Archive for November, 2008

What it do peeps. I’m Frankie Leal, born & raised in Reedley and I get paid to be creative here in Reedley. I first started doing this “visual arts” thing in 1999 when I told myself, “I will never want to work a day in my life”. The city’s I designed before are Fresno, Madera, & Visalia. While working in these city’s I never really imagined setting up shop in Reedley. Why? Because Reedley is a small town, there were no real creative shops at the time, and who would keep me in business in this super small town? I took my chances and at 22 yrs old, I went 100% into it and it’s been the best decision I have ever made.

Being a creative individual in Reedley is awesome. I love waking up in the morning and asking myself, What can I do today that will impress myself? I consider myself to be a very competitive person/artist, but I’m only competing against myself. People compliment my work but I don’t see why. Honestly, I don’t find it that great. Maybe because as an artist you see all the flaws you did and you realized how to make it look better next time.

I am looking forward to the future here in Reedley. For the first time, I am noticing an increase in creative people here in Reedley. It’s not like they were never here, they are just now putting Reedley on the map. I’m just proud to be part of that group.

Frankie Leal
www.mytrafficmag.com
www.frankieleal.com
www.lealgrafix.com

I’ve been really awed by some of the graffiti artists I’ve seen.  But not in Reedley.  The masters use art crime as a platform for expressing their thoughtful political and social messages.  And the stuff they make looks cool.  In Reedley, though, those who who spray paint on walls are little more than dogs, pissing on walls to mark off their supposed territory.  They don’t own the walls any more than the dogs do, but that doesn’t stop this fiction in their minds.

So I’d like to issue a challenge to those inclined to paint on walls they don’t own: let’s see some skill.  Let’s see some thought.  Bring a message; any message more sophisticated than, “Grunt, this mine.”  I’ll listen if you’re willing to put it out there and give it some time and effort.

So, I had a few topic ideas that I wanted to explore and expand upon but as soon as I began to type and flesh them out I realised that I’m really uncomfortable about haveing anyone read what I want to say.  Not that I really have anything bad to say, but I find it a bit weard that one part of me wants to just write and write and write and tell you all the things that you are doing wrong and what you should do to change those things, and how much better my life would be if you just did what i wanted you to do because, well, hell, my ideas are better than yours.  But then the other side of me just stares at side A and says, “shut the hell up.”

If you think about it, these blogs are really cool and super depressing at the same time. Here I am sitting in my living room typing out this thing expcting you to actually read it and to feel enritched, but who am I kidding, how many people are gonna read this?  My bet it that it’ll just be the people involved here and not may others, but what do I know, I’ve never done this befor.

I had wanted to write about how awsome Reedley is and how it’s got some really cool stuff going on.  But i just couldn’t start there.  Sorry.  I wanted to point out the strange inconsistancies in the building styles and the awsomeness of the fall out shelter sign downtown, and the cool basement rooms that are connected and of that stuff that just goes buy over looked.  But i couldn’t.  I just didn’t have it in me.  Who am I to tell you about these things? And would you even care? 

So instead, I decided I’d just say; “Hey, how’s it goin?.”  My name’s Mike and I’m gonna entertain myself here by telling you things that you proabably don’t care about and won’t read anyway but I’m gonna do it anyway and it’s not gonna make me famous or anything, but it will be fun. 

Famous for typing a blog, what a strange idea, sounds like a great topic for a post.

thanks for reading, see you later. 

just so you know, the spell check thing errored out every time I tried to use it…

Feng Shui is what they call it, isn’t it?

When you have an office that’s all junked up with monuments of clutter, and the desk is facing the open window which gives not only a distracting background to the workspace, but helps to backlight the computer screen during daylight hours so that grays look like blacks and reds look like grays.

And then your wife sends you away for an afternoon, because she saw this really good episode of Changing Spaces, and she secretly rearranges the whole office so that shelves are holding cool antique film relics and there are black curtains and the desk now faces an old MGM Studios Backlot sign and a movie poster: very cinematic.

So you sit down and actually feel like you’re worth something as an editor, and that makes you want to edit movies to a greater degree. Simply because you have it all around you, a truly inspiring place to work. And as a bonus you happen to see your diploma, with the degree you went to a creative university to get, hanging in a frame on the wall instead of piled under old issues of Entertainment Weekly.

Now I’m inspired to do something with my dreams and goals. And it’s all because of my wife who loves surprises…and because of Feng Shui. Really, I don’t even know what Feng Shui actually means. So in this case, it means she knows way more about creative organization of my office than I do. But whatever the reason, it works. Now I feel like an editor.

But also because of the lifesize Darth Vader cutout behind the door. He’s watching, waiting. I’m afraid if he doesn’t see me create something really cool he’ll get angry. And nobody wants an angry Vader on the loose.

I’d be curious to hear other methods of creative inspiration in your environment, besides threat of the wrath of the Dark Side.

Who are we?  Good question.  I know you’ve heard about Reedley Creative, but you’re probably wondering who we are and what we’re about.  Here it is:

We’re young.  We’re tied to Reedley.  We create.  Some of us get paid to create, some of us don’t.  Some of us have reputations for being creative, and some of us should have reputations for being creative.  For all of us, being creative isn’t about getting paid; it’s about the act of creation.  We write songs, we paint things, we make images, we sculpt sculptures, we design stuff, we make videos, we edit them, we compose poetry, we write stories.  And we do all of this in the context of a small town: Reedley.

We don’t find the need to move to a larger city to engage in creative community because we’re web-enabled and we’re already citizens of a global village.  And there are some pretty cool, pretty creative people living right next door.  Come check us out and see for yourself.

We’re Reedley Creative, and we’re open.