0:00:04.480,0:00:05.960 --[WESTON PEW] Car seat stroller! 0:00:06.880,0:00:08.940 --[MARELA ZACARIAS] I don't know how it opens,[br]though. 0:00:09.900,0:00:12.900 --I might look up the instructions, but you[br]don't have to... 0:00:13.900,0:00:15.790 So basically, what we're going to do 0:00:15.790,0:00:17.840 is we're putting together 1 through 5, 0:00:17.840,0:00:21.220 which is the part of the piece that goes on[br]the ceiling. 0:00:29.140,0:00:32.619 I found out that I got this commission 0:00:32.619,0:00:34.519 pretty much at the same time--the same week-- 0:00:34.519,0:00:36.069 that I found out that I was pregnant. 0:00:36.640,0:00:38.580 [Marela Zacarias, artist] 0:00:38.580,0:00:42.019 I mean, we've been joking about how I have[br]two babies coming 0:00:42.019,0:00:43.589 because they're due at the same time. 0:00:44.240,0:00:45.200 --There you go! 0:00:47.700,0:00:49.220 --[PEW] Cool! His first car! 0:00:49.220,0:00:49.860 --I like it. 0:00:49.860,0:00:50.740 [ZACARIAS] It looks good. 0:00:50.740,0:00:51.560 --[PEW] A little short for me... 0:00:51.560,0:00:53.000 [Weston Pew, Husband] 0:00:53.000,0:00:54.380 --[ZACARIAS] I think you can adjust it. 0:00:54.380,0:00:55.720 --Can you adjust it? 0:00:58.220,0:01:00.120 [Bed Stuy, Brooklyn] 0:01:02.200,0:01:06.380 [Marela Zacarias's Great Expectations] 0:01:08.300,0:01:12.000 I want to finish the piece before I have the[br]baby, 0:01:12.000,0:01:14.700 so we've been fighting against time. 0:01:18.680,0:01:21.760 And I feel like both projects have been developing[br]in the same way. 0:01:21.760,0:01:24.860 At the moment when we have the first sonogram, 0:01:25.820,0:01:28.420 we get first rendering done of the piece, 0:01:28.430,0:01:29.520 and it's all white. 0:01:29.520,0:01:30.890 You don't know what it's going to look like. 0:01:30.890,0:01:33.550 And then as it starts coming together, 0:01:33.550,0:01:34.750 the baby is growing. 0:01:35.500,0:01:38.600 And in the same way, our piece is growing. 0:01:38.600,0:01:39.380 [Marela, Age 1] 0:01:40.520,0:01:41.320 [Marela, Age 3] 0:01:42.420,0:01:43.440 [Marela, Age 6] 0:01:43.440,0:01:45.820 I feel like as we move forward even in life, 0:01:45.820,0:01:48.990 it's always important to recognize where you[br]come from, 0:01:48.990,0:01:52.159 and it's not until we integrate where we come[br]from 0:01:52.159,0:01:53.619 that you are complete. 0:01:56.650,0:01:58.990 When I moved to New York, I was a muralist. 0:02:00.220,0:02:04.040 I feel like, after 10 years of painting murals-- 0:02:04.050,0:02:06.390 for other people, with other people-- 0:02:06.390,0:02:08.390 my own voice as an artist 0:02:08.390,0:02:12.099 was wanting to claim a little more space to[br]just experiment, 0:02:12.099,0:02:14.239 and that's when I decided to go to grad school. 0:02:16.640,0:02:18.420 Grad school put me upside down. 0:02:18.420,0:02:22.120 It really pushed me to find out what I really[br]wanted to say 0:02:22.129,0:02:24.209 and how I wanted to say it. 0:02:24.800,0:02:26.620 And I'm glad because I feel like 0:02:26.620,0:02:29.999 now I can say a lot more things through my[br]own language. 0:02:30.500,0:02:32.099 [The William Vale Hotel, Williamsburg] 0:02:32.099,0:02:35.680 But I also think that my work is still talking[br]about a narrative-- 0:02:35.680,0:02:37.450 there's a story behind it, 0:02:37.450,0:02:38.770 there's a research. 0:02:41.159,0:02:42.989 So if I was going to make a piece 0:02:42.989,0:02:46.519 for this new hotel being built in Williamsburg, 0:02:46.519,0:02:50.450 for this place in Brooklyn that is developing[br]so fast, 0:02:50.450,0:02:54.090 I think that I had to go back to the past-- 0:02:57.469,0:02:58.909 to the origins. 0:03:12.260,0:03:13.600 As I'm doing research, 0:03:13.600,0:03:16.520 then things start really coming to the front. 0:03:16.520,0:03:17.340 They feel right. 0:03:17.340,0:03:18.320 And that's what happened 0:03:18.329,0:03:21.909 when I was going through the archives from[br]the Brooklyn Historical Society 0:03:21.909,0:03:24.389 and I started looking at maps of Brooklyn. 0:03:24.389,0:03:28.309 I think the shape, for me, emerged as [br]"This is it." 0:03:31.340,0:03:33.760 I feel like we are at a time where things 0:03:33.760,0:03:36.669 are moving forward really quickly in Brooklyn 0:03:36.669,0:03:38.409 and changing rapidly. 0:03:38.409,0:03:41.900 Part of that energy is kind of unstoppable. 0:03:41.900,0:03:43.879 I mean, we're all being affected by it, 0:03:43.879,0:03:45.379 for good and for bad. 0:03:45.379,0:03:50.179 So I really wanted to take a moment to look[br]at the past, 0:03:50.180,0:03:51.800 and I kind of made the piece about that-- 0:03:51.809,0:03:54.069 about that energy that started it all. 0:04:03.800,0:04:05.460 This is actually the ceiling. 0:04:05.469,0:04:08.509 It's Williamsburg and Greenpoint and Bushwick. 0:04:08.820,0:04:09.799 This is a sketch, 0:04:09.799,0:04:11.469 and this is only half of the piece. 0:04:11.469,0:04:13.389 There's a second floor that goes down. 0:04:17.200,0:04:20.440 When I was working on figurative murals, 0:04:20.450,0:04:22.019 they were telling a story visually. 0:04:22.019,0:04:26.590 You could see it and immediately recognize[br]what it was trying to say. 0:04:26.590,0:04:29.310 But that was the end of the interaction. 0:04:29.880,0:04:33.370 I feel like abstraction really allows for[br]the story to be filtered 0:04:33.370,0:04:35.370 and to come out in a different way 0:04:35.370,0:04:38.570 in which people can either see it or not see[br]it at all. 0:04:41.020,0:04:43.800 At least it creates a question like, "What[br]is this about?" 0:04:43.810,0:04:45.970 instead of just being like, "Oh, this is about[br]this." 0:04:46.420,0:04:48.200 [PEW] Once the colors get on it, 0:04:48.200,0:04:50.250 it starts to show itself-- 0:04:50.250,0:04:51.100 reveal itself. 0:04:51.100,0:04:53.820 [ZACARIAS] In some ways, it's similar to the birth. 0:04:53.820,0:04:56.010 Like, you're working really hard for a long time 0:04:56.010,0:04:58.650 on this thing that you don't know what it's[br]going to look like 0:04:58.650,0:05:01.770 or what kind of personality it's going to have. 0:05:06.540,0:05:10.060 [PEW] The piece is, like, in the crowning[br]stage of labor. 0:05:10.060,0:05:11.410 [BOTH LAUGH] 0:05:12.080,0:05:15.260 Which is when the baby's head begins to show itself. 0:05:15.920,0:05:18.060 A few more hard pushes and... 0:05:18.060,0:05:19.540 [BOTH LAUGH] 0:05:20.340,0:05:21.220 ...and we're there! 0:05:28.540,0:05:32.300 At 12:34 a.m. on January 3rd, 0:05:32.310,0:05:35.310 Mateo Zacarias Pew was born. 0:05:39.400,0:05:42.480 [ZACARIAS] You know, they have this saying[br]in Spanish, it says, 0:05:43.180,0:05:45.060 [IN SPANISH] "If you want to make God laugh" 0:05:45.060,0:05:46.550 "just tell him your plans." 0:05:46.550,0:05:51.720 I had this idea that I would install the project[br]and then have the baby, 0:05:51.720,0:05:54.020 but the building was delayed. 0:05:55.180,0:05:59.360 And me being pregnant also added some delay[br]to everything. 0:06:01.040,0:06:04.560 Not everything comes out the way that you[br]say it will, 0:06:04.570,0:06:05.830 but that's okay. 0:06:05.830,0:06:08.930 I mean, I think I'm lucky to have an amazing husband 0:06:08.930,0:06:12.180 who supports my artwork 100% 0:06:12.180,0:06:14.820 and who will help me raise Mateo 0:06:14.820,0:06:17.900 and who will help me be able to get things done 0:06:17.900,0:06:19.200 at the studio. 0:06:19.820,0:06:24.940 Because it seems like it's not going to get slower. 0:06:27.040,0:06:29.820 I'm definitely not planning on stopping my work. 0:06:32.880,0:06:35.800 And hopefully I get to spend all of my time[br]with my baby 0:06:35.800,0:06:37.600 and see him grow 0:06:38.460,0:06:40.000 and be there for him.