About

In real life, sitting next to one another, Peterson Guerrier and I had the unique opportunity to talk.

Co-founder with Chris Jones of the multidisciplinary full service studio, Red Tape, they work with interior designers, architecture firms and corporate clients to create dynamic custom fine art, transforming spaces into experiences and connection opportunities.

The Red Tape mindset shares: “we are not individuals, but a community of events, a community of human relationships that share a way of thinking. We form ideas through a collaborative process that encourage the exchange of varied perspectives.”

We discuss:

👉 The creation process. 👉 Being a human. 👉 Being a renegade. 👉 Suspending attachments 👉 Being true to ourselves. 👉 Pushing the limits of possibility. 👉 Community and serving. 👉 Leaving our egos at the door.

Please share your perspectives of the episode, in the reviews.

✨Check out www.hihellosura.com/think-differently to cultivate the mindset of unleashing your creativity.

Get in touch with Peterson Guerrier 👉Instagram @mr_guerrier 👉 Linkedin Peterson Guerrier 👉 Www.redtapeorlando.com 👉 www.guerrierstudios.com

✨About Peterson Guerrier ✨ “Beauty is only the beginning of a conversation”. Peterson Guerrier grew up in Miami, FL, and attended Design and Architecture Senior High. Thereafter securing a Fine Arts degree from College of Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, MI.

Peterson Guerrier is best known for his work with the concept of duality. Whether through his painting or his photography, he has always expertly portrayed the juxtaposition between different extremes. In his paintings, Peterson's layering technique along with his use of color brings his works to life.

When different elements of the paintings emerge they create their own intriguing storyline left open to interpretation.

Peterson’s work has been commissioned by various high-profile companies in hospitality and advertising. His work has been installed in Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, and featured in Boutique Design magazine. He has shown in galleries across the country, including The Mennello Museum of American Art, Aqua Miami Art Basel, Snap Orlando!, City Art, The Grand Bohemian Gallery, Redefine Gallery, RGPL High Point market (NC), and X Contemporary Gallery at Art Basel, Miami. Peterson currently lives and works in Orlando, Florida.

Transcript

*This Transcript is Autogenerated

Hey there and welcome to the Hi Hello Sura show. I'm your host Sura Al-Naimi. Today on the show, we have Peterson Guerrier. Multi-disciplinary artistic and co-founder of red tape studios. 

Peter said is best known for his work, with the concept of duality, whether through his painting or his photography, he's always expertly portraying the juxtaposition between different extremes. 

Here's why? Because being installed and planet Hollywood, Las Vegas. Featured in boutique design magazine. He has shared in galleries across the country, including the Manillo museum of American art. Aqua Miami art Basel. Snackwell Lando. City art, the grand Bohemian gallery. We define gallery. X contemporary gallery of art Basel, Miami, just to name a few. And I know right now he's being commissioned . 

To exhibit. All around the world. Peterson currently lives and works in Orlando, Florida. And this podcast is really special because it is actually 

In real life, we'll human beings. So I'm really excited to be able to. Have a chance to spend some time with Peterson. And you'll see in our conversation. That we explore all aspects of creation and creativity, habit, and projects and philosophies on who to walk with. How to maintain your energy, how to make sure that your not going to be stuck on a project. 

Our conversation. You'll see, we leap right in. And it flows into all different directions. So I would really add you if you don't have one already to make a nice. Brew and iced coffee. Can I have a cup of tea? Sit down and relax or get ready for a nice walk and all this in. To this conversation. 

 The way that we kicked off this podcast was just, it just began without any introduction. And we launched right in. We're gonna go over to that conversation right now. So join us. I actually know how to pronounce your last name. I wanna, I want say it like the cheese, but I want hear only your, is it like grew? Yeah. Oh, it's Gary Ross or dairy egg, Gary. Yeah, that makes it easier.

Yeah. That's, I just love cheese, so that's why I just called yeah. Sorry. Oh, what was it? I had a friend of mine. She was like, what the best way to remember is Pierre a year. And I'm like, that's not. Yeah. Cause it's like your posterior, so it's a bit naughty. So it's nice people always as the first ones, people on.

Gary, a Dario, you can't forget that. I will never forget that. You can say the French way, but are you okay? Do you have a French writer? I do. Oh, we'll get into that. I don't speak it very well. I'll just stay in it, but not, yeah. The only time. More like Haitian background. So my mom, the only time I actually speak Creole for the most part as well.

Oh, okay. She's probably did. Cause she understand my broken down and just how I, yeah. She's I understand like people come in here and be like, oh, you Haitian, start speaking. I'm like, dude, don't know it's the same with me. And being Arabic. People are something like no. I do understand it though.

I understand the law, but I also know how to say a little. So my response is they're like, oh, you speak Arabic. All my English is so exciting. And then I'll go a little and then they stop

she don't know, but I know if someone's being rude. I know the critical thing. See that's probably the good thing about it, right? Cause you just go in places and people assume that you don't know something or you or something else. Yeah. When I went to Morocco, they couldn't figure me out.

So they were like, is she Arabic? Is she this? So they tried all the languages and I just was like, don't we don't, I'm going to let you talk. And if he says something rude, then I'm just going to turn around and say something, especially with refresh. I think we went. We're in Miami when we went to an event and it was a fresh restaurant.

So we were just sitting there like couple of years ago, all my friends were just sitting at the table and the young lady that was serving. She was rude. She was rude. And she started speaking. For instance, she said something, she just turned around and I looked at him like, just so you know, we understand everything that you're saying right now.

She's yeah, you don't just assume that people, like most people just, yeah. And also, you never know when you're going to need somebody again.

I remember when I first moved to there. I worked at the courthouse and. Every day for a full while I was going to lunch and we always take the main elevator and I would go to lunch. And then there's this young lady that always in the elevator with me. Then we started talking about like shoes and all this other stuff.

Cause she, one day she looked at my feet. She was like, I like your shoes. I'm like, cool. So we just everyday around the same time, 1230, we meet at the elevator. We go downstairs, we talk and we just grabbed coffee and whatever, but never asked, like what do you do? Type of thing. And then one day it was a Friday.

And I got an email that I had to bring a file to one of the judges I'm like, cool. So I grabbed my file. I'm walking up. And as I'm going down the hallway, she's walking towards. What a robot and my charge is dropping my mic. So you wear a dress. She was idea. youngest judges here. Most people don't think that I am because I use the front elevator versus the elevator and so on and so forth.

And she's give me supplies. How many people get in an elevator? Get. Guys trying to get on trying to be whatever, when they walk into my courtroom

you never know who you come across, so you have to be on your best behavior, but I don't think people nowadays actually take. But it's still a truth, right? It's still it's a truth that existed since the beginning of time. So if anything, but most things that are common sense, people don't execute on, which is why there are books and manuals.

The most common system, the natural stuff. Now we have to re-educate them. I think so. I think so. Yeah. So we're sitting here, it's actually gorgeous. We're all waiting for the listeners and the viewers where we're all we do. You remember Dungeons and. It's like the early VR and they're like, I'm in a room and there's a table, a candlestick.

I did an NPR and he actually described it and I'm like, all right, cool. You described this place better than me. Oh, wow. Okay. For those that can't read right there. Philando it's our our studio, I say our studio because we have multiple artists here. It's a studio. It's still a first working studio in the downtown Orlando area.

Artists, do you, little multidisciplinary studio keeps saying studio so that on the worldwide web multi-disciplinary and we don't just do one thing. Nah. But mostly we do a lot of commercial work in here. So we work with a lot of interior designers and architecture firms and purchasing agents.

They come to us. They sometimes have ideas and sometimes they don't and recreate, let me make it happen for them. You do. Yeah. You make it reality or. Sometimes. Did you see that a comic strip recently, which was like the vision and then it was like the budget yeah. So what so you talk, so your co-founder right?

Yeah. Yes. Actually red tape started probably. Five to six years ago, I think it was one of those fake it till you make it type of deal. So I was, we Chris and I, we met working at the yeah we worked at an art consulting firm and we were both studio artists with them. But I don't know.

I think I got bored with working there and as well as just doing some of the gallery stuff and I wanted a challenge. I don't know how the name red tape came about because what we see is blue tape to corner the canvas. So I'm like red tape just call it red tape. So I started a website called the red tape gallery.

And because my whole idea behind it is that I wanted to do a series where I wanted to paint for 48 hours and created 48 paintings . . Oh, wow. So I created red tape with the idea as pretending as if another gallery was sponsoring me to do this. But everybody found me out. I don't know how, but somehow.

Then you, it was me that was doing it. So it was anonymous.

It was me, but they didn't know I was the one behind the whole entire thing. So for the most part, everybody thought it was another gallery sponsoring me to do it. So I created a website, I built the whole campaign behind it. And then it's painted for 40. And great a P 40 pains. And then in the midst of it, I think everybody figured out cause I have a certain style, I guess when it comes to web design.

So some of my friends started fingering out and red tape. That's how red tape to came about. Why did you decide, why did you say that somebody else was sponsoring you just to just in case

nah what was again, it was one of those, fake it till you make it tough type deal. But but at the end of the day, I guess I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself because I don't really know. I just wanted to just make it seem like something mysterious, but it didn't last before I even created the whole series.

Mostly everybody that was around in you is I was the one doing it and I didn't hide it anymore when I was like, all yeah, I'm creating this. And I'm challenging. I'm challenging myself. There's a lot of artists that I admire that's amazing, but also did the research and I'm like, has anybody ever done this?

And so I figured I stay up anyways. Cause I wanted that time. I had really bad insomnia. So I'm like I'm up regardless. So might as well trying to create something and put it out there and see what happened. And the responses were pretty amazing. So that was the bath story of our team. So we had that happened and I had a website for a while.

Then when we came here, we started like playing around with names. Let's just keep it what it is. It's just keep red tape at the old Linda Twitch because everybody doesn't lend it for some odd reason. Yeah. And then red tape makes me think of red tape like disrupting. Being stopped because, especially when it comes to the art world, everybody feels as if that eat you'll have to stay at a certain level or the, what we do here, as far as our being a multidisciplinary studio.

For lack of better word where we're selling out, but it's not really selling out because there's an industry for what we do. I've learned to separate my personal work versus micro commercial work. And some of my commercial work, I don't sign it. I don't put my name on it. It's just commercial work. They go into a hotel.

Nobody really cares about what's in the hotel, but my personal work in galleries. But again, I also have a different signature for my personal work. So you have to learn to detach yourself. But it's not selling out because I have to feed my, myself and my family and the people that's around me.

And there's and there's a desire for your work, right? There's a market for it. That's how everything's created pretty much, so why how did you learn to separate the two? Was there a lesson? Was there a pivotal moment when I'm like, I have to sell it like separate or to just come intuitively T.

It was it I have different ways of working, especially for, for what it's worth, I'm working at the other art consulting firm definitely helped me to separate the two because he was like, okay, we, me and the owner at the time had a little back and forth a few times because he wanted my personal.

And I also knew that I didn't want my personal work to be commercialized. So it wa but at the same time, it's also separating in the sense that he has ownership to the word that I created. And I also have, so I had to find a way to to separate it. And as well as for the commercial stuff is more abstract and then just very.

My work is my personal work is a little different. My personal work is somewhat political, but not really put it the core, because it's not in your face political, but it makes you think it makes you go beyond just what's in front of you versus commercial it's California. And it's pretty. And it's Hey, anybody would just put them in the house.

So how would you, what's the personal work that your you're personally like resonating with a lot? Wait an hour, or gravitating towards. Enjoyable cause he, what is it that you say going beyond the beauty that. W you say it better than I do. What did I say?

It's it's it's a BT, it's just the beginning that my beauty is the beginning of the conversation. But it's also, I'll use this quote. I don't know how long I've been using this quote. As part of my email tagline, it's that art is the it's the only way of running away from home without leaving home, something like that.

So when you look at it I think every time you look at a piece, you should find something new and you should, again, that should take you out of your comfort zone and, or maybe put you in a different mindset, whether it's a more of a, my own mind space or it Headspace, or whether it shakes you up a little bit.

And it makes you question what's around you. So my, the work that I'm doing right now Probably since I was in school, I've always struggled, trying to figure out my voice as an artist and find a year and a half ago, it just clicked everything like, cause even when I was in like again, doing all these gallery shows and so on and so forth, I'm always like doubting myself when it comes to my work.

I don't know if I'm giving it, I'm saying way too much here. But a year ago it just, everything just made sense. What I love that you're sharing this because I think so many people don't and we get to see the, like the fruits of labor and pain and sabotage and like a hundred nos to get one yes.

Sort of thing. And I was talking to somebody else she's a creative responsible for all the creative at an agency. And she said it was when she started to listen to her voice, and just like trust in it. Usually, she'd look at a piece of work and say, is this mediocre?

Is this just to mainstream, whatever it might be, the inner critic. And then I, as soon as she started to just trust within herself, that was a turning point for her. And it's great because if we get to be ourselves, then wow, I get to be me and it's successful.

So for you, what. What was the shift? Since I'm very stubborn. And I don't like anybody telling me what to do. You can ask me, you could tell me something will ask me to do something. And I like to just let me come around to it. Don't pester me. Don't tell me over. So I've always had the same issue when I was in school.

Cause it was like, okay, you have to do this work. And I'm like, I know what I have to do. And I. Worked last minute in the sense that I don't want to overthink the work. So I just let it happen. Cause I like, I have an old hole since I was against, I was a kid like a whole organic way of creating stuff where I don't sketch my work.

I don't know what I'm doing. I just go to the canvas and not just make it happen. So I, again, since I wasn't, since I was a kid, since I was in school, it was one of those things that I want to do things. And I don't I think I just lost the whole entire thing here, but it was, I always wanted to do me, for lack of a better word, because being part of the gallery world growing up in the part of the whole, again, that institution I've seen how your.

And acquitted there. You're basically a monkey. Everybody wants you to do what they want you to do, whether it's school, whether it's galleries, whether it's everybody wants you to create a certain way. So you're your own voice has noticed. We don't, we're losing that, right? It's the same thing though.

Apprenticeship masters. We're losing that because everybody wants to be a master. Now everybody wants to, because of social media, you could go to Michael, as you get a piece of canvas, you get paint. You. Scribbled some stuff and put on social media, put a price tag on it. Next thing you know, you could end up in a high-end gallery and it was like, huh?

So the we're taking the schooling aspect, we're taking a whole lot of the educational, the learning aspect out of that. And that's also something that a lot of institutions, galleries are taken out of artists because an artist is not allowed to explore anymore. Because if you are.

We sit here, we appreciate Michelangelo, Dali . And then, to just name a few, because they, there were creators, there were inventors. They pushed the boundary. But now as an artist, it's more so if you create. Pretty flowers for the next 40 years of your career. You just have to create pretty flowers because if you explore it, if you get out of that, it's the one word that I used to hear all the time is you're all over the place.

You don't seem to have a, you don't know what you're doing. And I'm like, I do know what I'm doing. I'm exploring, I'm learning myself as an artist. I'm pushing myself to create something that I would've never created before. And then that does translate into my work. Even w my personal work right now has more of a.

That ground feel to it because I was painting a lot of abstracts. So therefore there's layers that comes out of my work now versus saying oh, I'm just going to do a solid background figure, call it a day. It's all a learning process. So I think I've came to that conclusion. My actually it was my sophomore year in college where I just didn't want to do what they were asking me to do anymore.

And I was willing to fail. Because it was me, it was my voice. It wasn't like, Hey, stay in this box because school does put you in a little box and then you come out then the art world also puts you in a little box. So I didn't want to fit in anybody's box. And I don't think I fit into anybody's box, and it's interesting to is when people, other people, those people, there are some people who might say, oh my God, I didn't realize that. Get put into boxes, and especially in the work that I do I'm trying to give access to creativity to everyone, in the sense of is the ability to think differently, as a habit, to do things differently as. And so then that can be manifested on a canvas or it could be the way that you, I don't know, repair something or the way that you tend to somebody. So I think there's a lot of audience that might not conceive the constraint, but we all, as humans are put under, and so how do you Like, how do you stay in that space of exploration? Versus being committed to, Hey, the last one was so good. Like what about, what about this? What about, how do you have a ritual? Is there anything that you've noticed that you do like very dark? Like how does this work?

I think for the most part. It's what's the saying you as good as your last piece of work or you're as good as your last, for me there's a there's a lot of failure in it, but again, most people don't even see or I actually probably put the failures out more than the actual pieces that I like, the pieces that I actually created, that I love, I don't put them on.

I should keep them for myself. or I paint over them Because I don't believe that life is not perfect. My work shouldn't be perfect. So if my word cannot speak some kind of, I don't do it intentionally, but it's just one of those things that it's it, you get more emotion out of it, the energy transfer of energy. If I'm doing something that if it's easy and if it's pretty I'll destroy it because again it's not supposed to be that.

But to, I dunno, it's everyday. We're downtown. I have this giant a window, which I felt like sometime I'm in the fishbowl, it's more so just watching people. And then, cause most of my work is figurative. So staying creative it's I do a lot of different things if I can.

I would do graphics. If I can do graphics, I'll do photography. If I can do photography I filmed or I'll just sit and watch a couple movies, no movies that somehow some way for sparks something or music, I cannot stay in silence at all. I have to have music at all time. That's probably, if anything, one alive main thing that drives me to be honest Like I love blues and classical music.

So I'll put like a blues record on and somehow some way or cord will hit and then just little thing will pop up. And from that, this idea, cause all my pieces for the most part, start with one half of the time I get, I don't even know what I'm painting. I'll put one thing down in that one thing goes into this whole entire piece.

And then the piece would then create the narrative for itself. I don't. It sounds so oh, I'm such an artist to say like that, but I don't really know what's happening. It was just the universe. Just let it happen to be honest. I just know that's the thing that, that, that makes me.

So I have to create, if I don't create, I don't, what's my purpose. And I've gone on vacation and if I'm going to spend more than three days and I'm not doing something, I'm like, I need to, I need some kind of, I need to draw. I need to do something because that's the, that's how I released my. Everything back into the world.

I don't know if that didn't make any sense, but yeah, but it's, I have to create it's I think that's my sole purpose. Yeah. And I love that you transfer the energy because one of the questions in my mind, as I was getting ready was to ask you what do you do when you get stuck?

And it feels like you're just in constant movement. So if it's not going to be. This medium, that is going to be that media, but it's all like on the same energy field, so just keeps, if this one starts to wane, then you move over to the LOR and then move it to the other one, when I've spoken to somebody and they said that, like they cut hair, for example, and then the right.

And then they'll start then they'll start playing the guitar and let's just this kind of almost like hopping. But they're not beating themselves up that, like, why can't you write ma and I feel so often that, in the work, I was just speak for myself that there, there have been times where I'm like, why can't you just finish this proposal?

Why can't you just, you know what I'm saying? Instead of just going, okay we'll put this down and let's move over here. But instead it's. Then the whole day disappears because of that one thing, that one blockade. But you just keep it with yeah. I mean it's. Yeah. Cause you are, you are your own roadblock, to be honest with you.

Cause. I use this is more personal. If I have something that's going in my life, that's bugging me honesty as much as I don't take naps. I'm like, I'm just going to go and take a nap. And if I wake up and it's still, we're still around figure something else. Because my, the questions I asked myself is can I solve it?

And if I can't solve it, didn't solve it. If I CA if I can. Then move on and find something else, because then if I'm stuck on this one thing, then I'm like you said, I'm letting the whole entire day go by and letting everything else pass me by when I can just be doing something else. And within that I can find the answer that I need, so if I need to.

Create a piece. And I it's, because most of my pieces are people that's around me that I photograph that I've so if I need to create something that again, I don't know what I'm about to photograph. And then I just sparked something else. And then it creates this whole entire, like a domino effect whether it's for here or anywhere else.

So yeah, we talk about. I love food. Full stop. Of course

I was going to wear that t-shirt

but anyone that knows me I always use food metaphor. It's collecting ingredients for your pantry with different experiences or being different places, talking to different people. And you never know when you're going to be like, oh, that makes me think of this for this challenge or this moment.

And so it's if you're always cooking with the same ingredients, then your foods can taste the same. So if you're just collecting ingredients for your pantry, then you're like, Ooh, I don't know I'm going to use this today. Or whatever. So yeah, that's like resonating and you're just, you're always open.

It also sounds like you're really present as well, too, and it sounds like the work that you're putting, cause your invitation is exploration, right? Like in that, that I can find something new in your piece that I haven't seen before. And so how do is that, how do you create that in the piece?

Total organic thing. I don't seek it. It's I don't think we all have experiences. We all have an things that could hold us back. And I've gone through my sheriff of nonsense. But I don't think I don't let those things define me. Same way. Actually I told somebody this the other day where I'm like, I've never put my personal self into my work.

So it's always whatever happens in the midst of it. And people's oh, I feel like I know you. And I'm like, you don't really know me because I don't actively put myself into the work. However they might be. If you put everything together, they might be little tidbits here that you probably could connect the dots eventually, but it probably would.

That would tell you the full story. So it's. Just then to be organic, letting it, w whatever is going on in my head that at the moment, cause again, I come up with some weird names for some of my pieces, like one of my piece that I had actually it just left. The name of the piece was a red solo cup with cranberry juice.

And everybody's what is that? Why would you, and again, the piece has nothing to describe the pieces of black and white. Painting and it has a young lady holding her hair up and her hair is curly and she just she's holding up. And then again, the name of the pieces where Beaumont. But where was it?

Red solo cup with cranberry juice. And again, I did a show at the gallery and everybody wanted to know why, but it's that we assume something, when you see somebody walking down the street with a red solo cup, you just assume that they probably have liquor and probably have something else, but that's not what it is.

That person probably just had picked up. I don't know what a melon juice or soda from the store and just wanted to put in a red solo cup. So we just can't assume. Everything that we see because the whole judge, a book by its cover type thing and being out there, I said, being black, there's a lot of assumptions that comes with it.

So that's where it wasn't about the piece. It was more about the name of the piece. And then that creates that whole energy that transferred that conversation that didn't hopefully broaden and open up or educate somebody on something else. So that's. All of it. So there's red tape and then there's gal.

So look up with cranberry

but also just I feel like like there are certain assumptions that get to be challenged. In, in a playful way to, like a light touch and earlier it's it's saying something, but without being offensive. Because then, cause. Or when think about it, but then if you really start processing it, it's saying a lot.

And it's defined as basically not being defiant towards the the system, but technically it is because we, as a community, certain things that we thought that we needed or certain. Institutions that we've thought we need we don't need them anymore because of social media, because now we have access to do it ourself, where again, I have my studio is also my gallery.

Now, if I wanted to do a show, I could just take everything down and I'll do my own gallery show and invite in, but the funding behind promoting it and getting the, collect my collectors that I've already have to come to my space versus begging a gallery to put me up and then okay. And then take 50% of.

Work that I've created because that's just, or in some aspect, I did a show overseas where they took our, what was it like 73%.

Again. I was like, yeah, I made money and came back in the exchange in the us. I'm like, oh, I basically came back with less money now. It's a, it's one of those again, they did they name, which I can't say no to it because they also promoted it. They were like, we're doing this, that and the other, but now we don't.

We do, but we don't. So we have to challenge and red tape is again, it's always. The no, no one knows. Don't know. And it's okay I already, I've had my share of nos and my share of yes, now I have mine. And now it's also my way of giving back as well, because I'm within red tape. We also help other artists.

We, we do shows for other artists and I also curate the the cafe next door with a gallery. And I've also, have given a lot of artists. They first glimpse of what a gallery show could be, because if somebody didn't do it for me, I wouldn't. So essentially paying it forward.

And I noticed that you talked about the community on the site, so I'm guessing that this is what you were in fairies. Very big, as far as my community here, a community of artists, at my house in Germany is basically we have this big fun of what we all can work together and support each other because.

Artists, a lot of artists actually support other artists because if I go to a gallery show, chances are me ended up buying a piece, same thing with Chris and then with a lot of artists. Cause we S we, we like, we support each other. And obviously you have your big collectors. Cause we came by a $20,000 piece.

But if it's some fair enough on I'm like, yo I have a space in my house for it. But but no, that, to me the community's very important to me. Because again, without it, we wouldn't have this. So when I first moved to Orlando, we didn't have an artist community.

And a group of us got together, created this collective and that collective actually, we just celebrated our 14th year showing in the gallery Again, we didn't have that. All, we basically took the street. We were on the street corner right there on orange. We're in front of the Plaza from Wednesday through Saturday, and we'll just be penny live or selling art.

And again, all of us went to school for it and we had our degree, but there wasn't that outlet for us. So we created that outlet. That outlet then created what we have here now. And that outlet gave me my space, which is now giving back to to, to other artists, hopefully. Create something more, cause but it's also finding ways to do it and not wait for somebody else to do it for you because. We all could sit here and cause when was it, I was having a conversation with somebody I'm like, I made my money. I could have Hey, I'm taking my money. I'm leaving because the whole stigma Orlando is boring Orlando is This Orlando is that I've got to go to New York, Miami. And I'm like, no stay here. So

And then we've got next door as well. The next door calling me places, several ideas that translate to now a storefront seeing to take over the whole block, hoping

How has, how do people feel you're working with hotels, boutique, hotels, architects. How does, how do people feel? How does that feel for you to work with them? How does it feel for them to work with you? And what's the, it's a symbiotic relationship. They they get what they, they need from us.

We need from them, we co-exist in the same space, right? I'm not, Y. What abstracts? I remember in our previous conversations, you're like, it's possible. It feels possible. Like when somebody froze on that goes into this boutique hotel room, they feel like, Ooh, like that's impacted me and then they can come stay again and stay in a different room.

But different aunts. We try to create that, like right now we're going to project down in Miami. A majority of the work is actually. From Chris and I personal collection actually. So it's not even the commercial work that we're showing. I guess we're somewhat changing it, but each I think every 20 rooms, they changing the collection.

So again, you go, if you stay in this hotel, every time you stand, you can stand in a different room and the artwork is always different, but at the same time you see the same name, but Because right now it's not so cookie cutter anymore. Because back in the days it was like posters. You go because you go stay in the same hotel and it's the same art or it, or the what's the name of the thing?

Not the chain hotels anyways. So they use the same convictions, the same as the Senate now. What's happening? Is there, the shift is everybody wants to feel it didn't make it feel personal. And everybody wants it to make it feel like you're walking into a gallery or to a museum or, and curated.

Everything is curated. I'm okay with that because I have no issues putting the work together or, cause it gives us the opportunity to just showcase other artists as well. It's not just us it's because and then with that, it's also, we bred OData to work out for the. With us. So we don't just keep everything in house.

And again, a dream that it was red tape was supposed to be, just be like Chris and I, lot of studio space, a home away from home, and it's growing to be something bigger than I just wanted a place to just sit. It's a really lovely place. How do you know who to work with? Which are like artists to bring in and who not to bringing.

And I guess that leads me to this other question, which is I guess it's the same one. Have you had an experience which has defined that's definitely. I know for me, I didn't realize it was a no, but now I realize, That's basically when it comes to working with anybody, whether it's artists, whether it's some of the firms, we can't, they, we do what we do because again, commercial work, but as far as artists, as far as, yeah as far as artists or anybody with them, I grew up my good friend.

Especially when it comes to people. But it's because I can sit here and write and if I wanted to, I could have the biggest, if I want it to, I could just be sitting here like this and that. And I work with, I know a lot of artists in Atlanta that have that, and I'm like, that's a downfall and not even artists as business owners that have that.

Cause again, you, if you have any. When you go home, they let it out, and just be like,

but it's not worth it when you're out, when you're out and about, because again, it's you're not doing anything that nobody else can. And I don't think, yes, I have my way of creating, but I'm not the best artist in the world. I'm not the greatest artists in the world, so I'm still learning. And and again, as an artist, I have no stopping point.

I have no ceiling because I think Scott is his ceiling. No, what the universe? Any cause I have no ceiling I can create. I could literally be on my death that I'm still creating, i, this is what I was pulling for while I was made for, I don't know what my, why my parents made me, but anyways, that's a whole different topic.

if you come, I should have this written someone in loss. Once you step in these doors, just leave your ego out the window. They leave it outside. Cause I don't need it. And no one else around here, we don't need, because we can't we can't. work together And collaborate if your ego is bigger than life or not even bigger than mine, but if you have a big ego and then we all have to know this is a collaborator, it's all, it's a mix.

It's a group, a collaboration. We all come together. We all built together. we figure out What's the best way for us to work together, to create right. Chris, just pull it up. Yeah, that's great. So let me ask a couple more questions. So what are you looking forward to at the moment?

I just saw the amazing mural that you created. Huh? The other one that you just showed the banner for the UCF. Yes. Yes. And then I've just seen this amazing installation that you're creating with like infinity mirrors and cranes and whatnot. So what are you. What do you like? I can't wait to get up or I'm not going to sleep till 6:00 AM today instead of 4:30 AM.

That's what the everyday that's everyday. I actually have to tell myself to go to sleep half of the time. Cause I'm like I have to be at the studio. 11, but show up at one o'clock. I was really impressed that I had five different alarm go up. I had to get up early, so I got all my stuff done.

I'm like, all right, I'm here. Do this. Normally I put but it's the beauty of creating. We created the space for us to be able to do this right. To be able to show up at one o'clock versus at eight o'clock. But as long as the work gets done and at the same time, it's probably like a experimental thing, but it's also like the people that the artists that we have working with us, nobody has to be at in him.

We don't need you to pee at 8:00 AM. I'm here sometimes at three o'clock in the morning. And then I leave here and I go home and I'm still working. So the work doesn't stop and it's just, I'm constantly creating with hers. I remember people like, I want to get in your head. You don't want to get in there cause you'll get lost.

And it's jumbled up because one idea why this being formed, this idea is already there. And then it's just, there's so many different aspects and different things. That's that goes in my head at once. It's. Yeah. That's why I don't sketch my work. I probably write more like little not even ideas like this keywords that I think, and I just write it down and then those things.

Then later on, I'll go in private formulate. Do you enjoy poetry? I used to, yeah. I felt like that in your writing. Oh, wow. No, but you have a way that you use your words, which is quite musical. So I was wondering if that was a thing. There was a bang back in I find out the notes that I used to sell to all the girls back in high school, I was like, oh, I should start using some of these again.

Why do you still have the notes that you gave them? Did they give them back to you?

you never know where some lazy kid, not you, but you might get de oh, the memoirs. Okay. So that leads me to my next question, which is unrelated, but how do you Your fellow cafe. How do you compliment one another? Cause I imagine that there's an area of unison and I imagine that there's an area where you're really different to one another.

That's my assumption. Yeah. Where, yeah we're different personality work, but that thing, that's the beauty of it because we're so different. We balance each other. I don't think I've been I've done this bench for way too long. He is, like I said, I think upstairs he's like probably the sweetest, kindest person I've ever came across.

He probably restore my faith. Anybody that needs to be honest with you. But again, it's a balance if I think if there's, if I'm lacking in something, he noticed it without me even saying anything. And if he's lacking something and I noticed that we just pick up and then we just make sure everything happened.

I don't feel okay. I got lucky. I got lucky with this one, what do you, I would say it's, like superhero strengths, right? Or like your ocean's 11 or something like that. So what do you think, when you're vibing together on a project, what is it that.

Bringing in and what is it like, what's his magic, what's your magic. Can I can just adjust you for a sec. There we go. Yeah, because we want to catch what you're saying. Wow. I don't think I've ever thought about it or that's a really good question. Oh, I guess what do people compliment him on?

A lot of people compliment you.

It's time for a coffee break. I think I'll go back with this. The no ego aspect, right? We, the tool was that since the day where we met and we started talking about art he's. Amazingly talented. He's probably one of the few artists that I, that could look at a piece of work and dissect the whole entire thing for you.

He also overthink a lot of his work which that's when we'll comment and, or I'll come in and be like, Hey, just let it go, dude, just let it go. But as far as I worked them together, there's no, Hey, you did this better. And then he did it just yeah, you did. You did. You did what you had to do, so it's, again, it's balanced, it's complex.

We just compliment each other. And then we're not one person feel that we're above each other with. It's very beautiful, actually some beautiful relationships. It does sound like it wish I could. My personal relationship

Yeah, this notion of like magical mirror is I feel like good friends, all magic mirrors for me, in the sense of. They can spot the magic and bring that to the forefront, which in a way brings me home to myself. If I've ever like I'm lost or something, I have those of people around here because they're they can see when you up there I need you to land.

You need to let it come back to earth. You were, you had a 10, I need you to be at a five because that's when you at your best, not really at your best, you attended your best, but a five is when. Yeah. All right. I said my final question a few times, but this is my final one. So what is what are some, cause we've talked about books before and I get the sense that you like to read.

So what is something that you're reading right now? Either what is something that you're reading right now? They're like, everybody should read this or the, I invite everybody to read this or what is a book that you've read. That really had a profound impact on you. And you're like, that is the one that I would give to people will tell you where to go get, actually just gift the empire strikes back to somebody yesterday.

And I'm like, you should read this. He was like, I don't do stars. Just read the book. You don't have to go out to watch the movie. It was like, first of all, who has star wars books? And I'm like, I do because I started with everything in my house. Not yet, but I'm a star wars geek.

So it's Chris as well, which is kinda weird. Profound book besides the Bible and I'm joking. I think profound puts a lot of weight, but like no something was like, Hey yeah this made me think about thinking if anything, it probably have to be since, I've read this book so many times HD, time machine.

And as well as it's pretty common, but it's nothing where you're like, Hey, this is. What's his name? Definitely is your time machine. Then there's the, I can't remember the name of the author, but it's the name of the book is real artists. Don't real artists don't start.

He wrote, he I think it's only been probably like six or seven years since the book was released published what's his name? I can't think of his name. But it's Base of the art. The book is the same. Like we, we live in a society that think that, oh, I have to be. And I used to be one of us, even my name, my tagline IgG four years was starving artist.

But when you say starving artists, everybody was like, oh you're not making a living as an artist might. No. My, the reason that I called myself a starving artist is because I'm hungry to create. So I would do anything else to make sure that I feed myself so I can create I'll work random jobs.

And then still go on. Stay up, sacrifice myself, my sleep, my relationships. I can create the world that I've created, which then here we are because I have personal relationship friendships. I'm like, I don't need to go out. I'd rather stay home and paint. I'd rather do this and that. Nope at the time. Cause I remember even growing up one of my friends one of the things I remember I was coming out of school at a stack of art books, my canvas, and I'm walking up to my house and all the guys that I played football with and baseball, they were like you don't come out and play anyone.

Dude, I'm in this tolerated. And I was probably in 11. And one of them was like, man, why give up this art stuff? Cause you gonna he was like, you're not going to be making it as an artist. You're already going to be in the street corner on the side and be selling your art. And I'm like, okay, let it be.

And now just recently he was like, dude, I've seen your work. Don't work. It's amazing. And I'm like, thanks. I appreciate that. You probably don't remember saying it, but those are the things that, that, that made me push myself even more because it's oh that's what you think of what I'm doing here.

The book is essentially saying that the whole premise of the book is no, that he takes example from other great artists rather, and not just well creative, I would say, not artist and show you the the comparison versus their life and how much money they made throughout their career, where we probably know this person.

Wasn't just a poor, starving artist. Like no, Th they weren't, then you don't have to start in order to make it to be an artist, just literally the smallest little idea. Good consumption. I had that whole entire book actually highlighted, this is good. This is good. Cause it's every single page, there's something in there.

I'm like, oh my God, this is just, I need this. So it's, I would definitely recommend. I just can't remember the name. I will find that I will put it in the show notes. Cause even with him, he was working at a company and he kept putting the book aside. He was, he wrote a previous book and he was like, no, this is not, he kept putting us up with the side.

And one day he quit his job and his wife was like, just go do it. And he did it and grew up the book and just this amazing 30 day. There it is 40, 48 hours of creating 48 pieces. Yes. Which was no, as far as I know, I was going to attempt to do it again and I scared myself off the second time. And I was like, I don't think I could do this again.

Cause it was afterwards. I think for me I was like, yeah, this was great. Then even afterwards thinking about it, I made myself sick where I'm like, I'm just, I'm going to stay there for a couple of days now. Cause it right. It was one of those things that I had to test myself. I had to push myself to know that cause I pay fairly fast.

Like most of my paintings takes me about an hour to create and most people's no. I'm like, all right, don't worry about it. Know I could do it. But can I really do it? Yeah. Cause you know, when you think of 48, are you going to stay up for 48 hours? You think I'm going to eat?

I'm going to caffeine. I'm going to need this. I'm going to get that. It's no, I'm not even going to do caffeine. I'm just going to drink a lot of water and just hydrated, stay hydrated and music. And I have videos cause at one point I started losing I'm like, my back is killing me and I'm losing all, I think by like hour 30, six, I'm like, I'm losing every kind of sense right now.

And I wasn't making sense. And I was just laying on the floor. I have a, I would think with four rubber duckies. Yeah. And I afraid to my. Smart, the tiniest rubber duck. I'm like, I'm playing around with them. Like you want. I was just, I, that trying to stream it live. And then for some reason, somebody reported me because people didn't want me to do what I need to do.

And I'm like, Ooh, but I'm still going to do it. So the whole thing was. Somewhat life through on social media, because of, by the time we had histogram story. So if we've two second, I was posting on new stories so people could see the progression. But within that 48 hours hour. So during that, I ruined a lot of pieces.

But it was the beauty of it because I had one hour to create. Move it aside. So there was no time to even process what I was doing and I didn't go with, I didn't go in with any idea what any notion of okay this is what I'm painting. This is all the 48 paintings that I'm doing. I, it was just, let's go, let's do it and see what, what happens.

Some might be good. Some might be bad. And apparently the public didn't think that because I sold all 48 of them. With the exception of two, Chris has one and then there's another one that. That was like the 40th painting that I paid him. I kept that one. Yeah. So Chris actually have 47 and I at 48.

Beautiful. So yeah. So how can people get in touch with you? I'm hard to. I G you know it's the last name, right? Because I shouldn't be my G a little bit more, a little easier to find, but it's Mr. Gary S Mr. Underscore, G U E R. I. And then, or you can just Google Peterson, Guerrier, or Peterson, Orlando artists.

 

 Guerrier Darrier Greer, whichever. Cause I was still going back to.

she was like, stop that, help, that help frame it. 

, listen as once again. Thank you so much for joining us as always. It's such an honor to have you listening. You can get a hold of, uh, Peterson at red tape, orlando.com. Or you can look him up on LinkedIn. Uh, Peterson Guerrier. I'll have his information in the show notes, as I always do. And if you enjoy this conversation, or that was an aspect of it that really resonated with you or sparked an idea. 

Some sort of connection making. I would love, love, love, love to hear from you. So please don't hesitate. And also if you're curious about. Getting or accessing or building the muscle memory for, um, your mind to consistently think differently. So you can tap into new resources, new solutions, get ideas out the door. 

Effectively and quickly. Then had over two. Hi. Hello, Sarah forward slash think differently. Um, as there is a treat that waiting for you. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to the next time that you join and listen in, and we have so many really incredible guests. Joining the POL cost, which I'm just, I'm really honored that we get to have these conversations. And also just that I get to share them with you. 📍 So until next time i am your host Sura Al-Naimi