17: Being a High School Student & Artist in 2024 (w/ Elijah Sellers & Josiah Lyons)

Well, thank you guys for coming on the podcast.

I guess I’m coming to your school, but this will be released on The Naaman Creative Show.

It means a lot that you would take your time out of your busy high school schedules to come here and talk to me, to talk to our audience.

So I’ve got Eli Sellers and Josiah Lyons with me.

Artists, high school students here in St.

Petersburg, Florida.

I’d like to start out, for me, this is nostalgic.

Like just walking through the halls of a high school is nostalgic.

And there’s things that I miss greatly about high school.

I want to start not in art.

I want to start general.

And I just want to get your opinions.

What is your favorite part of high school?

So for me, I would say my favorite part of high school was definitely, you know, other than art was definitely bowling.

I really enjoyed playing bowling this year.

I started my 11th grade year because we didn’t have it.

When I was in ninth or 10th grade.

So, you know, ninth grad played football.

That was also fun, but I just didn’t really have the passion for football anymore.

And then when bowling came 11th grade year, I started bowling.

That was pretty awesome.

It’s fun.

It is.

And it can be addicting.

And you meet a lot of good people in the bowling league as well.

And it’s pretty serious, but since everybody there is in such good spirits, it just really turns out being a good time.

You make a lot of good friends.

I still bowl with a lot of them till now, and the season’s over, so.

That’s what it’s all about.

It is.

Well, that’s great to hear.

So, artist and bowler.

Okay, what about you?

Me, one thing about high school that I do like is the theater club here, and really it’s supposed to be a class, but they took the course down like a while ago.

So, yeah, hopefully they bring it back, but I enjoy the theater program, the theater club, and I’m the president of my theater club now.

We have a meet today.

I’m gonna be there a little bit late, you know what I’m saying?

I have an excuse, you know what I’m saying?

And then another thing, if we’re going even more broader, I just kind of like, just meeting the people that I did meet, cause you know what I’m saying?

A lot of my experiences that I did have, good or bad, led me to the amazing people that I know, like Josiah, Keegan, you.

I wouldn’t have been here without coming to high school.

Yeah, yeah.

So I do enjoy the opportunities that come along the way.

Yeah, and that also is what it’s all about.

Yeah, you know, for me, high school’s much deeper than what the subjects I studied.

And it was more for me, I came from like a private Catholic school, and it was very confined.

And then I went to a big public high school that had 4,000 students.

I don’t know, how many students are here?

Do you know?

2,000?

It’s double the size.

But I was, you know, I had more autonomy.

I was able, I was in charge of going from one class to another and getting there, rather than just everything being programmed.

And for me, tasting that freedom was kind of the first experience I had where it’s like starting to have my own self and my own schedule and being responsible.

And then obviously college, that’s the next step and then out of college, then you’re on your own.

But yeah, so I mean, high school has a lot of nostalgia in that way that it was super meaningful to break out of my shell.

And I’m sure we’ll dive into that a little more.

So with art, have you been doing art your whole life?

Did you find it in high school?

Did art find you?

Tell me about how you got connected with the art that you do.

Well, a lot of people in my family do art.

Like my great uncle Joe, he does art.

I used to see him do like realistic portraits all the time.

But really the main factor for me doing art was obviously my older brother.

He’s in the Marines now, and he doesn’t really touch art as much as he used to.

But growing up, he used to sit there and draw all the time.

And I used to be admired because it’s like, you’re making actually good like drawings.

And I was like, wow.

And you know, I kind of replicated it, try to do, you know, as him.

And then as the years went on, I progressed to the level that I am now, which where I’m better than him at art.

No competition, but you know what I’m saying?

Yeah.

I definitely, that’s definitely one of the reasons why it stemmed from my passion.

Awesome.

So family and people you were close to.

Awesome.

For me, I would say, I feel like my mom and maybe my oldest sister, they were more, well mostly my oldest sister.

She was like a real natural, good artist.

Like she always kind of knew how to paint.

But when it comes to like the type of art now, I would say it’s more of like, it’s more of like you kind of just ended up finding it.

Like for me, you know, like I said, ninth grade, I played football.

And after my ninth grade year, I stopped.

So 10th grade year, I didn’t really do anything.

You know, I was just kind of, I was just kind of a student, just walking the halls, you know, chilling, that was really it.

So 11th grade year when it came, and I had two art classes my 11th grade year.

So I was there most of the time, because I also went there during lunch, you know.

So when I got into my first show, you know, it was just really exciting for me, because you know, I never really been here, you know, it’s a new environment and you know, it opened a lot of doorways.

So, you know, from there on, I just kept doing it, doing it, and it just continued to grow and grow.

So that’s where mine came from.

It kind of just ended up finding me.

Yeah, yeah.

I feel the same about drums.

One day it just found me.

I grew up playing guitar and drums found me.

I didn’t, I mean, I was always connected to drums and I should have known it, but you know, one thing led to another and I never looked back.

But it’s neat to hear the tug that art has on you both.

There’s something to it, you know, we’re all in that realm.

And it’s fun creating something that wasn’t there before.

There’s something super meaningful about it.

And I know you’ve both won some awards, you both work in different mediums, but I wanna talk about that process that I just mentioned, creating something that wasn’t there.

It’s intimidating for many people.

So kind of maybe a two part question is, are you intimidated by the blank canvas?

And how do you move forward?

What is your inspiration for what you create?

How does something come to life and start to take form?

What’s your process like in getting through that blank canvas to something that’s a finished piece?

Well, my process really, sometimes I am intimidated by a blank canvas because you never know what you want to draw, or you might have an idea and then in the beginning, it’s not looking like anything and then it’s like, ah, it’s not going to work out.

But something, well, for most of my finished pieces, it’s always another driving force.

Like music, for one, inspires me.

Sometimes not even what they’re saying, but just the vibe that I get from a certain song, it helps me with the creative processes.

That’s why I’m also very interested in making music.

I’ve never done making music before.

I’ve never been in music at all, but I kind of find it interesting to learn as of now.

And that and creating art is just like two of the biggest things to me as of right now.

And yeah, that’s really much it.

It’s just like getting inspiration from either a song or something you’ve seen or just how you feel.

And that really helps me with my process.

Yeah, yeah.

For me, I would say when it comes to starting off on that blank canvas, I mean, the simplest way I put it, when people ask me, it’s just all in the head.

It kind of just comes there when you’re sitting there, kind of just staring for a minute.

And I try to, when thinking of what I want to make next, I try to put a theme on it.

So if you look at some of my other pieces, you can tell there’s like a set theme when it has its own set style, you could say.

And I kind of try to work around that.

And then another thing I like to do is, I really like to include my faces in a lot of my pieces.

So when trying to figure out what type of expression or pose I want to do for this piece, you can kind of also build off of that too.

And that opens a lot of doors as well.

But there are some days where it’s just kind of like blank and you’re like, you don’t really know what you want to do.

So you kind of just, you kind of just start playing around until you kind of got like a base and then you start to build from that base and then it kind of just clicks again.

But for the most part, I would say it’s usually just always there in my mind.

And I like to try and kind of think of an idea before I’m done with a project so that I can have something to work on.

But if I don’t do that, then I usually just try to play around and kind of figure it out from there.

Yeah.

It’s fun that art lends itself to exploration.

So you don’t necessarily have to have a structured idea before you start putting acrylic or pastel or even you’re clicking around, right?

Because you both are in physical and digital formats.

You’re playing around.

What did you say?

What was the word you used?

You dibble dabble.

You dibble dabble.

I like that.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

That’s the beauty of art.

I mean, art, eras of art and particular styles came about from someone playing around and experimenting.

Pointillism or whatever, cubism.

That wasn’t there until someone was like, wait a second.

I could just make this whole piece out of dots.

And there’s still a lot of art styles to be had.

Maybe you two are on your path to establishing a new era of art.

Who knows?

No pressure.

One thing I have been playing around with is like, I’ve seen videos of people like, where they start off with like, the full color and instead of like, trying to get this color in the right place, it’s like, they almost do it like, messily where they like, they just like redraw over certain parts or they scribble around and use different like, I’m pretty sure I have one classmate, Xavier.

He does, he does digital, but with his new piece right now, he’s actually, I think he’s embroidering or like using, using needle and thread for certain, just for texturing too.

And it’s really cool.

And I’ve been thinking about really trying to texturing my art.

Even when I do digital art, I try to have some kind of texture to it.

Or some kind of overall scheme, because I have this one art piece that I just put out, and I try to play with the scheme of a messy paint or almost like wall art, street art, or something like that.

Graffiti, that’s the right word I’m looking for.

Very cool.

Yeah.

Textures.

Textures are enormous.

You know, a piece not feel so flat or makes it more dynamic, but also the mixed media aspect.

It’s quite powerful, you know?

Pen and ink mixed with acrylic or watercolor.

Like I have some portraits that a good friend of ours, Crystal, shout out Crystal, she did watercolors of my family and my dog who passed.

And it’s watercolor, and then she goes over it with fine ink, black ink, and it’s just super cool.

It wakes up the pieces.

Do you mix media?

Yes.

Actually, that just reminded me earlier in the year, I had this watercolor piece that I made the previous school year.

And me and my teacher was kind of just looking at seeing what else we could do with it, and that’s when we came up with the idea to print it on watercolor paper and then watercolor over the watercolor.

Because, you know, when it comes to digital art, you can only, you know, it’s…

I don’t know how to really explain it.

It’s like, it has its own kind of twist to it, you know, whether it looks exactly like what it would look like if it was on paper, or whether it would look like, you know, if it was on like a canvas, like a physical canvas or not.

It always has its own little twist to where you can tell that it’s kind of digital art if you have that keen eye.

So, this year, kind of been experimenting with, you know, taking my digital pieces and kind of, you know, kind of bringing them to reality, you could say.

And that’s what we kind of did with that watercolor piece.

We watercolor over the watercolor to give it an even more realistic look, and that was really fun.

I mean, I had something, he’s right, imitating certain things, like, when it comes to digital art, digital art can only do so much, because even with me, I try to, some of my photos, because I do photography, and then I mess around with the photos, play around with the photos.

And one thing about it, and two things for sure, it is hard to imitate a paper, or certain scratches, because I try to go for something, almost you’ll see it as a movie poster.

I like making that kind of art, too.

That’s something that is just super cool to look at, really.

And it’s hard to imitate a magazine cover.

You know, it’s a lot that goes to it when it comes to digital.

People think digital is easy, because you can just pull an asset.

Now, it’s much more harder than what it looks like.

A lot more.

A lot more to it.

And that’s with a lot of things that we create from scratch.

You look at it, and people make it look easy, whether it be art that you’re looking at or a logo, you know, this logo for Auburn Tigers.

It’s like, oh yeah, you put an A in a U there, and boom.

It’s like, but it took them a lot to get there.

Or a musician, when they’re up there performing, and you’re like, they’re making it look easy.

Yeah, now, because they’ve been doing it for 25 years, and they could do it in their sleep.

So it’s all that practice, and all those attempts of doing that work to get to that final piece.

It’s a lot.

You had talked about, what you’re talking about is something that happened at an art group that brought me down to Florida.

So my job for a year and a half, I made art all day.

I was in the creative department.

I was taking in art from all over the world.

The artists would send us their original pieces.

I would take it on a flatbed scanner that was bigger than this table.

And then I’d bring it in the computer, enhance it, color correct it, clean it from the hairs and the different things.

But then we had a department that would be in hand finishing.

So we had the whole process.

It would be printed and framed, created in-house.

And after it was printed, certain pieces, if the client wanted, and our clients were like Hampton, Hilton, Disney, where we created art for the whole hotel in one day.

And it would go to the hand finishing department, and they would put on particular materials or paint in certain areas that then woke up the piece.

So from digital.

And so if someone was looking at it from afar, it would look real because they could see actual shadows from the light because we applied paint to a digital piece.

So there’s a lot there that you’re getting at.

And that’s a very common technique now where if you go to a hotel and something looks like it’s actually painted, most likely it was digitally produced and then hand-finished on top of that.

And even they have clear, just clear hand-finishing where it’s just someone takes a brush of clear paint and all it does is it shows what’s underneath but adds texture on top.

So there’s tons of methods to go about doing that.

And you guys are starting to dig in to all of these different things, which is I’m excited for you.

Because also what’s beautiful is that it’s never done.

You know, there’s never an end to it.

There’s never a ceiling like, okay, I’ve tried thread and watercolor and ink.

I’ve experienced it all.

No, have you tried metal?

Have you tried spray paint?

Have you tried flipping a bucket upside down and putting a bunch of paint in it?

Have you seen those videos?

And it goes into a circle and makes a cool design.

Now you can get inspiration everywhere.

So it’s really neat.

So we’ve kind of talked about positive stuff.

I like to dive into all sorts of things.

What is an obstacle or a difficult time or a major setback in your art career or high school career in general where it’s like, man, that was really hard?

And how did you overcome that?

Well, I want to go broad and then go lower.

One thing that is an obstacle as of now is I would say my attentiveness with other things that aren’t art or creative related.

I find a lot of things really boring.

I’m not going to lie.

I find it really boring.

And sometimes it feels like a waste of time because you want to get into the meat and beans or meat and potatoes of the art or what you like to do.

And sometimes it feels like all these things are just in the way.

And I feel like my obstacle is trying to just finish high school really.

And I’m still having trouble with that.

I’m on track graduate.

That’s not the point.

But I’m on track.

I promise.

Let’s keep that that way.

But it’s just like, you know, sometimes you get bored of it all.

But my whole thing that I’ve been learning is to stay focused, stay positive, prioritize the things that I need to do.

I’ve been trying to do that.

And it’s been working a bit.

It’s been working a bit.

One thing I can’t say.

Now, as far as into art, some major setbacks is art block, really.

Sometimes I just don’t know what to draw.

Like I said before, sometimes I’m intimidated by the canvas, the blank canvas.

And sometimes I just don’t know what to do.

But like I said, my solution to that is just double dabble in some things.

See what your mind takes you.

And then once you feel like you’ve got that inspiration, just go on and do the thing you want to do.

Seize it.

Seize the moment.

That’s good.

I’m going to go back to your first more broad answer.

Because for me, education was difficult for me growing up.

I didn’t feel like I was smart, especially through elementary, like through eighth grade.

It was in high school where I really was awakened to my potential.

And there were certain classes, for instance, calculus.

And I didn’t know why I was learning calculus.

And it was very, very difficult.

But in the moment, I still powered through.

Dedication, prioritizing, just staying focused, knowing that, number one, I have to get through this to graduate.

But there is a reason for that.

In the moment, I couldn’t see it fully, but now looking back on that, getting through, and even then, at the end of the class, when I got like a B plus in pre-calc, I was like, whoa, I’m smart.

I can do it.

But actually, I think I got an A.

And it was an indicator that I was smarter than I thought I was, and that I could overcome something that I didn’t know and actually learn it, regardless of what it is.

That alone, that process, is really important, and now even more so, because there’s stuff every day where I have no idea what to do.

But thinking back on those times where I know from earlier in my life, whether it be in high school or last year or last week, where I can overcome that, because I know deep down, I can learn that and overcome that.

And there’s such value in that.

So I totally feel you that, why am I in this class?

What am I going to do with that with art?

But actually, you never know.

For instance, working on Disney projects at that art group, I had to work on mirrors, and we had to make a cut path for mirrors that were very particular because they were wild mirrors, and they needed to be cut perfect so that the actual mirror fit into the frame.

And I had to literally use geometry.

I had to pull it out of my stockpile of knowledge from way back when to actually figure out angles and how long this line needed to be so that it was literally perfect to the millimeter.

So you never know also when it’s going to come back up, but that’s powerful stuff.

You’re just focused prioritization and getting through it and staying positive.

Those three things, anybody listening, whether it be a business owner or another student or a musician or whatever, that carries through everything that you do.

So I wanted to capitalize on this very powerful stuff you just talked about.

How about you?

I can definitely agree on the school part.

The work isn’t necessarily hard.

It’s just more so getting the work done, because you can be given an assignment, and you can put it off to the next day, but then that next day comes, and you still end up not doing it.

And then before you know it, you got these assignments built up that if you honestly put your mind to it, you can knock out on the day, but you just got this idea of not wanting to do it.

It’s just holding you back.

So school is definitely a factor.

You know, there’s other aspects to it as well.

You know, some days, some days maybe you’re just not feeling it, you know.

So you go through all, you go through your whole day, maybe even in the art room, just not feeling like doing anything.

So that kind of takes a toll on you as well.

But for me, a serious block, I would say, it’s kind of hard because I had a really good, when I started doing art, I had a really amazing first year of art.

Amazing year.

I’m having a pretty good year this year as well.

So I wouldn’t say there’s a major blockage for me right now.

But if I had to think of one, there are times where the mind just go blank and you kind of just, you either forget or you don’t know where to go on from here.

So you’re kind of just thinking and then you may end up throwing something on there that once you realize it doesn’t really look that good, but maybe it might be too late for you to change it.

So that’s definitely a factor, I would say.

And outside of the art room, aside from school, you know, I mean, just the mentality, you know.

You got to keep yourself up, you know.

You got to keep yourself up.

The second you bring yourself down and you stay there, that’s when it starts to go south.

So I think keeping a healthy mentality is definitely a big factor, and really in everything you do.

You come to school, you know, ready.

You’re going to go through the whole day, you know, just like that, like a blast.

So definitely keeping that mental fortitude up is a big factor, I would say.

Absolutely.

There’s so much there.

I mean, there’s a lot of things in life where, as you go along, not every day is like rainbows and butterflies and glitter, as our last guest from Great Exploration said.

You know, it’s, there are some days where it’s like, like today for me, it’s one of those days because there’s a lot going on, and I’m facing some technical challenges that I just, I had to leave and come here.

And it’s kind of on the brain, but it’s like, I’m enjoying this moment so much.

And for me, it’s being fully present.

And even if I’m in a situation where like, oh, this isn’t like ideal, I don’t know if I want to be here, it’s seeing what is positive about this.

Oh, I’m with great people, and this is fantastic.

Maybe I don’t like the scenery, but the people I’m with are greater.

Oh, this food is wonderful.

And so there’s always something positive, or I’m alive.

Wow, how fortunate, you know.

And seeing through that is enormous, but your mindset going into it, that’s everything.

Because then it’s how you perceive the world moving forward, but also people see that in you.

If you’re down or you’re not staying positive, people feel that.

And it’s not like you can always stay positive, but knowing that people can absolutely sense it.

And if you’re trying to see the positive things, stay positive, be positive, then other people will feel that, and likely it’s contagious in a way.

Then you’re uplifting other people just by your positivity.

And then they might be uplifted, and therefore uplift someone else that actually needed it, really bad.

And it’s this domino effect, which is very important, especially in high school.

High school is so weird, navigating, you’re like, what is going on?

I mean, for me, it’s just like, I’m free, but I’m not.

And why am I learning these things?

What’s going to happen next?

So there’s so much to say there.

It’s kind of hard for me to keep on track, because in a way, I’m jealous.

You know, there’s times where I look back on my undergrad and even my masters, and like, looking back, there’s such nice times.

There’s simplicity to it, and there’s like such discovery happening every day where I’m like, oh, I didn’t know that, or meeting new people and figuring out, oh, I like that, I don’t like that.

And so, you know, I’m going to try not to be like the dude who’s like, yeah, do this and do that, do that, but like one advice is just soak it up even if it’s small, because it’s going to pass and you’re going to be looking back on it.

And that’s with life in general.

And I try to remind myself of that to this day.

Like for me, being present with my daughter, having her a year and a half ago has been like an enormous eye opener because now I want to be present more than ever because every moment that happens with her is crucial and it’s only going to happen once.

And I’m trying to like soak it up and remember every moment and every detail.

And yeah, so anyways, I digress.

I appreciate you guys listening to me about that.

But these things are really important.

And I knew that we aren’t just going to talk about art because there’s a lot more going on in your lives.

And so speaking of, we talked about major setbacks.

What’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to you?

What are you most proud of recently?

Oh, I got one thing.

One thing for certain, two things for sure, is definitely here, podcast with Josh Naaman, Naaman Creative.

That’s one thing.

But besides this amazing moment, I would definitely have to say Scholastics was an amazing time for me because I came home with $350.

And what’s Scholastics?

Scholastics is like…

Scholastics Art and Writing Awards.

It starts out as a regional competition.

You win regional, you win the…

There’s gold, silver and honorable mentions.

You win honorable mention, you got honorable mention.

You win the silver key.

You don’t go on to nationals for silver key unless there’s a certain category.

MetLife.

Yeah, MetLife.

That’s what I…

Portfolios don’t go for nationals for silver keys.

And then there’s the golden key.

If you win a gold key, you go on to nationals to compete for a national gold medal.

So a national gold key, you could say.

So there’s three different main awards you can win, and you can win it for multiple pieces.

So let’s say you submit 10 pieces, five of them win gold keys, the other five, well, three of them win silver, and two win honorable mentions.

Those five pieces that won a gold key, all five of them will get sent to New York to be graded and judged at a chance for winning a national gold key.

So that’s why, you know, usually most schools that do participate, because it’s a country-wide thing.

Other states do it too.

So it’s a national competition.

And you’re usually preparing for it throughout the whole entire art year.

So like even after now, you know, if we weren’t seniors, even still, we’re still making artwork.

But even now, we will still be preparing for next year’s scholastics, because you really want to have bulk when it comes to scholastics.

You want to have bulk, but bulk of good work.

So it’s going to take time, but it will pay off, because the more pieces you have that go to New York, the better chance.

But then again, art can take its one piece.

Quality and quantity.

Sometimes it’s just sheer luck.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, it’s also, who’s judging it?

That’s art.

At the end of it, it is always subjective.

There are objective factors and ways to rate it and grade it and such.

So scholastic, did you win a national, what is it, gold key?

No, I won a silver key, but I got…

Great job.

Yeah, I got, part of this thing is called MetLife, and that’s for people who have deceased parents or deceased guardians.

And my piece that I showed you actually is that, is the person, that’s my mother, who died when I was like 10.

Yeah, so, you know, that piece meant a lot to me, you know what I’m saying?

And I’m glad I got a silver key, and I’m glad I still got to get a chance to go to New York.

But if I don’t, I still got that piece, you know, that took a lot of hard work, you know what I’m saying?

And you still made it to Nationals.

And I mean, I can tell how proud you are.

And I imagine she’s proud, you know?

And you’re proud, and I’m proud of you.

That’s cool.

That’s powerful.

And you have that piece forever.

You have it still.

I still have.

That’s good.

Don’t get rid of that one.

I’m not going to get rid of it.

That’s priceless.

I do have copies that I do give away.

Cool.

I gave my…

My brother came back down because he was on leave because he’s a Marine, he’s a Lance Corporal.

When he came back, I gave him his copy.

I’m going to send out more copies.

I have a small copy in my room because the big copy is still here.

Just because we’re still going to Met…

We still got to do the Met life, so we might have to send that off sometime soon.

Well, that’s awesome that you’re able to gift it, and that meaning goes into other people’s homes, the people you care about.

That’s what it’s all about.

And that award he was talking about where he won some cash, there’s a series of…

There’s some sponsors awards, and he won one of those sponsors awards.

I think you were trying to…

I’m pretty sure you was asking what that award, the other award that he won was.

There’s a series of sponsors awards you can win, and he won.

I forgot which one…

He won, I’m pretty sure it was the Beth-El Festival one.

Yeah, I think it was Beth-El, because I did get in there too.

But yeah, it was an amazing time.

I still got like 200 of it, because me, I don’t have a job right now.

Save it.

You said you wanted a laptop, so you got to save for that.

Yeah, I do, man.

I wish there was someone out here hiring, man.

Well, eventually, we’ll be hiring more, so we can keep in touch, certainly.

For me, let’s see, two things.

Definitely this year has been, like this whole art year has been amazing.

We got a new 3D art teacher, Mr.

Turkel.

He’s been really cool to work with.

And then all the art shows, Elijah, he didn’t sell you, but he never went to any of his art shows that he’s won or gotten into previously.

So this year, he started going to them, because it’s our senior year, and I was telling him, because I go to all my shows, and I was telling him, you meet a lot of good people there, just like in Bowling.

You meet a lot of good people, and you make really good connections.

So it started coming, and we’ve just been having a blast since.

So this year has been really awesome.

And then last year, when I started submitting artwork, I won a very big award.

The 14th District Congressional, or 14th Congressional District, that was a national competition that I won, and my art piece actually got sent to the Capitol Building along with all the other national windows from the other states, where it would hang in the Capitol Building for a year, and it’s still in there to this day.

It’s a whole tunnel dedicated to all the students that won, and it was a really amazing experience.

I recommend anybody who’s submitting artwork to try and win that competition, because it’s an event you wouldn’t want to miss if you do win.

Try to submit to anything, really, everything.

Of course, yeah.

It’s hard.

Don’t get me wrong.

It’s definitely hard to sit there and make some artwork for each opening you can, but it definitely does pay off.

I have a friend, Cora.

She just won, like, what?

$1,000.

$1,000.

That’s a good chunk of change.

Less more.

Less more for schooling.

You know what I’m saying?

It’s a lot of opportunities you can come out here and take in the art world.

So anybody out here younger who’s listening, seize those moments.

Seize those opportunities.

That kind of goes into another topic.

The art world.

Me and my teacher was talking about this the other day.

It’s a very prestigious place, you could say.

A lot of people, they don’t really think about it.

You tell a person who doesn’t really make art, yeah, I make art.

They kind of just overlook it.

But then you kind of bring up the achievements, and you really start to think about it.

It’s done a lot for you.

And it really builds up that resume as well.

And schools love that.

Schools love achievements.

And then on top of that, if you’re a great student at your school, it kind of goes hand in hand.

And even more opportunities come that way.

Someone sees that you’re out here winning all these shows, someone’s bound to recruit you.

It’s a very amazing place to be.

Yeah, it sounds like you’re both thriving.

That’s what it’s all about, is putting yourself out there, not stopping.

Because you don’t meet opportunity unless you go after it.

You know, it’s being prepared and going for it.

And what’s cool is there’s so much out there.

And if you connect with it, there’s a lot of people who aren’t.

And so just the fact of you taking that step to submit to art competitions and festivals or whatever it may be, that puts you ahead of a lot of people and people in positions to hire people or to accept you into schools.

See that extra push.

You said you were in theater club or president of it?

I was president of my theater club.

That’s huge.

When I see that on a resume, that’s enormous.

Because for me, in my undergrad, I became president of a computer graphics organization.

And that changed my life.

And my first internship interview, I was in there and they were going through my portfolio and they were looking at my resume and they got to president of SIGGRAPH.

And they go, oh, you’re president of SIGGRAPH IUPUI, which was my school.

And I was like, yeah.

They go, oh, you’re hired.

Literally told me that in that moment at that line item.

And I could see, oh, all that work for doing that and taking that extra initiative just paid off in this moment right there.

And it was very powerful.

Because I’m like, ah, there it is.

It clicked really hard.

So don’t stop.

Don’t stop.

Oh, man.

Okay, going to high school, I’m kind of curious about this.

You’re learning a lot.

Art, math, science, hopefully a lot of science.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned in your journey in high school?

That’s kind of hard.

I’m not going to lie.

No one said this interview is going to be easy.

For me, the most interesting thing is it would have definitely been in my aquaculture class.

Aquaculture?

Yes.

What’s that?

It’s based around marine life, you know, preserving.

Oh, I love it.

It’s a cool name.

Studying the oceans, reproducing fishes, you know, that kind of stuff.

And you learn a lot of interesting things in there.

You learn a lot of beneficial things concerning aquaculture and the things they do.

You know, a lot of things that you wouldn’t think of, like all the food, like fish and stuff that we eat, you know, a lot of seafood.

All that has a process it goes through, you know.

You know, it just doesn’t spawn out of nowhere, you know.

Species got to reproduce for food to come on the table.

And, you know, you will look at a species and think it’s not extinct, but then you really look at the numbers, and it’s like, wow, those numbers are low.

And then you wonder why they’re still on this earth.

And, you know, that’s kind of where aquaculture comes in to.

You know, they help keep them alive, you could say, and keep food on the table as well.

So, the most interesting thing I probably learned in aquaculture, though, hmm, I don’t know if I could say that because it was a very interesting lesson.

But to put it simple, it had to do with like a male, like this male, it’s not necessarily a shellfish.

Like two male slugs?

It’s not necessarily a slug, I don’t really know what you call it.

I learned it back in 10th grade.

But it had a very interesting reproductive cycle that I never heard of before.

You know, there’s weird cycles like a seahorse, like a female seahorse doesn’t get pregnant, a male seahorse do.

But this one was weird.

They get like, they almost like tase each other.

It was, it was interesting.

It was very wild.

When you start to study the different life forms out there and how they go about doing things, because it’s very different.

Yeah.

Seahorse, I’ve seen them like they like shoot out.

Wild.

It is very wild.

Yeah, but that’s a that’s a really important course.

You know, you’re you’re understanding more about how everything is interconnected all the way down to the food at your table.

And if that can is that sustainable, you know, there are the fishing practices right now sustainable for when your children are going to be eating.

Are they going to be able to have access to that fish?

And it’s like, well, should we keep that in check and be more careful?

Super important.

It shouldn’t just be high school.

All adults should be studying this stuff and aware, because also adults are the ones pulling the strings more.

Yeah, for sure.

But you guys are going to start pulling the strings.

How about you?

What’s the most interesting thing?

Well, the most interesting thing I’ve learned was in my creative writing class.

During my junior year, we had last year, the most interesting thing I learned was the writing process for scripts, making scripts.

And the script that I wrote for that class, actually, when I went to districts for my theater club, which is basically an event where everyone in the county, every school in the county, like Pinellas County, you have Tarbonne Springs, you have all these places, coming to Gibbs and they perform, they perform, they act, do one-acts, monologues, everything down to costume design and makeup design.

Me, I did technical theater when I was there and script writing, and that script that I wrote in that class actually got me excellence for which is like the third, which was like the third highest you have, you have good, great, excellent and superior.

And I was so close to superior, but I got excellent with my piece and they said keep writing, you have a great writing voice when it comes to creating stories.

And I’m using that skill now for my theater club because right now they’re in the auditorium practicing their lines for the variety show.

Awesome.

That’s special.

It’s all coming together.

Very cool.

Also, you know, that creative process of writing, there’s a lot of similarities to when you’re creating a pastel piece or a digital piece.

You know, the process of creation or art principles, those apply.

I used to teach and when we were learning the principles of design, I would use film because it’s all there.

They use the principles of design in every film that you watch or at least, you know, good, decent ones.

And it’s very apparent that all these things overlap.

And so what’s nice is if you learn the fundamentals really well, you can apply that to your writing, to pastels, to digital, to sewing, whatever that may be.

It’s powerful.

I’d love to hear you do a monologue, but I’m not going to put you on the spot like that.

I don’t got nothing right now.

I took an acting course in undergrad, and that opened my eyes.

I had such a greater appreciation of how difficult acting is when you have to do that and get into a character and remember your lines and being in front of people.

I’ve played music in front of many people, but that was the most nerve-wracking, weirdest, most profound experience as far as that goes, because now I watch shows and movies, and I’m like, wow, that is talent.

You are a different human being.

You’re totally in character.

You’re lost in a positive way.

It’s just impressive.

The appreciation of great things.

My dad likes to say, appreciate excellence.

He’s really stuck on this phrase, and I know he’s going to be listening to this, so he’ll be happy that I said that.

But there is something about it where there’s excellence all over, and there’s appreciation of that in so many different ways.

Like, I’m looking at the layout of this newspaper column or whatever it may be, your shirt designs, the person who cut my necklace, who designed this microphone and this laptop.

It’s like, what’s going on?

It’s amazing stuff all around us and that we can take inspiration from.

So sometimes it’s hard, the blank canvas.

But, man, for me, I just have to get away from that canvas.

Whatever I’m doing, if I’m stuck, I need to get away from it, go for a run, get into nature, you know, work on a different project, because then it will strike you, oh, I didn’t think about putting a line there.

Oh, I could use watercolor.

Why am I stuck in pastel land?

Maybe watercolor is the solution here.

It’s just taking a step back from that, zooming out.

But you guys are getting me on all sorts of tangents.

It’s actually interesting, experiencing this.

You guys are very nice interviewees.

Let’s just say that.

Thank you, thank you.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I appreciate you coming on.

This is really cool.

Like, the school day is ending, and you’re here an hour after school has ended.

Well, this is my day to day.

I’m usually here pretty late.

Yeah?

Yeah.

That’s good.

That means you care and you’re involved.

I mean, that’s extremely important.

Our club is actually today, but Mr.

Tocco is not here today, so.

Oh, okay, so you’re not missing it?

Not missing it.

Okay, well, I’m glad I didn’t keep you from our club.

But he would have wanted me to do this anyway, so.

Sure, sure.

Well, good on you, Mr.

T, is it?

Mr.

T.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Autumn Pilar, and I’m the editor-in-chief for the Lakewood High School’s news website.

And on behalf of our class, I thank Josh Naaman for coming in and teaching us the importance of learning and creating in the world of podcasts and teaching us about him as well.

Thank you.

My name is Keegan Cunningham, and I’m here with you today to tell you about my podcast at Lakewood High School’s journalism program.

It’s called SNN Sparkles Podcast, and I’ve been uploading videos to it for roughly nine months.

Thank you for listening, and thanks to Josh Naaman for coming in and teaching us about podcasts and running your own business.

All right, so there’s a fun part in all of our episodes.

It’s called Rapid Fire.

Yeah, get ready.

Yeah, get ready.

So this is fun.

Essentially, I ask all of our guests the same questions.

Sometimes I change it up ever so slightly, but for the most part, like there’s one special question I’m going to ask, but all the other questions, I’ve asked all the other guests.

It’s interesting to see the similarities and the differences from these people.

I had a makeup artist who works in Hollywood, has worked on Black Adam and American Horror Story and Haunted Mansion, like big, big things, you know, or great explorations, my business coach, my lawyer, and so everybody has different answers and different perspectives of these things.

So it’ll be really fascinating to hear your answers to these.

And it’s nothing crazy, but here we are.

And so if you can, try to keep it brief.

If you need to expand on it, it’s all good.

But if you can keep it brief, especially since it’s two of you, try.

So we’ll start with this one.

I start with this one at all.

What is your biggest source of inspiration?

Music.

Music is my biggest source of inspiration.

That’s an easy one.

I mean, I’m right there with you.

I would say cartoons, shows, animes, books, graphic novels, things like that.

Cool.

Awesome.

Yeah.

They both feed the soul.

Give you ammunition for whatever you’re doing.

All right.

Cool.

Well, speaking of music, do you have a favorite musical artist or album?

Favorite musical artist has to be Lauryn Hill.

My mother used to play that all around the house all the time.

But if we’re talking about current artists, I would have to say Brent Fias is a good artist.

I like Brent Fias very much.

He’s good with R&B.

All right.

Cool.

I don’t really have a favorite artist or favorite album.

It’s tough.

It’s a tough question.

I don’t.

My favorite song, though, would be Moonlight Serenade by Frank Sinatra, though.

That’s my favorite song.

You can drill down to a favorite song.

I’m proud of you.

That is not easy.

But a good one.

Frank Sinatra.

You can’t go wrong with Sinatra.

Wow.

And I was hoping that I would get some new artists that I hadn’t heard of from that question.

So I’ll be able to look.

What was the artist name?

That last one that you said?

Brent Fias.

There’s a new artist around.

He used to go here too.

Not Brent Fias, but there’s a new artist.

His name is, you know, Breeze Kennedy.

Breeze Kennedy.

He’s been really blowing up in the music world.

And he used to be a student here?

He used to be a student here.

He used to be in the hall singing around.

He used to be like clowning him a little bit.

But you know, he’s doing his thing.

He’s up there now.

Great.

Oh, good for him.

That’s cool.

It’s neat.

It’s neat once you see the people who you grew up with.

Like out there doing bigger things, you know, like some people I grew up with.

They’re working on Pixar films and, you know, animations that you’ve probably watched, you know, and Netflix animation and all sorts of cool stuff.

So very neat.

How about this?

Do you have a favorite book?

Oh, that’s a hard one.

I say I could have a favorite book series.

That’s acceptable.

Goosebumps, Cuban classic.

Goosebumps was a very good…

I need to actually read a book sometime soon.

I’m not going to lie.

It’s been a while.

It’s been a while.

Yeah, yeah.

I’m right there with you, but luckily a leadership organization I started called Sun Leaders.

We made a book club called Sun Readers, and so that helps me keep on track of reading.

For me, my favorite book or…

well, book series, I should say, is this comic or graphic novel.

It’s called Bone.

I read it back when I was younger, but now rereading it, you know, you understand a lot of things you didn’t understand when you were younger.

You know, back then, it’s like, oh, you know, it’s a comment.

You know, you just can’t do it.

But now, when you actually read it, you understand a lot of things from it.

It’s still my favorite series, book series to this day.

Very cool.

Do you have a favorite subject in school?

School.

Other than art, I would have to say, surprisingly, English.

I’m not going to lie.

Surprisingly, English.

I do like English.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Sounds like you like writing and creating.

I do like writing and creating.

If not art, then definitely aquaculture.

Or we only had it for a semester, but economics.

That was a really good class, too.

When I had…

When I was in high school, I couldn’t believe how much I was fascinated with econ.

We read a great book, and it was like when I started to realize, oh, if there’s a good book that I’m actually interested in the material, I could read it, because I wasn’t…

I didn’t think I was good at reading before, but it’s important to find the material that you like, and then reading’s easy because you just gobble it up.

But it was called The Undercover Economist, so if you’re interested in it, I recommend that one.

But I started to become fascinated because I’m like, oh, I never looked at the world through that lens, and it was pretty fascinating, like learning about scarcity power, those kind of things.

Like, oh, that’s why a soda at a game is so expensive and that they can get away with it, scarcity power, or a beer at a concert.

All right, you guys are doing really good on Rapid Fire.

I’m impressed.

We’re at the last question already.

This is probably maybe the fastest Rapid Fire, especially with two of you.

So well done.

How do you define success?

Success?

Success to me is like you just, when you have a goal, an overall goal that you have in mind and you’re able to get one step closer to that, that’s success to me.

So not even reaching the full goal, it’s getting closer to it.

Getting closer to it every day.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Everybody has their own version of success.

Your goals are different from mine.

My goals are different from his.

It all just depends on if you reach that goal or if you don’t.

Even if you don’t reach it, maybe you got to a very high point to where you was almost to that goal.

You still been successful.

So that’s how I would define success.

Just striding to reach that goal you’re trying to accomplish and making sure you stay on that path even with setbacks.

There’s always going to be setbacks.

So you got to just plan for it.

It’s just how do you overcome the setbacks, like the blank canvas and not having inspiration at that moment.

What am I going to do with that, especially when the piece is due in a week?

But those are great.

And I agree.

You guys won rapid fire.

Well done.

Here we are, wrapping up.

We’re almost at an hour, and it has flown by.

Because I’m trying to watch my time, be respectful of your busy schedules.

I know you got to get back to studying.

So I have just a couple more questions to conclude.

So, number one, I’m curious, what are your future goals?

Where are you in five, ten years?

Five, ten years, wow.

Somewhere out there, being a creative director, or on my way to being a creative director, and definitely getting fit.

That’s one thing on everyone’s list, really.

Like healthy fit.

Healthy fit.

I don’t want to be out here muscle-y, veiny, you know what I’m saying, just a nice look.

Keep it pushing.

But definitely I want to become a creative director because my ideas are too broad.

I’m too much of a broad person.

I mean, I can do something like, I can do animation if I really wanted to, or I can do writing if I really wanted to.

But I feel like for me, I need to have total control of the overall arching idea.

Yeah, it’s good that you already have that knowledge that you realize and recognize that you like to see the big picture and that you like your hands in many different things.

And so that’s one thing that you want to do.

I will say it’s important to kind of work in the industry in different fields so you get a feel for the landscape of what you would be directing or creatively controlling.

But that’s awesome.

As a creative director myself, it sounds like you’re on the way.

So keep at it.

I agree with what you said about kind of getting into the industry.

Because something I do want to do in the future is maybe some entertainment design.

And kind of that area of work where you’re working with graphic design, multimedia and things like that.

I feel like I would be really good in entertainment design.

And then maybe after a couple years, I get out of there and maybe start doing my own thing.

Maybe even start my own company name.

So that’s where I would want to be in the future, I would say.

Designing some things for some of these big name companies and then getting out there and start doing my own stuff.

Absolutely.

That’s a good progression.

For me, it was very important to work at different agencies, art groups, teaching for six years.

I got to see all the different ways, not all the different ways, but several different ways that people run businesses and organizations or working with different creative teams in different capacities and different mediums.

That all adds up to now what I’m able to do, and it’s all important.

So you guys keep at it, and I guarantee you’ll hit those goals.

It’s fun, though, because the pivots that you go through, you go, ooh, I thought I was going to go there in creative direct films, maybe, but I’m really into writing, and I’m going into theater.

You just never know.

And so if I had to recommend one thing on there is have that goal, but also be open to what hits you in exploring that, especially early on because this is the excuse, this is the time now to try different things, just like your art.

Okay, maybe you try needle and thread, or spray painting, or mixed media in some way, or metal working, and just experiment because this is definitely the time to get it wrong or know, oh, I don’t like that.

And so now you know you like this more, and so you don’t have to worry about that.

So there’s a lot of opportunity there.

So I gave you some advice.

So how about this?

Anyone listening, whether it be a high schooler or CEOs that are running their own business, creative directors on films, people younger than you, older than you, what’s your biggest, best piece of advice that you could tell somebody listening that you would have wanted to hear maybe?

I know it’s kind of cheesy, but always stay positive.

Because for me, there’s been a lot of situations where I didn’t take that advice, and I ended up snowballing, crashing out, and just ended up having a really bad time.

But when you stay positive and you’re like, okay, this is a bad time, you always have to acknowledge your faults and where you’re lacking or this, that, and the third.

But knowing that you can always progress from that moment, that’s very important.

Because we’re not stagnant creatures.

We’re always going to be progressing in life.

Yeah, that’s great advice.

For me, I would say, stay confident in what you’re doing.

Stay true to your work, I would say, because you can be really good at something, but you may not want to put yourself out there because you think you’re not good enough.

So I think staying true to your work would definitely better you on the long run.

And then maybe for someone that’s younger than me, I would say try not to move on too fast or grow up too fast, because I know there’s a lot of people out there that wants to start doing adult things very quickly.

But before you know it, you’re going to be out of high school, and you’re going to be out there on your own, wondering where to go from here.

You don’t spend most of your youth trying to get out the house, and now you’re finally out, you don’t really know where to go from there.

So I would say take it slow, figure out what you like to do, and then start progressing from there.

And when you find it, stay true to it.

Whoa, you guys rock.

That is extremely powerful, because even I think at any stage in life, and it goes back to what we were talking about before, is being present, being in this moment.

I’m not going to get it again, and I’m only going to be looking back on this time.

That’s why it’s cool that we’re recording this conversation, because I can listen back on it, but I can’t be in it.

And so there’s something very powerful about being present and being here to soak it all up.

Because there’s no sense in rushing, because it’s coming.

Adulthood is coming, or being an elderly person, it’s going to come.

So what do I do with that feeling?

Well, I can be here now.

And that’s very powerful stuff.

You guys are quite insightful for high school students.

Let me tell you.

Thank you, thank you.

Yeah, and I think listeners will certainly agree.

And so, wrapping up.

And maybe you have a website, maybe you don’t, but maybe it’s an Instagram handle, where can listeners see your work and connect with you?

I’m glad you asked.

On Instagram, it is PXL underscore Elijah, L-I-J-A-H.

You can find me on Instagram.

I post a lot of work, a lot of day to day life.

And you know, when you’re my viewer, you’re like my family, you know what I’m saying?

You get to see all the scoops, all the inside jokes and whatever, what not.

Cool.

And we’ll have links in the show notes to this, so I’ll make sure you write it down just so that I don’t forget.

Make sure to have that spelling.

How about you?

For me, I actually just recently made one because I’m not a big social media person.

I don’t really post.

I mean, he can tell you.

I’m not active on social media.

Nothing wrong with that.

Nothing wrong with that.

But it is powerful.

Yeah.

If you’re using it for the right things.

That’s why, you know, that’s why.

That was actually one of my goals for this year, was to, you know, try and really, you know, start to get on a social media platform to where I can kind of put myself out there some even more than I already had without it.

But it will be DreamBoy Official.

DreamBoy Official.

Yes.

Really?

That wasn’t taken.

Nice.

That’s my Instagram account.

DreamBoy.

What’s where DreamBoy come from?

That is the name of my first breakthrough piece, you could say.

Love it.

DreamBoy could be like a band name too.

That’s cool.

That’s catchy.

That’s fantastic.

So people will, I’m sure, check out your stuff.

I encourage everybody to go support Eli, Josiah.

It’s been a pleasure.

I appreciate you taking your time to lay down all this insight for people, honestly, who are older than you, are going to be fascinated with this.

I know it.

And I have known you for a little amount of time.

We got connected because I came here and spoke for a couple days at your school.

And that was an enormous pleasure.

And it inspired me.

Just like being in the moment, I took a lot out of that experience.

And now here I am back here talking with you.

And I’m even more inspired.

So just want to thank you.

And I appreciate you both.

Thank you.

Thank you, too.

This is awesome.

Yeah, it was awesome.

Amazing experience.

I’m not going to lie.

First interview.

Oh, cool.

Is that your first interview, too?

Awesome.

It’s not your first interview.

First podcast, I should say, though.

First podcast interview.

Moving on.

And I want to shout out Keegan, too.

Thank you for being here, for running sound.

You’re going to edit this thing up.

So I look forward to listening back, and I know people will love this.

I have one more question for you.

Oh, boy.

Oh, you’re turning the tables.

My question is for you, is do you…

Have you ever heard of, like, streaming?

Streaming?

Yes, like Twitch and all that other stuff.

Yeah.

How would you go about that if you were starting off with no equipment other than getting the equipment?

Yeah, I mean, you’d need some…

I mean, if you have a phone, that’s enough equipment.

But I would start with your idea, you know?

I mean, figure out what it is that you’re going to be talking about.

What are you passionate about?

What’s your unique take on that thing?

Because there’s a lot of noise out there, a lot of streamers out there.

So what is it that you can do over and over again that’s going to encourage you to keep producing things and not stop and also have a unique take on whatever it is you’re talking about?

Like aquaculture, that’s a very specific thing.

You could talk all day about all sorts of stuff on that if you’re passionate about it.

So figure out what it is that you love, that you enjoy talking about or learning about, and run with that.

So maybe it’s art.

Maybe you stream your art and your process.

And you say, hey, in this next 30 minutes, I’m going to create a digital piece.

Or in this 30 minutes, I’m going to work with a medium that I’ve never worked before.

I’m going to draw on concrete with chalk and try to come up with something neat.

You’ve got to write that down.

There’s lots of ideas.

So yeah, but explore.

Explore.

Yeah.

That’s what you mean.

Cool.

That’s all I got.

All right.

Hey, I appreciate the question.

Usually I’m the one asking.

So it’s fun when they turn the tables.

So I appreciate you two.

Thank you again for coming on.

I guess I came to you, but you’re on the show.

So you take care.