Nathan Cook: On Solidarity and the Community's Role for Reno's Present and Future

Holding Tight for a Few Months

Nathan Cook runs Reno Pyrate Punx, the local chapter of a national organization that books punk rock shows and provides other support for the punk scene.  Along with booking shows, the Reno chapter focuses heavily on community support. Nathan’s chapter of Pyrate Punx regularly holds benefit shows to support people struggling in the area, such as a benefit show they’ve had to temporarily postpone to cover the legal fees and funeral costs for Miciah Lee, a teenager who was shot and killed by Sparks Police in January 2020. 

During coronavirus, without paid work in the fine dining industry anymore, hoping it will resume in June, he’s been practicing guitar, playing video games he forgot existed, and still preparing for an upcoming wedding.

He says he’s been heartened by the community’s solidarity. “I’ve seen people delivering food to people who might be immunocompromised, giving supplies to the homeless people en masse. I think that this is going to keep a lot of people invested in their community, a lot more than they had been because they have to be. I mean at this point there’s no other option.”

How do self-described anarchists, punks and pirates deal with all this government action? “I want to see communities stepping up doing what we’re supposed to do, not because the government is telling us to do so, but because we value expertise as opposed to authority,” he answered. Cook also says we are seeing “a lot of people that most people didn’t consider essential a few weeks ago are really the people carrying our society at this point.”

He’s worried though if the shutdown lasts more than a month or two, on what that will mean, and hoping the moratorium on evictions could be extended at that point, and that there also will be a suspension on rent payments until the economy reopens.

His group Reno Pyrate Punx is hoping events can resume soon, to build community in person. “We’ll get things back on track, when we’re able to hang out together without fear of contracting some sort of deadly virus,” Cook said.

A Q and A on Poverty, Inequalities and Homelessness

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Nathan sat down with Our Town Reno to also discuss growing poverty in the area, housing inequalities, and homelessness. Note: Parts of this interview were trimmed for conciseness and clarity.

Q: It seems like more people are getting left behind as Reno grows and evolves, why do you think that is?

I think that gentrification is a really big problem…For some reason when we have city hall meetings and things like that, where residents are able to voice their opinions, a lot of developers are in those meetings and it seems like they’re heard a little bit more because they have more money. So that worries me. Something needs to be done to fix that.

Q: What do you think is the city’s responsibility [to people affected by homelessness and lack of affordable housing]?

I don’t think that we can really rely on the city or the state to do much for us.  I think it has to be more of a community effort because they’ve already shown us that they’re going to go wherever the money takes them.  I think the best thing we can possibly do is damage control…I think people can go and try and fight city hall, but…I think it makes more sense to help people that you see who need help immediately rather than try to fight City Hall for months.

Here on Wells Avenue, Cook says the last decade has completely changed the surrounding area. “This neighborhood used to be pretty hood,” Cook says, “Now it’s not. Not by any means.” As developers continue to revamp areas of Midtown and downtown, it becomes harder for low-income residents to find a place to live. “I think maintaining affordable housing is one of the other important things, more than even building more [affordable housing],” he says. “We should be building more [affordable housing] absolutely, but I’m worried about seeing things being torn down.”

Q. Do you have any hope that there can be a major structural change [made by the city to help people experiencing homelessness and poverty]?

 I hope so…I mean with this current administration it seems unlikely…I’d like to be hopeful but at the same time, realistically the way the city is going I don’t think it’s going to change anytime soon.

 Q. Why is that?

 [For] the people who are getting left behind…whatever their capital degree is that’s what their voice is worth.  If they’re not going to help the city maintain the capital…[or] bring in new business then why would [city leadership] care? Why should they care?  They absolutely should, but…from their perspective, why would they care?

Q. What do you think the city’s future is if Reno continues going down this path?

I see Reno going the way of San Francisco, some sort of dystopian future.

Q. If you could go to city council meetings, what would you say to city leadership?

Nothing they haven’t already heard.  I’d like to go because I think that it takes enough people saying the same thing over and over to…make it stick.  They have to have enough resistance for them to do the right thing really at this point; I feel like if they don’t people will just do what they want. People are dying, people are freezing, they don’t have clean water…and you’re not doing anything about it, and you should. We should do our best to maintain affordable housing…Like [weekly motels] for instance.  Those weekly [motels] on Fourth Street they’re trying to take down are some of the only affordable places for some people to live at this point.  And to be fair there are drugs or prostitution or things like that, but that’s the last line for a lot of people. That’s the last place for a lot of them to live.  And they’re tearing them down to build condos.

Without faith in city leadership to push for change, Cook and the Reno Pyrate Punx focus on helping those around them however they can with events like these. This event has gone to GoFundMe for now, and might happen after the shutdown ends. “For the most part with our benefits, we try to do things to help the homeless [and the rest of the community]” Cook says. “I do think the most marginalized people and the most easily victimized people in our community don’t have much of a voice and we want to make sure they do, or at least do something for them...I want to help.”

Reporting and Photography by Luke Keck for Our Town Reno

Kayla Sisson, Keeping the Local in Reno's Midtown Coffee Options

Remaining Upbeat

Sisson believes that the ever changing Reno is,  “[b]eneficial. I get a lot of foot traffic, like a lot of tourism that comes through because a lot of people say things like, ‘oh , like let's go to Midtown’.”

Sisson feels a powerful sense of support from the Reno community. JoStella replaced a well-known coffee shop called Dreamers. 

Instead, of there being any resentment for Sisson, she says the transition from Dreamers to JoStella, named after her grandfather Joseph Stella, was easy. “. . . ., people came in and they're like, oh what happened to “Dreamers? In the beginning, actually the owner of Dreamers helped. He was still here so then like people would come in and Jonathan would like to introduce me as the owner. So it was a  really good transition.”

Construction in Midtown has made parking and walking difficult, but Sisson is taking the long view that current struggles to make a wider road and sidewalks will be beneficial in the long run.

Little Improvements

The reviews of Jostella have been overwhelmingly good. Nonetheless, there is still hardship to owning a small business in an evolving environment like Reno.

Sisson says she feels pressure to rebrand and stay relevant due to the other well known coffee shops in the area.

“I try to do little things at a time,” she said. “Like I can't do huge remodels all at once, but like I did the countertops, which was like my biggest one. And then I just kind of add new things to make it look nicer as quickly as I can...I just try to be as unique as possible in my own way.”

Above, a minidoc our sister channel Reynolds Sandbox made following the coffee shop’s opening.

High Hopes

Sisson has high hopes for Reno and hopes that it continues to support local culture and businesses. Sisson’s fear, like for many other small business owners, is that there will be a corporate chain store (“like a Starbucks”) on every corner, rather than the unique and, refreshingly quirky charm that only local businesses bring.  

Reporting by Gracie Gordon for Our Town Reno

Angela Handler, Tile Crazy and Loka for Her Community

A Passion for Giving Back

Apart from being “tile crazy”, the 41-year-old, mother of two, and native of Reno also has a passion for giving back. She’s part of the 39 North Downtown nonprofit to help revitalize Sparks where her business Loka Tile is based, while also managing the all-volunteer Loka Cares initiatives, which recently had a Halloween costume drive for foster families.

“I don't like to take in money. What I like to take in is nonperishable foods, a big bags of couscous or brown rice, healthy stuff like that, or quinoa as a staple. We take in plates and forks because that's what we use the most of. We collect tables, so I don't really like taking money. I'd rather take those things because then the person that's donating knows exactly where it's going to,” she said of also organizing food events.

She said she felt compelled to help even more when she thought one of her children acted spoiled.

“My son at the time was seven, almost eight years old and he was going through how normal kids are with picky eating, not being appreciative,” she remembers. “So we found a place down at tent city. It was a different group that was doing it and we started helping them because it instantly kind of opened his eyes a little bit.”

After a while, she decided to organize her own feeding event. “We just decided to take over every Friday and we instantly just came up with a quick name because they wanted a name, an organization name to put down so they knew who was coming. So we just came up with Loka Cares and then that was almost nine years ago.”

“I just love interior design and I love construction and I've been doing this since I was 18 years old, so I just love it. All aspects of it. I mean look at the titles. They're crazy. They're fun. They are different.”

Leading a Team of Volunteers Rain or Shine

Fridays, in the parking lot of 4th and Record street, at around 5 pm, Handler leads a team of rotating volunteers, church groups and businesses chipping in, with an emphasis on healthy food.

Volunteers, including kids, are welcome to bring a dish or just help serve. Supplies which are most needed include disposable plates, bowls, cups, silverware, napkins, organic canned food and pastas, rice, bottled water and toiletries.

“We're serving outside, rain or shine,” she says. “It's in the trenches, it's grassroots and it's good for kids to see. So when kids do come, I like to put them at the head of the line and have them hand the plates and forks, make that eye contact, make that relationship with people, learn the different signs of intoxication or disability or just that different level of, you know, compassion and communication you have to have with people.”

Early in the month, she says up to 200 people are served, while at the end of the month the number can go up to 400.

She says it seems the affordable housing crisis is having an unfortunate impact. “I've been seeing an increase in the population down there, that's for sure. More families unfortunately are down there due to displacements. With jobs, there's so many jobs right now, there's just not the resources to get people to and from these jobs or to even know about these jobs that are available.”

Handler feels a responsibility as a local businesswoman. “Our motto is we're just normal people who simply give a shit. I use that four-letter word because it's true and it's impactful. I mean we should just be helping period. And there's time and if you don't have the time to do it, you have the means to do it. There's always somebody you can help.”

A Doer Also Working for Sparks and for People Beyond Feedings

Handler is also busy with 39 North Downtown Sparks, but she seems to have no shortage of energy and ideas to make her community better, all the while having fun with it.

“There's some hidden gems in Sparks,” she said. “It just needs a little bit of help, a little bit of something. There wasn't any public art really. There was a lack of vibrancy in Sparks. So we decided to create a group to kind of help with that. And it quickly became a big thing because they all were wanting a non-biased group to come in and kind of help everybody, get everybody excited, put on some free community events, bring public art down there, highlight some of the local businesses which we do.”

She only took one class in college as she wanted to plunge into doing not learning. “I actually took half a semester of psychology, but that was just probably for my own purposes. I think when I was young, I would have two to three jobs. I just like to work. So I quickly got into this and then it became a career.”

Loka Cares also knows no bounds in terms of events, or types of help it gets involved in, from the very small but still crucial to very important life changes. “Basically, we definitely like to help with people getting into apartments and having the proper tools to, to live and not get discouraged and we also do care packs. So we have a lot of high school students that will come because we collect bins of toiletries so they'll come out and repackage those so we can give people care packages to keep in their cars or we'll pass them out.”

Handler does not like seeing the current trend of motels being torn down and families displaced. She also relates it to her tile business. “I think they should revamp them. I don't like any kind of waste of building materials at all. I think they should keep them. I love the old tiles. I think it's just a waste of bricks and that just really gets me. Seeing all the rubbish of a building torn down, it makes me … sick. I hate selling stone because it's cutting up mountains. Like Carrara marble. Yes, it's gorgeous, but that's a mountain in Italy or India that is being destroyed. And a lot of people in my industry know that I feel that way, I do not like it.”

No to New Taxes, But Yes to More Services

Handler is proud in being efficient and getting lots done and lots of people connected to work together to help others.

She says it makes her sad when people are condescending or hyper critical of people she helps, saying they don’t know what their situation is.

She’s against a tax on businesses to help the homeless as was recently passed in San Francisco, but would favor more services, such as a mobile unit going to different parts of town.

“I would like to see a mobile unit that gives showers and basic haircut needs and hygiene products, all in one. Giving some people a chance to feel fresh and clean again, and maybe they have an interview the next day, or that day...The mobile unit can come out and help in that situation, give them clean clothes, suit rentals. That would be awesome,” she said as we concluded our interview.

Reporting by Prince Nesta with Photography by Jordan Blevins for Our Town Reno

Colline DeBray, Transmitting an Ache for Gardening with the Urban Roots "Farmily"

Hands in the Dirt

DeBray, a 19-year-old Elko native, has been a gardening educator at Pine Middle School, where she has been working with special education kids.

“A big thing is just to get them outside, just to have them with their hands in the dirt, pulling up roots in the garden, learning about these vegetables, learning about how good they can be. They think, oh, this salty snack, it's so yummy, but why not try this pepper? That's just as good, you know. I think they just don't have the exposure to it anymore. It's not as important to them. But once they like have the ache for gardening, like oh, how cool this is, I just grew this myself, I think the whole reward thing right there drives it more.”

Urban Roots plays an integral part in the local pilot Prescription Pantry program, whereby medical professionals screen patients to see if they have access to adequate food and if not, writing them prescriptions for healthy food matching their diagnosis.

Try It at Home and In the Future

DeBray says some of the kids want to then try planting at home, but she also sees even more futuristic value.

“They can grow these carrots, these potatoes, they can grow any of that at home and I think that's good in itself,” she said. “They're in such an amazing generation with so many new ways of learning and the technology is amazing, but they're going to find these ways to grow things and they're going to make them better and they're just, they're going to take this knowledge and run with it. So if we can just plant the seed in their brain, they'll grow an amazing flower of what to do with everything.”

DeBray believes teaching out of the classroom is essential. “I think the problem with tests and with scores, you know, is that kids are kind of falling away from school, they're not having the drive anymore, but if you have programs like this that show you can learn through unconventional ways, you can learn through gardening, you can learn hands on, I think that'll drive them to do better and they'll retain the information more through touching things, through growing things, through all of that,” she said.

A Wide Range of Programs, Partnerships and Plants

DeBray has also helped with the Little Farmers program, for younger kids, at Rancho San Rafael Park, which will start again in March. “They're so fun. They just like take watering cans, water, whatever. We have garden beds down there and they'll go and water everything, they'll pick and harvest. They're just little balls of fire,” she said of that experience.

At the Urban Teaching Farm, Jenny Angius, the development director, explains they host regular field trips from the Washoe County school district. They also have farm camps coinciding with school breaks here. She lists all the companies which have helped with different projects, from Lowe’s to Moana Nursery.

Angius also emphasizes how kids bring new knowledge home, which can lead to eating healthier. “They are trying more fresh produce there,” she said. “They're taking care of mother nature, they're starting to compost… If they're learning where their food comes from, that's a beautiful thing. They're learning that it comes out of the ground, not in this package. That's a great start,” she said.

Opening one high tunnel after another, the farm and garden manager Daphnne Ekmanis proudly lists what they grow at the teaching farm. “Arugula, mustard greens, radishes, kale, carrots, beets, what else? Broccoli, spinach, cabbage….”

Many of the plants are wilting as winter is approaching, and cars drive by noisily, but here in this little corner of Reno, it does feel like a much needed haven of green positivity and possibility.

Ekmanis (left), Angius (center) and DeBray (right) are three of the “Heroes of Reno” which Urban Roots vibrant.

Our Town Reno Photos and Reporting in November 2018. For more information on Urban Roots and all its programs visit https://www.urgc.org/. They also have drop in hours for volunteers, Saturdays, 10am-12pm, 1700 E. 2nd St.

Rebekah Stetson, Teaching "Mindfulness Through Organic Gardening"

Better with the Kids

Reno native Rebekah Stetson, 34, one of 11 children, who first became a mom at 18, and then felt responsible for being part of the financial system which led to the Great Recession, has had quite a turnaround as well as an unpredictable journey of highs and lows.

Since deciding a future in investment banking and hedge funds was not for her, she’s started or worked for several different community garden and farm projects, here in Reno and previously in Lyon County.

She says working with kids from diverse communities, to her, feels the most impactful.

“I learned very early on, when I was a community health advocate, trying to help an adult change their behavior is a relatively difficult process. So when I look at how valuable my time is and how valuable other people's time is, it’s always, how can we be most effective? And so it always comes back to … if we can teach kids habits that are more beneficial to them than what they currently have, it's a lot easier to start new habits or change habits in children … than to change the deep roots that are habits once we're adults. And … I think it keeps me young.”

“I started consulting in agriculture probably about six or seven years ago when friends or other people in the community said like, hey, we really want to start growing our own chickens for eggs or we really want to grow own garden, but we can't afford to pay somebody to do it for us and we don't really know what we're doing,” Stetson said. “So at that time I would take on one or two or three families per year or individuals and basically mentor, consult them through the process or whatever they were trying to do in homesteading in their own life. “

A Very Concerned Environmental Consultant

Stetson also works for the National Wildlife Federation, to increase awareness and a love for nature in Nevada. But with hotter and hotter summers, she warns of Reno being a “fast warming city,” lacking trees and an urban canopy.

“As it gets hotter, we're growing so fast that we have less of what we call permeable land. So there's not enough soil to soak up the heat during the day. And then the soil naturally regulates heat, so then it cools it down based on the soil below that. When you have a lot of concrete and pavement, it soaks in that heat and then it doesn't conduct it down lower. It just holds it and then the next day it's already a certain temperature and then it just absorbs more heat and so it creates kind of like a heat layer. So … not enough trees and then too much concrete and pavement and that’s increasing all the time. And that's why for Reno, it's really important that we do urban infill and keep building more housing within our urban areas as opposed to taking up rural land and making that more of a concrete jungle than it already is,” she said.

“I would say I love giving gifts, but my favorite gift to give is when I have grown something all the way to its fruition and then created a meal out of it and to watch other people enjoy it is a really, really something that I take pleasure in,” Stetson said.

An All-Around Approachable Activist

Stetson also does work for the homeless and women empowerment and warns others about the dangers of not only climate change but also gentrification and the lack of affordable housing. She does her work in Nevada, but has inspirational role models from across the world and time.

“Mother Teresa was one lady that I didn't know a whole lot about, but I was like, this lady, she's doing good things. I also really respect the work that scientists who are kind of edgy have done. So Nikola Tesla (a Serbian-American inventor best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system) is someone who I really love what he did. And even so far as human beings like Timothy Leary (who advocated for the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs) who are willing to kind of say, I know that my science is edgy, but I think that I'm onto something and I'm going to do it anyways even though it's not popular.”

Her last words for our interview? “We are always looking for volunteers, and they could contact me at rebekah.m.stetson@gmail.com. Whether they want to get involved in educating kids or in climate change advocacy that will work for either. I would love to help more people feel empowered to change our community.”

Reporting by Prince Nesta and Jordan Blevins for Our Town Reno

Cory Dayton and His Local Headlock on Hunger

One Last Fight for the Kids

Cory Dayton, nicknamed “Hard”, who once made it as far as a WWE tryout, says his last wrestling bout will be Saturday night, as part of the Headlock on Hunger benefit, now in its third local edition. He says every ticket purchased will provide 15 meals for kids without adequate food in the Truckee Meadows.

The soon to be 37-year-old (next month) says he hopes to continue to put on this event, but that as far as his own fighting is concerned, “my body is telling me it’s time.”

Other well-known local wrestlers taking part include the notorious Reno Scum, Ryan McQueen, Chocolate Papi and El Chupacabra.  

Dayton, who has two kids of his own, said five years ago there was a time he was unable to feed them, and that after being helped by others, he wants to keep “paying it forward” now that he can.

A screengrab of a video from last year’s edition which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyJ0PjAolZE

Putting it in Your Face

“It’s hard to see in your own community,” Dayton said in a recent phone interview with Our Town Reno about child malnutrition and inadequate access to food. “We want to put it in your face,” he said.

According to recent statistics, over 16 million American kids struggle with hunger each year and lack nutritious food on a regular basis. This means about one in five children go hungry at some point during the year. In Washoe County, over 25-thousand kids are estimated to be what’s called food insecure. “In a classroom of 20 kids, that’s four kids,” said Dayton, smacking the point home.

Interview with Our Town Reno in November 2018

Steven Weidman, Reno's New Black and White Street Photographer

Steven Weidman says he hasn’t considered himself a street photographer for very long, but recently he has been contributing both street portraits and now black and white photography of different alleys, motels, bars, stores and signs of Reno, to Our Town Reno, some of which we highlight in this article. 

Weidman says he got into photography again last winter after helping with the homeless overflow tent at the main shelter on Record Street.  He wrote a previous article about this experience which we published on Our Town Reno with some of his portraits: http://www.ourtownreno.com/our-stories-1/2018/8/23/another-night-on-record-street

Q: You are currently taking pictures of alleyways, old signs and street art. What attracts your lens to these? 

Steve Weidman: I have been taking pictures of alleyways, old signs and street art, on and off for many years. I am drawn to angles, textures, and street art. I started photographing graffiti many years ago when I lived in Indiana. I have photographed old and derrick buildings for years and have not reproduced these photos other than to view them myself.

With OurTownReno.com I now have an outlet for many of my photos and it has rekindled my interest in these subjects. At this time, I am using black & white film to photograph portraits of people, in particular the homeless. I am using digital photography to photograph things.

I have just started experimenting with black & white in the last nine months or so and I am quite fascinated with the results. I have started to convert color digital images to black & white images because the results can become very striking.

Q: What do you think of Reno's current changes?

Steve Weidman: I relocated to Reno in 1986 to help start up a new printing division for what was at that time the world’s largest commercial printer. Reno’s layout hasn’t changed that much in the core portion of the city but the population has grown largely in the surrounding urban areas.

In 1986 there were no rush hour traffic jams on I80 or 395. The population has doubled but the road system has not. When I moved here I lived east in Hidden Valley and there were no housing developments south. McCarran was not complete around Reno at that time.

Reno has gotten bigger but not better. There were few homeless in the 1980s but (the situation) has gotten progressively worse as the years have gone by particularly in the last ten years. Lack of affordable housing and unchecked growth have exasperated the problem. But I still love Reno sores and all. 

Q: What do you think of the Whitney Peak planning to demolish the oldest downtown Reno building (the 1872 Reno Mercantile and Masonic Lodge) to expand its own hotel?

Steve Weidman: I think it was allowed to fall into disrepair so that it could be demolished for new construction. My wife emigrated from Germany and I have made eight trips back there with her and have observed how Germans and Europeans respect their old buildings.

Many buildings and structures are hundreds or even over a thousand years old, to them to allow a building to fall into such disrepair is almost unthinkable. My sister-in-law owns a four hundred-year-old farmhouse in a small village in Germany. They keep it modernized even with the foot thick walls. In the United States developers rule.

Q: Why is street photography important?

Steve Weidman: I use it to tell a story, try to focus on what most people try to avoid, to turn their head the other way. What I did for most of my life, avoid the reality of the streets.  You have to live in a city to really see the streets, you don’t see the streets in small town America as much.

When I photograph people in the street, I engage them in a conversation, I want their permission to photograph them, keep their dignity.  So, I am not the type of street photographer that takes pictures of people without permission. I don’t like to invade privacy.

Photos by Steven Weidman shared with Our Town Reno in October 2018

James Dilworth, Keeping the Unpredictable Going in Nadaville

Not There for the Money

While an explanation of his performance art from both last year and this year is cryptic at best, Dilworth is clear about how he differentiates himself from other artists involved.

"Basically they put up a whole bunch of pictures and they start selling things, and doing it as a gallery and they're not making a happening, you know," he said.  "They're not making an experience. They're not doing something strange because inherently I know I really don't make any money from Nadaville because how can you?  If you're trying to make an atmosphere and experience, you're trying to do something, you're not going to be able to really monetize it inherently."

His last Nadaville seems to have been a metaphor performance on the eviction crisis, while his current plan is going to be tied to being an artist.

"I'm going to have an application to become an artist because you know, a lot of people wonder how they can get into this art thing and this stuff," he said. "So we're gonna figure out how they can and they're going to have some applications and Jack Ryan (featured previously on Our Town Reno) is going to be the art commissar."  

Dr. Dilworth features at the opening of the above video in a typewriting service performance back in 2014, for an event called NadaGras, and the soft opening of what was then the Morris Burner Hotel.

A Long History with NadaDada / NadaGras / Nadaville

"I've always liked doing performance art with typewriters. It is called spontaneous writing improv, improvisational writing because basically you give me a topic, I can write it. I'll write anything, a poem, advice, a mystery story, whatever," he said.

For many years, the NadaDada event took place in motel rooms, but Dilworth felt it was taking rooms away from residents who really needed them for shelter.

"The Wildflower Village (with just the sign remaining) has special resonance for me because this is where I first did NadaDada," he said before taking photos for his current black and white Instagram photo project.  He wonders if the former motel / artist colony will stay vacant or be turned into luxury condos. 

Looking at Reno from Further Afield

Even though he lives in Goldfield, Nevada, now, teaching (“everyone needs a day job and that's mine”), writing ("kind of the past, the present, the future of Goldfield, science fiction fantasy kind of horror stuff") and volunteering at a radio station, he comes back to Reno once or twice a month, and keeps close tabs on what's going on.

Evictions and gentrification?  "You have to live somewhere unless you're dead. A lot of places on the West Coast, for years, they haven't kept up with building affordable housing and housing for people who are middle class, and now all they're mostly building is rich people's houses. And that's a shame, because they're pricing people out, especially here. The people who kept Reno going, kept it awkward, who created history in Reno, they are all being priced out," he said.

He predicts another bust after the current boom, just as bad as ten years ago. "Eventually only the rich people are going to be around. And how are they going to be able to do anything if no one can afford to live anywhere? It's basically a Bay Area situation, you know, people are sleeping in cars, people are sleeping under bridges and they're making, you know, supposedly a good wage."

Dilworth says people don't always see the correlation between national politics and hyperlocal realities, but he says that's a mistake. "The events of the last two years politically should make people more aware of what's happening and what is about to happen. Because if you don't see the writing on the wall, you're going to get screwed. And I think unfortunately things are probably going to get a lot worse before they're going to get better because this is the last hurrah from these people who are doing these things."

Room for Optimism

"We have to figure out ways to make life sustainable because there are ways to live here and have everything for everyone. Why not? That's what I always ask. So I think this is possible and I know it's possible. We just have to get through this rough patch," he said.

He also says there is good coming out of the so-called Renossance for artists. 

"The good stuff that has happened is that people are starting to respect and want art and want to do more with it," he said. "The Burning Man culture and a culture of art and creativity and radical self expression and creating temporary autonomous zones. I mean, that's what Nadaville is all about."

"I hope that people throw some wild flowers on it to make it what it was," Dilworth said at the end of his pilgrimage to the now in ruins WIldflower Village.  

Writings, "Bob" Dobbs and Broken Links

From a section of his Non Creative Garbage web project called Haikus a la Kerouac (without the font or formatting): "Life without sunsets dismally trudging onward, where is the beauty? Visions of what was once the most beautiful thing, now sadness creeps in. Excuses abound when some people lack money, falling like snowflakes. Drop Forevermore Pallas's bust on the Chamber Door, get rid of the bird!"

Past websites he's worked on have broken links but he's not worried about that.  "I do have a website I need to resurrect at some point, " he said. "But, you know, it's time I don't have, I don't have an army of assistants helping me. It's just me right now. So, you know, I have to, I have to kind of triage what I need to do."

"That's J.R "Bob" Dobbs. Who was Bob Dobbs? He is the man who was originally clip art, but he became a man.  I am a subGenius."

Interview by Our Town Reno in June 2018

Muralism in Reno Grows As Part of the Biggest Little City's Downtown Cleanup

Part 2, The Curator's Take with Geralda Miller, a Q and A

Geralda Miller previously worked as a news reporter for the Associated Press and as an arts and culture reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal. She has run Art Spot Reno since 2014 with her business partner Eric Brooks. Miller recently sat down with Robyn Feinberg at Homage Bakery to discuss her current involvement in Reno's art scene, and what art means for Reno in this period of development.

While Reno rebrands, part of its journey is a developing public arts scene, which comes with the risk of artwashing, whereby artists take part in a cleansing effort, and act as "regenerative detergent."  Our Town Reno wanted to find out from those directly inside the evolving art scene what their own thoughts were. We first checked in with one of the major homegrown muralists in town, Bryce Chisholm from AbcArtAttack. Part 2 of this series is with Geralda Miller, the curator at Art Spot Reno.

Robyn Feinberg: Can you tell me about yourself and your involvement with the art scene in Reno? I know you have a background with the arts in Reno. 

Geralda Miller: I got into the arts as the arts and culture reporter at the Reno Gazette-Journal, and I was really excited to see what was going on. The paper really wasn’t covering, it really didn’t do a lot of in-depth coverage of the arts. The previous reporter was into the theater, so he wrote a lot about the theater scene, but I was more interested in really digging into the grassroots movement of the art here, and of finding out exactly what was going on, why was it going on, what were the influencers for what was happening at that time. And that was when Dave Aiazzi actually was city councilman, and he was really big for supporting the arts, and he, he was a “burner,” so he went to Burning Man and he was really close to a group of artists that went to Burning Man. So, he got some of those artists, and they were situated at the Salvagery, they came up with the name (the community art space) Salvagery, and .... their first project was a piano project, where they took old pianos and made art out of them. They were placed around Reno during the month of July, which is Artown, and so that was kind of their first art project, an arts collective project. And then, they became part of the temple in 2011, the Burning Man temple, it was built there at that site at the Salvagery. That was really an exciting time because never before had that large a scale piece of art from Burning Man had been built here in Reno. So, that was really kind of giving Reno entree into the art scene of Burning Man. That was kind of, I think, a pivotal point for the relationship between Reno and Burning Man. And Burning Man is key, a key association here for Reno. It’s an economic driver ... and also I think that since this building of the temple, we’ve seen a lot more artists who have moved here, and want to be a part of Reno’s art scene. So, I think that there is some of that that has been a strong influence on Reno.

Robyn Feinberg: Can you talk about this term that’s thrown around, the “Burning Man effect”?

Geralda Miller: Well, I’m a burner, I’m ten years a burner. This will be my eleventh year out there. And I started going out there as a reporter, I actually wasn’t going as the official reporter for the paper. I went out there and shot pictures, I did like a 'who’s who' out on the Playa, I did a photo thing out there, and I went on art tours out there to see the art, and I wrote about the art and I wrote about local artists who were showing their art out at Burning Man. That was my interest, my interest was more about why do artists want to be out there and build, what is it about Burning Man that all these artists want to build out there, and it’s really impressive, I mean, the art that’s out at Burning Man is such a large-scale, and you can do things out there, you can build something, a project, an installation out there that you can’t in the city, that you couldn’t maybe because of size, because you might want to be using fire effects, flame effects on your piece, different kinds of lighting on your piece that just might keep it from being built in a city. So, it’s a great, I find it to be kind of like this great incubator and kind of like a test lab for the arts. It’s also, what’s happening now, I’ve seen a progression where it’s now become this collaborative movement between science and the arts. You see quite a few artists that are pairing up with different types of techies or scientists and they’re building these really interesting, super-creative art pieces out there on the Playa, which are mind-blowing actually.

What is art and what does it do for society? Photo taken along 4th street in downtown Reno.

Robyn Feinberg: Do you think that more people want to bring their art to Reno because of Burning Man?

Geralda Miller: I don’t think that it’s all because of Burning Man, no I don’t think that, I’ve never been one that says that people are moving here only because of Burning Man, I think that there are some people that see that, it makes sense to move to Reno, and even Burning Man is looking for space, and their considering having an office here. For tax reasons, it makes sense. But there are artists who have moved here because now we have The Generator, which is a makerspace, that makes a lot of Burning Man projects, and we also have Artech which is another warehouse that builds Burning Man art. So, because we have these large makerspaces here now, I think that that has helped, kind of like encourage more artists to come to Reno and live in Reno. But I don’t see this big movement, or the “Burning Man effect,” I wouldn’t call it that. I’d just say that, yes, it is one of these influences, but if you look at Reno’s history, you can go back and you can see that there have been all types of artists here for years.

When I think of the arts too, I don’t think of just visual art, you know you’ve got to think about music, about dance, you’ve got to think about theater. Reno Little Theater is the oldest theater in the state of Nevada, it’s right here in Reno. So, there’s been this theater scene that’s been pretty rich here. You’ve got to think about the influence of the casinos. The casinos, back in the day, they all had these huge house bands, they were bringing in these major performers from around the country to perform here in the casinos. And they all needed bands to back-up those singers. So, they brought in, and Reno attracted, top-notch musicians from around the country, around the world. They came here and lived here in Reno, and actually stayed here in Reno. Reno has a very rich music scene and has some strong musicians because of its gaming history...Reno does have a rich history for the arts. And also, you think about the city of Reno, the city of Reno has been purchasing visual art, fine art, for years. The city has acquired, and owns the amount of public art the size of Oakland. Actually, the city itself believes in art. I think that you have think about all those factors, and look at all of that when you think of Reno and Reno’s arts movement.

Businesses are also hiring muralists to paint street art type murals to promote their businesses.

Robyn Feinberg: Having been a writer for the Arts and Culture section of the Reno Gazette-Journal, how have you seen art evolve in Reno?

Geralda Miller: It’s interesting...we now have a mayor who is embracing the arts, and that’s a first. That’s something that we should really be excited about, finally we have someone, even in city government, that is pro the arts. Her state of the city address this year all was based on the theme of the arts, so there has been, and is there movement. A lot of people, and myself, don’t think that Reno is an arts destination yet, I think that we’re on the verge of becoming an arts destination, we have Artown, which is in the month of July, however, we need to do more year-round. That’s one of the reasons why my business partner Eric Brooks and I, with Art Spot Reno, that’s pretty much our slogan. You know, Reno is the sport for year-round arts, it’s 365 days of the year not just one month of the year. And when I will know that we pretty much have it an arts destination when there isn’t this emphasis and focus on just one month of the year. Right now there’s still that, even within the community, even the residents of Reno, you talk about the arts and they go “Oh well I go to Artown,” well, what else do you do? How else do you spend your time on the arts in Reno? Are you going to the theater? Do you have season tickets? Are you going to different musical events that happen outside of July? Off Beat music festival for example. What else are you doing? When we get people from south Reno...when we get them into our downtown area in another month when they’re not scared of the homeless and walking around, then I’ll know that we’ve become an arts destination. When we get people coming over the hill from the Bay Area and they’re wanting to check out more of our arts and culture scene here, then I will know we are an arts destination. I don’t think we’re that yet.

A mural recently added to the side of a motel in downtown Reno, even as many motels, often the last rung before homelessness, are being bulldozed away.

Robyn Feinberg: So can you explain your business, Art Spot Reno, and how it started?

Geralda Miller: Well, Art Spot Reno was started by a woman named Sam Strummel, and she and her husband owned Sierra Water Gardens... And she decided that she wanted to have this business, she want to start Art Spot Reno, and her whole idea was a 'rising tide lifts all ships,'  that was her thing. She was like 'We’re going to have a business where people fly their flags and say they’re an art spot, and it’s like a membership base where businesses can pay to be a member, get a flag.' It was basically just an online resource for businesses to say 'Hey, we believe in art in Reno.' Because she owned two businesses herself, she really didn’t develop the Art Spot as much. I remember when she started the business, you know, I wrote about it for the paper, and I really liked the idea, I loved the concept. So, when I lost my job at the paper and I was trying to decide what I was going to do next with my life, where am I going to go, what am I going to do, and I thought the only way, and the only reason why I would want to stay in Reno, is if I did something that was affiliated with the arts in Reno. I found this to be, this area, the arts to be the growing, the exciting movement for Reno. I said then, if I’m going to stay in Reno, I’ve got to be a part of the arts. And so I went to Sam and I said 'Hey, I love your whole idea of Art Spot Reno, it’s not been something that you have really been able to build, and to grow, and I’d like to take it over.' And she was like, 'Oh my gosh, Geralda I’m so excited.' So, that’s pretty much how I got Art Spot Reno, and Eric Brooks had just moved to Reno, he had been in Scotland, he’s an artist and he had done a residency in Scotland, and he came here to Reno to manage an art space on 4th street. When he saw that that wasn’t really going to happen, he was looking for something as well, and so it was like, well, let’s do this together. That’s pretty much how it started.

Public art is increasingly becoming a selling point for tourism to Reno.

We decided that since I had been at the paper, I saw that people really wanted and needed a calendar of events, what’s going on in Reno. So, our focus was to have the most comprehensive calendar of events, arts and culture events, for Reno so people would have a place to go find what’s going on in Reno. We started it basically with that, with me blogging about what’s going on in the city, and from there we became arts advocates, we became advocates for artists here, and for their rights. So, we started doing more advocacy work. Then, Eric actually was the one who said 'I really like all the murals here in town,' well I said, 'Take me around and show me all of the murals,' I didn’t really know. What he was doing though, whenever someone would come visit him, whenever his friends would come visit from out-of-town, he would take them on these little mural tours, drive them around and show them all of the art murals in Reno. So, he did that with me and I just loved it...that’s when we decided to, on our website, have google maps of the different areas where you could find murals.

That’s when we decided we are this kind of portal or resource for all things art in Reno. So, we said, we’ve go to start offering these Google Maps so people can go out on their own and see the art here in Reno, so we did the Google Map and then we decided, well, let’s give tours. So, we started giving midtown tours, that was our first tour, on the second Saturday of the month. And there’s so many murals, more than 80 now in Midtown, so we split it up, a northern route and a southern route. We now have a docent that helps us out with the mural tours because they’re so popular. We began an art walk, First Thursdays, we thought that, yes, there’s this Nevada Museum of Art that has First Thursday, but wouldn’t it be great if Reno had a First Thursday, wouldn’t it be wonderful if more businesses, more galleries, just kind of fed off of that and opened up and had a First Thursday night. Some cities do it well, Portland does it and has one, Oakland has one. So, we decided to start Art Walk Reno on the First Thursday, and at first, we would give people maps and let them go around and see the art, and now we lead them, do like a tour, we go visit non-traditional places, coffee shops, businesses that are showing art. We do go to some galleries as well...trying to promote, trying to get more people downtown and trying to promote and show all the different parts of art that are here in Reno.

New murals continuously dot the downtown Reno landscape. 

Robyn Feinberg: With the mural tours, I’ve noticed more and more murals going up, is that something you bring people in for, why?

Geralda Miller: Last October, Art Spot Reno put on the Reno Mural Expo. We decided that murals are a way for a community to be a part of the arts, you know, it’s a free gallery, you know, it’s an outdoor gallery... And also, we know that murals help to fight tagging and graffiti. It’s been proven that they really do keep taggers from tagging your city and your walls, and we know that murals can help with fighting blight. So, because of that, we decided to, we walked, my business partner and I, all around downtown, and there’s a woman here who, she’s very active and is always going to the city about areas where there’s a lot of broken glass...areas that need work. We walked with her, and she knew a lot of people who owned some of these old motels that are closed up, and we’ve identified walls around the city that we thought would be great walls to have a mural.

And so, we contacted a lot of these owners, a lot of business owners, and ended up painting murals around, we ended up with 32 murals, so when you talk about the growing mural scene in Reno, you’re talking about what pretty much Art Spot has helped to do to build the mural scene of Reno. We brought in an artist from South Africa, from the Netherlands, we brought, I think, ten national artists from around the country, and even someone from the Navajo nation (Chip Thomas)...he came and was a part of our three day expo. So, we brought in Sebastian Coolidge, who is a well-known muralist from Tampa, Florida. We brought these muralists, artists, from all over, here to Reno. For three days, we identified walls and we had them paint all these beautiful murals in our city. That was something that we did as kind of like our way of helping to bring more art to Reno. We do have here in Reno we do have some strong muralists, and you should come on a mural tour and see that for yourself. But, there’s one muralist in particular, he was our consultant on the mural project and he paints all around the world, Erik Burke. Erik has been fabulous, when you look around the city and see all of these beautiful works of art that are here, most of them, not most of them, but a lot of them are his. He’s a local Reno resident, born and raised here, and for years he was a graffiti artist painting illegally, and now he’s this well-respected artist who is painting around the world.

Public art is often added to places deemed as blight. 

Robyn Feinberg: You said murals help fight blight, can you explain what you mean by that, or what the idea behind that is?

Geralda Miller: Well, you have these areas that are run-down, that are an eyesore on the city and community, and you put a mural up and automatically you’re bringing color, you’re bringing light to an area or some place that’s otherwise just pretty drab and dreary. When we put the Expo on, we’re painting in alleys, and we’re on 4th street, where there are a lot of homeless. We were giving tours, we had docent-led tours every day, and one of our docents told us about, the story about a homeless man who went on the tour and he went on the tour one day, and was listening and paying attention to all the art. The next day, he brought his girlfriend, you know here’s a homeless man and his girlfriend, he came back, he was so proud of what he saw in his area that he came back. So, what does that tell you?

Robyn Feinberg: There’s this new political watchword, “artwashing,” that generally means a city will start building galleries, museums, and paying for more art, such as murals, as part of gentrification and resurgence efforts, with nicer more expensive areas building up around them and pricing people out. Do you agree with that, is it happening in Reno, in your opinion? Is it an intention with the art scene?

Geralda Miller: Of course it’s not the intention, with the art scene, absolutely not the intention with the art scene. I don’t even know why that would be thought to be the intention of the art scene, of course no artist is thinking like that. Artists don’t think like that, that’s not an artist’s purpose. What happens though, gentrification is a fact of life, I’ve lived in enough cities around the country to see how gentrification works. We know that gentrification is happening, look at Midtown. Midtown is a good example of that. And it is a concern, it’s something we’ve talked about, and we talk about with out city officials, regularly. Our concern is that artists are not going to be able to afford to live in these communities where they’ve built. That’s always the way it is. You have artists come in, it’s always gritty. I remember when Midtown was gritty, when Midtown was this area where more of the artists lived and others, and (some) Reno folks were afraid to even go in... I remember when people were afraid to go to Midtown. Now, because of the development, and it’s not because of the art, it’s the development. Yeah, people feel safer when they see art on the walls, the artists were there and the artists were there not so that white folks from wealthier neighborhoods could come in and take it over, that doesn’t make any sense. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would an artist think like that? Artists aren’t thinking like that, that’s developers, that’s the way they’re thinking, 'Ah look, they're in here making this area pretty, we can make it prettier, we can like slick it up.' Midtown is very slick right now, I mean, the grittiness is gone. What made it a really interesting, different community, that’s leaving, that’s leaving the area.

Local artists such as Joe C. Rock are getting more and more opportunities to display their art work in a changing Reno.

Robyn Feinberg: To wrap things up, do you think that art is doing something important for Reno?

Geralda Miller: Art is doing something for the city. Art’s doing something for the city right now. I mean when you walk around and you see sculptures, and murals, you can see where it has made an impact. It could make a better impact, it could make a stronger impact in design. It will be interesting to see who this developer who just bought up all of 4th street (Jeff Jacobs who has been buying properties along parts of 4th street), and is tearing down all of these motels, hopefully he’s teamed up with some very creative design firms and will bring great design here, which is art. And also, hopefully have and incorporate, be it sculptures, murals, mosaics, be it something new, light, hopefully that will be incorporated into design. So, there is a way for the arts to strongly be a part of design of new development, and I hope that that happens. I hope that there is that collaboration between the artists and creatives, let’s bring all of the creative minds together, because I think that that’s key, that’s important.

Note: Some comments and questions were trimmed and edited for clarity with no change to the original content or meaning.

Reporting and Portrait Photo by Robyn Feinberg for Our Town Reno

A Summer of Legal Weed: A Budtender’s Account, From Spiking Prices to Snoop Dogg Coming to Town

The Beginning

I was working a respectable job as a clerk in an attorney’s office who specialized in estate planning. It was quiet but paid well, and with the ounce or so a week of Nevada City, California, weed that I was selling to friends and classmates, I made enough for rent, food, and the rest of tuition.

But as the rumor got around that recreational sales were going to be legalized soon, myself and my stoney acquaintances began to wonder what our own “black market” sales were going to look like? Granted, illegal sales were and are still a long way from disappearing, but we were still curious as to what it would look like if there was no need to sell weed from our own living rooms.

Thanks to my grandmother, of all people, my career with cannabis was not quite over. Grandma had an old coworker who had just recently been hired at a local dispensary, and she was more than happy to hook me up with an interview. I suppose the rumors of my own smoking habits had reached my family before I intended. Regardless, I was excited. I nailed the interview and was emailed to report for two long days of training with the other new hires.

From a class project I worked on about Reno's evolving drug culture.

A Budtender's Training Process

Those two days were filled to the brim with new knowledge. In an industry that dedicates entire curriculums to the plant, there was only so much I could absorb.

We learned about the basics like sativa and indica, or indoor and outdoor. But we also learned about receptors in the mind that respond to the different kinds of cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are molecules found in the plant, which are also produced naturally in your brain.

The new information was intimidating, but after about a month of shadowing and floor training, I was ready to run my own register. Or at least I believed I was.

A screengrab for the Blum dispensary where I worked.

Recreational Sales Hit Reno in a Big Way

I spent a large portion of the month of July shouting over the glass casing of my register and display. Not in anger or impatience. There were just so many people coming through the door and speaking to the budtenders. Ten registers in a room, all having their own conversations about the product. Answering questions about dosage, and strain, and medicinal benefits. Some people would wait in line two hours so that they could buy their own legal weed. The flow of new customers never seemed to stop.

My eyes got tired from punching numbers into a screen. My feet hurt from standing 10 hours a day and I could barely speak anymore.

It was hard work, but we loved every minute of it. My managers would go rent hotel rooms close to the store so they could get a couple hours of sleep before going right back to it.

We were all giving our everything to this one cause. To get the city of Reno high as hell. It felt like we were at the center of the world. The loyal disciples of the first summer of legal weed in Reno.

I never smoked at work. I felt like I could sell and count best when I was sober. My numbers showed the success of my work ethic and my drawer was always spot on. A lot of the older budtenders would hold genuine conversations with their customers, but not me. Lost time meant lost money. I moved a lot of weight over that counter. It was never a thought to me about what I was doing. People wanted product and I gave them some. Any ethical or moral thought was gone. We had too many real problems to deal with.

Pro-marijuana websites were elated when Question 2 passed in the 2016 election, but there were soon a host of problems.

A State of Weed Emergency

When Question 2 was originally written up to be put on the 2016 ballot for Nevadans, it was understood that alcohol wholesalers in the state were to be given the rights of distribution from medical grow operations to retail storefronts. So when the Department of Taxation agreed to give licenses directly to those grow operations, and cut the alcohol wholesalers out of the middle, they were met with a lawsuit and an injunction. Only alcohol wholesalers were to be allowed to distribute the product.

Of the seven applications turned in for distribution licenses by alcohol wholesalers, only two succeeded. The other five turned in incomplete applications. With sales exceeding expectations, we were running out of product, and running out of people to deliver us more.

Customers began to get angry, and prices kept spiking. A lot of people thought that we could go out of business and lose our jobs, as the market seemed to be about to explode. But Governor Brian Sandoval saved Nevada's weed stash by declaring a “State of Emergency.” Licenses were to be given to the growers, and the city would have its weed once again.

Although the problem seemed solved, the stress of the alcohol wholesalers appealing their lawsuit to the Nevada Supreme Court remained. We were back to work at a comfortable pace.

The Owner of Blum and Her Parties

Business carried on into the late summer and our great success in Midtown was not to go unrewarded. The owner of our store, and of the other four Blums in Oakland and Las Vegas, was throwing a party at her hilltop house in West Reno, and rumor had it that a special musical guest was going to show up.

We were all bursting with curiosity. Our managers knew but they kept it close. We couldn’t get a word out of them. All they would give us were hints at the magnitude of the fame of whoever was coming.

Apparently the owner, Heidi Loeb Hegerich, threw a party just like this one last year and was able to get John Legend to perform in her dining room. Another manager said that she told Jay-Z to “name his price,” for a half-hour performance at her Reno home, but Jay referred her to his no-house party rule.

Heidi was something of an urban myth around the store. She’s a German immigrant who is thought to be in her 70s but has had enough plastic surgery to be passed off as in her early 50s. Her Facebook is filled with photos of her firing rounds from large weapons and doing Olympic lifts in a gym. She’s written a semi-autobiographical novel, where she hints that she was at one time carrying Elvis Presley’s love child. We were in awe of her, and couldn’t wait to find out who was coming to the party.

A Snapchat moment from a 2017 Blum party during which employees rolled blunts.

Who is Coming to the Party?

We all got our invites with dress code and address. As the date drew closer, Snoop Dogg’s name grew louder around the store. The Doggfather of West Coast Kush himself was rumored to be the headliner.

What do I say if I meet Snoop? Are we going to smoke together? Do I trust myself to keep my composure in front of the most high?

But any illusion of a chill kickback and some one on one time with Snoop was proved wrong by a well-maintained backyard filled with business suits.

I don’t intend to complain at all about the hospitality of Heidi Loeb Hegerich. The backyard stood high on top of an insane view of the city, with all of the liquor and hors d'oeuvre that a kid could eat and drink. There was even a blunt rolling station, where employees of Blum Oakland rolled Backwood Cigars filled with Blue Dream for the partygoers. They were tremendous at it. A few kids from Oakland rolled for hours as tall white businessmen in expensive suits hopped into the front of the line.

Rumors turned out to be true, and Snoop Dogg took center stage at the Blum party.

The West Coast King of Kush and the End of a Ride

Snoop Dogg was a mere ten feet away from us. He played all of the crowd favorites, as my co-workers swayed back and forth amidst the strong clouds of smoke. Everyone seemed to have a blunt in one hand, and their phone in the other. People had to make sure this moment wasn’t going to be lost to time. It had to be put on news feeds for the world to see. It’s not everyday you get to see Snoop Dogg in someone’s backyard.

It may have been a pretentious sort of thought, or a genuine moment of internal disagreement, but something felt wrong. I slowly backed out of the silent and intoxicated crowd and wandered over to the blunt rolling station. The kids from Oakland were still there. They were arguing with a man who wanted them to roll him another blunt. They had been rolling all day and they just wanted to go see the show.

I left feeling a little uneasy (and guilty), as I usually do after a night of indulgence. And I went back home with a different attitude about what I was doing and how the people above me were administering it.

A Lost Era

I went back to work after the party and didn’t quite feel that same magic walking in the front door that I had a month ago. The line at the door had shortened and the days became longer. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the questions I was being asked by customers.

People with serious ailments weren’t finding the answer in cannabis. Some complained that they felt like the large doses that they were taking were actually making them intensely depressed. Most people were still happy and told me miracle stories about how I had changed their lives. I shed tears sometimes at how grateful people were for my help. But despite the encouraging words from those customers, I still knew that I was a long way from any real knowledge about these people and their bodies. I knew I was nowhere near qualified enough to be giving them some of the information that I was told to give them.

When I brought this up tentatively to my managers, I was told not to worry, and that I was doing a great job. My drawer was always on count, and I was outselling the rest of the team, but I knew sales was not a calling that sat right in my soul. I quit Blum and I quit smoking weed for about three months or so.

Although the impact of my time felt real, and was real to so many people, it’s hard to look past the underlying truth. The priority was money. With the alcohol wholesalers, with the governor, and with Heidi Loeb Hegerich herself, money comes first. The patients are hopefully a close second.

1st Person Reporting by Jordan Gearey shared with Our Town Reno

Muralism in Reno Grows As Part of the Biggest Little City's Downtown Cleanup

Part 1: Bryce Chisholm, the Artist's Take

Bryce Chisholm, a Reno-born artist sat down with Robyn Feinberg at Bibo’s Coffee shop to discuss some of the positives and negatives of being a local artist in the Biggest Little City, and how murals fit into the city's history, present and feature.  Photo by Robyn Feinberg.

While Reno rebrands, part of its journey is a developing art scene, which comes with the risk of artwashing, whereby artists take part in a cleansing effort, and act as "regenerative detergent." Artwashing often goes hand in hand with gentrification and higher prices in long abandoned but now revalued downtown areas. In this process, a certain style of graffiti which came out of the street anarchist tradition also becomes commodified. Our Town Reno wanted to check in with one of the major homegrown muralists in town, Bryce Chisholm from AbcArtAttack. Part 2 of this series this week will be with a coordinator of the local mural art scene, Geralda Miller, the curator at Art Spot Reno. Both will share some of their thoughts from inside this local mural movement.

A screengrab of Bryce Chisholm's website used on Our Town Reno with his permission.

The Local Burning Man Effect

Chisholm, who studied at Earl Wooster High School, TMCC, and UNR, says he decided to become a full-time artist in 2010.  He has been a paid muralist and artist with the City of Reno as well as an official artist of Artown. He is also now on the city's Arts and Culture Commission. 

He says the much talked about "Burning Man" effect does indeed drive a lot of what is going on artistically in Reno.

"Over the years it’s kind of grown into Reno being the hub for what was going on there. I would still say that the main portion of the people are from San Francisco and L.A., so they drive through and they pack our stores and buy all the water and supplies and stuff from the stores," he said. He says, now with more communal maker spaces and group art projects happening here, as well as pre-burns and post-burns, the permanent Reno Burner scene has grown, creating year-round artistic energy and interest.

"The minute you leave (Burning Man), you’re already planning next year. So, it’s almost like this year-long obsession because you’re like 'Well next year, I’m going to build this and it’s going to be so awesome.'  So, it kind of just becomes your lifestyle I guess. And so, it’s a creative lifestyle because you’re going to build this structure and tent, and it’s going to have a shower and be really cool. So, it just has this domino effect, and then you make friends and they are building these structures, so you have this community of like-minded people that are building things and a huge portion of that is art…or people that support art and care about it. So, I guess the Burning Man effect is still growing and it still continues to create new projects and people that want to be involved," he said.

Murals are part of the advertising campaign for a new, artsier and cleaned up Reno. 

Undervalued Beauty

From his website, Chisholm says he has "a fond liking for undervalued beauty", as well as a love for street art and graffiti, which he says were long frowned upon locally, and still are looked down by some. 

"When I was young, at Wooster High School in the 90s, I loved graffiti, that was my thing. I loved seeing it. In Reno, they really looked down upon it and there wasn’t much of that. So, me and maybe four or five friends would either take a monthly or twice a month trip and go to the Bay Area. We would walk down dirty allies and take pictures and just look for graffiti and street art, wherever we could find it. Back then I wanted to start a magazine and so that’s why I was trying to take as much photos of it as possible, and there wasn’t really any in Reno," he remembers.

Controlled Street Art: Pedestrians walk by city and competition sanctioned mural art in downtown Reno.

Officially Sanctioned Art

But now, in Reno is street art something you can just paint out in the open, or is it sanctioned? 

"That’s really a touchy subject, or an 'I don’t know,' because I know the city is always, and I don’t want to say too much, but the city’s always said 'Well we like that, but we can’t leave it because then we’d have to leave everything,'" Chisholm explained.

"It’s hard because who’s to judge what is good graffiti and what is bad graffiti? I mean I don’t want to be the one that does that. So, there’s two sides, say the people who say any graffiti is bad graffiti, and then there’s the ones that say 'Well, that’s really nice to look at so it’s okay.' So, it’s a real thin-line that you’re trying to walk [as an artist], I’m sure you can do stuff if people like it. But, there’s also the ones that are like, 'If you’re doing anything like that, it’s bad.' Finding that nice happy place is kind of difficult," he explained of his own challenges as a sanctioned, paid street artist.

"The city does like signal boxes, that’s their like main thing right now," Chisholm said. "They’ll be doing [about] 30 signal boxes, coming up in the springtime. They’re the little boxes on the corners as you are driving around, the people get in there and control the traffic lights and what not. So, usually they’re just green or gray, and they get tagged a lot.... So, they will be painting 30, I’ll be painting one in May. Hopefully they don’t get tagged, first off, and then the other, hopefully people enjoy looking at them and it just adds, in my idea, if you’re driving past one on the way to work and it makes you smile a little bit, then it’s done what it’s supposed to do."

The Art-Gentrification Correlation

Chisholm agrees that art has played a role in current gentrification as in other cities, previously. He also says if Reno really does believe in art as much as it says it does it should also have more people actually buying art and allowing artists to live from their work.

"Artists go into like a dilapidated, run-down area, they start painting there because it’s low-rent and make it all cool, and the next think you know there’s a Starbucks there and coffee shop, and then the artists can’t afford the place and they’re kicked out, then they’re moving on to the next area. I definitely worry about that kind of thing happening. I mean, rents and house prices are just insane right now, houses are selling for prices that they’re totally not worth, but I don’t know, somebody is affording it because they keep on buying it."

The situation might be good for artists initially, he acknowledges, but not in the long run.

"I worry that that might be bad for artists. Artists keep on creating no matter what, but I don’t know if there’s enough support for the artists in terms of cash, and buying and paying. It’s nice to say: 'Oh, we love the arts, we love the arts,' but if you’re not buying paintings and paying for murals, then it doesn’t necessarily help the artist. I still want to see more of that ... people buying art, paying for murals. I mean, really, there’s probably only a handful of working artists in town. I think that if you’re saying Reno is art, art art, there should be a lot more than that...I don’t know if there’s quite enough support yet.

Businesses also pay for muralists to decorate their walls in the downtown corridor.

Is Reno Artwashing?

Chisholm doesn't see the current Reno situation as artwashing per se.  He says he would be more worried if more and more non-locally owned corporations were taking over Midtown but he doesn't see it that way now.

"The rents in Midtown being part of “artwashing,” I don’t see it as that way," he said. "I see it as already upturning, so the people that own these buildings, that’s part of their way of also making that happen. That’s just another step on the stairwell because the property is getting more valuable, they are refurbishing it, so one of the other things they do is that they will paint a mural or put some artwork up there, and then it’s like the building is better and there’s something to look at, and you’re in a good part of town, so then the rent goes up because more people want to live there. I guess if that [artwashing] is a thing, then it’s probably just a part of it, that the owners of these place use it as like a 'Let’s give them another reason to pay $100 more,' or whatever it is even," he said.

Another mural from downtown Virginia street.  These murals have been getting renewed on a yearly basis.

Reno Struggles to Establish Galleries

Unlike other places were art has really boomed with revitalization, he doesn't see a gallery system taking hold in Reno at this point.

"The only real gallery that makes money in town is the Stremmel Gallery, in part because it’s an auction house and they have this huge clientele and sell paintings for $40,000-$50,000," Chisholm said,

"But every other gallery in town that I’ve seen usually closes within a year or two because it just doesn’t work, there’s not enough people buying art and selling, and supporting artists. I still don’t know if it’s at that point, there’s definitely more buyers, I guess, but there aren’t galleries consistently selling local art. Most of the stuff that the Stremmel Gallery sells, and they do an amazing job, they’re awesome at it, but a lot of those they bring in artists from out-of-town that are really well established, then they [the galley] give it to their clientele and are like 'This is a great investment, you should buy this,' and then they sell it. Most of what’s still in Reno I think is coffee shops and stuff, I don’t know too many artists that can really live off that."

Chisholm has a Shop & Cart section to his own website. "If you go to San Francisco or Seattle, L.A., they have galleries that have been there and are selling the local art scene, and they’ve been well-established, and they’ve been there for a long time because people go in there and buy a painting for a $1000, or whatever the paintings are. I don’t know if I necessarily see that in Reno, I mean, I might sell a painting, but it’s usually somebody that already knows me, not knows me, but knows my artwork, and they’ll reach out to me. But as for a gallery, I just don’t see it happening really, at the moment," he said of the challenges of selling art in Reno.

More Grants for Local Artists

"Right now there are grants, mostly or like nonprofits, so there’s several organizations, theater groups and different things, which are all deserving...." Chisholm said.  

He says there are just too few such opportunities currently.

"There’s the Nevada Arts Council...they do some grants, but usually there’s only one grant every two years, and then there’s like three honorable mentions, and that’s statewide. So, that one’s tough to get, you know. What I’m hoping to create is like five to 10 artists every year, they would get $1000 or something like that to help create whatever they’re doing. That would be [in] Reno."

He would like this to be open for artists in a broad sense.

"It would be for somebody who needs a grant to make an album, or put on a theater show or something like that. One of the other ones we were talking about doing was like an exchange, so New York would send an artist to Reno, and we’d send an artist to New York, and each one would have two to three weeks of residency to create art in Reno, and then have a little show at the end.... I don’t think there’s enough monetary value going to artists, so, if I could help that in any ways, that would be really nice, that’s what I want to do."

Reporting and Interview by Robyn Feinberg for Our Town Reno

Jarred Santos, Keeping Reno Grimey with his Art

From the Ring to the Drawing Board

"You’re not a wimp growing up here for sure," Jarred Santos said as he showed some of his recent art. "But it’s changing. The Cal Neva steak deal used to be 2.99 for steak and eggs and now it’s 5.99 which is still cool.  But I don’t want it to be $13.99 when I’m 30 …" 

Santos, a 2015 national collegiate boxing champion at 132 pounds and member of the UNR team which won the overall national championship after a two-decade drought, now spends hours alone working on drawings, many of them depicting a seedy Reno -- motel kids who hop around, drug users, castaways, gamblers and the like.

“My art is agressive cartooning that’s not super well structured or traditional at all," he said. "I use bright colors and I have a lot of greens. I model some of my stuff off of old skateboard art, punk rock posters, album art."

Santos also wants to instill pride and awareness in a Reno he finds is being pushed away rather than helped.

Representing Reno as he sees it: "If you look at the history of Reno, it’s always been a small town with a history of gambling, organized crime, prostitution. It’s always been the Wild West.  You have good gun rights. You can go to a whorehouse if you want. You can smoke weed. The bars are open until five in the morning.  I think that history has had a lot of negative impacts on the community but it’s also a reality the community has to face and realize we can’t cover up things by building new bars or the university expanding, by trying to polish without addressing the actual issue, which is the crime, the drug use, the prostitution, the all-around roughness of the city due to low income and addiction.  That needs to be addressed more and it gets lost with people trying to build a new Tesla here and having a bunch of people coming over who can afford these higher priced homes, because they came from an area where wages were higher, so they had money saved up and it’s cheap for them, but then the locals here can’t afford their rents anymore because everything is going up. At the same time, income for locals isn’t going up," Santos said, explaining his art and his thought process on a changing Reno and some of its long time residents now feeling unwanted and left behind.

A Struggling Artist with Reno Pride

Santos graduated with an art degree from UNR with a minor in psychology, but for now he says he works for a cleaning and restoration company to pay the bills.  He’d like to live off of art and wants to get into computers more to design logos. 

Like other effective movements such as the Keep Tahoe Blue drive, he wants to create one for Reno pride. "I grew up with everyone wanting to leave Reno. And when California kids come here to study, they all talk about how cool it’s to be from California. But I like that I’m from Reno," he said.

He has an Instagram where he promotes his art, but doesn't believe he'll cash in through that platform anytime soon.  His Instagram bio is: Reno Struggling Artist. "There’s not a lot of money in art but it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do," he said. "And I still want to eventually live off of it. But I do another job to get by, even if I don’t get paid well there either, so I am struggling." 

"I was born and raised here. Reno is a rough place," Santos, a former Nevada amateur boxer of the year,  said. "A lot of my art ... I think intelligent people are going to laugh at it and get a good kick out of it and people that are stupid are going to be offended.  It’s in your face.  A lot of it is also to poke fun at people who are uptight."

Sticking to Simple  

Even if he is thinking of using computers more, he still relies mostly on pen, pencil and paper, as well as color markers and Sharpies. 

"Simple is better," he said.  "Why fix it if it’s not broke? I don’t think art should become fully based off of computers and having to know that craft, because there is a whole separate craft that is also involved in it, that I don’t think should be lost in the transition."

He'd like to paint but says it's too expensive. "When I was going to school, I would get discounts and coupons to go to the art store. It made it easier. Going to the arts store now you can drop a couple of hundred dollars on paint, and that’s why I don’t paint," he said. 

"If there’s any place you are going to see tattoos on girl’s necks and stuff like that it’s going to be here," Santos said. 

Gentrification in Progress

He says change is coming quickly to Reno, but that some of it to him is just inhumane, especially when old motels are razed to the ground, reducing options for affordable housing.

"There are tons of kids who grew up in those motels, who would hop from room to room," he said.  "For people to just assume they need to tear them down because it’s an eyesore or because there’s hookers or whatever, it’s also going to affect the community in a negative way. We’ll have even more homeless kids.  If we are tearing those down, to put up a Whole Foods, I think that’s stupid… And also sometimes maybe in five years there still will be nothing there."

"That says oil ... for weed extracts. It’s supposed to replicate the Virgin Mary religious drawings.  So I just put a bong there. It symbolizes how for so long everybody said weed was bad, and then now it’s coming out that it’s got all these positives attributes," Santos said.

A Question of Perspectives

With the so-called fight on blight, Santos says too much emphasis is put on eliminating the blight, rather than thinking of what might have caused the blight and how to help people living in the blight.

But he says, as an artist, he can only get people to think.

"We as a community need to stay educated on everything and look at things at face value and look at what affects what. It’s going to take everybody period," he said. "Do we allow heroin drug motels all over the place and embrace it or do we tear it down? We need to address the problem that led to the heroin problem."

Interview with Our Town Reno in March 2018

Fine Motor, Rocking for Our Center

In the wake of the appalling Pulse nightclub mass killing, which left 49 people brutally murdered at a gay nightclub in Florida two years ago, Reynolds School of Journalism Assistant Professor Ben Birkinbine felt compelled to give back with a benefit concert for Our Center, a local LGBTQA community space.

When the Wells Avenue locale was attacked by a rock throwing vandal earlier this year, his determination to help only grew stronger. So this past Saturday, Birkinbine and the band he is a part of Fine Motor followed through on their pledge with a solemn evening concert at the Holland Project, with proceeds going to Our Center.

“It’s kind of the punk rock mentality of sense of community," Birkinbine (second from left) said.

Fine Motor and other bands held the benefit concert this past Saturday at the Holland Project to help with repairs estimated to cost up to $10,000. Above photo provided to media by Our Center, which also posted this below video to Facebook after the January second attack: https://www.facebook.com/OurCenterReno/videos/1774797669230893/

20-year-old Erin Miller, a student at TMCC who goes by the stage name Surly, was the opening act.  “I’m a firm believer in doing whatever you can to help,” she said.

Photos and reporting by Jordan Gearey for Our Town Reno

Debi, Leaving Art Message Rocks around Reno

Art Abandonment

Handrich-Walker said that part of what drove her to start the Facebook group "Reno Painted Rocks" was a love of art abandonment, or leaving artwork somewhere for others to find.  The group has over 1,500 members, dispersed all over the world, from Reno to South Korea.

People who find the rocks take pictures of them and post them to Facebook to have their find shared with the group. Walker, who works in a bakery, said she “loves” Reno and described the art scene in the city as up and coming. “(The up and coming art scene) is a big draw for me, I love the arts, so (Reno has) got nice culture.” 

An Outlet and Smiles

Handrich-Walker, who also works in a bakery, said she “loves” Reno and its arts and culture scene, which she described as up and coming. While also serving as an outlet for her, she said she likes the fact that the rocks can make someone else happy.

“If I can paint a rock and know that it's going to bring somebody a smile, that is soothing to me," she said.

Handrich-Walker, who says she has planted hundreds of rocks around Reno since the group was founded, added that the time it takes to paint a rock depends on its size.  She said it can take anywhere from one to two hours or several minutes. Photo and reporting by Kevin Sheridan shared with Our Town Reno.

Handrich-Walker said some of what she uses for her rocks includes acrylic paint and watercolor pencils, while others in the group have used melted crayons and Sharpie pens to add color to the rocks.  “(The mediums are) endless,” she said. “If you can write with it, you can draw a rock with it.” 

Why don't you join the movement, make a rock, hide it, and go look for someone else's decorated one?  More instructions are on the Facebook page. Photo by Kevin Sheridan shared with Our Town Reno.

Photos, Audio and Reporting by Kevin Sheridan shared with Our Town Reno

Little Comes Before Big When It Comes To Truck Vendors

Photos, Infographic and Reporting by Candice Vialpando and Breanne Standingwater 

Britton McKain Murdock, owner and creator of Reno’s first mobile fashion truck, The Biggest Little Fashion Truck. Murdock purchased the truck in June 2016.

Going Nimble on Wheels

Starting a new business can come with many challenges. People starting new business ventures in Reno are discovering that sometimes it pays to start small with a street operation or mobile business.

 One of the most common and well known street vendors in Reno is the food truck. Summer food truck events are especially popular. One of the biggest events is Reno Street Food which entered its sixth year in 2016. Every Friday in the summer over 30 trucks will gather in Idlewild park Park to serve gourmet food, desserts, and craft beer to customers. In 2015, Steve Schroeder who helps put on the street food events estimated to the Reno Gazette Journal, that 70,000 food grazers spent more than $1 million over 20 Fridays.

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Food trucks dominate, but more and more other business models are going mobile on wheels.

Unique Benefits

Starting a new business venture is challenging and expensive. Having a mobile business plan allows entrepreneurs some unique benefits. The cost of opening up a business can vary, but overall opening up a small mobile business will run someone between $5k-100k according to Food Truck Empire while a brick and mortar storefront can cost on average $13k-600k according to Forbes.

 Mobile businesses are able to build their brand and customer base before investing in a storefront. They are also able to test out different locations to see where their customer base is strongest.

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In the summer, the truck will park in a driveway or street or wherever is available. Murdock will open the doors and make an outdoor boutique full of racks, tables with accessories, as well as shopping inside the truck. It is a unique and fun experience. 

Although food trucks make up the bulk of Reno’s street vendors, the Biggest Little City now has its very own, first mobile fashion truck, The Biggest Little Fashion Truck. The pink mobile boutique is able to travel around the Reno, Carson, and Tahoe areas selling chic clothing and accessories.

The owner of The Biggest Little Fashion Truck, Britton McKain Murdock, 27, is a former athlete turned female entrepreneur.

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Britton has always had a love for retail. It’s in her blood too. Her grandfather owned Murdock’s Clothing Store for thirty years in Carson City and Reno. She always wanted to carry on the family tradition but knew she would have to evolve with the times.

Empowering Women

Fashion trucks are huge in big cities like Los Angeles. According to the American Mobile Retail Association, there are a total of 19 fashion trucks in Los Angeles, with a national total of 500.

Murdock said that she is mixing in a lifestyle brand into her company so that she can empower women, and encourage them to find what makes them happy.

Murdock said fashion trucks are out to change the way women shop. They are evolving stores on wheels that can go to just about any location and accompany different types of trucks and events. There is also a sense of urgency when shopping from a truck. An opportunity to buy an interesting piece of clothing may disappear when the truck travels to its next location.

Murdock said that when she was researching the retail businesses, she immediately knew that the fashion truck would be her stepping-stone to one day owning her own store, similar to what Wood and Watnes have done.

“Right now we don’t have the foot traffic for a brick in mortar store, but in the future I would love to own stores as well as a fleet of trucks,” Murdock said.

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Inventory for the fashion truck is always changing and there is a wide variety of clothing and accessories to chose from. 

Mobility and Versatility

The beauty of a fashion truck event is that they are all different. The clientele changes with the location. The inventory is customized for each event. Murdock sets up in all different venues: houses, front yards, inside homes, outside restaurants, and more.

 Murdock is generally known in the community for two kinds of events, a private event and a public event.

“In the summer I will park in the driveway or street or wherever is available. I will open the doors, I have stairs that drop down, and I will make an outdoor boutique full of racks, tables with accessories, as well as shopping inside the truck,” Murdock said.

Fashion trucks are huge in big cities like Los Angeles and New York. Murdock said that when she was researching the retail businesses, she immediately knew that the fashion truck would be her stepping-stone to one day owning her own store.

Sipping Wine and Shopping for Clothes

Women sip on their wine and shop from the truck. It is an intimate, convenient and comfortable shopping experience.

The public events that Murdock hosts are like festivals downtown whereby she sets up in a similar way.

“At those events, I get a different crowd which helps with exposure,” Murdock said.

 Murdock said that one of the biggest questions she has asked herself throughout this journey is ‘who is my target market?’ Murdock said that when she opened The Biggest Little Fashion Truck, she was aiming for women aged 15 to 40 years-old. However, her whole plan has changed, as her clothing now appeals to all age groups. “This is an opportune time to be in the Biggest Little City. We are growing and booming. There is an energy in the city that you can feel,” Murdock said.

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“I think this is a good time to be in Reno. Having four tires that make you mobile is also a good thing,” Murdock said.

Photos, Infographic and Reporting by Candice Vialpando and Breanne Standingwater 

Connor Fogal, Painting and Making Toys for Children with Special Needs

Text and Photos by Natalie Van Hoozer for Our Town Reno

Amid the sculptures and other creations under construction in the art co-working space known as The Generator in Sparks, there is an area dedicated to Creative Potential, a company where adults with special needs can work on a commission basis to design and create non-toxic toys for children with disabilities.

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“A lot of people think people with disabilities can’t do anything at all,” says 23-year-old Creative Potential artist Connor Fogal. He has limited use of his arms and legs due to cerebral palsy.

Proving People Wrong

“I like to prove people wrong about what they think about people with disabilities,” he says. He pursues his passion for painting by using a paintbrush attached to a headset to create his work, some of which is on display in restaurants and offices around Reno.  

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a disabled person is twice as likely to be unemployed as a person who is not disabled. 

Striving for Financial Independence

One of Connor’s main goals is to find a job with a competitive wage which will allow him to financially support himself. As a person with disabilities, generating this income is an uphill battle.

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Fogal recently worked at a job which paid $8 per hour. However, he says he was only given one hour’s worth of work each day, despite the fact that he was available at the work site and willing to work for six hours every day.  

The Reasons Behind Creative Potential

Observing this type of treatment is part of what drove artist and educator Spencer Allen to start Creative Potential. In order to promote competitive wages, Allen designed the company so the artists keep 80 percent of the earnings made from their products.

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On Creative Potential: “It shouldn’t be a company where its main motivation is profit,” says Allen. “It should exist to create opportunities to employ other people with disabilities.”

An Inclusive Art Space

Creative Potential is also designed to be an inclusive work space, which means people with and without disabilities work in the same workplace.  Since that workplace is in The Generator, Fogal and Allen have been taught to use the facility’s equipment, like lasers, to further develop their artwork.  

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“People’s perception is that [The Generator] is just about Burning Man, but there is an element here that is socially conscious and is aware that what we are doing is a benefit to Reno,” says Allen.

Never Give Up

In the future, Fogal and Allen would like to see Creative Potential grow, with more artists contributing and more people assisting with production.

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Fogal would like to show his work in galleries in large cities like San Francisco, L.A. and New York.

All in the Family

Another artist who works with Creative Potential is Fogal's niece 16-year-old Ashleigh Fogal. She likes to play the piano and created this “monster” while her uncle painted.

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Fogal’s own passion for art started with an interest in mixing different colors of paints. He is currently working on a painting series about his family members.

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Follow His Journey

Fogal has his own website Mylow, short for 'My Life on Wheels', where you can look at more of his art and also purchase it.  Also to find out more about Allen and Fogal's Generator project to make safe toys for children with disabilities start by clicking on   http://creativepotential.guru/

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Text, Reporting and Photos by Natalie Van Hoozer for Our Town Reno

Pirates, Knights and Witches of Reno, Helping the Homeless

The so-called "Pirates of Reno", members of a caring culture who dress and act the part, have a long tradition of feeding the homeless on a weekly basis on Record Street, as part of the We Care Volunteers program.  The pirates were front and center at the recent Reno-Sparks Pagan Pride day. 

Photos and Reporting by Ashley Andrews

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Flogging, water torture, accepting bribes to issue warrants, drenched survivors told to "go forth and sin some more," and auctions for We Care Volunteers were part of the festivities as pirates and witches invaded Idlewild Park.

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George (right), a father of four and grandfather of one, now living on the streets, recognized the Pirates of Reno from their weekly feeding.

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A Knight of the Favor Jar gave George some cheer and bottled water.

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The Knights, like the Pirates, perform volunteer work. Knights volunteer their time to help others do just about anything. Knights will shovel snow, move furniture or sit and talk. When the Reno-Sparks Pagan Pride Day 2016 came to a close, Knights helped clean up. Gathering flowers used in the Mabon pagan ritual ceremony of thanks for a bountiful harvest, this Knight struck a pose.

Photos and Reporting by Ashley Andrews for Our Town Reno

Thriving Despite the Odds: the South Town Tattoo Collective

Amid rising rents in downtown and Midtown Reno and lots of competition among tattoo parlors and tattoo artists, the South Town Tattoo Collective is living up to its name: collegial, giving, socially conscious and accessible in a shared space without prohibitive costs. Artists from the collective also work on community gardens and hold weekly potlucks for people living without a roof over the heads.

Photos, Interviews and Captions by Candice Vialpando

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 “The main purpose for starting a ‘collective’ tattoo shop was the idea of breaking down hierarchy,” says founder and tattoo artist Jay Dee Skinner.

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Jay Dee Skinner has been tattooing since 2010. He is best known for his portraits, photo realism, black and grey colors, and custom lettering tattoos.

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“Reno is an art town. It is overwhelmed with tattoo shops. We have so much to benefit from being a collective,” says Nichole Moore, one of the tattoo artists at the South Town Tattoo Collective.

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Moore is booked out with about three, four customers a day. This back Mandala piece (many times defined as a geometric figure representing the universe through symbolism) has so far taken her 24 hours, and will be completed after another 8 hours of work. 

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"Custom, one of a kind tattoos with deep meaning, in a safe space is the demand we provide for the people," Skinner says.“Sharing a bond with the person walking through the door and becoming old friends, and quick, is my favorite part of the art (...) Our people offer up a lot of trust that we take very seriously. Our goal is to always honor that and give our very best back to the people."

Photos, Interviews and Captions by Candice Vialpando

Jack Ryan, An Artist Who "Pops Color Wheelies"

It’s almost showtime for Jack, one of the chosen for the “Artisans in the Secret Garden” show tomorrow Saturday, an all-day Artown event showcasing the work of local artists, clothiers and jewelry makers.

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“I might not be a genius, but I have the hair of a genius” Jack says, in front of some his art at the Potentialist Workshop in Reno on July 8, 2016.

At his corner space at the 2nd street Potentialist Workshop, Jack, who says he likes to “pop color wheelies”, and who was encouraged to become a painter after being a local theater revelation, is figuring out logistics and which of the eight to 12 pieces he says he will be displaying.

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Jack traces some of the inspiration behind his recent work to growing up in Hawaii and spending time at Pyramid Lake and Black Rock City.

Known by friends for his unique, self-taught paintings, full of dazzling color combinations and Swiss cheese cut out canvasses as well as his way with words, Jack shared some of his philosophies of life and lessons learned from painting for the past “four and half years” with Our Town Reno.

Any pre-show nerves?

“Oh no, I’m fully open to it. I’m really going to show the world what I am capable of. It’s really nice. They deserve this… I’ll be bringing some cosmological etchings and actually entire ages frozen in time. What else? And some minimal pieces.  I hear people sometimes like minimal things.  I used to be a minimal criminal, until that name got taken off the Internet.”

How would you describe your style as artist?

“This has been an exploration of technique revealing itself while I’m able to be patient. This is the first time I’ve had a relationship in the physical world where there’s been tangible results, I think.  Although the jury is still out on that. I play music but this seems to be easier on people. Imagine what this sounds like, it might be too much."

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“I like the motion. I like how it fits into my vision of showing transformal objects. You may see a symbol in there that you may not recognize, but that your DNA definitely recognizes."

Some of your pieces have cutouts on the edges. What’s the idea there?

“I’m trying to emulate time-coded tablets. I’m actually trying to throw lines of totems and tikis. I grew up in Hawaii and spend a lot of time in Pyramid Lake, and I’ve been exposed to human spirit aspects. I’m trying to let my DNA breathe those experiences. I’ve also gone to Burning Man quite a number of years and that city taught me how to throw a line. I have to throw a line where I do my art that would fit in the pantheon of that city of how much beauty I’ve been shared with. I have to fire back or else I am not doing what an artist should. And also, you could strap (my paintings) to anything in Burning Man and get shade.  That’s also why the design is cut out. You can rope them. You can tape them. You can clip them. They’re made for function. They can be cheese trays. You know people eat cheese."

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Jack's piece is the one in the middle on the top of one the Potentialist walls: “It’s really a crazy pornographic piece, but apparently nobody else can see it because somebody told me to put it on the wall. I’m greatly honored because it really captures the transformal look I’m trying to go for, with the depths, the perspectives and the twists, and, of course, the outright beauty.”

How does painting help you?

"The frozenness, to have that one moment of frozen is kind of important in this day and age as we see image upon image upon image. We’re just inundated with images. Me having a relationship with a frozen moment is something that my soul hasn’t been able to find in another place and it’s kind of nice to be helped in this way. I never imagined it. I’ve lost weight though since becoming an artist.  I even lost 30 pounds at one point, but I've regained some."

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From the floor of his corner space: “That is the symbol of our age, the container for water. It’s not the water itself, it’s the bearer of the water.  As a human earthling, I was actually recently declared, I have to have a relationship with water. It’s rough in our age. “

Is it really difficult to be an artist?

As an artist, they’re not kidding. They’re the lowest rung on the ladder of society for a reason. They just couldn’t make it as humans. That’s really the only reason I became an artist. I couldn’t make it as whatever is going on around here.   But these four and a half years, I’ve learned what an artist is not. Maybe after a couple more months, maybe I’ll learn what an artist is. I’ve been stretched to my limits. I’ve lost everything, but it’s ok. There’s no other way out.

The free to access Saturday July 9th Artown event Artisans in The Secret Garden will be from 9 am to 4pm at 751 Marsh Ave. Reno, NV 89509.

Note: Questions and answers were trimmed. Interviews and photos for Our Town Reno on July 8, 2016.

I.B. Funny, the Balloon Maker

Story and Photo by Taylor Burnett for Our Town Reno, June 2016

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Local balloon artist, I.B. Funny, poses for a picture while making balloon creations for kids at Idlewild Park. “This is a classic pose that I like,” he says as he gets into position with a smile on his face. I.B. Funny frequents local events to share his craft of balloon making.