TRIAL 1

important to the process. it connects you in a way…you can't just come up in here with a spray can and have it mean something….you have to have a connection to it….otherwise you're not going to take pride in it. its a community art project, and it is both a strange, and unfamiliar concept i think…so there were a lot of people that wanted to come and mess around, do some art by themselves…which is cool too…but if their not willing to connect and get to know people…and incorporate their ideas and talents…then…i guess they left because they didn't want to. MVI_1533 and thats okay, because at the end we had a group of people looking to be…changed..and be changed. and that was really important…and its evident in our mission statement. (photo of mural statement) it was cool when we all wrote it out…it was all the same thing…but we were all in different places…and that was really powerful thing. another powerful thing…(01:12) do you remember how excited we got that it was an infinity…it was like…YES. end of session….it was little things like that where…theres no real reason to an outsider…but there was just something that we were all feeling…that just happened…and it fit…and it came out of ("it is the story that cuts across the map") (01:43) could you expand on the the talking circle process? (02:01) so it was really an honest and a space that is rare because it was such a small group a lot of the times because we split it up. so a couple of times the talking circles were 4-­‐5 of us…and its so hard…and really important also to come and be that vulnerable with people you don't even know…and i think that we defdently experienced the challenges that you would expect with that…feeling uncomfortable…i know that for myself personally…there were things that were shared where i just felt helpless…like thats such a problem…and i feel empathy…and…so that was hard dealing with some of that stuff, like oh I probably know some people, or have seen some things go down like that, that sucks…and theres nothing i can do about it…some of those moments where i personally felt we lost sight of the positive where we're going. (03:33) and how we can work to change it, and sometimes i just got bogged down by the sadness, and the stories of betrayal, and the stories of pain, the struggles we shared…so sometimes there were a couple of talking circles where i came feeling like i know these are problems, and i knew they were problems, and it wasn't something i had never thought of before, but it was a little bit disheartening, because it just felt like i wanted to do something, but i couldn't but those sessions were good (04:28) (roberto bodeyo, being okay with feeling uncomfortable) i knew that those were important for people to feel like they were actually connecting to the project, and other people knew why other people felt connected to the project too…so…and i think once we worked through them (almost like family!) it was nice that we could come back the next time and it would feel like a fresh/new page. those feelings of down-­‐ness, never stuck around for too long…and they were defidently important to the process. (05:12) i should give some of the men that were there credit… thats where we lost a lot of people that wanted to be artistic…but not vulnerable. the talking pieces were good. really set a level of respect…and really keeping up with the "I" statements (06:10) they were intense, but good.

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