chase

Now the Internet is flooded with like billions of AI images every second, and so they're going to start.

01:04:00 Chase

Popping up everywhere.

01:04:02 Chase

Had to go somewhere.

01:04:04 Brooke

Yeah, they need to, like, have their own.

01:04:06 Brooke

Section Ohh or not like?

01:04:10 Brooke

The biggest haters ever of AI, art or anything but like some of it is.

01:04:16 Brooke

So it could definitely be annoying, but there is plenty of stuff out there like there's these AI pages on Instagram.

01:04:22 Brooke

That people are making.

01:04:23 Brooke

They're just making prompts every day. I don't know if they're, like, tightening them up in Photoshop or anything, but they're just making.

01:04:30 Brooke

This whole feed of a.

01:04:31 Brooke

Specific aesthetic like maybe like for the 5060 style.

01:04:37 Brooke

Art, AI, art and it's cool. I like looking at.

01:04:41 Brooke

It it's cool but.

01:04:42 Brooke

It obviously doesn't feel the same as.

01:04:43 Brooke

Like a real art piece.

01:04:45 Chase

I just, yeah.

01:04:45 Brooke

And I don't think I think it makes.

01:04:50 Brooke

Physical art more valuable.

01:04:56 Chase

That's a plus.

01:04:57 Merrily

Yeah, for sure.

01:04:58 Chase

I think it's just changing the whole landscape of or it's adding in like.

01:05:02 Chase

A whole new.

01:05:04 Chase

A whole new dynamic, I guess to art and.

01:05:09 Chase

The creative process I know, like early on the whole intention behind a prompt based like output for like like a visualization. It was to help inspire.

01:05:23 Chase

Artist. So it was like type this in. It'll kind of give you like a kind of a starting point, but very vague. You know maybe you have some like really strong use of these colors and a basic kind of shape or figure or whatever it was just kind of more like to get you going and be like OK now you are an artist make an art piece out of this inspiration.

01:05:44 Chase

And now it's gone to full blown like.

01:05:46 Chase

You can just.

01:05:48 Chase

Type anything in and get you know the most amazing thing but.

01:05:54 Chase

What people don't really realize, too, is like there's an art to making the prompts, because, like, if you or I just start typing in prompts like we'll probably get a bunch of, like, really crappy stuff that looks doesn't look right. You gotta know, like, the secret formula to what it what it is you want.

01:06:12 Chase

But I mean, I think it's actually really useful for assisting like.

01:06:19 Chase

Composition and color theory and just, you know, kind of the the basic skeleton of an art piece. But on the flip side, none of the great artists through history ever used anything like that. So you almost feel a little bit like well.

01:06:36 Chase

Is my stuff less than? If I do that, but also like it just spins your yard like.

01:06:37

Three months.

01:06:43 Chase

Who cares? But also.

01:06:48 Chase

I I really what? It's annoying I think is.

01:06:51 Chase

All these.

01:06:53 Chase

People that are just like constantly posting the AI stuff and they're not telling you like this is AI are and it's almost like they're they're trying to say, like they did it or.

01:07:03 Brooke

Something like videos on Instagram like it's like an old video.

01:07:10 Brooke

Of like a singer, you know, like Selena Quintanilla like her, her videos. I've seen people constantly using AI to, like sharpen the video and enhance it. And it looks so weird and not real. I hate guys. That's what I hate the most about.

01:07:25 Brooke

Yeah, everyone's doing that. I think it looks.

01:07:28 Brooke

Good. It looks like ****.

01:07:30 Brooke

It's like ruining what it is supposed to look like.

01:07:34

Like I see.

01:07:35 Brooke

Stuff like that all the time. That's like a really specific thing, but I've seen it with other.

01:07:40 Brooke

Older musicians and.

01:07:45 Brooke

Just in general like I know cameras, they have like an AI technology that helps.

01:07:52 Brooke

Filling things if the photo is like blurry or something or far away, but sometimes that can like.

01:07:58 Chase

Yeah, our phones have that.

01:07:59 Brooke

I don't know.

01:07:59 Brooke

How much I like all of the AI stuff constantly, but.

01:08:03 Brooke

Some of it's cool.

01:08:04 Chase

Well, the crazy thing is it's like just kind of started in the last like year and a half. I well, I won't say it just started, but like it's really taken off and gotten super popular in the last year and a half and now it's like everyone's using it like a ChatGPT is another one.

01:08:20 Chase

And I mean, I've messed around that. Like, that's amazing to me. I'm like, holy ****, this can, like, literally write a book in like, 10 seconds. And it has very few, like, weird errors and things like that.

01:08:34 Chase

But you know there you can all like.

01:08:36 Chase

It's just retraining us to like, spot things. I think too, because I always know when something's AI. For the most part, especially if it's like a picture like or a video. There's so many like dead giveaways like that never gets hands right. They'll be like it never gets text, right? Obviously it'll just look like some weird alien language. And those things are going to get better and they'll probably.

01:08:56 Chase

You know, in a year or two be totally a thing of the past. They'll probably be so good that we won't even know anymore. I don't know, but.

01:09:05 Brooke

The world of crash and burn.

01:09:07 Chase

I guess I think you know, with great power comes great responsibility. So you know, just use it in a in a way that's a legitimate tool or or just have fun entertaining thing. But you know, don't.

01:09:21 Chase

Try to act like you're.

01:09:23 Chase

Creating this from the ground up and I mean.

01:09:27 Chase

It's not going to work like ever you'll get.

01:09:29 Chase

Found out if you do that so.

01:09:32 Chase

Yeah, it is weird but.

01:09:33 Chase

And also last thing like Burke was saying about the like Instagram pages, it'll be like a whole and an account with this aesthetic. And it's just like a I post picture post after picture post and it's like 60 Space Monster sci-fi or it's like.

01:09:46 Brooke

It's cool, but it's like.

01:09:52 Brooke

They're also a bit soulless.

01:09:53 Chase

Well, I was saying like they're cool like mood boards, almost, so that might be like a whole new, like cultural thing. That starts happening is like now we go on Instagram, we look at AI pages to get ideas about.

01:10:08 Chase

Whatever vibe we want to portray, or, you know, I don't know, like, how Pinterest kind of is for people.

01:10:13 Brooke

This has gotten bad with AI stuff. I don't know why they're not filtering out. Some of it is like like the other day I was trying to look for some like older anime illustrative stuff.

01:10:24 Brooke

And I could not find anything that was real like 99% of it was actually all anime AI stuff. I was like, what's happening? Like where where's the actual stuff? I used to see months ago.

01:10:40

Right.

01:10:42 Chase

Now the Internet is flooded with like billions of AI images every second, and so they're going to start popping.

01:10:48 Chase

Up everywhere.

01:10:50 Chase

Gotta go somewhere.

01:10:52 Brooke

Yeah, they need to, like, have their own section.

01:10:56 Merrily

Like filter it out.

01:10:59 Chase

Yeah, we'll see where that one goes though. That's a.

01:11:03 Merrily

Thank you for sharing about the AI stuff. Yeah, it's.

01:11:08 Merrily

It's very interesting. I I like the idea that it's going to make or it is making physical art a little more, you know, desirable because I agree with that.

01:11:16 Chase

Yeah, definitely is.

01:11:18 Brooke

I mean, I've never worried once about.

01:11:21 Brooke

Oh, we're going.

01:11:22 Brooke

To lose our jobs because of this, like some people say, stuff like that, just like that, doesn't even.

01:11:26 Brooke

Make sense?

01:11:27 Brooke

It's not a physical painting that will always be valuable and that like.

01:11:32 Chase

It's more scary for, like, people who work on video games and movies because.

01:11:33 Brooke

It's always been valuable.

01:11:37 Merrily

You're not.

01:11:37 Brooke

That that is really.

01:11:37 Chase

You're not really dealing with a lot of physical or it is a lot of digital conceptual stuff. So I think you know, AI could definitely start heavily threatening it, but at this stage the eye is not good enough to fully compensate. So you do still have to have real people.

01:11:42 Merrily

That's true.

01:11:54 Chase

That are like at least taking the images and fixing them and like polishing them up, like if his hands look like this, they have to.

01:12:02 Chase

Make them look like regular hands.

01:12:03 Brooke

And yeah, just be more glad that we have.

01:12:05 Brooke

The job we have.

01:12:06 Merrily

Right.

01:12:07 Brooke

And then go into.

01:12:09 Brooke

Anything digital?

01:12:11 Brooke

No hate to that.

01:12:12 Brooke

Stuff I.

01:12:12

Mean it's like.

01:12:14 Brooke

It's like now you have AI on.

01:12:16 Brooke

Your ads like like if you're.

01:12:16 Merrily

Right.

01:12:19 Brooke

Not like the best of the best.

01:12:21 Chase

Yeah, yeah, you can definitely make like little assets and video games like you need.

01:12:25 Chase

A. A burlap sack sitting on the floor in this scene of this game. Or you need a barrel or a, you know, a box or a cabbage or whatever, like all that, can just easily be kind of made in AI.

01:12:41 Merrily

Yeah, brave new world with the AI will.

01:12:45 Merrily

We'll we'll pay attention and see what happens.

01:12:47

It's definitely going to.

01:12:48 Chase

Is already changing like the entire world. I mean it.

01:12:51 Chase

Is coming into like a new age.

01:12:54 Chase

So to speak, so.

01:12:55 Merrily

Yeah. Exciting. So.

01:12:57 Chase

Exciting, but they always have growing pains.

01:13:00 Merrily

That's true.

01:13:01 Chase

But you just always gotta roll with the punches.

01:13:05

That's the key.

01:13:08 Merrily

Yeah. Thanks for walking down the AI Rd. with me. Switching gears just a little bit because if people are following you, they'll see really beautiful pictures of the house. The farmhouse you guys live in.

01:13:21 Merrily

And and video to you. And I know recently you have a separate Instagram account for your your home.

01:13:29 Merrily

And I just love it.

01:13:31 Chase

Thank you. I needed postmark stuff. It's just I'm so bad at, like, consistently doing social media and.

01:13:37 Brooke

Yeah, we just, we both hate it.

01:13:39 Chase

And you have.

01:13:39 Merrily

Ohh I know.

01:13:39 Chase

To like really get things popular. It's so hard.

01:13:43 Brooke

Yeah, it's like you have to, like, push yourself with your work working on it. But it's like, do I really want to post like?

01:13:51 Chase

You know how it is.

01:13:51 Brooke

I don't want. I don't.

01:13:52 Brooke

Want to put make fun?

01:13:54 Brooke

To right.

01:13:56

And then.

01:13:57 Brooke

All that just to like.

01:13:59 Brooke

Make a post.

01:14:02 Brooke

To get anything.

01:14:04 Brooke

Any momentum these days it's totally different. Like four years ago, so much better back then. Oh my God.

01:14:12 Chase

Four years ago was back then.

01:14:14 Merrily

Yeah. Wait back then.

01:14:17 Brooke

Like 4 years ago, it was perfect.

01:14:23 Chase

Anyway, sorry.

01:14:24 Merrily

Oh no. Well, so I know the at least I've seen you explain the design and design interior called maximalism. If you want to kind of talk about that and yeah, what what what is maximalism?

01:14:41 Chase

Well, yes, but it's actually like more of like a a historical aesthetic in.

01:14:43 Brooke

There's fit everywhere.

01:14:54 Chase

Country houses and manners, and even palaces and things like that.

01:15:00 Brooke

This is our least decorated room. Please do not touch the house by.

01:15:02 Chase

Yeah, this room's.

01:15:05 Chase

This is our. Yeah. Well, you've seen the pictures of the rest of us.

01:15:05 Merrily

Taking to.

01:15:06 Brooke

Like extreme low effort computer and yeah.

01:15:10 Chase

But but.

01:15:10 Brooke

Anyone else?

01:15:11 Brooke

Who sees it so?

01:15:12 Chase

This is like our.

01:15:14 Brooke

You can't do much with the computer room, honestly.

01:15:16 Chase

I don't even know what.

01:15:17 Chase

This room is. It's the.

01:15:20 Chase

The redheaded stepchild of our house. But anyway, maximalism is.

01:15:29 Chase

It really comes from.

01:15:33 Chase

In Europe, the like aristocracy would take.

01:15:37 Chase

Thing this thing called a Grand Tour and they would tour around, you know, at least all around Europe, but perhaps even the world or something like that. And they would bring back like they would go for like a whole year or, you know, six months, whatever, a very long trip. And this back when you're on.

01:15:58 Chase

Steamboats and.

01:16:01 Chase

What do they call them, like ocean liners and things like that? And so?

01:16:06 Chase

You have all this luggage and all these trunks and blah blah, blah, and you're just filling them with all these church keys and things from your travels and you basically display them everywhere when you get back. So you have this whole collection and it's.

01:16:19 Chase

Kind of like a.

01:16:21 Chase

UMA flex of like wealth, it's like oh, I've traveled the whole world and I I've collected this and this and this obviously today like you can just fly anywhere in like 10 minutes and it's really not that big of a deal and.

01:16:34 Chase

We have antiques everywhere and you can just buy stuff and so I love the aesthetic of these rooms where you had all these people in the.

01:16:43 Chase

18th and 19th century, even the 20th century, having these grand displays from all over the world, just like.

01:16:50 Chase

Decked out walls, cracker barrel style, but with like.

01:16:54 Chase

Really fancy stuff and really obscure odd things.

01:17:00 Chase

They and they seem to have a better relationship with like the McCabe and death and dark things. We would say now. But you know you would. It wouldn't be uncommon to have like, a almost like a shrine to, like, loved ones and.

01:17:14 Chase

Maybe you have locks of their.

01:17:16 Chase

Hair and bones and.

01:17:19 Chase

All kinds of weird kind of like Gothic weird stuff. We would consider these days, but anyway we just love all that kind of stuff, so we kind of.

01:17:27 Chase

Hodgepodge it all and make it into our own thing.

01:17:30 Chase

We have like a.

01:17:33 Chase

Curio room, that's like a library and it's full of like kind of the the most.

01:17:38 Chase

Weird and the most valuable historical things we own, we have like real renaissance art in there we have.

01:17:47 Chase

Like originals and then we have.

01:17:51 Chase

All kinds of cool, like tribally used artifacts from different tribes all over Africa, Papua New Guinea, and.

01:18:01 Chase

We have a lot of like Nepalese stuff and.

01:18:07 Chase

Balinese stuff. Yeah. And we got everything so.

01:18:11 Brooke

And then all our old books, yeah.

01:18:14 Chase

Like we have like head headhunter.

01:18:17 Chase

Sword from.

01:18:20 Chase

Gosh, what is it? What country is it from? It's an island.

01:18:26 Chase

Starts with an end.

01:18:30 Chase

It it? Ohh yeah. It's like in Malaysia but it's like its own thing. I forget. But anyway it was literally used to like cut multiple peoples heads off so we got a lot of like cursed objects.

01:18:41 Chase

In our house.

01:18:44 Chase

And like we have a human skull, you know, we have all kinds of kinds of weird stuff. I could go on, but yeah, the the main thing is, like every wall in our house is pretty decked out.

01:18:57 Brooke

And every room kind of has a little bit of its own theme, at least. Colors. Yeah, like the pink. And we'll call it the pink room, the blue room, and then our bedroom screen. But we don't call it a green room. Really. And then our hallway and upstairs is is all like this really intense yellow. And then the floors are looking.

01:19:16 Brooke

Extremely dark green with like patterns. Carpets on.

01:19:21 Brooke

But yeah, we love using strong colors, but I feel like that only works if you don't do.

01:19:27 Brooke

The Scandinavian.

01:19:33 Chase

Well, also it it's insanely hard to decorate and have a style in anywhere close to that we have. If you don't have a historic home like you have to.

01:19:41 Chase

Have. Yeah.

01:19:42 Chase

An old house with tall ceilings.

01:19:46 Chase

And that's usually all you need. Like that'll work, but if you go, you know these new houses, everything's drywall and everything. No, nothing wrong with it. It just doesn't translate as well because like my mom and dad live in a house like that. And like, they love our style and they my mom's always like, I wish we could do this in this. And it's just like it.

01:20:04 Chase

Will never work in your house, it just won't.

01:20:06

Right.

01:20:08 Brooke

Yeah. So that's what it comes with like.

01:20:11 Brooke

You have to have an old home and then that.

01:20:14 Brooke

Breaks too, I mean.

01:20:15 Brooke

Sometimes you don't know what you're.

01:20:17 Brooke

Getting with like.

01:20:19 Brooke

The physical state of the home, but also you just wonder about like anything that's happened in the past. And if that like affects the homes environment to what that?

01:20:28 Brooke

Means for.

01:20:28 Brooke

You moving into there?

01:20:31 Merrily

Right.

01:20:31 Brooke

But I like that aspect.

01:20:33 Chase

Of it, I like a historical.

01:20:36 Chase

Building a big fan.

01:20:36 Brooke

Being in an old home on old land.

01:20:39

I like that.

01:20:40 Merrily

Like feels good. Feels comforting, probably.

01:20:43 Chase

Yeah. Well, we live on a I mean, everyone lives on an ancient property, technically, but our property is very historical and we have, like, a mineral spring that.

01:20:53 Chase

Runs through our.

01:20:53 Chase

Backyard and we have chickens and ducks and cats and dogs and a lizard. A snake, everything.

01:21:04 Chase

We have fruit trees like tons of Mulberry trees, pecan trees, the natural mushrooms around here and saying we get morels, we get chanterelles. We get chicken in the woods, like all things that we eat in forage and.

01:21:17 Brooke

It's really cool. Like this lion feels super blacks.

01:21:21 Chase

Yeah, well, yeah, and the pecan trees are like 200 years old, and then, I mean, we have huge trees. I mean, it's beautiful. Like when it rains.

01:21:30 Chase

And it's.

01:21:30 Brooke

Every season is just really nice.

01:21:32 Chase

And it's foggy like it the grass is so green and it looks almost like you're like an island or something.

01:21:36 Brooke

It really does so and it means.

01:21:40 Brooke

It's like it's like.

01:21:42 Brooke

It really it's. It's not like we live in the middle of Williamson, where there's a gas.

01:21:45

That's that's.

01:21:46 Brooke

Station in our front yard.

01:21:51 Brooke

But our backyard is like a haven.

01:21:55 Brooke

That it really does have a Scotland, Ireland feel.

01:22:00 Chase

Yeah, but you know, we also, you know, we live on an island, so to speak.

01:22:04 Chase

As artists like you know, I don't really know anyone like us living in a place like this around here.

01:22:11 Chase

It's like most of our peers and stuff are like in New York or LA and stuff like that, but we live.

01:22:16 Chase

Out in the middle of.

01:22:20 Chase

Wherever and it's cool to like.

01:22:24 Chase

Just embrace it because it's like most people would not like this. Yeah, we have, like, meth heads everywhere. And like, like literally, someone threw a crack pipe in my front yard the other day.

01:22:34 Chase

I'll send you a.

01:22:35 Chase

Picture of it.

01:22:36 Chase

It had meth like still.

01:22:38 Chase

In it.

01:22:38 Chase

Yeah. And I was like, I thought it was like a little like bottle. Like maybe someone threw like, a little airplane shot or something in my yard. I'm.

01:22:44 Chase

Like what the?

01:22:44 Chase

Hell is this?

01:22:45 Chase

And I looked.

01:22:45 Chase

It up freaking.

01:22:45 Merrily

Ohh no.

01:22:47 Chase

Crack pipe. So yeah, yeah.

01:22:51 Chase

We yeah, we have like a lot of.

01:22:52 Chase

Homeless people walking around and you know, like.

01:22:54 Chase

We're just kind of in a run down like country area, but.

01:22:58 Chase

I just, I don't know. I embrace it. I'm like, I know everybody. I go to the feed store for the animal book usually does, but I go to like the hardware store or the gas station wherever Google Goodwill like, I know everybody in town.

01:23:10 Brooke

He's like friends of that woman.

01:23:13 Brooke

He knows all the ladies that work with the goodwill. They're.

01:23:15 Brooke

All like his friends.

01:23:16 Brooke

Yeah, we love that feel.

01:23:16 Chase

The I like that. Yeah, I'll just sit there and talk to him forever about whatever. So I embrace kind of the the quote UN quote.

01:23:28 Chase

Like trashy, like Southern town kind of vibe. I.

01:23:32 Brooke

Mean just like.

01:23:34 Chase

It's gritty and it's dirty and it's.

01:23:37 Chase

It's depressing in some ways, but it is it's just life like everyone around here is like, yeah, they're all good people and like.

01:23:44 Chase

I just love. I love their vibe like.

01:23:46 Chase

They, you know, they're not.

01:23:49 Chase

That educated a lot of.

01:23:51 Chase

Times or anything, but they're just like they now have a good time. They're funny.

01:23:55 Chase

We get along good. It's kind of like it's a very weird juxtaposition to to us. On the other hand, you know, so I kind of always have this like.

01:24:06 Brooke

Not that we're like, so.

01:24:08 Chase

Small no, no, no, not I'm not saying that.

01:24:12 Chase

It's just funny to.

01:24:13 Chase

Have like that divide of like.

01:24:16 Chase

Almost like trailer park, Crocs, cigarettes and then.

01:24:21 Chase

You know, high end, like art and antiques and just like.

01:24:24 Merrily

Right.

01:24:28 Brooke

The juxtaposition is like comforting, yeah.

01:24:32 Brooke

Really happy to live in a.

01:24:33 Brooke

City, I hope we.

01:24:34 Brooke

Don't well have to get to that point where we have.

01:24:37 Brooke

To live in a.

01:24:37 Brooke

City just. Yeah, we're.

01:24:39 Chase

Not city cannot.

01:24:40 Chase

People, we gotta have, like, space.

01:24:40 Brooke

I'm 19 and some people can do it. It's cool.

01:24:43 Brooke

It works for them but.

01:24:44 Brooke

I really do enjoy being able to meet.

01:24:47 Chase

We're big on nature.

01:24:49 Brooke

Whenever I want to with the actual earth, yeah.

01:24:55 Chase

Yeah, I think kind of the gritty.

01:24:58 Chase

UM.

01:25:01 Chase

Side of like the South is like the like. Modern like Southern Gothic kind of vibe because it is like kind of darker and like like literally think about like medieval times or like the dark ages. It's kind of like its own little dark Age. And in and of itself, you know, you just have a lot of poverty and like, everyone eats so bad.

01:25:16 Brooke

The person.

01:25:22 Chase

And everyone smokes cigarettes and.

01:25:25 Chase

You know, whatever like.

01:25:28 Chase

You know, it's just like a different world.

01:25:33 Chase

To a lot of.

01:25:33 Chase

People but.

01:25:34 Chase

I think it influences us in our work, which is why I even go on to talk about it a lot.

01:25:38 Brooke

Even inspire it is.

01:25:41 Brooke

Inspiring in some way to the to the process, yeah.

01:25:44 Chase

You can't help but kind of.

01:25:46 Chase

Put out what?

01:25:48 Chase

Where you're from and what?

01:25:51 Chase

The environment you're in, you know, so I think it's all kind of like part of us, at least at this stage and it'll have some influence probably throughout our entire life because.

01:26:01 Chase

We're used to being around.

01:26:03

That kind of.

01:26:05 Chase

Kind of atmosphere so.

01:26:06 Chase

You know it's.

01:26:07 Chase

Like, we're like normal, like regular people really. But.

01:26:10 Chase

Everyone around here is like thinks we're like super wealthy or something. So like, live in like a we live in like a normal house and like, don't like smoke crack, it's like.

01:26:15 Brooke

No, no.

01:26:18

Great. Great.

01:26:20 Merrily

The bar she low.

01:26:23 Chase

Yeah. So I'm just like, Nah, man, like y'all can do so much more if you just break this like.

01:26:29 Merrily

Ohh I know.

01:26:31 Chase

But you know how it.

01:26:31 Chase

Is so, and then there's pockets of that type of thing. And like every everywhere like here.

01:26:36 Merrily

Oh yeah.

01:26:36 Chase

It's like here's got like a distinct like Southern expression of it that's different than it would be like in Seattle or New York or, you know, whatever.

01:26:45 Brooke

Well then, the bright side of here, too is that there's all this farmland cows, just all types of.

01:26:52 Brooke

Animals around and.

01:26:54 Brooke

There's farmers markets, like every five miles around here.

01:27:00 Brooke

So you have constant source of just fresh foods that people have put love and effort into growing and like raw milk raw cheeses, you know the beef is like pastured local.

01:27:14 Brooke

And you can.

01:27:15

People are.

01:27:17 Brooke

Those animals and growing up food, it's really it's cool to have.

01:27:22 Brooke

That so close by too, which makes you so much more valuable to me, yeah.

01:27:27 Chase

Yeah, we're big on agriculture obviously, because we live here, so.

01:27:32 Chase

Girl like little farmers.

01:27:34 Merrily

Yeah, I basically it looks like a farm from.

01:27:37 Merrily

What I can see but.

01:27:39 Brooke

But the chickens are a lot of.

01:27:41 Brooke

Work really obsessed with them for like a full year like.

01:27:49 Brooke

Now I'm like total brain. Tell it and I'm like, OK, can you guys stop being like so much work?

01:27:53 Brooke

To handle like.

01:27:56 Brooke

But I the eggs are so worth it.

01:27:58 Merrily

Oh yeah, I bet. Ohh my gosh.

01:28:02 Chase

Yeah. Yeah. We wanna get cows. But.

01:28:05 Chase

We're not there yet.

01:28:06

OK.

01:28:07 Merrily

Down the road.

01:28:10 Brooke

Definitely the plan a dairy cow.

01:28:12 Merrily

Ohh cool.

01:28:15 Merrily

Oh well, wow. Yeah, we've definitely been chatting for.

01:28:19 Merrily

A while this.

01:28:19 Merrily

Has been really fun, so we're kind of wrapping up. Do you? Uh, do either of you have a favorite motto or words of wisdom that you would like to share and leave the audience with?

01:28:33 Brooke

I'm not sure if there's any I could think.

01:28:34 Brooke

Of off the top.

01:28:35

That's OK.

01:28:37 Chase

Yeah, I got one.

01:28:38 Brooke

Taste is very country because he's always having tons of random countries saying that I still hadn't even heard of like.

01:28:46 Brooke

Like growing up.

01:28:47 Brooke

On a horse farm in Tennessee, it's like.

01:28:49 Brooke

He just it's all in.

01:28:52 Brooke

But you also have like sorry.

01:28:55 Chase

Yeah. Well, no, I definitely have tons of those. The one I always tell myself, it's really it sounds really dumb, but it's actually if you're anything like, I am amazing.

01:28:55 Brooke

Lots of loving you.

01:29:07 Chase

Ain't nothing to it, but to do it. So it sounds it. Well, it sounds not. It doesn't sound that cool. It's like kind of lame. But that's the one thing I always tell myself. And then I think about it. I'm like, that's so true. Like, I could literally just do whatever it is. And that's all there is to it. So anytime you're procrastinating.

01:29:09 Merrily

Hmm, I like it.

01:29:13 Brooke

That one is a good butter.

01:29:29 Chase

You're dreading doing something. It's like, just do it. Ain't nothing to it. Just do it and then you do it and you're doing it and it's.

01:29:33 Brooke

It's definitely something wrong with myself.

01:29:37 Chase

Done. And then yeah.

01:29:39 Chase

So that's kind of my my daily life motto cuz.

01:29:44 Chase

I struggle with getting stuff done if I don't tell.

01:29:46 Chase

Myself that so?

01:29:48 Brooke

I mean same for me even with.

01:29:49 Brooke

That quote like.

01:29:50 Brooke

That'll Get Me Out of bed.

01:29:53 Chase

Yeah. Yeah, like.

01:29:54 Chase

Just do something you know, like nothing worse than just sitting there.

01:29:57 Chase

Doing nothing so.

01:29:58 Merrily

True, I like it.

01:30:00 Merrily

I found when I asked people this question, it seems like the simpler ones are the ones.

01:30:04 Merrily

That are like, yeah, so like.

01:30:12 Merrily

OK, very cool. Umm, so where can people find you both and learn about your work and yourselves your wonderful home. Although great animals that you have and take care of.

01:30:25 Brooke

We can find us on Instagram, on Facebook, on our website link, but we have an e-mail subscription list. If people are interested in.

01:30:34 Brooke

Subscribing we send out newsletters.

01:30:39 Chase

Yeah. So that would be our websites BC, Lawrence dot art and then our Instagram is.

01:30:49 Chase

Brooke Chase Studio and then our Facebook page.

01:30:53 Chase

Is the same.

01:30:54 Chase

UM.

01:30:57 Chase

And I think that's it. And then if you go to our Instagram, you can find the house, Instagram there. We're just starting that up. So it's not that big at.

01:31:03 Chase

This point.

01:31:04 Brooke

But just for fun.

01:31:06 Chase

But yeah, well.

01:31:07 Chase

I thought like I'm really like my heroes are all like in the interior design world like.

01:31:13 Chase

House and Garden UK and like arc digest, stuff like that. And my passion is like interior design.

01:31:21 Chase

But I'm like an artist, so I'm not exactly like directly.

01:31:27 Chase

Involved with that and I don't do it.

01:31:29 Chase

Professionally, even.

01:31:30 Chase

Though everyone says I should.

01:31:33 Chase

So I wanted an outlet for that, so I made that account just to like be able to somehow make sense of like like I have all these amazing pictures of our house. But I don't have anywhere to really post them cuz I'm not gonna put them on our art page.

01:31:43 Chase

Like I'll just put them on this and then feed it to like my Facebook or whatever. So anyway, if you're into interior design.

01:31:49 Chase

Check out our.

01:31:50 Chase

Instagram and you can it'll be there you.

01:31:52 Chase

Can see it.

01:31:54 Chase

And we cross post certain things like if it's showing like a cool interior, but also the artwork so.

01:32:03 Chase

But yeah, that's pretty much it.

01:32:06 Merrily

Well, cool. Thank you. Yeah, I'll definitely put all the links into the show notes.

01:32:10

Yeah, no, I think.

01:32:11 Chase

I figured you.

01:32:11 Chase

Would do that.

01:32:12 Merrily

Yeah, I would.

01:32:14 Merrily

All right.

01:32:15 Merrily

Thank you both for your time and it's been a lot of fun.

01:32:18 Merrily

And yeah, excited.

01:32:20 Chase

Well, it's an honor to be on the podcast and the show with you. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah.

01:32:30 Merrily

The port means the world to us. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to like, comment and share it with others who might find this content.

01:32:36 Merrily

Valuable and of course, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to stay tuned for more enlightening discussions. Your engagement helps us grow, and we appreciate each and everyone of you. Thank you for being a part of.

01:32:47 Merrily

The Casual Temple community.

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EPISODE 9 - BROOKE & CHASE LAWRENCE

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SYNOPSIS

GUEST LINKS

HOST LINKS

ARTIST NOTES

TRANSCRIPT