1 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:12,080 [Leonardo Drew: Traveling & Making] 2 00:00:13,060 --> 00:00:18,300 [Vigo Gallery, London] 3 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:22,660 Okay, what kind of questions do you guys have? 4 00:00:22,660 --> 00:00:24,300 I mean, I don't know too much about... 5 00:00:24,310 --> 00:00:25,599 Stowe School, right? 6 00:00:25,599 --> 00:00:27,879 So you guys are what year? What year is this? 7 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:29,519 [STUDENT] Lower 6 8 00:00:29,519 --> 00:00:31,369 [DREW] Lower 6? What is that? 9 00:00:31,369 --> 00:00:32,869 [MAN] That's 17, basically. 10 00:00:32,869 --> 00:00:33,529 [DREW] Seven... 11 00:00:33,529 --> 00:00:34,360 [MAN] 17. 12 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:35,380 [DREW] Oh, okay. 13 00:00:36,780 --> 00:00:38,199 I actually didn't get out... 14 00:00:38,199 --> 00:00:40,549 I didn't realy get outside too often. 15 00:00:41,980 --> 00:00:43,360 Only recently, I've been traveling 16 00:00:43,369 --> 00:00:45,569 and moving, and taking in new information. 17 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,500 So, I think that if you allow your 18 00:00:48,500 --> 00:00:50,739 antennas to sort of, like, reach out, 19 00:00:50,739 --> 00:00:52,790 you'll find... you know, like, 20 00:00:52,790 --> 00:00:54,879 what it is you need for this part of your journey. 21 00:00:54,879 --> 00:00:55,919 You know? 22 00:00:59,059 --> 00:01:01,189 So I've been traveling a lot. 23 00:01:01,189 --> 00:01:03,470 Just recently, I returned from Lima, Peru, 24 00:01:03,470 --> 00:01:06,040 and did the Nazca Lines. 25 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:08,220 Visiting, like, Cuba, 26 00:01:08,220 --> 00:01:11,119 and Madrid, and Switzerland, 27 00:01:11,119 --> 00:01:13,960 and all those things were done back to back-- 28 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:15,610 one after the other. 29 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:17,600 It was a realization that I could spend 30 00:01:17,610 --> 00:01:18,710 that much time out of the studio 31 00:01:18,710 --> 00:01:20,310 and not miss the studio, 32 00:01:20,310 --> 00:01:21,580 because life was going on 33 00:01:21,580 --> 00:01:24,740 and art was going on within me. 34 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,580 The art is fed by experiences. 35 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:35,960 Traveling and digesting things, 36 00:01:35,970 --> 00:01:37,630 and allowing these things to sort of 37 00:01:37,630 --> 00:01:39,830 influence your body. 38 00:01:45,130 --> 00:01:47,320 I know with all certainty 39 00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:51,760 that all aspects of your body is a receiver of information. 40 00:01:53,570 --> 00:01:56,200 The way the light reflects off of things. 41 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:58,830 The way the wind blows or doesn't blow. 42 00:01:58,830 --> 00:02:01,729 I mean, all these things have an effect on you. 43 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:04,760 I'm a visual artist, 44 00:02:04,770 --> 00:02:07,450 so it's going to find its way out, you know, 45 00:02:07,450 --> 00:02:10,370 into the world through my medium. 46 00:02:12,580 --> 00:02:14,700 It says here-- 47 00:02:14,700 --> 00:02:15,930 to my grandmother from me-- 48 00:02:15,930 --> 00:02:18,009 it says, "Towards the end of my stay in Japan..." 49 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,520 Wow, this is from my trip to Japan. 50 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,300 "I'm at the airport waiting to go to Okinawa." 51 00:02:25,310 --> 00:02:27,819 "It's been an interesting three months." 52 00:02:28,420 --> 00:02:32,819 "First week, I was invited to dance with the older women of the village." 53 00:02:32,819 --> 00:02:37,889 "Some of them must have been pushing close to to 110 years old..." [LAUGHS] 54 00:02:37,889 --> 00:02:40,380 "But man, they could dance!" [LAUGHS] 55 00:02:40,380 --> 00:02:43,900 One of the places that I always wanted to visit was Japan. 56 00:02:43,900 --> 00:02:49,159 I have no idea why that was so in my body that I had to know this place. 57 00:02:49,159 --> 00:02:55,079 But, in 1997, I had the opportunity to go. 58 00:02:56,380 --> 00:03:00,180 "This part of Japan is colored with real soul." 59 00:03:00,180 --> 00:03:03,540 "I chopped sugar cane and ate pig feet." [LAUGHS] 60 00:03:03,540 --> 00:03:05,400 "Now that's soul food." 61 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:07,919 When I was in Japan, I was looking at 62 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,010 how to make color by natural means. 63 00:03:11,580 --> 00:03:13,620 "The colors on the beach were surreal." 64 00:03:13,620 --> 00:03:15,580 "The water was both green and blue." 65 00:03:15,590 --> 00:03:17,760 "The sand: white, white, white." 66 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,279 That was what I went there to physically learn. 67 00:03:20,279 --> 00:03:22,379 But, what I was there actually spiritually learning 68 00:03:22,379 --> 00:03:24,359 was a whole other thing. 69 00:03:25,059 --> 00:03:26,999 And what inevitably ended up in the work, 70 00:03:26,999 --> 00:03:29,609 with certainty, had to do with some of the papermaking 71 00:03:29,609 --> 00:03:31,139 that I was studying there; 72 00:03:31,139 --> 00:03:33,669 ended up in the piece that I was doing at Fabric Workshop. 73 00:03:33,669 --> 00:03:36,709 And, even though I had not come to any conclusions when I was in Japan, 74 00:03:36,709 --> 00:03:38,799 I knew that was a door that I had opened 75 00:03:38,799 --> 00:03:40,739 that had to be explored. 76 00:03:41,780 --> 00:03:44,780 So there's always these constant opportunities to learn. 77 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:56,200 As a receiver of information, 78 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:57,760 I want to take in as much as possible. 79 00:03:57,769 --> 00:03:59,620 I want to learn as much as possible. 80 00:03:59,620 --> 00:04:02,600 And I want to give back as much as possible. 81 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:09,300 If you're open, then you can continue on this journey forever.