Joseph Gyurcsak — Perseverance & Determination

Show Notes:

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On today's episode, we sat down with Joseph Gyurcsak, a versatile and accomplished fine artist, materials expert, and educator who has navigated a diverse career path with determination, adaptability and a deep passion for his craft. Joe shares his journey from being a young artist drawing cartoons to becoming a successful fine artist and materials expert at Blick Utrecht art materials. He discusses his transition from illustration to fine art, as well as his role at Blick developing and testing art materials. Joe emphasizes the importance of determination, perseverance and having a burning desire in order to succeed. He also highlights the importance of being flexible, taking criticism and maintaining consistency as other keys to success for emerging artists. He also attributes his own success to perseverance, determination and also following his artistic instincts, while also highlighting the value of mentorship and community. Joe gives us advice on building relationships with galleries and collectors, including the importance of expressing gratitude to supporters. Finally, Joe tells us about his upcoming workshops!

Joe's FASO site:
https://www.josephgyurcsak.com/

Joe's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/josephgyurcsak/

Joe's upcoming workshops:
https://www.josephgyurcsak.com/workshops

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Transcript:

Joseph Gyurcsak: 0:00

The key to my success is perseverance and determination, sheer determination. I'll well, first of all, you asked me early on my journey, I you don't choose to be an artist. You don't wake up one day and so you're going to be or is I, at least, I don't look at that way. Yeah, people can want to become a painter and everything, but if, for me, in the soul, I mean, really, when you get down to it, I don't It's a calling. It's a calling because there's no way that you can stay with something for 50 years. I've been painting for 50 years, there's no way you could stay into for something with all the ups and downs that you would be able to come down on the other side in a better way if you weren't fully committed to it, you know? And it was a passion, and it's one thing to have a passion that's good and that's important, but you also have to have a burning desire, and you have to have you know that determination to follow through.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:14

Welcome to BoldBrush show where we believe that fortune favors the BoldBrush video is Laura Arango Bayer and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. On today's episode, we sat down with Joseph gersak, a versatile and accomplished fine artist, materials expert and educator who has navigated a diverse career path with determination, adaptability and a deep passion for his craft. Joe shares his journey from being a young artist drawing cartoons to becoming a successful fine artist and materials expert at Blick Utrecht art materials, he discusses his transition from illustration to fine art, as well as his role of Blick developing and testing art materials. Joe emphasizes the importance of determination, perseverance and having a burning desire in order to succeed. He also highlights the importance of being flexible, taking criticism and maintaining consistency as other keys to success for emerging artists, he also attributes his own success to perseverance, determination and also following his artistic instincts, while also highlighting the value of mentorship and community. Joe gives us advice on building relationships with galleries and collectors, including the importance of expressing gratitude to supporters. Finally, Joe tells us about his upcoming workshops. Welcome Joe to the boldbrush show. How are you today?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 2:42

Oh, I'm doing great, Laura, it's great to be here.

Laura Arango Baier: 2:47

Yeah, it's great to have you because, as I mentioned before we started the recording, you are a materials wizard. You have a lot of experience, and you have beautiful paintings. So I am so ready to hear everything. You're going to have to tell us about your advice, about your experience, and anything that might be helpful for all of us. But before we dive into all of that, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 3:14

Okay, so I'm Joe Gyurcsak, and I am a fine artist, and I guess I've been a fine artist all my life. We'll get into the about the journey of it, but also as a dual career. Currently, I'm the brand manager and the resident artist for Blick Utrecht art materials, and I continue to thrive in my painting career, not only as a painter, but as a instructor in the world, doing workshops all over the place. So that's where I'm currently at with my career as an artist,

Laura Arango Baier: 4:04

amazing, yes, and actually, I did want to know because you said you've been an artist all your life. Do you mind telling us when you began to follow the path of the artist?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 4:15

Well, like so many artists I've heard in the past, my story starts out as a very young child and drawing cartoons focus on Disney cartoons when I was about five or six years old, and I had it the ability to copy these cartoons very Early on, and I think my parents were surprised. They weren't sure what was going on there, but I automatically had this tendency to be able to draw and copy things pretty well. Then, as I started to get a little bit older from my 12th birth. Birthday, they asked me what I wanted for a present, and I said I would like to go to take painting lessons. So they look for painting lessons outside of school, because they felt like I really wanted to move ahead with that. It was very interesting painting. So I went to adult painting class, and I was at this art store, or I would go every Saturday and and do still life painting, but it was with a bunch of adults. But because my level of painting was so advanced, I was reading the mix with the adults, maybe not where they were, as good as they were, but it certainly was a good thing for me. If I back up a moment when I was in sixth grade, I think that was my major turning point to know that I wanted to be be an artist. I had struggled with learning difficulties for all of my younger years, and my teacher in sixth grade, my social studies teacher, instead of giving me the project to write about the report of World War One, I actually was asked by her personally to do the renderings of all the scenes for World War One. And so when I brought them into class, they were watercolor and ink paintings. I still have some of them. They were very advanced. And at the time, it was an enlightening moment for me, because I realized that I could do something well beyond my age. And in comparison to the other children in the class I was I had brought in very advanced paintings, and they were wowed by them, and and it was the first time that I ever had any self confidence. So it was a big turning point. And from then on, I knew my heart was set on being an artist, because I figured, wow, I've had this special thing. And kudos to the teacher who was able to be that insightful and make it a substantial turning point in my life at that point. So that was it pretty interesting. Then I, when I went to high school, I had very good art teachers. They supported me and and I mean, really embraced my talent and pushed me. And in 10th grade, there was a high school of the arts program in New Jersey, and it was one of these unique things that they were trying in our county for High School of the Arts program never done before, and so I went and applied like 1000s of other kids to this, what I call, like a contest, or whatever it was, and they picked 24 kids out of The 1000s of kids. So the next two years of my high school program allowed me to go to a college and be trained with professors, college professors at the high school level, we were doing figure painting for your drawing and all that business. So that gave me an edge when I went to apply for the art schools, which was Parsons School of Design, I had gotten a partial scholarship, and I also went there with the intent of being becoming an illustrator, because my heart was set on being an illustrator. So then I left Parsons after one year, and then eventually wound up in school visual arts. I went there four years I trained under the most fantastic professors, a list of really talented at the time. It was the height of the last phase of the Golden illustration, and I was in touch with many of the brightest illustrators at that time, so that gave me a great start to my illustration career. My first job for illustration came in my senior year. CBS Records, they had a contest for album covers and Footloose, the single was chosen, and I got my first paycheck before leaving school visual arts from CBS Records. That really charged me up, because I felt like, wow, okay, I'm doing this. I'm really. Doing it. And I did it for about four years. It started to dwindle because of the computer phase switch over to computer art, and I couldn't make that transition. It wasn't in me. I'm a manual painter, old time dinosaur painter now, and so that's where I'm at. And so I started my fine art painting career in 1990 and walked away from illustration. And since 1990 I've been pursuing my fine art painting career. And then in 1998 my I had a list of jobs that were unrelated art assignments that I had went through. And so in 1998 I applied for this job at Utrecht as a art type consultant, person online for materials, because I was well trained by Michael Dees. He was the one of the professors at School of Visual Arts. He was, he's responsible for doing all the postage stamps, like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, the paramount, the lady with the torch. And he trained us really well about material. So when I took this job, I was well prepared to answer the questions for people online or people calling in to Utrecht about materials. I had gotten promoted five times in the company and moved up the ladder to brand manager and resident artists. I had a chemist who worked who mentored me for 15 years. He has passed away now Godfrey chambers, and he helped me learn about the chemistry of paint materials and how things are put together. And so had a really this fantastic journey learning about materials, transition to slowly becoming an expert in developing brushes and Canvas lines and working on all the paint lines for the company. So presently at Utrecht, Blick, Utrecht brand and Blick the company for 26 years, it'll be in November, and it's been quite a journey. I've been traveling all over the world and working on various projects. I'm working on projects right now for the company in my studio here, because I test materials for the company, and before they make any big decisions about purchasing materials, they asked me to check things out like that. So yeah, that's where I'm at. So it's been some journey, but we can unpack all that the way that you choose to ask, but that is basically where I'm at now. That

Laura Arango Baier: 13:25

is a fantastic journey, I would say, because you went from illustration to fine art to materials specialist and also fine artists at the same time, which is pretty cool and unexpected. I bet you, you had, I think if someone had told you as a kid like, Hey, you're going to end up being, you know who you are, you know today as Joe. I think child version of you would be very taken aback. I

Joseph Gyurcsak: 13:49

think so. I had no idea. In fact, I always tell this story in sixth, no seventh grade, I got thrown at a science class because I blew up something on the Bunsen burner, and that was the end of my science career. So I thought, how, how in the world am I working on paint formulas, and how in the world am I dealing with regulatory toxicology information? I don't know how that happened.

Laura Arango Baier: 14:18

Yeah, that's hilarious. You went from chemistry and I don't dive to this is what I do now, chemistry, yeah, oh, that's great. Um, actually, I'm very curious to know what, what are you testing right now? Is there anything that you you can share that you're testing that has been interesting?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 14:38

I really can't share it, but, yeah, there's always various things that come into the company, and then what happens is, if the company is not per i can tell you this much, if companies not personally making it, they may have several vendors that submit products for that particular. A label if they want to do a private label thing. And then what happens is they go through, we go through the review, and we actually see how the stuff functions, and then we go back. Now the buyers are better prepared if it was actually tested in the artist studio and that it's working, or whatever adjustments over the years, I have never considered myself any kind of expert. I don't know what that word means sometimes, but I do have the ability to assess people's products, and a lot of times it was very interesting over the years, where we get products where they were not they were really great ideas, but they weren't fully finished. And I have always been able to give important feedback to companies to actually help them to finish their products, even though they might be a competitor of ours because of my position in the industry. People know me as you know, having that ability to do those type of things. So when you're given a gift, you gotta use your gift. And who would ever have thought that I would have the ability to have, you know, have that knowledge to assess all those things. But I also toured colleges for about 18 years. I created all the educational programs for the company. So we we revised what the original Utrecht founders had had in place when they went all over New York City and were educating artists. We had lost that along the way, and we brought it back. And I spent about 18 years on the road to every major university art school or college organization doing lectures and painting demonstrations to not be like a sales pitch to the artist, or to be respectful to the professors, bring something to the table, where, when the session was done, they really felt like they learned something. And I have taken a lot of pride in that, and I took a stand with the board of directors in the past, I said, you know, this has got to be a real deal thing, otherwise we'll never get invited back. And when an ever make it like a sales thing, I wanted to make it like a learning opportunity, an artist really visiting a program and giving you something that you feel, felt like, in the end, that you were learning something. So that also really increased my ability to teach, which has given me another level or advantage. I know there's so many people out there teaching workshops and painting demonstration, all this stuff, but I had so much time on the road and so much experience doing that that I became known as when I'm in the workshop. Now I like to refer to for my students. I'm the fixer so I can see where the artists are really struggling. I have that gift to see what is going on, what they're painting. And I really, I guess the challenge, or the wonderful reward, is I always try to make sure that every student in the workshop is making a breakthrough before the end of the workshop, some sort of breakthrough. And they're not all the same, because we know artists are not all the same. So I, after all that experience, had the ability to see, after I spent some time with each artist where they may be lacking, where they have to work on. And I always start from the positive, though. I always work from what they can actually do well, and then I move them towards things that will challenge them. So that's been another interesting journey connected to my career at Blick Utrecht, is that I had all that learning a teaching experience, and that has been really rewarding. And I'd say in the last 10 years, I've really started to build up the workshop, part of my business. And finding it to be a lot of fun, you know, going out there, doing some of that

Laura Arango Baier: 19:48

stuff. Yeah, it seems like it's been an absolute, I want to say, blessing that, you know, things kind of carried over the way that they did, because it seems like one thing led to the next, which led to the next, and very organic. Panic way in your career, which is really cool to see, you know, in hindsight, right? And actually, I know you can't, obviously share what you're working on now, but as an example, would you say that the types of products that you test out range from paint to medium to that type of stuff, or is it like experiments that the companies are trying out in terms of paints and stuff,

Joseph Gyurcsak: 20:26

there is a blend of things that can happen. Sometimes, a company suppliers can stop making a product that causes a chain reaction. We're currently dealing with that. Right now. We have a company that was a major supplier of our pigment to make the colors, and that company is struggling. And so when that, when that has happened this year, unexpectedly on our schedule now we have to make room for that, because we're dealing with about 17 different pigments that we were buying from this certain such company, and we have to find alternative pigments and oh, by the way, Make it look seamless to the public, why we're going through this. That's why I don't sleep at night. But this is, this is part of the problem. I mean, you know, you can, you can plan for everything, and then, you know, throw everything out the window because we have plant we have initial plans to work on things, and then something like this comes along, and everything else gets pushed aside. But to be a little bit more detailed about your your wondering what what happens is, there's many different types of things. Is it a brush? Well, is the brush behaving right? Is it, is it, you know, the is the hair more flexible? Is it more absorbent? Is it the hair, for sure, too long? Is the handle too weighty, something like that? You know, all these various things that can happen in a brush alone. Or is the canvas? Is the canvas too absorbent? Why is it too absorbent? Is there not the right sealant on the canvas? Why is it going through so fast? Why can't you manipulate the paint enough on the canvas? Or is it not absorbing enough, and the paint is not drying because it's not absorbing enough. Is there just this right part where it should be? And, yeah, we always work on that kind of thing, like, where is the sweet spot of all these different things? Is the paper too absorbent? Not absorbent enough? Does it work? Well with watercolor? Is it not work. You know, all these different things. Why is a paint formula separating? You know, why is the why when you open up a tube, why is it separate? What's going on there? You know, then we have to go back and, you know, take everything apart and look at it that way, and then try to come up with a solution for those problems. So there's various things that the company also wants to in their Blick is very good about bringing in new products, but they also want to make sure that what they're doing as far as a decision for bringing in the product, they want to make sure that it's a product that is, you know, credible for the artist to use. So there may be times where they say, Hey, you know, can you look at this for us and give us feedback? Because essentially, I work with the manufacturing and in Brooklyn for the paints, that's my main assignment. I work with the with the chemist and the lab technician, and then we develop the products or maintain the level of the product. And we do all that work all the time, where I'm evaluating all the paint batches all the time, and keeping a record of that as a legacy. When I finally leave, there's volumes and volumes of books that would be there for the next person to see all these batches of paint that were made and when they were made and how they dried, and that they dry too shiny, too flat. You know, are they too opaque, or they should be more transparent? All this abundance of information is being gathered constantly and put and logged in, so we go through all those different things, and then there's times when marketing will ask us to. Hey, we see an opportunity that we don't have these certain colors, and we'd like to develop them a certain range. So we during covid, for instance, when that started, we were not going into the office at all. So the chemist and I worked on developing 23 colors during that three years of covid. So that was a remarkable, I think, accomplishment in that way, because we we, we would meet once a week, and then go back to her, I'd come back to my studio, go back to his, his home lab, or whatever, and then we always meet back up. So even through those difficult times, we're still doing the work, doing the study and doing the evaluation. We're evaluating particular problems of paint over long term situations. We put paint in light, in natural light. We put paint in dark rooms, and we evaluate to see how they're drying, to see if they change color, and all this business. So it's an it's an ongoing thing. There's never a point where you reach in r, d, or just even general manufacturing that you can say, oh, everything's settled, and we just need to keep making this same formula, because there's so many variables in the materials. And if companies stop making stuff where all of a sudden they switch, it goes to another vendor this and that everything can change in the formula. So we try to manage those changes by keeping it as consistent as possible, because we know when the artist goes to buy the paint they want, you know, they expect the same thing the next time. So you know, it doesn't always work out that way, but we try our best. We believe me, there's a lot, there's a lot there to manage. I,

Laura Arango Baier: 27:12

I wow. I'm speechless, honestly, because, oh, my can of worms. Uh, that's amazing, though, because it almost makes it sound like for on one side, right? It is amazing and wonderful and great that a company is always evaluating a product, always, because Absolutely, that's quality control that makes sure that the artist gets exactly what they want. As you said, I mean, an artist, you know, speaking from experience, one moment, I could buy a tube of paint, and I get this expected results from it, and then if I buy it again, maybe five years later, and I start getting a different result from it, I know I end up disappointed, because it affects the quality of my paintings. It's not quite the right hue or value or Chroma that I needed. So it can, it can really change a lot of things, and it It must really suck to have to change everything after a pigment company goes bust, you know, that's, yeah, it's painful, yeah, yeah.

Joseph Gyurcsak: 28:07

And we, and we don't want to change those things. You know, we're not interested in that. Number one, it causes a lot of pain and grief. We have to first of all, reformulate something, go through all those different trials to make it to the point where we feel it's successful in the change. And then once that's accomplished, then we have to submit those formulas for toxicology. When those things go they have to go through tests. Now, if you put some ingredients in there that are over the threshold. Need label health hazard labeling that creates another level to the paint. So there's always twists and turns in this. And then, do you want that kind of labeling on your tube? Or can you live with it? Or can the artist live with it? Or, you know what? All those things start to come into play as well, so and and the bottom line for the company, of course, is that these things cost money to have a chemist, a resident artist, and the technician working on it for our all those hours, and then to pay the toxicologist and do all that, and then get it, finally, to a labeling and a manufacturing program and, you know? And hey, oh, by the way, we have to make some kind of profit on it, you know. So, yeah, it's a lot. And being an artist, from my standpoint of view, I never went to any kind of business school. I mean, I learned how to become an illustrator and make out a a bill to, you know, one, once they pay, you know, we're ready to pay you and all this business. But as far as getting into deep corporate we. Manufacturing thinking as an artist who had learning difficulties up to the time when I was in my 30s, I never could have imagined learning and working under this is my sixth CEO, and now Bob buxman is a sixth CEO, and working under all these different CEOs who are highly educated people and who have a totally different point of view than the artist, and it's such a learning opportunity to see that it's not just about the art, it's about the business of the materials too. And so I've learned so much along the way regarding that as well, which I never expected about business. So when I go into a project now, I think very different than I would have when I was 25 you know about, you know, what's this going to cause? How's this look and, you know, how long will it take, and is it, does it equal the amount of energy that we put in will be work doing, you know, all these other things that artists don't like to think about. Well, in business, we have to think about that part. So that has really helped me in my studio in fine art painting. It really has helped me again. Everything adds to I always tell the people who are going through in college, nothing that you learn is a waste of time. I would have never thought that Michael D's painting, technical painting, material class would have benefited me in my life. It was a huge that one class was a huge thing that helped me in a in a long standing career now. So I always make that example for people that are coming up, the artists that are coming up, that nothing that you learn is a waste of time. I've had warehouse jobs, hotel jobs, all these different things. Everything that you learn can be applied to something else. When I left the warehouse job and I came to Utrecht, I had, I was expert in back orders, and they had a tremendous amount of back orders, and nobody seemed to know how to figure that out. And I said, I know how to do this. And they're like, What? Wait, we hired you to answer this question. Yeah, but I worked at Hyundai Motor America for eight years, and I dealt with that, and I know how to fix this. And they're like, No, really? They're like, Yeah, I'm going to show you. So it's pretty amazing the journey of, you know how these things, as you get older in life, how they're all connected some way, and this thing benefited the next step, or it's just fascinating. When I look back, I couldn't have, there is no way to write this sport, you know,

Laura Arango Baier: 33:08

yeah, it just, it writes itself, you know. And I love again, the the emphasis on that transferable skill, sort of side and perspective, because you really do, you know, you have so much knowledge that you don't realize can get carried over and, yeah, and actually, I did want to ask too, do you find that, do you have any actually? Do you recommend that artists take a basic business class of some sort, or course, of some sort? Do you find that it would be useful,

Joseph Gyurcsak: 33:42

you know, what? You have to have an organized business artist or, well, let's, let's phrase it this way, professional graphic artist or professional illustrator, at least in my time of coming up, you really had to be quite the business person and very organized. And you had several different hats at the time. You had, you know, your part, where you had your skill and you could do whatever you needed to do, as far as being called to the job, but you also had to be able to communicate well with the different companies that you were working with. And you also had to understand your own accounting. You also have to understand how to be organized in your in your studio and deliver a job on time and get have good rep record keeping, be your own photographer. And you know, at the end of the day, if you take, if you look at the total job description of any of the these in this certain. Applies to fine artists too. But I like to say there is an abundance of illustrators that became fine artists and became very successful painters in the fine art world because they had the discipline in their illustration career. So that illustration career discipline really helped me in the studio. When I come into work, my studio is usually very organized, and I know exactly where I'm going and what I'm trying to do to get accomplished for that work, because I have galleries that need, you know, want the next painting or the snack. So it it having a structure and having a plan, always in the beginning, not as much now, because I've accomplished many, many of my goals and been very blessed that way. But in the very beginning, I was doing various self help tapes and things like Tony Robbins and all this stuff, and trying to find structure to my career, and trying to find, you know, the steps that needed to be done, one year, the five year, 10 year, what does that look like? Where do you want to be? You have to know where you're going to get there. So you have to have steps. And even though, if you write out these steps, you might not accomplish them exactly the way it goes, but at least you have some sort of direction. And you will see, if you journal your steps and your path, you will see that you most likely, you will accomplish a lot of things on that list. You'll be able to tick them off and say, I'm on to the next thing and check it off. So, yeah, I'm all about that. That really, when I was struggling as a transition from a Illustrator to a fine artist, I was really struggling for order and direction, and I didn't know how that would happen to become a fine artist. I even know what that meant. I was getting in really good galleries right off the bat, and I had no idea how good they were, and I blew some of those relationships. So I learned really early on. Whoa, this was a bad thing, and I can't get back in that gallery now. So yeah, no, you learn along the way. You have to have failure. You have to have failure. So you just gotta own up to where your weaknesses are, and then you have to work on them, because you're going to have really good strengths, and then you're going to have areas where you really have to focus on, hey, this is a deficit. Hey, I might be a really great painter, but I'm really disorganized, and I can't deliver these paintings in time. What's going on here? How can I do this better? So you always have to ask the question, How can I do this better. And if you get into a rhythm and a full blow, and you start to see, you know, hey, this worked. I'm having success. I'm getting into shows. I'm, you know, again, selling the paintings. You know, you stay in that mode, and you slowly work in that and you improve and extend yourself a little bit more. There was a another turning point was in the early 90s. Artist Magazine had John Howard Sandon keys to success. He was a portrait. Period has now passed away, but he had 17 steps. I know if I'm saying this now, people are going to ask you for it, so I'll send you a copy of it, but yeah, I followed those 17 steps. It's not something you could do in a week, a month a year. It's going to take of many years to do the 17 steps, if you really do them, right. But that I credit with giving me the power, the direction, the organization, to become what you term as a professional, right? Because you know at some point you're gonna like, if I can liken it to I tell my kids, I you show up to a demo, and everything changes well, and you planned on doing something a certain way, and you had to lecture a certain way, and this and that, and you were going to do this painting, it was pre planned, and now you have hundreds of people watching you do this painting, and everything is wrong. Everything changes well, being a professional is having the ability to move when you need to and change when you need to, and be seamless and that that's not something you can Oh, I gotta train to be prepared. That happens over time through our unfortunate failures, right? Yeah, you know, and people don't like to hear that, but you have to learn through the things that you did in the past. Oh, boy, man, I really failed there. I've got to do better than that. So I have found that to be, you know, like so many other people have said, you know, the win when you're winning, there's nothing to learn from that. That's just a lot of fun. It's the end point of something. But there's nothing to learn from that. It's just the glory, right? But when, when you're going through stuff and you have to continually make adjustments, that's when you're really growing. You know, Apple

Laura Arango Baier: 40:40

brush, we inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. Boldbrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the boldbrush video, and if you believe that too, sign up completely free@boldbrushshow.com that's BOLDBRUSH show.com. The BoldBrush Show is sponsored by FASO. Now more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link, FASO.com/podcast, you can make that come true and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile friendly, e commerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The Art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes, so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start now by going to our special link, FASO.com/podcast, that's FASO.com/podcast, wow, wow, wow. It's really, you have dropped some very amazing gems in there. Specifically, though, the one that really, I want to, you know, bring to mind is that troubleshooting aspect, right? And it's very funny, because it really, it works both in your career, you know, working with Blake, and your career as an artist and your business side, it's about figuring out why didn't this work. Let's fix. Why didn't it work? Let's fix, okay, this worked. Let's do that again, see if it works again, like it becomes, you know, the scientific method in every aspect of your life, which I think is a really excellent point, yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually, I I'm very curious to know, because you do test all of these things, right? Is there, has there ever been a moment where you have tested a product and you ended up liking it and you ended up using it in your

Joseph Gyurcsak: 43:14

work? Oh, yeah, all the time. The One really good example I can put in there is, I, I had done a lot of plein air painting since the Well, I started plein air pain in 1990 and I went out and, you know, that's a whole thing that we could talk about, if you want. But I got to a point where I realized there was certain colors on people's palette that they, they were eventually coming to, that they they had this sort of like gray. Well, I call it plum gray. They had this plum gray color on their palette. And I said, yeah, there's nothing out there like that in the market, and this is a very valuable color for shadow parts of the painting when you're painting outside in the sun. So when we had the opportunity to develop new colors, that particular color I really want, they said, well, we need one more color. I said, Well, I know what color. And I invented this color, Plum Gray, and we put it together and put it out there, and got a lot of great feedback from it, because people said, yeah, that solves the problem. It's a kind of a neutral violet color that can bend either warm or cool. So, you know, how in the world would somebody be able to come up with that unless they personally experienced that themselves? So I found myself outside painting and then trying to bend this violet color back and forth and so that. One of the things that I came up with as far as a color to develop for the company, and it's turned out to be a good, very good seller for the company. And when the artists see it, they're like, Wow, I love that color just really makes you feel great that you are able to make a difference in artists life in that kind of way, and from your own personal experience, like I brought that to the table, and I also made a illuminating medium. So I was, I had different ingredients in the studio one day, and I was, I had been painting with oils for a long time, so I switched from oils to acrylic at one point because I was having health problems with the odorless mineral spirits giving me some health effects. So I was, I was frustrated that the acrylics were drying darker as they dried, and I wanted, I said, there must be something that can, that can brighten up these colors so that they don't sink as much when they dry. So I started to experiment with two different concepts that came from different places. And I think my type of invention comes from known things that I tried to combine or collaborate. Once I see different ideas, I'm like, can I take these two type of things and put them together. Will it work? Well, that's how that happened. And I invented illuminating medium, and when I was able to put it into the paint, it would make the bump the color up about 30 to 40% more chrome Chroma in the paint. So like, wow, this is really cool. And I brought it to the chemist at the time that I was working with, and I said, Yeah, I have this idea. And this, he said, Wow, that's a really interesting path. I would have never considered that path. So in our creative minds as artists, we have a lot of solutions that you know come out of being creative, and we think different than maybe somebody who's a lot more logical about things. We we think different. We see things different, and we I like to say that as a creator, you have very open mind. Keep an open mind so that you can receive because when you're in that kind of frame of mind, you you become much more creative and energized by things, if you're have a very open spirit to yourself. So I can only credit to that, because I at times I can see how things can be solved, and sometimes they're very unexpected in the lab, like I might come up with an idea and share with the chemist, and they might say, Wow, that's that works. That works. I like that. That's a good solution to this. And again, keep in mind, I am not the chemist, and I am not the toxicologist. You know, I am an artist who is happens to be in a position where I can contribute and guide, and I think that's a really valuable position, because in a company that is, is, is, is set on selling materials. They need to hear from the artist standpoint, I am the artist voice in the company. You know, that's what I do. That's what I've been doing all these years. That's why my career has been successful. Is because I've always stayed in that position and and defended the artist position when it needed to be defended.

Laura Arango Baier: 49:05

Beautiful. That is perfect, that you are defending us. Yeah?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 49:09

Well, I mean, there's instances where we have to say you can't get rid of that thing because, yeah, they use it for this and that and the other thing,

Laura Arango Baier: 49:17

yeah, because these companies, they don't, since they don't experience that side. They're not the users of the products that they sell. Oftentimes, they they don't see the opportunity in certain things. And it's really great that Blick has maintained such a wonderful person on their roster, like you, who can actually, you know, push back and be like, no, no. This is what we need. This is what's going on, and this is a viable option, versus them just doing what normal companies do, which is just like trimming their, you know, their stuff needlessly all over the place, and then all of us are left wondering, no, I've been using that for years and it's gone. Yeah, yeah. And actually, I really want to ask you about your work, because I love your interior. So much they really remind me of Hammershoi. If you know Hammershoi, his interior, it has the same feeling of this cozy, homely, you know, the the idea of a space being a beautiful thing to experience, and not just a space. You know, do you mind telling us some of your personal influences in your work?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 50:27

Well, I I love Degas, I love voyard, I love bone art, love Sergeant soroya. John Koch. John Koch was a American painter, New York painter, who did the upper paint at the upper class all from his studio, over and over again. And he was very great, highly detailed painter. I'm not really that guy, but these different influences, especially vulgar. I love the way that he broke up space and bone the color. But I think as far as the journey of the interiors I had a opportunity was I applied for a contest to be on the Forbes ranch out west to American artists in 2006 2005 maybe. And so I, I didn't get in that contest. But then I was asked by Steven Daugherty, who, at the time, was the publisher of the American artist magazine that he I have something better for you. It was a long rejection letter. Usually those letters I like, Okay, you didn't get in whatever. But this was a long rejection layer. I said, I better read it. So we read it, and it said, I have something really cool for you, maybe more interesting than the trip you overlapped with another artist, but I really want to do a full feature article on you about your interiors. And so I I said, Oh yeah, that's fine. So I had an opportunity where I had my laptop, and I happened to be traveling from New Jersey to Boston, and I wrote the entire article on the train, and then I submitted to him. I was really excited about this opportunity, so I wrote the article and submitted to me. Loved it, and when he published that article, it put me on the it put me on the national level. It exposed me to many different galleries and and you know, at that time, if you got an article from Steven daughty, it was a very important turning point. Your career was a big deal, so it did make a big difference. And then I had galleries calling me about my interiors. And my interiors basically started with painting situations in my house where I had my family members, and then I was trying to record the different light situation, this and that. And then I had broadened it to, you know, social situations outside the studio, different places, the notable environments and those type of things. But the journey right now has been very interesting, because I've been I started about two and a half years ago, and I have some of them in the back of me right now, but I've been painting my studio over and over again in different way, light and situations and all that. Well I I likened it to Giorgio Morandi. Giorgio Morandi really never left his studio, and he painted the still lifes for about 50 years. And I thought, wow, that's very interesting. Wyeth never really left his properties, and he kept finding more and more info, more and more subject information, and growing that story. And studios not very big, but I post these things on Instagram. People think I have this huge studio or whatever, but it's just the interesting way the light travels in here. And I purposely let the mess grow in different ways, and then I tried to record it again and again and again, and I just did another one last night. So it's just a continual journey. I don't know what is going to come out of those yet, because I've had probably about 40 of those paintings. So forth. Some of them I have sold off already, but I have a good amount of them. So I don't know where that's going yet, but I just keep following it and doing it. I've entered some in competitions and all that business, and it's been an interesting journey because and a great lesson for artists hearing this that you know, if you do a one off of a subject matter, that's great, and it turns out great. And then you want to say you want to move on, but there is something about staying in a certain vein, and really work in that vein, and that starts to get really deep. And that's exactly what has happened with the Studio series. Thing I it's, it's been a quite an interesting journey, and I've been getting deeper and deeper into it. It's, it keeps moving along in such interesting and different ways, different light, different moods, different that, you know, it's just unbelievable when I start to include myself in it at times. So I'm just having a lot of fun with that. Yes, I work on landscapes and other things. I am best known for collecting my interiors, of course, because that that's something that is really one of the spots where I really do flourish well. So yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 56:28

yeah, and it's with great reason because your your interiors have so much atmosphere and ambiance. And I really love that you're exploring your studio too, because there's something very beautiful about how spaces change based on the time of day and the season too, especially in the winter when the sun is lower in the in the sky, if you're in the northern hemisphere, and it's just peering in through the windows and it's giving a news feeling. You know, I remember when I was a kid and I could feel that change in the seasons just from the position of the sun, and I love I think that's also why I'm so attracted to his interiors of yours, because they have that feeling of change, but it's still the same room, so it's still constant, but it has that sort of juxtaposition of these Two things in it. Oh, I love them. Oh,

Joseph Gyurcsak: 57:22

good. I'm glad, good. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 57:26

yeah. And then I also wanted to ask you, because, of course, you always have really great advice at the end of everything you've been saying, Is there a particular mistake or a particular thing that fledgling artists make in their careers, that you find is the most common mistake and that holds them back. What would you say that it is?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 57:51

Yeah, yeah. It's a couple things. I think being I wrote down some things being inflexible is really bad. You know, if something is you can work on something and you can be determined to push it through, and you can give something that respectful time to develop it, but if you keep running into a wall and there's absolutely no breakout, you really have to have some self reflection and look back. Doesn't mean that you have to change everything, but there may be some adjustments you have to do to make your idea or your journey or whatever it is, work better. So being inflexible is not always a good thing. You can be stubborn and say, I'm holding on this. This is what I'm going to do, and this and that that's great to a certain point, but I think you have to be able to take criticism, and you have to be able to sometimes allow yourself to hear other people's opinion, and you have to reflect on that once you hear it, because it may be a difference maker. There may be, say, if you're in your own little mode for a long time and you haven't reached out to anyone, it's probably a good idea to join a group or be part of something that's bigger than you, um, so that you can get feedback. And the relationships that you develop as an artist over time are really invaluable. I have so many artists that I can reach out to, and they reach out to me just for a quick conversation to hear how they're doing what we're doing. Knowing what's happening. What are you struggling with? That type of thing is really, I'm just trying to get rid of this email here. Yeah, those kind of things. Be consistent. Being consistent is probably the biggest downer that I see with the young artists that aren't being successful, the reason why they're not being successful is they're probably having a consistency issue. So if you had some success with something like I said earlier, maintain that. Do that over again. Don't start a new foundation somewhere else. I mean, it's all in these success books and tapes and whatever you want to I mean, you hear these things over and over, but there is true that has it's valid. You if you find something that's working, stay with it. Do more of it, you know, and do it to the highest degree, and don't compromise on the level of product that you're going to put out there. It has to be your very best every time, and then the next one should be better than that one. So you're always trying to up your game. And also, like John Howard Sanders said, hit yourself to a star for a time, be with someone else that has already made it and that you're really loving their career. You don't have to copy them, but you have to see how what's making their thing tick so well, and how are they doing it? And if you can get in a situation where you can get a into a mentor program as a young artist, it's really valuable to get that that personal time, one on one, with a with an experienced artist, and get that feedback, what they really need to hear, what you What you really need to hear as far as, hey, you're over here now, but you've got to do these things to get over there. And what's your goal. Okay, again, where are you going, and what are the steps that you're going to need to get there? We have to figure that out and break that down. Figure out what you know? What are your weaknesses? Where do you have to work on those things? You know, that type of stuff, that mentality will get you there. And being disciplined, like I said, going in the studio, doing, having a certain time and a certain place to work, I remember we didn't move too far from our other house. Was just a block away. Made the big move. But my wife, my wife, God bless her, Lisa, she when I was starting out as an illustrator, she's like, Yeah, and I was teaching in this back room, and then we started have children. She's like, you can't do this in here. And they're like, Well, where am I going to do it? She's like, No, you have to have a separate studio in the yard or something. I said, Well, how's that going to happen? We can't do that. Yes, we can start looking at buildings and figure out what we're going to build there. So I'm like, really? And she's like, Yeah, you need it. So I built, we had this barn built in the backyard, and that was my studio. And you'd walk down there, and the students could go down there, and I could do my work down there, and I could do my teaching. And it was, it was a valuable thing. You have to have a set workplace with limited distraction. It's very, very good for you to have a place that you can go to, and like I said before, that's well organized, so that when you're ready to work, you know, look, the reality is, when you're a young artist, unless you're really successful, right off the bat, you're going to have to have other jobs that that was my journey. I had really rough spots, and I had all these other jobs and things. And now the main thing that kept me on course was teaching to other artists so that I could always have my head in the game. And the second other thing that I always prided myself on was keeping the studio in an organized fashion, ready to go. Everything was ready to work when the inspiration happened. Because if you're you're going to have to clean up for four hours before you do a pain. It ain't going to happen. So, and if you have limited amount of time I have over the years, over my journey, have sometimes very limited time to paint. So when I come in, it's at I'm a nighttime painter. A lot of times I do a painting and I'm ready to go. I turn the light on, I can work. I'm organized. That kind of stuff will give you success, especially if you're on the journey. If so. Selling your paintings and enter shows you have to be part of programs find out where you where your home is, where you feel most invited with whatever artist group, because there's going to be groups that you may maybe never can get in, but there might be other artist groups that you'll be really accepted in some society. I'm on the on in the oil painters of America as a signature member, and I'm a signature member of the American society, impressionist society. So I have gained the level of signature level, and that takes a while to do that, but I'm part of those groups. I know all the artists in those groups. They know me. It's a great relationship. It's nice to have that support around you as you're growing as an artist. And also it kicks your butt a little bit when you go to a show and you see some amazing paint. You're like, Damn, you know, I gotta my game a little bit more here, you know? Because I remember the first time I got in oil painters America. I went there and I was like, Okay, this is why I couldn't get in for like, eight years, because I saw the paintings and they were like, wow, they kicked ass. So, okay, it's a wake up call. Okay, this is at another level. So, and same thing with the American impression society. I love those guys. And you go to the show and you're like, God, all right, I love my painting, but look at that thing, you know, like, it's good to do that. It sharpens you. You know, does that make sense all that stuff, right?

Laura Arango Baier: 1:06:47

Yeah, definitely. Because I understand, you know, we, a lot of us, become artists because we're very independent, we're very introverted, we're very sometimes shy, and we almost exist in a bit of a vacuum, right? We don't really have a community. We stay in our studio. We paint all day. So I it is a great, great thing, like you're saying, to go out, meet other artists and feel a little bit challenged every so often, in in your ways, because they're also growth might stagnate. You know, it might be very hard to continue that growth if you're still doing the same thing over and over without maybe shifting that vision by saying the feedback, oh yes, yes, that is so key, yes. And actually, that goes seamlessly into my next question, which is, what do you find has been the key to your success? I

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:07:46

I am. I've been always a competitive person. I don't want to say I was a full jock kind of person, but I was in sports. I was in football, I was in track I was the captain of the track team. I think those early on, things were good for me, because I had struggled. I didn't really learn, and this may be sound shocking to you, but I didn't really learn to read or write till I was in my 30s. So the key to my success is perseverance and determination, sheer determination. I'll well, first of all, you asked me early on my journey, I you don't choose to be an artist. You don't wake up one day and say you're going to be or is I, at least, I don't look at that way. Yeah, people can want to become a painter and everything, but if, for me in the soul, I mean, really, when you get down to it, I don't It's a calling. It's a calling because there's no way that you can stay with something for 50 years. I've been painting for 50 years, there's no way you could stay into for something with all the ups and downs that you would be able to come down on the other side in a better way if you weren't fully committed to it, you know. And it was a passion, and it's one thing to have a passion that's good and that's important, but you also have to have a burning desire, and you have to have, you know, that determination to follow through. And like I said, I have changed God so many times over the years, there was a time where I was a Trump Lloyd type painter in the beginning, and I knew that that wasn't my calling. I felt it. It wasn't me. I could render like so many other artists, and I love that stuff, but it wasn't me. So I had to keep going on the journey and find. Find out where I really live, and it all has to do with that perseverance, that determination, staying focused and never giving up the hardest times when you're about to give up, I could tell you from my 50 year journey as a painter, when I was just about ready to throw the talent, something great would happen, because I had the fishing line out there for multiple things, and then as I got the bad news about, oh, you're not accepted in this show. You didn't do this, you didn't sell the and then one good thing would happen and pull me along again. So, you know, in order to to, you know, keep going, you definitely have to get, like I said, the feedback. You have to get your peer. You know, feedback is really important, because when you when you are involved with other things beyond your studio. Those things help lift you up and give you more confidence. So I know artists are going to lack confidence when they're when they're failing and they're struggling. It's important to say you have to just keep working through it and and I remember one time as there's so many turning points in my life, if you think about 50 years, but I was really down and having a really hard time and pretty depressed. And my wife said to me, why are you doing this? And I said, she said, You you used to do this because you loved it, and now I don't see that in you. And my God, those words were so penetrating because I thought, Oh, my God, she's right. Originally, I did this because I loved it, not because of all these other things, whether it worked out or not. And every time I come in the studio now I think about I'm doing this, and I'm blessed because I can do this thing, and I can do it well, and I appreciate just the the ability to do it. I think when you're in order to have success, if I could wrap that up in something and share that with the artist, is that you, you have to you have to be completely free. Your mind has to be clear. And that's the point where you're in the zone and you're creating something incredible that sometimes after you finish the creation. You don't even know how you arrived there, and then what that work, or that or I have found when I share that that speaks to them. Volume of people out there, and there's something undeniable about you, painting some truth with your own vision, with your own heart, and if it comes out extraordinary, there's something that can't be denied about that I have entered paintings that I was like, you know, this is this is this painting is like something to me. It's like and other people feel it, whether it wins an award or not, but I get you get feedback, especially on social media now, but when you put it out there and people are giving you feedback, it's not, oh, I just need that feedback to survive, but it's important, because you have a Certain you put a part of you out there, and when you put that part of you out there, and it's sincere and it's real and it's part of you, people are definitely going to recognize that. And I could say, you know, there is no term for being original or finding your style. Just paint where your gut and be free in your mind and do your work, and the rest of it will will all fall into place as if you just keep working on it. You know, yeah, there are skill levels that need to be addressed and all this stuff if you want to reach a certain representational painting or whatever, whatever painting. It doesn't have to be anything, like I'm doing, or like any other artists do, but you'll find your zone if you're really digging down deep and you're following that path, and then you start sharing that path. I think a lot of artists I had students over the years that they were coming for a long time, they wouldn't enter their paintings and anything. And I'm like, No, you have to put that out there. You have to put that out there. You've been in this journey, and you know now you start need to share. So just Saturday mornings with I'm not traveling. I have a, uh. A Saturday morning class here, and I've been doing that forever. You know, it's my way giving back. So two of my students, three of my students, were telling me about awards that they recently won, and they were so excited about now, I've been working with these artists for a couple years, and I'm like, Yes, that's what. Not the awards so much, but the fact that they put their work out there and let people see it, you can't really just live in that bubble and do the work, do the work. I know other artists that have never taken their work out, and I'm like, this was fabulous. You need to enter this or that, and they won't do it. But, you know, that's their loss. I mean, I feel like, when you create a painting, it's gotta go out into the world. My wish is that, yes, it's going out to the world, it's going to find that. I just had a call from my gallery yesterday, uh, one of my pains, the woman said she has to have the painting she has. If she doesn't, she'll be sad. My God, what better compliment for success do you need to hear than that? Like the person is actually emotionally attached to it before they even bought it, like, that's it. You made the connection. You only have to make a connection to one person at a time when you're selling their paintings too, right? Wow. Beautiful.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:16:31

Very beautifully. Said, I think that that will definitely strike a chord with many, many listeners, including myself, actually, because I think many of us artists, we go through those stages, like, how you're saying, where, oh, but maybe this is my thing, or maybe not, or I'm not sure anymore, I think it's surprisingly very common to just be doubtful as an artist. And I think it's a little bit painful, a little bit sad, but I I think your words are definitely very helpful, but you just have to keep determined, keep going and push through, yes, for

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:17:06

sure, and go with your gut, because the gut you can ask for other people's advice, but internally you feel something about a certain move, you better do it, because it's, it's, it's telling you, this is my, my compass. This is it. This what I'm supposed to be doing and and so many times I ignored that, and I burned myself. And then other times, when I went with, I'm like, yes, yes. I went with it, and I did it. I didn't listen to anybody else that put it in and, you know, whatever it is, but yeah, you gotta, you gotta follow that, because it's, you know, after a while you you do develop a sense for what needs to be done and what move you need to make, or whatever it is, enter it in this or put it in this gallery, or whatever it is. It's a multitude of things, but you have to follow your gut, once you get into the mode of being a creator, right? So we're creating. But the ultimate end to all this is not it's nice to say, Wow, I gotta save that painting. I saved some paints for my kids say, you know, I want them to have them. But the ultimate thing is that these creations go out into the world and that, you know, you're letting other people experience a part of you. That's your energy that went out there, you know? So, yeah, that's the way I look at it.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:18:40

Amazing, amazing. And actually, since you do, you did mentioned, mentioned the collectors and galleries side. Do you have a tip in terms of working with these collectors? Say that someone's following their their compass already, and they're pretty ready to make that next step. Do you have a tip on how to best work with galleries and collectors.

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:19:06

Do you have to develop friendship? You have to have a gallery that really believes in you don't just try to be in a gallery where you say, Please, can I get in your gallery? That's the wrong position to go in. You need to be in places where they say, Yeah, I believe in this work and and because, if they believe in it, they're going to sell it, because they at the end of the day when somebody walks in the gallery, remember The Gallerist or the gallery director, those are the people that are going to speak about You. So they have to know you. They have to believe you. You have to develop a relationship. You only need one good gallery. You don't need a 1020, of them. I mean, I know some artists had that, but really, you have to have that sincere relationship connection to the yeah, sometimes the galleries don't share. Or who the collectors that bought it? Sometimes they do that depends on the relationship and how that goes. But if you do have a collector that buys from you straight up direct, because I sell things on Instagram or, you know, through my website, or if somebody comes around and says, I bought this from the gallery. Always make sure that you send out some sort of Thank you, and that's really a good thing, like thank you for supporting me and my fam. We send out a note like a card, and it says, Thank you for supporting me and my fam, my journey, my family this and that people have to know how much that means that you know, you invested in me and gave me. I used to make a joke, but I and people would think I'm really serious. Say, yeah, if I don't sell pain this month, my my wife said, I can't paint anymore, really, oh my god yes, I need to stop, you know. But aside from all the joking, yes, you you're supporting somebody's journey, you know. And you know, back in the day, if you read the old art books, they would have like what you call a sponsor, like somebody sponsoring you to be an artist. Well, yeah, artists need to make money like everybody else. So when you find those people that do support, you let them know. You know how much that means. Just a little note to them or something to keep them in the loop. I'm not that great on my website for doing the newsletters. But I when I just finished a workshop in Belgium, the artist really said, I said, I don't want to bug people all the time with a newsletter this say, well, even if you do it four times a year. So I'm actually going to do that based on the feedback I got from this workshop, I'm going to try to do a newsletter every quarter, at least, because I think I didn't realize that they were telling me they want to hear what I'm doing. So I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do it. We're going to do it. Yeah, so there's a goal right there that I'm going to do that I haven't been doing, you know, make adjustments. Everything we were talking about. You hear something, hey, that's to your advantage. If people are giving you feedback and it's positive, you have to do something, right? So it's on my list, exactly.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:22:35

Yeah, troubleshoot, troubleshoot, troubleshoot, right? There's always something that can improve. And I think that's also very inherent in being an artist. Anyway, we look at a painting and we always see something that can be improved, and then we paint the next one, it's something else can be improved. Yeah, yeah. So actually, since you mentioned your recent workshop, do you have any upcoming workshops that you'd like to promote?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:22:59

Well, I don't know when this recording will be go up, but I have only one seat in my workshop next week that that's the Susquehanna workshop in Marietta, Pennsylvania. Mets almost sold that there's one seat left. The other workshop is already sold out, and it's in Virginia, at the Bay Community School in Matthews Virginia. I do that every year. It's always sold out very quickly. That's also a good story, because as far as the workshops go, I had a plan about 10 years ago, develop this, and this year, I took on, I took on six workshops, a little bit more than I should, should have, but I They were all sold out. So I had a vision about my workshops, and, yeah, they really are moving along, and I see that as eventually another transition for me in my life, that I will be doing more of those. And you know, as I train, whatever happens, you know, 62 now, but when I when I transition to my next phase, I already have plans for where I want to go with that. Talk about the one year, five year, 10 year. Yes, I have plans for where I see these things going, you know. So it's always good to follow that journey, and, you know, track it and see, am I is every year, you can evaluate, is my list still valid, or should I keep this thing on there, that kind of thing. So you. You, you basically figure out and like we, like you just said before, where you adjust if it's not, if it's no longer valid on your list of things that you want to accomplish, remove it, make room for something else. Or, Oh, why is this other one not getting done? You know, like, that's also important. Why is this still in the same place after two years? Why hasn't this gotten what it? What about it? What am I avoiding? What am I not doing right? Why isn't it? And then as that's why those lists are important, because you could find out where you're at and reassess for yourself. I always look back at a year and I say, Oh, my God, I did all these things. This is was my 11th trip this year, and I still have three more trips. And I'm like, Wow, what a year it has been. I've been everywhere. I mean, it's been all over the globe, but I'll look back at those things and figure which ones really had a big impact, and should I revisit that again, or do I need a break from this event, or whatever thing that I did? So that's a good way of determining, even for the following year, where am I going to put my energy, because you don't, you know, in the day you wake up, you only have so many hours in a day, you're trying to balance your life. And, oh, by the way, you have a family and everything else. And so, you know, you got to figure out what things will work for you and how you gain that balance, you know, right? Yeah, wow. Wow.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:26:39

Yeah, excellent. I Wow. Lots of food for thought. I know I keep saying wow, but truly, there's so much to think about after this interview, for me, and I'm guessing also for our listeners, because, yeah, it's it's inspiring to hear someone who has taken it seriously and who has applied all of these things and has actually seen the fruitful rewards of keeping up with with all of this back and forth. Okay, two steps forward. How did it go? Okay, let's maybe take one step back, and then again and again and again. It's amazing. It's amazing. You are truly an inspiration. I

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:27:15

can tell you. I don't want to go on and I bet, but in 1995 or 96 I don't know, I started to journal. And at that time, I was doing a lot of self help tapes and stuff. I was not in a good place, uh, mentally. And I had struggled for like, eight years like that, and I was trying to figure out this fine art thing. And I had those journals, I made lists, a dream list, of all the things where I wanted to be. I have accomplished all of those things in those books and more. So I can tell you, writing it down is part of reality.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:27:59

Amazing, beautiful, beautiful. So Joe, where can people see more of your work?

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:28:09

Well, you can always see my post on Instagram. I'm not really on the Facebook. I know I have a Facebook page, but Joe, Joseph gersak and Joseph website, G, y, u, r, c, s, a, k, you could see that going on. And I know people are signing up for the newsletters, and I'm going to start producing

Laura Arango Baier: 1:28:30

great. Yes, I think I'll sign up too, just so that I can give you that little push also. Yeah. Oh man. Well, thank you so much, Joe. This has been a wondrous and amazing conversation. Well, thank

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:28:44

you Lord for inviting me and I'm I. My only hope is that this makes an impact on someone out there.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:28:52

I can, I can speak for myself and say, yes, it made an impact for me. So I think our listeners would agree. Okay,

Joseph Gyurcsak: 1:28:59

thank you so much.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:29:00

Thank you. Separate.