WEBVTT

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[ Music and applause ]

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>> Michal Pilato: Thank you.

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Thank you so much.

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This is truly an honor for me.

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My whole life I've been painting murals.

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Since I was five years old I was doing artwork

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at the Central Pennsylvania Festival

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of the Arts with my mother.

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The murals were merely a backdrop for the stage of life.

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In 1996, I met Yuri Karabosh, who was a friend, a teacher,

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and a mentor and we did about ten murals here

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in State College and we were working on a mural

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on the Deli Restaurant across the street

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from where the inspiration mural now is.

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I was looking across the street at this big blank wall

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and I was drooling, I was going oh my God I would love

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to paint that building.

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The owner of the Deli Restaurant overheard me and he said,

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"Michael what would you paint on that wall?"

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I said, "Andy Zangilli you know, could I go home

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and think about that."

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I went home that night and I thought about my life.

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I thought about the community in State College.

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I thought about the Broadway shows I went

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to at the Eisenhower.

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It thought about all my artist friends.

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I thought about the musicians

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who would entertain us every night.

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I thought about the great professors at Penn State

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who inspire every day.

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I thought about the students who are so energetic

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and bring life into our community.

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And then I thought of a title.

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I said, "Let's call it Inspiration."

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I went back and I talked with Andy, he loved the idea

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and he said, you know, go across the street

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and talk to the Herbovich's

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[ assumed spelling ]

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who own the building and talk to the student bookstore.

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They also liked the idea so Yuri and I went

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to different business owners and different people

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in the community and everybody that we went

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to supported the project.

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I knew the piece would be an educational tool.

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I also knew that it would help teach.

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But a lot of things that I didn't know happened.

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This is the mural behind me.

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It's 100 feet long.

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I'd like to share with you some stories

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that happened during that mural process.

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I was working on Eugene Lederer,

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who was a Penn State renaissance person.

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He also donated a park here

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in the community called Lederer Park that me

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and my twin brother would go and do artwork in many times.

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While I was working on him,

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I got a phone call from my ex-wife telling me that one

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of her students from the Friends School had died and was hit

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by a car right in front of Lederer Park.

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So I called Andrew Friedman's mother and I said I don't know

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where you go when you die

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but I think your son would have taken

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that walk with Mr. Lederer.

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So I painted the two of them together and I put love

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on the chalkboard and his family and friends came out

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and teachers and they all painted love over and over again

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and some of them still come today and paint it.

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It's getting thicker and thicker.

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I felt the power of art and I felt art in healing.

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One of the other stories I'd like to share

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with you is Colonel Russell.

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Colonel Russell was one of the founders here

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of the Special Olympics and the United Way's day of caring

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and he's pictured there with his late wife Eileen.

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Colonel Russell is looking across the street

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at the Deli Restaurant at another small mural

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of himself the age he was when he went into Iwo Jima.

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He went in with 1200 men and on the fifth day

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of battle he had 500 men left.

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His good friend was next to him with tears streaming

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through the black sand on his face and he goes,

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"That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

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Colonel Russell turns to see what he's looking at

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and it's the guys raising the flag on the side

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of Mt. Suribachi so he's right directly across the street

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from the mural again at the whales and if you walk up

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and you look in the eye of the whale,

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you'll see the guys raising the flag from Mt. Suribachi.

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[ applause ]

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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There were so many stories; I went to different universities

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and did lectures about communities and I was lucky enough

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to go to Williamsport, Pennsylvania to Lycoming College.

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It's a wonderful community.

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You know, I was just so impressed with all their stories

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and I also realized very quickly

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that their community has stories such as ours.

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Through 2010 and the chamber of commerce there,

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we received hundreds of letters from people

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of their inspirational stories.

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We went through those letters and those are

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over the 400 people that are on their walls there.

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It's the largest outdoor portraiture mural in the world.

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Mr. William Schreyer and his wife, I went to them,

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we had raised half of the money and we were having trouble

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because there were so many different organizations trying

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to get money in that community.

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And I went there and he could tell that I was nervous.

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And you know and he said, "Michael,

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I want to teach you one thing.

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You just have to ask me what you want

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and I'll either say yes or no."

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So I asked him to match the money

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that we had raised and he says yes.

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I was so happy, I walked outside of his office

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and I was like, thank you,

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God and I had tears rolling down my face.

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I went back to Mr. Schreyer a year later and I said,

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"Mr. Schreyer, you're going to hate

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that you taught me that one thing."

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He said, "Michael, what do you need?"

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And I asked him for a substantial large amount of money

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and he looked at me and he said, "Michael,

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I'm going to do this for you but when you walk

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out of my office could you please not scream and shout?"

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[ laughing ]

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And then the terrible day of September 11th came.

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On the mural on Williamsport and the mural at State College,

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it actually happened before then, excuse me.

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I went out with Yuri Karabash

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and we painted symbolic images on the wall.

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Ten firefighters were honored at Beaver Stadium

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at a Nebraska football game right after Penn State.

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They came to the mural and they got a tour.

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They went across the street to the Deli Restaurant

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and they said, "Yo, Mike come over for a beer."

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Went over, drew a picture on a napkin very quickly

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of a firefighter, put 22 in the helmet

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and wrote a poem for them.

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One week later Tony Martin sent a photocopy of that back

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to me with a picture of his cousin who had died

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and they were identical and he was

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from fire station number 22.

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So I painted this picture of Saint Nick

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and I put all the guys who died behind him

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and I put his cousin right behind Saint Nick and I gave it

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to the firehouse for a Christmas present.

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Ever since then, I've been going up and having great meals

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with them; I've been on the fire truck with them

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and they honored me with two crosses made

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out of the steel of the twin towers.

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One of them is in the mural in Williamsport

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and one of them is in the mural in State College.

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80 firefighters buff those crosses for an hour a day

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for 80 days straight.

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I ground the metal off the back of the crosses

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and when we put the crosses up, we put religious symbols.

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Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity,

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[ inaudible ]

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and Taoism and Muslim and we mixed the metal

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from the crosses into all the different symbols.

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For the last 11 years, I've done a 48 hour vigil.

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This is a piece from Williamsport called Never Forget.

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I was sharing stories, people, families that thought,

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you know, it was the worst day.

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A day that they thought they wouldn't smile,

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they were smiling.

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Again, I felt the power of art and my students

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through the Public Art Academy who took part it

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in also felt the power of art and art in healing.

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One of the stories in Williamsport I'd like to share

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with you is about Marshall Post.

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Marshall Post was nominated

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by so many people for two reasons.

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The latter reason mostly.

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In World War II he was a gunner on a plane.

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He did 150 missions over Suribachi, which was unheard of.

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He came out of that war, like a lot of veterans

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and said you can never be a winner of a war,

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only the better loser.

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He had five major heart attacks before he was 40 years old

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and he asked God.

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"God, why am I still alive?

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Why am I so fortunate with my family and successful?"

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And he came out of that with,

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every person I meet from this day forward,

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they're going to have a smile on their face

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when they walk away from me.

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I told that story at Sheridan Elementary in Williamsport

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and 60 children wrote Marshall letters that said Marshall,

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we heard you were nominated to be on the wall

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because you make people smile, so we want to write to you

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about people that make us smile.

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Marshall was dying at the time, so I took that painting

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into his deathbed and his daughter was reading him the

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letters while I was painting him.

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He was a fly fisherman so flies are glued to his hat

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that he tied, he died the first day of fishing season

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so his halo is made of fish doing the infinity symbol.

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That's his handprint above his head

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and he wrote a poem especially for the mural

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that his grandson came in and scribed.

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Those are his grandchildren's footprints;

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they're also in the lens of the camera

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and he's taking a picture across the street

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of the other mural of his girlfriend waving at him

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and his daughter and his son in law.

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Again, I felt the power of art.

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Another story is of Kyri Hall.

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I was painting the mural and I heard the news

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that Kyri Hall had died

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of a heart attack during a Williamsport basketball game.

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So I came out and I painted Kyri.

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Kyri was all about diversity

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and unity so he's got the rainbow colored shirt.

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His family members' handprints all all through him.

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Handprints from children from the center are all around him.

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Letters to this day from hundreds of people

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as you can see there, his family,

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his friends came out and did that.

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He loved BB King so I put BB King in front of him and he got

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to meet BB King in Williamsport

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at the Community Arts Theater.

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He also loved the Nutcracker Suite so the Nutcracker lies

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down there below him.

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That's his coach Allen Taylor

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and that's his little brother Altimar.

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His mother told me that the night Kyri died,

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his little brother went outside and saw a halo

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around the moon and he went inside and he said, "Mom,

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you've got to come out and see this.

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Kyri's an angel."

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His little brother Altimar, when he came to the mural

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and saw him, he said, "I told you he's an angel.

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I told you he's an angel!"

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And he was running around the parking lot.

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It was amazing.

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So in his eye, when you go to the mural and you look

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into his eyes, you'll see the moon and the halo

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and he wrote this story about the moon and the halo

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on the piece below him.

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Again, I felt the power of art.

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In Williamsport, tons of tour busses would come in.

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It was a route from Washington, DC to Niagara Falls

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and Williamsport was the halfway point.

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And I would explain to international people the stories

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of the United States,

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also bringing up stories of State College.

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And I found out that their stories were like ours

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and they were like, oh we would love to have a mural

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like this in our country.

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So I started to think how wonderful it would be

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to take the mural in State College,

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stitch it on the internet to the mural in Williamsport,

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and from Williamsport, we would stitch murals all

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over the world working with artists with different styles

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so it would metamorphasize.

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I told this at a rotary club in Emporium PA

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where we were doing another mural and there was a woman

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in the audience by the name of Ann Olivet.

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Ann Olivet was getting ready to go to Norway to meet

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with her nephew who is a famous comedian, Jan Bach

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[ assumed spelling ]

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. She said, "Why don't you and Yuri come with us?"

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So we took the money that we raised on that project

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and we bought plane tickets.

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We flew to Norway and we met with him

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and we also were amazed by how people just loved the idea.

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By the end of that meeting we were in connection

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with the crown prince and princess,

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we had met with the Prime Minister Bondevic

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and it was just amazing.

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From there, through Christina Kluger in Sweden,

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we opened up into many countries around the world.

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But something happened on our way to Moldova

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where Yuri was from.

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We left to go to the airport,

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we were in Frankfurt at the airport,

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my board of directors was telling me how scary Moldova was.

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They were sending me articles and letters.

00:11:14.706 --> 00:11:17.776
They also sent me beautiful articles but I chose to look

00:11:17.776 --> 00:11:18.936
at the scary articles.

00:11:20.866 --> 00:11:22.896
My friends would say, you know, the guy from Ghostbusters,

00:11:22.896 --> 00:11:24.366
the evil guy, he was from Moldova.

00:11:24.366 --> 00:11:25.526
[ laughing ]

00:11:25.526 --> 00:11:32.416
When we got there, there were 10 gentleman standing there.

00:11:32.636 --> 00:11:36.216
White faces, dark under their eyes, no teeth, tattoos,

00:11:36.216 --> 00:11:38.436
short hair and they were all looking at me mean.

00:11:38.686 --> 00:11:39.616
They were from Moldova

00:11:39.616 --> 00:11:42.256
and I was like oh my God where am I going?

00:11:43.676 --> 00:11:45.316
We got on the plane, we, you know,

00:11:45.396 --> 00:11:47.206
we were diverted because there was fog

00:11:47.206 --> 00:11:48.666
over Moldova to Romania.

00:11:49.016 --> 00:11:50.266
We spent the night in Romania;

00:11:50.266 --> 00:11:52.856
I came down and there they were.

00:11:52.986 --> 00:11:54.626
They said, "Hey American, come over,

00:11:54.626 --> 00:11:56.136
the plane's been delayed a little bit more."

00:11:56.486 --> 00:11:58.346
I went over and it turned out that they were all

00:11:58.346 --> 00:12:00.216
in different countries working for their families,

00:12:00.496 --> 00:12:01.716
their stories were beautiful.

00:12:02.386 --> 00:12:04.436
I was a victim of sensationalism.

00:12:05.596 --> 00:12:08.096
I told them, you know, "Why were you looking at me mean?"

00:12:08.096 --> 00:12:09.936
And they said, "Because you were looking at us mean."

00:12:09.936 --> 00:12:10.196
[ laughter ]

00:12:10.196 --> 00:12:15.046
One of my board members alerted me of a wonderful woman

00:12:15.046 --> 00:12:17.836
by the name of Stella Rotaru who saved people from all

00:12:17.836 --> 00:12:20.126
over the globe on sex trafficking in Moldova.

00:12:20.486 --> 00:12:21.936
So I got on Facebook and I Facebooked

00:12:21.936 --> 00:12:23.386
over 300 Stella Rotarus.

00:12:23.706 --> 00:12:25.586
It was the day before we were leaving Moldova

00:12:26.476 --> 00:12:27.426
and she got a hold of me.

00:12:27.656 --> 00:12:29.226
I met with Stella and now she's a part

00:12:29.226 --> 00:12:31.736
of the world mural project and Stella told me,

00:12:31.736 --> 00:12:33.536
you know the papers come in, the news comes in,

00:12:33.536 --> 00:12:35.016
you know they dig up nine year old stories.

00:12:35.866 --> 00:12:37.766
They sometimes put people in harm's way.

00:12:37.916 --> 00:12:39.966
They're not showing the incredible work that she's doing

00:12:39.966 --> 00:12:43.146
and the country's doing to eradicate that problem.

00:12:43.946 --> 00:12:46.956
And we decided to make that a major part of the world mural

00:12:46.956 --> 00:12:50.356
in Moldova, to help sway the opinions of people.

00:12:51.716 --> 00:12:54.146
At this time I also heard terrible news

00:12:54.716 --> 00:12:57.256
in my own personal life of my daughter.

00:12:58.116 --> 00:12:59.736
My daughter was raped

00:12:59.736 --> 00:13:02.536
and it was just a really hard time in my life.

00:13:03.056 --> 00:13:09.696
And then the terrible day that we all felt.

00:13:09.696 --> 00:13:15.016
I was in Williamsport when I heard the news

00:13:15.016 --> 00:13:18.356
about Jerry Sandusky and what happened with him.

00:13:18.896 --> 00:13:25.706
You know, it's hard for me to talk about this.

00:13:25.916 --> 00:13:27.466
You know, I read the Grand Jury report;

00:13:27.466 --> 00:13:30.566
a mother of one of the victims emailed me

00:13:30.566 --> 00:13:33.896
and said can you please take Jerry Sandusky off of the wall.

00:13:34.626 --> 00:13:36.356
I drove up to State College thinking I was going

00:13:36.356 --> 00:13:39.646
to do this very quickly, I hadn't shaven,

00:13:39.856 --> 00:13:44.436
I come by the mural and there's hundreds of news cameras,

00:13:44.846 --> 00:13:46.216
satellite dishes, I thought

00:13:46.216 --> 00:13:48.176
that somebody had vandalized the mural.

00:13:48.176 --> 00:13:50.926
I got out of my car and it was like a movie.

00:13:50.926 --> 00:13:52.666
People were rushing me with microphones.

00:13:53.626 --> 00:13:58.156
I was petrified and I was not happy about what I had to do.

00:13:58.736 --> 00:14:05.336
This news soon went to millions of people of what I did.

00:14:05.556 --> 00:14:07.896
Yuri Karabosh designed a painting.

00:14:08.186 --> 00:14:11.616
That day there's a lion on the mural, a mountain lion,

00:14:11.616 --> 00:14:14.696
which is our Nittany Lion and the Native Americans

00:14:14.696 --> 00:14:16.446
that I met in Williamsport would say

00:14:16.446 --> 00:14:18.296
that the mountain lion represents courage,

00:14:18.296 --> 00:14:19.356
strength and dignity.

00:14:19.756 --> 00:14:22.816
And that's exactly what it took those young men to come

00:14:22.816 --> 00:14:25.476
and speak out so Yuri designed this which is now a mural.

00:14:25.656 --> 00:14:28.356
At the opening of this, my daughter came and she spoke out.

00:14:29.306 --> 00:14:30.906
She talked about what happened to her.

00:14:31.256 --> 00:14:33.796
After she spoke out, a woman who was 70 years old came

00:14:33.796 --> 00:14:34.676
up to my daughter and said,

00:14:34.826 --> 00:14:38.436
"I was raped like you when I was your age and I never spoke

00:14:38.436 --> 00:14:39.846
out about it and never seeked help.

00:14:40.236 --> 00:14:42.416
Listening to you, I am now going to get help."

00:14:42.416 --> 00:14:46.346
I have never been so proud in my life.

00:14:48.516 --> 00:14:51.966
Joe Paterno passed away and I came up like I did

00:14:52.046 --> 00:14:54.436
so many times to so many people on my murals,

00:14:54.756 --> 00:14:56.496
and I painted a halo over his head.

00:14:56.716 --> 00:15:00.216
The halos represented, to me,

00:15:00.216 --> 00:15:01.796
as soon as the people would walk by,

00:15:01.866 --> 00:15:04.626
I wanted them to see that we have a short time here

00:15:04.626 --> 00:15:08.146
on Earth, as all the halos appeared to do the great things

00:15:08.146 --> 00:15:10.296
like the people on the mural behind me.

00:15:11.696 --> 00:15:15.266
But it was taken as sanctification all over the world

00:15:15.266 --> 00:15:17.606
and it should have been because that what that symbol means.

00:15:18.436 --> 00:15:21.446
So I decided to remove all the halos from the mural

00:15:22.356 --> 00:15:23.746
and simply put rest in peace

00:15:23.816 --> 00:15:27.436
with a birth date and the death.

00:15:27.646 --> 00:15:30.736
The controversy was unbelievable but also I realized,

00:15:30.736 --> 00:15:33.936
as a public artist, that's exactly our job.

00:15:36.976 --> 00:15:39.426
The 48 hours this year was of Michael Murphy.

00:15:39.686 --> 00:15:40.886
We all know Michael Murphy.

00:15:40.886 --> 00:15:43.476
He was a great man, he was a vet

00:15:43.476 --> 00:15:45.306
or he got the Congressional Medal

00:15:45.306 --> 00:15:48.246
of Honor saving one of his Navy Seals.

00:15:48.396 --> 00:15:50.276
His father came out and put, and mother,

00:15:50.276 --> 00:15:51.946
and put their handprint in the mural.

00:15:52.116 --> 00:15:55.406
When they put their handprint in the mural, his father said,

00:15:55.406 --> 00:15:57.926
"The first phone call I got after my boy died was

00:15:57.926 --> 00:16:00.546
from Hillary Clinton and the second phone call was

00:16:00.546 --> 00:16:04.396
from the Paternos," and this really helped in the healing.

00:16:05.336 --> 00:16:07.576
So I, and they also sent us white roses.

00:16:08.606 --> 00:16:10.146
So I put a white rose with Michael,

00:16:10.376 --> 00:16:12.006
I had put a white rose with Joe

00:16:12.006 --> 00:16:15.226
and also one with Sue Paterno.

00:16:15.286 --> 00:16:17.796
The real healing started when I painted Dora McQuaid

00:16:17.796 --> 00:16:20.026
in the seat where Jerry Sandusky was.

00:16:20.226 --> 00:16:21.916
I removed the blue ribbon that was on his seat

00:16:21.916 --> 00:16:22.786
and I put it in her hair.

00:16:23.096 --> 00:16:26.036
Dora McQuaid is a Penn State grad, she taught at Penn State

00:16:26.296 --> 00:16:28.896
and she also, for the last 11 years,

00:16:28.896 --> 00:16:31.616
has helped thousands of victims become survivors.

00:16:32.086 --> 00:16:33.566
She, herself, was a victim.

00:16:34.056 --> 00:16:35.686
She's coming up next month and she's working

00:16:35.686 --> 00:16:38.366
with my daughter and other survivors and victims

00:16:38.366 --> 00:16:40.676
of sexual violence and they're going to do a poem together

00:16:40.776 --> 00:16:42.126
and through the blue ribbon in her hair,

00:16:42.126 --> 00:16:44.426
you're going to see that poem and when you're there

00:16:44.426 --> 00:16:46.876
with your iPhone and your iPad thanks to the 367 students

00:16:46.876 --> 00:16:47.926
at Penn State, you're going

00:16:47.926 --> 00:16:49.796
to hear them speaking a positive message

00:16:50.106 --> 00:16:52.426
and also the resources that are available.

00:16:54.476 --> 00:16:57.546
My favorite part of all the murals are handprints.

00:16:58.336 --> 00:17:00.926
Yuri and I have done thousands of them so right now I'd

00:17:00.966 --> 00:17:03.126
like to ask Sean to come up on stage

00:17:03.126 --> 00:17:06.106
and Yuri Karabosh to come out.

00:17:06.106 --> 00:17:09.726
Sean organized this event and is the director of this event

00:17:09.726 --> 00:17:09.996
[ applause ]

00:17:09.996 --> 00:17:10.976
and I found out last night

00:17:11.516 --> 00:17:16.965
[ applause ]

00:17:17.465 --> 00:17:20.526
and I found out last night from Sean's father

00:17:20.566 --> 00:17:22.386
that when he was a little boy,

00:17:22.386 --> 00:17:25.046
he came out and he put his handprint on the mural

00:17:25.246 --> 00:17:26.945
so this is full circle.

00:17:26.945 --> 00:17:30.356
This is a piece for the world mural

00:17:30.356 --> 00:17:31.876
which will actually be here in State College

00:17:31.876 --> 00:17:35.346
which all the artists on the world mural will be doing.

00:17:35.506 --> 00:17:39.666
Sean, what you're looking at within the murals are people

00:17:39.666 --> 00:17:40.986
from the past and the present

00:17:40.986 --> 00:17:43.586
and your handprint is the future.

00:17:44.136 --> 00:17:46.806
Everybody that Yuri and I meet, the inspirational people

00:17:46.806 --> 00:17:48.696
around the world the people that we paint,

00:17:48.896 --> 00:17:50.226
they have one thing in common.

00:17:51.316 --> 00:17:52.726
They're passionate about what they do

00:17:52.976 --> 00:17:54.926
and they surround themselves with passionate people.

00:17:55.586 --> 00:17:57.216
So if you find this, you can do anything

00:17:57.216 --> 00:17:58.946
in life, anything at all.

00:17:59.246 --> 00:18:02.326
And maybe one day we will paint you on our murals.

00:18:03.676 --> 00:18:04.186
Thank you.

00:18:05.516 --> 00:18:18.656
[ Applause ]

00:18:19.156 --> 00:18:19.626
>> Thank you.

00:18:20.516 --> 00:18:24.500
[ Applause ]