EPISODE 15: Art Therapy w/ Gary Soszynski

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:20] KK: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Risky Business. I'm Kathy Kaehler, and this is my friend.

[00:00:26] BL: Bliss Landon.

[00:00:28] KK: Welcome back to another episode. We have a great show today.

[00:00:33] BL: We really do.

[00:00:33] KK: Like beyond.

[00:00:34] BL: Yes.

[00:00:35] KK: Like I'm so excited.

[00:00:35] BL: Like awesome.

[00:00:36] KK: Like super, super fun. But how have you been?

[00:00:38] BL: I've been greater than missing you.

[00:00:40] KK: I know. I was –

[00:00:40] BL: You’ve been just traveling all over and doing your thing.

[00:00:43] KK: Again, again, again.

[00:00:44] BL: I know. I know.

[00:00:46] KK: I will say that Kentucky in April is spectacular.

[00:00:52] BL: I could imagine. Wow.

[00:00:53] KK: I never knew the types of things that could bloom into such beautiful colors.

[00:01:00] BL: I bet.

[00:01:00] KK: Shades of pink and reds. I mean, it's just spectacular.

[00:01:04] BL: Well, and everything's so green there, where we don't really see that here in California and certain parts. That’s great.

[00:01:10] KK: Right. It was really spectacular so –

[00:01:13] BL: I can’t wait to take a trip with you. [inaudible 00:01:15].

[00:01:15] KK: I know. We're going to go.

[00:01:16] BL: I know. I know. I'm going to get my back first fixed. Then we’ll go. All right.

[00:01:21] KK: Yes. Body parts have to be working.

[00:01:22] BL: Body parts have to be – Yes. I need some repairing in my back. Yes.

[00:01:28] KK: Well, anyway, so all is good. All is good. Well, you have a very good connection with our guest.

[00:01:36] BL: Yes, I do.

[00:01:36] KK: I don't know much about it, so I'm super excited to learn about him and what he does and what he's written and what he paints and –

[00:01:48] BL: Well, let me introduce you.

[00:01:49] KK: Please. Please.

[00:01:50] BL: This is Gary Soszynski. Okay. He's written a book called The Book. Here it is right here.

[00:01:56] KK: Great title.

[00:01:57] BL: Yeah. That's his art.

[00:01:58] KK: I love it. I love it.

[00:02:00] BL: But let me just tell you a little bit about Gary. This book actually is an autobiography. Visionary artist, Gary Soszynski, documents his journey of passion, integrity, and tenacity, not only to survive but to thrive as an artist and a person. So this book is really awesome because he goes through his journey in life basically and how art has carried him through many different stages in his life and many different experiences. I've had the pleasure of knowing Gary. I think we're going on 12 years now, Gary?

[00:02:34] GS: Yes.

[00:02:35] BL: Yeah. So Gary –

[00:02:36] GS: Art class is actually 30 years.

[00:02:38] BL: Okay. But I haven’t been there that long.

[00:02:40] GS: Every Monday for 30 years [inaudible 00:02:42].

[00:02:42] KK: Wow. Wait. I want to show people because this cover is so –

[00:02:49] BL: Isn’t it beautiful?

[00:02:50] KK: I want people to see it because it's really quite extraordinary.

[00:02:53] GS: I could show it too here.

[00:02:55] KK: Look at us.

[00:02:55] BL: There you go.

[00:02:56] KK: Look at – We’re pairing The Book.

[00:03:00] GS: That's the Tree of Life painting. It symbolizes man's profusion of his search for spirituality. So you see in the tree, all the different religions are shown there. You see that the tree starts with the older people. Then it grows up to the more new [inaudible 00:03:19] people, the younger people, and then right to babies in the tree with God or the universe looking down on it.

[00:03:29] KK: It’s extraordinary. When did you publish? When did you finish The Book?

[00:03:35] GS: I published The Book about two years ago. If you get a chance to read it, you'll see the whole process there. I had been wanting to write this book for many, many years. But I was doing what we all do a lot. I was doing too much pre-editing. Should I tell this story? Should I that story? Should I show this painting? Should I show that? I never – I wasn't getting around to it. In The Book, I described how, just quickly, every year I signed the back of the art I sell in the Venice Boardwalk with an inspirational thought. In 2014, I wrote the best year ever. In 2015, I wrote the year of abundance. In 2016, I wrote the year of enlightenment. Then in 2017, I wrote the year fulfillment. I sold a few thousand of these pieces of art a year. It gives me the opportunity to share these great inspirational words and hopefully inspire my clients to live their best lives.

Anyway, it goes on. But basically, in 2018, I came up with the words expanding horizons. As soon as that hit me, I realized, stop all this pre-editing. Just start writing.

[00:04:42] KK: Just do it. Just go.

[00:04:44] GS: I don't care which – Anyway, I was at Venice at the time. I was selling my art on Venice Boardwalk for 40 years. But I have to get there five or six o'clock in the morning and I don't sit up till nine. So I'd have these hours and I realized I can write all this into my cell phone. I started writing it to my cell phone, and it just all came flooding out. Everything I've ever wanted to say because my years in Venice I was asked millions of times, “Where does your inspiration come from? Where does your creativity come from?” This book answers all those questions.

Like Bliss was saying earlier, I've been through a lot of trials and tribulations in my life, from divorce to my son committed suicide. Now, my wife has schizophrenia. I think Bliss knows I'm a pretty joyous person. I stay up, I stay happy, and it comes to creativity. I see creativity as the source of the joyful life. I feel sorry for people who aren't creative because it has brought me through so many of these trials and tribulations.

After my son died, he came to me, and I allowed it to coach because I'm creative enough to let these things come in and to help me get through these things. He let me know that he’s hanging, and all that was the best he wanted to do. He didn't want us to go down. He wanted us to stay up. So I was able to go up to where he’d hung himself and create a homage to him so that now we can go up there and enjoy him there.

[00:06:24] BL: Elan he was very creative too. He was an artist and a writer. I mean, it runs in the family, definitely.

[00:06:30] KK: But it sounds like your –

[00:06:32] GS: My children now are – They’re not [inaudible 00:06:35] artists and dancers. My little Emily, she knows how to end a line. She knows how to turn, I mean.

[00:06:44] BL: Hey, Gary. I want to correct you, though. One thing that you said, your wife has Alzheimer's, not schizophrenia, right?

[00:06:50] GS: Yeah. Sorry. My son had –

[00:06:52] BL: Your son had schizophrenia. Yeah. Okay. So I just want to make sure that we're clear on that.

[00:06:55] GS: Exactly, yeah.

[00:07:01] BL: He helps a lot of people. Through his art, he's been very helpful to a lot of people. Through the pandemic, he was very helpful to a lot of people. We really kind of kept going through our art class that I do with him once a week. Then he was able to do some art classes for some kids in the neighborhood. What was your experience in that, Gary? In just at that time, I mean, here you are, again, faced with another challenge, and you're using your art to conquer this next challenge that we're up against, a global pandemic.

[00:07:38] GS: Well, as you know, our art class and any art class is mostly art therapy. It’s art.

[00:07:44] BL: It is sometimes.

[00:07:45] GS: Especially in our Hidden Hills class because all the women all these years, I watch all these Housewives of Orange County and all these others — and they were horrible. I mean, I'm addicted to it, but they're all horrible to each other. In my art class, there's so much love and there's so much camaraderie. Everyone has always been able to come into that class and bring their deepest, darkest problems, me one of them as I've gone through the death of my son and we've gone through every possible emotion. The women feel very safe in that class that they can come in there and talk with these women because there's no other friends and no one. It’s whatever is in that art class.

[00:08:25] BL: There's no judgment, and that's the culture that you provide for our class. But can we get –

[00:08:32] GS: I show my vulnerability so much that it allows the others to show theirs.

[00:08:38] BL: Right. But now back it up –

[00:08:39] KK: I was going to say, I think there’s also that connection to art is never to be judged or criticized because it's an expression of what you're going through or what you feel or what you sense or what you've seen. I think that's a common knowledge. I remember telling my kids when they would say something about, “Oh, I drew this and I don't like it. It wasn't good enough.” I’d always say you can't judge art because you're expressing yourself.

[00:09:09] GS: That's what I always say. I love all art and I don't look at the finished product. I look at the energy put in, and that energy is always good. So there is no judgment, although I make sure that all the paintings are beautiful and perfect.

[00:09:25] BL: Yes, it does. The minute we start to head south, he brings us back.

[00:09:30] KK: Well, that’s a teacher.

[00:09:31] BL: So we don't bring home something that we're like, “Whoa, what did I just paint?” But anyway, back to the kids though. Back to the kids. Yeah.

[00:09:38] GS: Yeah, the kids, the girls. This was really quite a challenge, I'll tell you. It’s a lot different dealing with five teenage girls than dealing with five mature women. They were like very quick, and so I had to jump from one to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next. I mean, it was like the busiest hours that I spent. But for them, it was great because they hadn't been together. Everybody wore masks, we stayed six feet apart, we were outside, and they were able to talk with each other, which they haven't been able to do. It was a really a – Then they all showed phenomenal talent.

[00:10:24] BL: That’s great.

[00:10:24] GS: That’s the one thing I’ve seen in people who don't think they can draw because as Bliss knows, I've developed. My most of my teaching techniques are very unique to me. They're not anything that I learned. They’re what I learned by myself as an artist, and I simplified things. I take the mystery out. But like people tend to think that, “Oh, watercolors are so hard. They're so hard, right?” You know why they're hard? Because when you get your first watercolor set when you're a child, they give you the worst brush in the world. The brush looks like my finger. No one could ever create a beautiful watercolor with that brush.

[00:11:08] KK: Well, with – I was going to say, Gary, with that suggestion, like for people who are listening who don't, let's say, have an opportunity to be in your class or in any class, what is that first direction that you would suggest on what to get, how to start? Because it is such –

[00:11:26] GS: Buy a good brush.

[00:11:28] BL: Buy a good brush. He always says that.

[00:11:30] KK: Buy a good brush.

[00:11:30] BL: But, Gary, here. I have to give you my experience because always I would watch that guy. It was Ron Ross on TV.

[00:11:39] KK: I loved him.

[00:11:40] BL: How does –

[00:11:40] KK: My grandfather loved him, Bob. 

[00:11:42] BL: He could make a tree in a nanosecond with this fan brush that he would use.

[00:11:46] GS: Not my favorite. I'm [inaudible 00:11:48].

[00:11:49] BL: I just wanted to learn to paint so badly and I got into this class by default. My mom was asked to go in it. My mom can't paint a straight line. She's an awesome decorator, she can sing like no other person but she cannot draw. My dad can, so I kind of got that from him. I got into the class. What was so interesting to me was how you start a painting. Okay. So what we do is we get an ochre-colored acrylic paint that we – Right, yeah? 

[00:12:22] GS: Yeah. Well, it’s like a gesso. But it’s acrylic.

[00:12:22] BL: Acrylic. We use an acrylic. Yeah. Or a gesso and we paint the canvas.

[00:12:25] GS: Because when you're buying canvas from the store, the canvas is very dry. So if you go to paint directly on that, a lot of the oil or the acrylic is going to soak into the canvas. Then when it dries, little tiny dots are going to open up of white. I have them coated with an ochre color. So even if that happens, you're going to see a little bit of ochre through whatever color, and that's always going to be beautiful.

[00:12:49] BL: But that’s because it’s a warm, beautiful color, ochre.

[00:12:51] KK: What kind of color is that? I would like to know.

[00:12:53] BL: It's like a yellow but it's a brown yellow. It's like – Okay, imagine –

[00:12:59] GS: Like this [inaudible 00:13:00] be ochre.

[00:13:02] BL: Like dried hay. Like a dry hay field. That’s ochre, right? That’s right? Yeah.

[00:13:07] GS: Yeah. Darker version of hay. Yes.

[00:13:09] BL: Right. So you do that. Then what we are instructed to do by Gary is to outline. We’d take tracing paper and we kind of outline the bigger objects of what we want to paint because I can only copy. I can't think out of my head. He thinks out of his head, but I can't. Most of us can't at our class. We have to trace something.

[00:13:30] GS: Well, the class basically, everybody, I tell the class, whatever you want to do. So people –

[00:13:36] BL: But we all usually copy something, correct?

[00:13:39] GS: Yes.

[00:13:42] BL: So then he takes our drawing and he reduces it. Then he sets up our canvas in the darkroom. We have a darkroom in the studio. He projects that image onto our canvas. So then we go into the darkroom and we trace in the dark over our tracing with pencil. So then we come out. We have a canvas with a tracing on it.

[00:14:08] KK: A tracing on it.

[00:14:09] BL: That really helps with the perspective of what you're doing to accommodate the size of the canvas that you're going to do.

[00:14:15] KK: I see.

[00:14:16] BL: So then, Gary, you also do murals. You did a mural in my mother's house, you've done murals for other women in our class, and you’ve –

[00:14:23] GS: Good murals.

[00:14:24] BL: Yeah. You get asked to do murals for buildings and all kinds of things. So what did – You used a computer program on your computer to kind of magnify the image and give a design to somebody and say, “Okay, do you approve this,” right?

[00:14:41] GS: Yeah. From the moment that the computer came forward, I don't know what was that now, 20 years ago or 15, I really got involved because –

[00:14:49] BL: A long time. I think longer than that.

[00:14:53] KK: Maybe this particular program.

[00:14:54] BL: Yes. What do you use? What program is it?

[00:14:59] GS: Photoshop. Yeah. I knew it was a visual medium, so I totally just knew that this was going to be everything for me. The big thing that the computer did for me was being able to print my art. Before the computer, you would have to get four-color separation. If I wanted a really high-quality print of my art, it would end up costing me $1,000 to get the whole process because you'd have the four-color separation. Then you'd have to order at least 1,000 to get anything good. Otherwise, you try to take a photo and you could never get a good white. I would take 40 photos to try to get one photo that was halfway decent and then that printed on photo paper. That was never anything that I could sell.

Suddenly, the computer comes along, and Photoshop comes along, so I'm able to – What I do is I take I take a picture but I take it on an angle like because a lot of oil paintings are shiny. I take it on an angle, so I no longer see the shine. I take that photo. Then I'm able to bring that into Photoshop and I'm able to then turn it square again. Then I can adjust the colors perfectly. I could adjust the white. I could adjust the thing. Bing, bam, boom, print it on my printer [inaudible 00:16:15]. It's everything. I got my childhood dream of having my little money printing machine, and I've sold up to 5,000 pieces of art. [inaudible 00:16:25] Venice Boardwalk a year. It’s just that's been the biggest aspect of the computer that's helped me.

But then like Liz was saying, when I get a mural job, I just had a large mural job come up recently, and then I'll put together a whole computer rendering so that people see exactly what they're going to get, except that it gets a little bit better when I think.

[00:16:48] KK: It’s so nice. Where can people get your book? That's what I would like to know.

[00:16:55] GS: You can buy The Book at my website, garysoszynski.com. That’s G-A-R-Y S-O-S-Z-Y-N-S-K-I.com. You'll see The Book there and you can buy it through PayPal.

[00:17:12] KK: Gary, when did you know you were going to be an artist?

[00:17:17] GS: Well, I would say definitely by the first grade. I had a teacher, Miss Smolin. My mom ran into her many years after, and the first thing she said was, “Is Gary still doing his art?” I definitely remember standing and I was given an easel. I was in the corner of the room. My first painting was of Woody Woodpecker and his two nephews.

[00:17:42] KK: That’s so cute.

[00:17:44] GS: The nephews were coming up on the hill, so you only saw their heads. I remember that distinctly. Then every teacher I ever had totally was involved with me and my art, and they all fostered it. I had so many great teachers that fostered my talent right up into high school where I was like a major hippie in high school because I didn't have a father and I was totally on my own. Going down to Greenwich Village when I was 12, I saw the birds concert at a Cafe Wha. I'm drinking rum and coke as well. I had this very wild life but I stayed on the high honor roll. I ended up getting a full scholarship to college, and that was all my teachers always [inaudible 00:18:34].

[00:18:34] BL: Encouraging you. Yeah. That's nice.

[00:18:36] KK: That's amazing.

[00:18:37] GS: They always encouraged me.

[00:18:38] BL: That’s amazing.

[00:18:40] GS: I never had any other thought, so I'm kind of limited. I've been just absolutely super focused on this art and I've been lucky enough that this is all I've ever done. I mean, I did some commercial, more commercial work in New York. I moved into Manhattan when I was 18. I first restored 14th century panels and paintings where you would have to [inaudible 00:19:05]. You'd have to fill in every color in between the cracks and not get any [inaudible 00:19:10].

[00:19:11] BL: If you have a painting that gets damaged, he will fix it perfectly.

[00:19:14] KK: Amazing.

[00:19:15] GS: That was my job. Then I became a textile designer, actually a real designer. I went all up the ranks of a colorist to repeat artist. Then I became a designer. Then I had my own company called EMMM Designs in a 2,500 square-foot loft in the middle of Manhattan I was paying $500 a month for.

[00:19:37] KK: Incredible. Wow.

[00:19:39] BL: That’s amazing. What would you say to a young person or a parent of kids who have a child that shows some signs of art and being able to maybe pursue that? I think it's hard for kids to read I said this could be a career.

[00:20:02] GS: Well, yeah. That’s what – I was a big part of the dreamers. I was a hippie, I was a dreamer, and I had no parental support. So I didn't have anybody telling me what not to do. I basically, I mean, I got out on my own very early, so I always believe that I could do this. In fact, my mantra, it's a little high plug. But my mantra since I was 18 years old that I would be known as the greatest artist that ever lived. Now, this is very lofty mantra. But at the same time, I get to climb a step every day towards this. I may never reach it. I don't even know if I want to because then what would I do? But it propels me and I know I'll be doing it to my dying day is just stepping up.

You see, I've had quite a big art career. So by the time I was 50, I've been told I was going to be famous so many times. I was like, “Where is it? Where –”

[00:21:04] KK: When is it happening?

[00:21:05] GS: “Oh, your paintings are great. Why aren’t you famous? [inaudible  00:21:07] Right? I'm 68 now. I’m going to be 69. But at 50, I realized, “Okay, I don't care about that.” I love being on the road. I've always been one that loves to drive. Yeah. That’s what I'm doing now. I'm on this really – I've achieved all my goals basically as an artist. Now, I'm like, “Okay, what are the new goals? Where do I go?” I'm a little in an odd place now because I am a 24-hour caretaker for my wife. So I basically have backburnered almost everything because as much as I've always wanted to be known as a great artist, I ultimately want to be known as a great person. It’s so much more to me than – All I've done with the art is to make sure that I am as good a person as I want to be, although we all fall below that often.

One of the biggest challenges for me and my wife is me not getting angry because things are misplaced. My wallet’s misplaced. My computer is touched. My phone is touched. The living room is torn apart. The bedroom is torn apart. I'm at this point right now and I would get angry, “Why? Don’t – Why?” Now, I'm at this point where I'm almost trying to become nothing. I've always been addicted to accomplishment, and I've always been addicted to doing and being, and I have to become kind of nothing right now so that I could give everything to her.

[00:22:54] KK: Well, you're a wonderful man and a heart that is full of giving. We have paths that come across our lives at every time. We don't know what that path is going to be or what the reason is that we're going on it, but I am a firm believer that there's something that we gain from that. We bring that to the next level of whatever it is, and I know that you are going to be the greatest artist that ever lived.

[00:23:34] GS: I’ve had a couple of people tell me that. “We wanted to tell you that.” I’m like, "Okay, I got one.”

[00:23:40] BL: Well, Gary, look what you're doing. You're promoting your book. Maybe if you didn't have that time to kind of dial it down a little bit, you wouldn't have that time to promote your book. So I think this book is so encouraging for so many people of all ages. It's a great story for everyone.

[00:23:59] GS: At the end of the back, I say – Sorry [inaudible 00:24:00].

[00:24:01] BL: That’s okay.

[00:24:02] GS: I said The Book also answers many questions I have been asked over the years. Where does your creativity come from? Where does your inspiration come from? The Book is also a story of redemption, of overcoming obstacles. It is a book to help those who have goals and for those who have achieved their goals, whose experience he has learned to combine. His art and his spiritual exploration, they have become one and the same. But I wanted to say my life isn’t also hard because I also have on my property, over the years, I've created a living space for my son, his daughter, and my two grandchildren. So I have my little Emily and Theodore Soszynski here every day. We do art and music and dance.

[00:24:46] KK: So joyful times.

[00:24:48] BL: Yeah, definitely.

[00:24:48] GS: You’re right.

[00:24:49] KK: Joyful times and that's balance. We need balance.

[00:24:51] GS: The balance.

[00:24:53] BL: Art is just so – For me, it's been so wonderful. I see colors differently. I'll be driving home and I'll look at clouds. Wow, I'd love to paint those clouds right now. Gary's taught us how to just really see things and to pause and to have patience. It's just a major outlet. I look forward to our classes. It is kind of therapy in many ways.

[00:25:19] KK: And it is a separation from our technology life and our rushing life. That's what I think is amazing about art.

[00:25:29] GS: My voice is not really out there. That's why I'm so glad we're doing this.

[00:25:35] KK: Well, we hope, Gary, with today that your spirit is speaking to us and our listeners. I want to thank you for sharing. I want to share your art.

[00:25:48] BL: Thank you so much, Gary.

[00:25:49] KK: Your stories. We'll send people to your website.

[00:25:54] GS: That would be great.

[00:25:55] BL: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:25:55] KK: To get the book, The Book.

[00:25:57] BL: The Book. And see that the pictures in there too, right?

[00:26:00] KK: Yeah.

[00:26:00] BL: The picture.

[00:26:01] KK: Yeah. Anyway.

[00:26:02] BL: It’s awesome.

[00:26:04] GS: It's all in there, and I appreciate so much. It was wonderful to meet you today. I'll see you Monday, Bliss, at art class.

[00:26:11] BL: Yes. God-willing, yes, I hope to be there.

[00:26:13] KK: Very nice to meet you.

[00:26:15] BL: Thank you so much, Gary. Have a great rest of your day, okay? Thank you for coming on our show.

[00:26:17] GS: All right. Bye.

[00:26:20] KK: Bye-bye.

[00:26:21] BL: Bye-bye.

[00:26:21] KK: Thank you so much.

[00:26:22] BL: Bye-bye.

[00:26:23] KK: Wow. I've been hearing you talk about your art class for many years but I didn't – Obviously, I'd never learned more about him and his story.

[00:26:36] BL: It’s really special, and he's just a very colorful person with so many things to contribute to everyone of all ages. It’s really fun to talk to him.

[00:26:49] KK: It’s really great.

[00:26:51] BL: Yeah.

[00:26:51] KK: If you are wanting to get his book, it is The Book. You can get it at his website, garysoszynski.com. If you have any other questions, you can always reach us at riskybusiness@coveragequeens.com.You can also reach out with questions. You can just send us a message, any topics in technology, in school device that you're using with your kids, health aspects of technology. We are really digging into a lot of subjects.

[00:27:26] BL: A lot of different subjects. Yeah.

[00:27:27] KK: And topics that we want to cover and learn more about, just as long as you're learning too, so we hope you'll reach out. But anyway, have a great rest of your day. We're glad you joined us here on this episode of Risky Business. I'm Kathy Kaehler.

[00:27:41] BL: And I'm Bliss Landon. Thank you so much.

[00:27:43] KK: See you next time.

[00:27:43] BL: Bye-bye.

[END]