The Coffee First Podcast with Daniel Ortiz

Pourage Paints is the creative brand of Daniel Ortiz, an Aurora, Colorado-based artist with over 15 years of experience. His work is defined by a bold, expressive style that bridges the gap between traditional painting and modern graphic design. Specializing in wildlife, portraits, and iconic pop-culture figures, Ortiz utilizes vibrant color palettes and rich textures to create "arresting" imagery. The shop offers high-quality prints and large-scale original canvases. From mixed-media pieces on parking tickets to soulful portraits of musicians, Pourage Paints delivers high-impact art designed to stop viewers in their tracks.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hopefully, I think I'm in it.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I don't know. Yeah, I'm in it. It's still it's getting late until right here. Okay. So I know I'm in it. Cool. All right. Let me see how I should slight this off. First of all, what's up, bro? What's up, bro? So this is a Coffee First Podcast. We are at what Denver Art Society. And Poor Jar got his own section here. If y'all don't see it, peep it real quick. Peep it real quick. I know y'all can only see a little bit, but you'll see more soon. You'll see more soon. So on this Coffee First Podcast, we got Porridge Art back on here. Chilling, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Beautiful day. Showing my art off. You're good people, me and you at uh beats bodega. Like, talk all goodbyes, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

RP Beats Bodega. I know. I ain't gonna cap. I just had Ryan on here talking about it a little bit. Did you? Yeah. Okay. It was pretty fun. It was a nice conversation. That's a good thing gave me some ideas to do on like different ideas to do with this podcast and stuff. So that's a cool little talk that we had. That was that part was off camera, but okay. Yeah. Ryan's good people. Yeah, yeah. I'm a misspiece, but they I ain't gonna crack. I know, man. Hopefully something else, but how long you been in here? I seen this at like three weeks ago on an art walk that I I went to.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Like, um, I think I got in during the pandemic. Yeah. So when everything ha happened like in March 2020, um, like kind of shit hit the fan, the main gallery that I'm in now again because they reopened, but like the main gallery, the VFW, right down the block, they closed. And that was like my main, that was like my main source of income. And like the first gallery I ever got in, I was learning the art business slowly through being in that place. But then the pandemic happened, and I was like, well, I need to, I need to constantly be in a gallery of some kind and constantly growing and moving to the like just just continue to grow and have my stuff out there that people could see my art, have a place to check my art out and buy it. Um so my place closed, and then I just hit Santa Fe and I was like, what galleries are open? Because like everything everything shut down, and then they had the thing where only like no more than six people could be in a place at at the time, like all that.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Where they had limits on people and how they could, yeah, yeah, capacity limit, like and the masks and all that.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

So like I just hit Santa Fe and I saw this place still seemed to be just operating normally, and then there was another gallery down the block, uh, Grace Gallery. And so I just like went to both of those. I was like, hey, are you guys still open during all this? Like, yeah, we're not stopping. Like, you know, there's not too many galleries around here that are open. A lot of galleries had to shut down permanently from that. Like, they just couldn't take the hit and not having any traffic. Um, but this place had this place had like 70 something or maybe 80 something artists in it at the time, and not too many people would come. And first Fridays went away for like a year, like a whole year, year and a half, maybe, and then it's but they were still getting traction.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

They were still getting people, huh?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, 100%. So we have one this Friday, is First Friday. Hopefully the weather's decent. But on a good first Friday, we get 20,000, 15 to 20,000 people come to Santa Fe, and in the galleries we'll get anywhere from three to five thousand people. So even out of all the crazy events that I do and and super active, um, first Friday is always like the biggest moneymaker of the month, you know. So I have to have I have to be in First Friday somewhere, somehow be in a gallery First Friday, or there's some months where I might be out for the month, so then I'll get like on First Friday, I'll get a booth or a kiosk somewhere on Santa Fe just to make sure I'm a part of it in the mix in some way. Yeah, just it's too much.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

There do be a lot of people on First Friday too. Yeah, like it streets be bad. I was out here one time podcasting just for the fun of it, but it was a fun experience that I had, and I was like, ooh, but yeah, yeah, I wasn't able, I wasn't gonna use any of that footage because I didn't like it. I mean, it was just bad footage. Yeah, it wasn't a bad time with bad questions, but right the footage was bad. Yeah, it had B-roll on it, it probably was better. It happens, bro. It happens. Before I continue, this camera right here, shout out who you are, where we at, where you can find you. And I'm gonna look at that painting.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

All right. So my name is Porridge Art. Porridge like the oatmeal, P-O-U-R-A-G-E underscore art is my handle. Um, I'm an artist from Denver. Um, I'm really a hip hop head at heart that's just creating art that I want to see hanging in my place. And I think I stick along the lines of stuff that I love to do, but what I think people respond to as well. So artists that speak to me, um, and I think that people will appreciate and I try to do them in a specific way that like connects to people and just like connects to a human experience. Um, I'm told that I'm a fine artist because a lot of these paintings take anywhere from four to six months, but I I just work on them meticulously till I can get them the best that I can. Um, right now we're in the Denver Art Society on Santa Fe in the art district in Denver. This is like kind of my bread and butter. This is my old stomping grounds that I started, my first galleries back in 2018 that I learned everything about the art business and that's allowed me to grow and flourish into what Porridge Art is becoming today. Heck yeah, heck yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Is that where the inspiration started? Where did the inspiration start to become Porridge Art?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Um, it really started since I was a kid. So, like my uncles were artists. Well, my uncle Joe, he did like candles, he was artistic and creative, but he didn't, you know, he did candles and like sculptor type stuff. But my uncle Manny was a legit artist that he made a living doing portraits and caricatures of tourists in old San Juan, Puerto Rico. So I'm Puerto Rican. And we would go to Puerto Rico every every year, a couple times a year. And he would just sit there and there's one main specific spot in Old San Juan that he would sit with his easel. He did pastels, um, like pastels and charcoal. And he would just catch, it was right around this area where a lot of the cruise ships would dock. So he would get like a whole flood of tourists coming through. And every time I went, he would have like a line of three, four people waiting to get their portrait done. It would take him maybe like 30, 45 minutes. Back then in the 90s, I think it was like 75 or so dollars for a portrait for him to get it done real quick in 30, 40 minutes. It'd be like spot on, and he just made his bread that way. Um, and then when I would visit him, you know, he'd be busy working on people, but he'd give me a notepad and then a piece of chalk or a pastel or uh a pencil, whatever, and have me sit there there on the stoop or on the bench and say, look at that tree, draw that tree. When you're finished, turn the page and draw it again, or draw that pigeon, and when you're finished, turn the page, draw it again. You're teaching me repetition over time. And like I forgot those lessons that he gave me for many years until like until I just got into the galleries and was really trying to just like hone in and and find kind of my my groove and my flow. And I'm like, shit, Uncle Manny used to give me lessons. And I'm like, oh yeah, he would sit there and just like as a kid, I didn't understand why he'd want me to draw the same thing over and over and over again. But as you grew up, it was like, oh, I see why. Yeah, and now I now I know and now I do. Like, even when I'm gonna work on a painting, I sketch it first, just to kind of familiarize myself with it a little bit, and then I go to the canvas uh with a better, like fresher set of eyes and understanding. Okay. If it just gives you a better understanding, you're gonna start with the canvas and be like, all right, cool. Right. I mean, depending depending on how how important and how serious I want it to be, or if it's like a portrait of somebody, I need it to be on point and you know, eyes, nose, mouth, everything kind of has like a ratio that that a face consists of that you want everything to be exactly where it's supposed to be. But with like when I'm doing my animals, I could just kind of freestyle that and and let it just happen. Well, when it's faces and it's one that I know is gonna be like a banger, and I want to do the best of my abilities on it, then yeah, I'll sketch it first and make sure it's locked in, you know. Where'd you get the name? Forage? Yeah, how'd you get the name? So, like I said, I'm a like I'm a hip hop kid at heart. So back in the day in high school, we would have our little freestyle ciphers, and I was like the little I used to break dance, and I wanted like once I learned about hip hop and like the four elements, I just wanted to master every element. So like I got a little, I got like a little turntable set with a mixer and try to like DJ and get a bunch of vinyls. Um and I always I always rapped, I always wrote raps, I always freestyled, I break danced for a number of years, always did my art as well, like messed around with graffiti a little bit. Um, but we had our little freestyle cipher, and we all wanted to have some some dope MC name. And the thing that we that would always happen is no matter where we were at, around the neighborhood, or taking the 83L, the RTD, all the way down here to Denver, whatever we were doing, and our little crew, I was the only one that ever had like uh uh Arizona iced tea or a water or something with me, some sort of beverage. I always had one with me because I knew it was gonna be a hot day, and the homies always wanted a sip of it. But I don't mess around with you putting your lips on my shit.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, waterfall that shit. Or yeah, when I don't even like them when they do the whole finger tip, because then they fingers are all water for all that shit. Yeah, get a cup, like yeah. So I just didn't mess with that, but in my first.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

It's different. It's different. 100%. Unless you're my girl, like you're not touching my shit. And so the thing was, I'm like, okay, you can have a sit, but you gotta pour it. So don't put your lips on it, just hold this shit up. If you get on yourself, that's your bed. And so pour it turned into porridge. So every time they was, hey, let me get a tip of the porridge, like that's the thing that would be said. And then my homeboy Colin, one of my best friends at the time, uh, was like, that's it. MC porridge, you're always saying porridge, so porridge, like that. That's it. I'm like, all right, kind of, kind of different. But like, so that's what it was back then. Like, I graduated 2004, so long ass time ago. Um, and then as I started, like it kind of fell away and and didn't really go by porridge for a long time, but started doing my art. I needed some sort of like dope handle that was just different, and porridge just fit, you know. Yeah, so yeah, that's called that's called the porridge art. Yeah, that's a cool orange story. And and pour like MC porridge. Yeah, MC porridge, and pour like paint is liquid, so it has like multiple meanings, you know. And a lot of my and my drip, like my drip paintings kind of symbolize it a little bit. Like pork, like like dripping and shit. So drip.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Uh that's a hippo too. That's cold. That's cold. I got the pig cop one.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You were my you were my first uh respect, bro. You were my first sale at Beats Bodega. Oh, for real? Like the first, the first of many, many, many. Dang, geez.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

That's how let's go. Hey, let's go. That's cold. See? Yeah. That's cool. I wish I could have been the last one, too. Start in the beginning. What do you mean? We got many more coming regardless, you know. That's cool though, man. You had a crazy story. You had you know the first time he was on here at uh which one was it? I think it was that, nah, it was it was at Beats Bodega. That was the first time you were on here. Yeah, the 715 Club. That's that's what that's the one you were on here the first time.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, I think that was like my second or third Beats Bodega or something that I might have done.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Something was outside too, it was like summertime. Something stuck with me when you was you saying that like all this was because you were battling addiction and stuff like that. Yeah, and this helped you get out. You you came a pretty far away from where you were talking about that one time. Like, yeah, you came a far away, man. Thank you, bro. That's dope. Yeah, that's dope. It's inspiring, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

I tried. Like the main the main mission for all this is of course to like get my name out there, um, continue to turn this into like right now. I'm fortunate enough with all the events that I do, that this is my main source of income. Yeah, and I mean there's times when I have to like, you know, if if bills are sh are tight, I gotta resort to some sort of side hustle. Yeah, you know, but that's been a while since I've had to do that. I'm just staying continuous on this grind. I'm fortunate to have a circle of people around me that that support and believe in my dream, which a lot of artists don't have. So my thing is um I'm doing this for for those that don't have that push. And I come from a place that a lot of artists that are just kind of maybe like, you know, don't have the necessary the means or the motivation or inspiration of somebody out there that speaks their language or understands where they come from. Because also depression and anxiety is a big thing I've struggled with too. So to like be that voice of that push for that dope artist out there that just needs that little bit of leverage to see, like, oh look, someone that comes from exactly where I came from, that as a one time that was at one time exactly where I am right now, that just said effort and threw everything at this art thing and is now out there in the world doing it. Because it because the world needs more art. There's people, unfortunately, a part of life, there's just people out there that are suffering. There's a lot of ugly in the world. But I think the more artists or the more people that could just embrace their passions, maybe their family's not there to back them up or think like, you know, we want you to get a legitimate job and go to college or whatever, but they have something really dope that the world needs to see. Like it's for those people, just to give them a push to show like spirit, really. Yeah, like one of your kind is out here doing it, like you need to do it. It's a lot, it's a grind, and it's difficult to get to a place where it's making consistent, legitimate income and you can pay your bills with it. But you know, the world needs more color, the world needs more dope music, the world needs more creators, the world needs more leaders. And uh, I'm cut from a cloth that I think a lot of people resonate and speak to. And if I could be that push for just a handful of artists to get out there and do the damn thing, then I think my job is done.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Okay. Okay. You said a leader. I ain't gonna cap that made my mind go to this little thing I was I was reading. Uh what's what I'm gonna ask you because I want your opinion. What's your difference between a captain and a leader?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

A captain and a leader. Um I feel like a captain in his own right is a leader and steers the sh and steers the ship and makes calls all the shots. Um, but I feel like that's a title. I feel like a leader is all encompassing and could be is like a trailblazer and doesn't necessarily have to fit in this I don't know, system or fit within fit within this, like, this is my title and this is the position I'm in. A leader could, you know, show his skill and show that he could be a leader in an endless amount of ways, you know. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah, I like that. That's good. That's good. I just wanted because that's I don't know, I I looked it up maybe earlier this week, round like what? No, last week. And I was just thinking about it, and I was like, what is the difference? And then I started like looking up the definition between leader and captain, and then I formed my own, but then I started like looking at other people's and like seeing other people's just to see like what's up. I like getting different perspectives on stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

That's a good question. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Well, what is the difference? Right? It's like cool, it could be the same thing, but they also are very, very different. Right. Right. So yeah, it's cool, it's cool. So I had you on here talk about your morning routine before. You're gonna I need you to say it again, and if y'all want to see it, I can go back to the first interview, which y'all should do on Instagram and YouTube at the Coffee First Podcast, everywhere. And what's your morning routine?

SPEAKER_01 17:28

So my routine starts the night before. I feel like I got it, I don't remember like hearing it and then implementing it, but I heard this one really motivational dude that's killing it, uh Jesse Itzler. He was like a MTV like white boy rapper from the 90s, and now he runs all sorts of shit. He he owns like an airlines, I believe. His wife is like the she's like the creator of Spanx, like those those pants for women. Um, but he is he's very motivated. But I heard him say it later on, but it was something I was already implementing where I start my days pretty much um the night before. So I had it I every year, now I get off of Amazon, but for many years I get from from Walmart they have this big book, it's like a calendar, but each day has an entire page for the day. Instead of like you look at a regular calendar and there's the 30, 31 days in the month, and each each day has its own little box. This is a big calendar that has a full page for every day, so it allows you to write whatever you need to in there. So I start my days from the night before. Like, what do I got going on tomorrow? Okay, I got I got the copy for this podcast at this time. I have to network a little bit at this time, I gotta spend a little bit of time on my website. I got a couple things, like new paintings, a new product I gotta put on the website. So it's just like allows me to start my day from the night before, put everything in the time slot that it needs to be, um, and just makes the guessing, just takes all the guessing work out. Yeah. And that way, it allows you kind of to be ahead of everybody else because everybody else is just like waking up and either has to go to work or has to take the kids to school or whatever, but you kind of spending their day that day.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Like when you plan it the next. Is writing helping you? Does writing help you out better?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like getting getting it out and on paper, it just makes it that much more definite. Yeah. And I could just, I could stick and also just having it there. If there's any moment that I I'll put it, I I write it in the book for sure. And then sometimes if it's like something I really need to be on my A4 for like an event day or whatever it is, I'll put it in my notes on my phone. But just having it a place where there might be a moment I get kind of sidetracked with something, and I just need to like get right back in and like what do I got going? Oh, okay, yeah, I gotta, I gotta talk to this person real quick, or I gotta head over to this place and take care of this or whatever. Yeah, and just like having it written down or in my phone just gives me like a thing I could stick to. And I just I think the the goal is to really get the most out of your 24 that you can.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Bro, I wish there was 26 hours. Somebody said, I wish I could add two more hours to the day. I was like, you know how how much I would treasure that.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

You could you could do that though. If you if you cut out, if you cut out, if you looked at what your day is like and saw that there may be a couple hours here or there that you're maybe not utilizing your time in the best way, then you could add that yourself. Yeah. If you look at, if you look at like, I'm I'm from a family of successful businessmen, and I my brothers are like talking to them is you know, they run, they've been running businesses for like the last 20, 30 years. So they always give me ideas and just seeing this how they're how they see the world and how they operate. Most people that are like uber successful, um number one working out is like a hundred percent. You realize when you take care of yourself and you feed yourself the proper way and you you exercise and you put yourself through difficult things on a regular basis, then the rest of what you got going on is easy. Yeah, you know, yeah. So then they usually wake up super early. I'm not I'm partially what I'm doing this too and working for myself is because I don't want to have to wake up at like seven, eight in the morning every day and get to an underfive. So I kind of run my own schedule, but like uber successful people wake up super early, they're usually up four or five, six a.m. With the sun rising, right? Get their workout in. So by the time, and also they're they're not sun up, they have emails, they have businesses to run, they have people pulling them in multiple directions, like fires that have to constantly constantly put out. So, like uber successful people by the time it's like 10, 11 a.m., they've got more stuff done and that little bit of amount of time than most people get done in an entire week.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Well, they get more stuff done when people, while people are asleep when the bite baiting getting up in that time. Like there's so much you can get done in the morning. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. 100%. I've been uh focusing more on that, like along with like the lines of skin. How I do things each time, like spend the day. Yeah, I mean, like my homegirl, she got me on like this little watch on how much I spend on Instagram and social media. So now every time I like get on social media, I like think about it and I hop right off and I'm like, all right, cool, let me see what else I can do. There you go. There you go. But and I believe, yes, working out is very important. If you don't eat right, if you don't work out, take care of yourself and your mental. Yeah, how are you gonna be straight?

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Right. For me, for me, it's a must because, like I mentioned, depression and anxiety. Yeah. If I don't, my worst place, like the worst places, like I had a period where I really lost my shit and had to spend some time in a mental hospital. But during that time, I wasn't, I run on a regular, I've been running since I was like 15, 16 years old, just like long jogs, three to six miles a day, like stay super consistent with it. But I had periods where I would step away from it. And that was like the that was my, I guess I could call the dark days, like when I was in the in the throes of my addiction. Um, but like when I was at my worst, I wasn't taking care of myself. And I like remember, I remember I was in this hole and I was just like, I'm just not gonna pay attention. I'm just gonna eat whatever I want, all the all the pizza, burgers, all the fried shit. Um, and I'm just not gonna, I don't, I just don't feel like waking up every day and busting my ass and busting the sweat. But I told myself I'm gonna give myself a year of just like being a slob and just not taking care of myself, and I know I'll not enjoy being that way, and I'll get back to it and I'll tighten back up. But like I got to a I got to a really bad place.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

That's that's cool how you use that. I use that too. That's cool how you use that method. Isn't that crazy? Like you'll be like, all right, you know what? Have fun. Right, but oh, this focusing up time. Right, right, right. You're focusing up, and this time you're like you start earlier than expected. You're like, I'm in, I'll give you a year. Yeah, did you really last that year?

SPEAKER_01 24:07

No, I think it was it was much quicker, but like I told my, and I told my family too, like, hey, I've always been like this health nut and always working out, but like I just, I just I was in a bad place. I just didn't, I just didn't care. I just kind of like cautioned. But I'm like, I'm just gonna let myself just just I'm gonna I'm just wallow. I should have just got out of it, but I was like, this and there's also something about like, I don't know if it's the artistic side of me. There's something about like when you're in a in a painful place, you kind of want to stay there for a little bit. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 24:37

There's something there's something about a dark, like it's good, because it's it's it's comforting in a way. In a way, yeah. And it's a it's a weird thing, but it's weird how it's comforting, but there's also comfort in that light side and success and health too, which is that dark side and that pain and doing it lazily and stuff, right? It's uh you find the comfort easier, right? Right in actually working to get that better.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Yeah, the other comfort, the the good comfort you gotta put effort into and energy and time that you gotta earn it. The other ones just like they just lean into it. I'm just gonna let it all hang out and just enjoy not putting that effort in. The bad part is that that it's also a dangerous place to be. Oh, yeah. Especially when you're like, you know, an addict, you could that year could have ended up turning into a fucking decade.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah, you know. But you trusted yourself, yeah. You trust yourself, you you you're like, yeah, I'm not gonna go this far. Yeah, you have barriers. You trusted yourself like coming back from yourself. Yeah, and that's that's the good thing. That's like trusting yourself to know, all right. I know trying to stop this with you right now is going to hurt me more in the long run. Right. So have your fun, but I trust that you're not gonna take it too far. Right. And then you just have your fun, and then it's like, alright, I'm done. And then you're just like, all right, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Right, get back to it, and just a day at a time after that point. At that point, yeah. The worst, the the when I realized I didn't just need to like cut that shit out and just like get back on my A game was uh my mom just I'm I'm appreciated for it because it kind of like snapped me out of it, but she started making fun of my double chin. I used to be big, like like I used to get I got pretty I'm I'm like 180 or so now. I can't even imagine you with a double chin, bro. That's just crazy. I was like, I was at like 240 or so. That's crazy. I was like 80 pounds heavier than I am now. Double chin, big old gut, man tits, like the whole the whole Shib. That's crazy. I was a different person. Oh my god. I'll show you, I'll show you photos later. So what's the what's the main what's the mission? What's the main mission? Um similar kind of like what I what I said before to do this, also collecting collecting information and data to put eventually maybe put together a program of some kind or a book or a blueprint of some kind for artists that want to either get into vending or get into galleries and just kind of because when I got into it, there was real there's some like informational YouTube videos that artists that do it can give you kind of information. God damn it. Um there's there's there's places you could go online where you can get bits of information, but there's no like actual like book or blueprint to show you like what the steps are of finding a gallery or finding your local art district or whatever, and like the people you have to talk to, or when you're trying to get into a venue, yeah, you know, who the main people you're supposed to connect with and what the what yours because you've seen how my setup is over there at Beats Bodega. It's like a I got like uh a system.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

It's like a mini, a mini like showcase. Like you're showing off these ones, the the big frames, as much as you're showing off the smaller ones, the pictures, the the magnets, yeah, the stickers.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yeah, no, it's a whole thing of like knowing your price ranges too, which is cool, right? Like knowing your audience, knowing giving like having the options for, you know, there's a bigger ones that are a little more, but of course that's not everybody's that's not what everybody's able to do. So like creating product that's at a much lower price point, and then what are your profit margins and you know what are you spending per item and you know how you price it out, and then also finding product out there, like finding the places that you get your prints, how do you digitize your work or you turn your work into something that you're gonna be selling duplicates of for years to come? Like a lot of these, you know, I created these, but I know the painting may be done, and even after the painting sells, I know I'm gonna be making money off these prints for many days to come.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

My girl can sing, man. Right, yeah, there's some vocals on her 100%. I'll have to get the Matt Miller one too. Yeah, bro. What if you got it? You wanna see? You're gonna see me notch. You're gonna see my whole art wall. There's gonna be at least five of yours. Hell yeah. We got like three different artists and pieces of art, but we got to get some more of yours, bro.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

I do too, and also like um, so yeah, that's pretty much my main mission is to learn this business through and through and kind of give the blueprint to whoever's willing to listen, but also more probably along the lines of what I spoke on before to really speak to and be that push and that that guiding light for or just the inspiration for either addicts that just need to like find something to hone in on and and do something productive and turn it into a business of some kind for people that are going through depression and anxiety and allowing them to like find their light and allowing them to shine. Um, because I needed that, you know. Like I went to I went to rehab, but that didn't necessarily fix me like when I was at my worst. Yeah. Um, but I knew like I knew if I just go back out into the world and I just get a regular nine to five and just start just start collecting a check and paying bills, I'm most likely gonna end up back right where I was and using. That's kind of what put me in to using drugs in the first place, was working, killing myself for nine to fives that weren't genuinely me. I was working for somebody else, like helping them make their dreams come true, but not working on my own. And not and not using my creative outlet. So, like when I got out of rehab, I was like, I need to just I asked my family if like can can I stay, like move back with my mom? Can I just stay here for a bit and just focus on my craft, get my art super crazy good, get out to gallery, start a business, start making money with it somehow. And they're like, Yeah, just as long as you're not on the streets doing raggedy shit anymore, just just focus on your art, focus on something positive. Like we always wanted you to do your art, like we got your back. Whatever you need to do, just like focus on positive, focus on good. If you could start a business out of it, that'd be awesome. And like they allowed me to do that. Um, and you know, I had to pour myself, getting off of drugs, I had to pour myself into something that I'm excited to wake up to every day and not just get some regular nine to five and get back to the grind and just collecting checks and paying bills. Like, that's that's kind of what killed it all for me. So if I could be that guiding light for somebody that's in a similar situation like that, and they could realize, well, you know what, I'm kind of good at this, I'm kind of good at writing, I'm kind of good at acting, I'm kind of good at drawing and painting, I'm kind of good at writing music. Um, but I'm kind of in this place, so let me just hone in on that and and give this world something dope because the world definitely needs it, you know. And the world needs it, yeah. I feel like that too. I ain't gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yeah, like the world needs more creativity, yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Like the more there is, and the more um, the more people can start being more the more creative, and the more people can start being more self-sufficient in the arts, like just the better the world's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Doing the right arts because there's some people that's consistent in arts, but yeah, some of the arts ain't too too too positive, right, and um productive for a lot of other people, right? And their lifestyles, right, and how they live.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Yeah, there's some there's some darkness in the arts. There's just some darkness in there, bro.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

We're talking about the positive, but the light, you know. Before I asked you this last one, because I feel like you represent the brand very, very well. Shout out who you are, and we could find you one more time. One more time.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

So I'm Poleridge Art, Poleridge Like the Oatmeal, P-O-U-R-A-G-E underscore art is my hand, is my handle. Uh Daniel Ortiz is my government. Um and there's an artist from Denver that uh that just wants to share what I have. I'm a hip-hop head at heart, so I'm really creating art that I want to see hanging on my walls and what I think the other people might respond to as well. Uh yeah. Right now, my bread and butter, we're at the Denver Art Society in Santa Fe, and on Santa Fe in Denver, which is the art dist the main art district in in Denver. And this is my bread and butter, this is my stomping grounds where I started this all. And I'm doing, I do events all over Denver, a lot of EDM shows, hip-hop shows, where that's where I met uh Eclipse was doing my thing out there at a really dope spot that I used to hit up all the time and have my little setup, and that's how that's how I make my income. But yeah, this artist Denver hip hop head out heart that's trying to get it here out here at one painting at a time. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Tap in reports right if you don't. Because you represent the brand very, very well, which is new effort every day. That's my brand healing through creativity, and that's how you make recovery. You know what I mean? Hell yeah, bro. New effort every day into what you do and what you love. Hell yeah, bro. So, what's your new effort every day?

SPEAKER_01 34:12

My new effort every day. Um right now it's it's doing connecting with somebody new that I haven't before, or a new a new venture, or at least every single day get into like make an effort to network and get into a new space. Like, uh I'm gonna try not to talk about it, but I'm seeing this really dope, this really dope chick that's like motivating the shit out of me. So, like, we were talking about that's another thing too. You gotta surround yourself by by positive people and people that wanna nurture what you got going, that wanna add to what you got going and want to help you grow. Like, that's another way to success, too, is just surround yourself by the right people that are all doing dope shit and you all like lean on each other and you all build each other up. So, like I'm around people that do that for me. And uh, and like so now I'm getting my first t-shirts made. So now the the process, because a lot of these EDM shows are a lot of people want to buy merch there. Like they buy art and they buy prints. I do really well at a lot of them, but a lot of them people just want to get a dope t-shirt. So now I'm working on I'm just expanding and getting to that side of the business and so starting to have merch outside of just the art and the prints. Um, and that was like a thing I just did last week. I was like this time we were talking about it, and then I just hit up my boy that I've been talking about doing shirts with for a while, and I came up with a design and just sent it to him, and now it's now it's going. And then I found out about this new couple different art collectives or uh like EDM collectives or music collectives of doing after parties or new venues that I'm just hearing about. So every day, like reaching out to a number of people to try to get connected in some way. So that's my effort is just like every day, okay. What haven't I done today? What's that what's that show that I really want to get into for next month? Okay, who can I reach out to for that? So just every day, just plugging away, doing what I'm already doing, running the business, getting ready for the up-and-coming events that I have for that week, but then just spending a number of time just reaching out to people just to try to set up stuff in my future. So that's my main effort right now. I like that. And then do you want me to uh show you a couple of the new pieces that I got? Yeah, that's the new painting. So these are my latest. There's no prints of them yet. The prior there will be. Um is here. I'll show you this one first. So this is all that. Yeah, nice. The the drippy, and then you get some b-roll to get some close-ups on it. But this is uh the drippy turtle, I guess you want to say. Um this is a this is a series that I do that kind of started off with let me see the headbum. No, the elephant. So it started off first. This elephant was the first popular piece that I ever did. Like it sold out of the gallery. The the like the second time I I ever hung it in a gallery, like it sold right off the wall. And the idea was just I was working on skin textures, and I was like, you know, elephants have that rough, bumpy, like really cool texture to their skin, but it's like it would be a very difficult thing to paint very well. But then I was like working on it, I was and I had this really dope, like big thing of purple paint um that I wanted to use for something specific. And I was like, what would it look like if you took a big bucket of purple paint and just dripped it all over the elephant? Like, how would it cascade down it? And so I had to like learn, I had to study bounce light and how paint would look like going over ripples and and just how to make it look dope. And so that was my first popular piece, and so I started a series of it where I did the elephant, I did the hippo, was the next one because that one did so well. I repainted that elephant like four different times by request. People just you know want a big one in their living room. Um, so I did the the hippo next, I did a rhino, and then now it's it's the turtle. And each time I do them, I want you know, I'm growing as an artist as I continue to do these events and I paint live, so I'm continuously like pushing the limits and pushing my abilities. I want to be a way different, way doper artist in like even a couple years' time from now. So I'm continuing just to like push it every time I work on a piece, and this is I'm liking how this is coming. I've been working on this one. I've genuinely I really started it like two years ago, but it was a different type of turtle, and I wasn't feeling it, so I I repainted over it a few months ago, and now this is where it's at. It's getting close to it being done. Um, but I'm pretty proud proud of this piece. I got some stuff that's gonna be going on back here too a little bit, but so this is one of my latest, and then the one that I'm really proud of turtle that you have before, like a snapping turtle. No, I think it was like one of the long neck titles. No, it was like uh it was more of like a tortoise, almost like uh kind of look like a like one of those Galapagos, yeah, type of tortoises. Um, but the with the angle of its head, I I just when you're when you're making a painting, you gotta have like perspective. I started so long ago, I wasn't considering certain things. It's gotta have like, you know, the perspective and the way you're the way you're seeing it on the canvas has to like guide your eyes to certain areas and it has like there's a lot of like geometry almost that goes into a painting, even when you're doing landscapes, like what do the buildings guide your eyes? Like 3D to make it like pop out, yeah, and to guide you into the painting instead of you could do stuff the wrong way, and it kind of literally makes you want to like look elsewhere. So I had to just like readjust the way I had it, and I just wasn't liking the configuration. But this one I landed on, I'm really, really hedged on this one. I got a number of people that already want prints a bit. I got a couple people that are asking about the the you know, about getting the original, so but just working on it little by little, it's almost there. Um, I just take my time, I don't rush my pieces, I kind of let them take as much time as they need before they're done. But the one that this one's already sold, um, but the one I'm really hyped on is the Richard Pryor. So I'll be having Prince of this guy come out soon. And you can't you can't see it, but all his all his uh specials that he did, his movies, anything significant that he did throughout his career is just in his hair. It's all over, it's over you gotta look close to see it, but it's all there where he grew up, all his movies that were bangers, all the movies that not many people know about, all his specials that everybody knows about, a little bit of his history with drug uses in there. So I like to put little Easter eggs in a lot of my work where um you'll see the piece of the person when you look closer, parts of their life and the history and stuff we know of them uh is gonna be embedded throughout the painting. So yeah, that's cool. Yeah, so this one I'm really hyped on. I got a number of people that wanted to print this, and the original is already. I don't sell the original typically that quick. I like to I like to have it in a gallery for a little bit and get people's feedback. But like as I was working on this, this uh the homeboy Stefan was like, I need that. Like, so so he's he's got this. I just gotta I gotta get it digitized and get prints made, and then it's going to him. I could see Stefan buying that real. Oh, you know what Stefan? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Yeah, he's a good dude too. He he's the one that brought me out to Evergreen one time. For real? Mm-hmm. Yeah, we did a show out there at back. It was like, oh, it's hip hop, but by the by the end of it, we we had that show popping, and they were like dancing and stuff like that. And it's like, oh yeah, I should come back out here. I was like, Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Hell yeah. I've done a lot of stuff in Evergreen. I used to live in Evergreen, so I'm like connected with some people up there as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

It's cool out there, it's a nice spot out there. And it's beautiful, yeah, yeah. Like in the daytime, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

And it's not it's not super far. Nah, it's you know, it's like 30, 45 minutes, and you can be there, be immersed in the mountains.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

Yeah, yeah, and then still not be too far if you want to go back to the city. Like, right. Which I don't know why you want to go back to the city if you're in the mountains, but that's your opinion. If you're in the mountains, I will stay in the mountains.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

It was it was dope. I lived there for two years. Um, kind of in the cut though, in this little area between like Morrison and Evergreen. But it was like a party town. It's kind of like part of where my drug addiction and and all that started because I was in I was in a dope spot where I was living. I had my own place up there. It was like camping every day, but it was a lot of like my neighbors are a lot of younger kids, and there was a lot of shows right at Evergreen, just down, I mean then Red Rocks, right down the street, and uh almost damn near every day it was like a party. So for my own safety and for like for my like safety. So I gotta get out of here. I had to end the pace of it. It's cool. I think it's a better situation if you're older and you're looking to lay back and kick it. Okay. Like I was in my 20s.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Oh my god, gosh, homeboy that grew weed out there was crazy. That's yeah, nice, and it was so fluffy and so squishy. I was just like, yeah, yeah, it was a lot of that.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Yeah, uh, so yeah, I had to get back down to Denver, but thanks for being on here, though.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

Shout out Porridge Art. Uh go Adam. You know, check out the Denver Art Society and support the movement.$20,$30,$40,$60,$70. I know y'all, I know y'all got some bread for it. Yeah. You go buy weed for for more.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

So oh, and it's uh, and I got a website too, Porridge, P O U R A G E Paints, P A I N T S dot com, where I have the bigger size, I have more merch on there and stuff soon, but I have all everything you see here and uh and the large sizes ready to go for a better price, a little bit. Here because you know it's the website, so yeah, do effort every day.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Copy first. Copy first. Appreciate you, bro. This is nice though. I do like I do like that one though. That's nice. And the turtle one.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

Oh, yeah, the turtle. That was good, bro.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

Put your head on my