Grayson: Hello, and welcome to gays making the podcast where I interview LGBTQ creators and artists from all over the world. And today I am here with Dan Montgomery who is a light artist. The last time that I saw any of his work was actually at Lusio like two years ago here in Seattle. And I'm excited to have him on the podcast cause I've known him forever. And Then we reconnected at Lusio a few years ago. And so, yeah. Welcome Dan. How's it going?

Dan: Thank you. Yeah, I'm doing awesome. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do most of my exhibitions with Lusio but there have been some other things and I'm very excited to possibly exhibit again. So we'll see

Grayson: And, and I know that we're in the midst of like the decision-making right now for Lusio So

Dan: of artists are waiting on bated breath for what might happen in August.

Grayson: Yeah. At least I don't have to wait any longer. Cause I know that I didn't make it, which is fine.

Dan: to ask you about your application at some point.

Grayson: yeah, we can. Sure. But yeah, let's let's actually just talk about like since the last time that I saw you Have you worked on anything? I mean, I know it's been COVID times,

Dan: I've been, I did a lot of personal projects and what I mean by that is sort of like gifting art to friends and Two of my friends opened businesses during the pandemic. My, my roommate opened a plant shop and a good friend of mine bought a bought the pioneer Barbra company. So I've placed art in both of those places, just as a way of both having my art be out there, but also kind of gifting to them a little piece of me. And Lusio also had a, a smaller event during the pandemic in pioneer square, which was really nice because. Unlike typical Lucio events, you know, where we exhibit for like a night, sometimes two this one lasted a month and a half, so I got to the challenge there was that it was outside for a month and a half in December. So but it works doubt. So I was very excited that it survived the rain yeah. sleet

Grayson: Nice. Yeah.

Dan: like 45 days.

Grayson: And yours was the one that was in post alley, right?

Dan: It, it was not in post alley. It was in it wasn't an alley, but it was near the merchant cafe, which is kinda near first avenue as you're heading towards pioneer square. And that was, yeah, that was honestly like amazing place to have a piece of art, maybe. Imagine there to be anything. And a lot of those alleys and I, a lot of people mentioned that, you know, as they rounded the corner, they were just kind of like, whoa, what's that? So it was challenging and fun. And I w I was just excited to do something while everything was closed. And there's not a lot of things you can do as far as like an event is concerned because, you know, we're not able to really, especially like December of 2020, it was kind of super tight, super closed down. So any excuse to, to make things made me happy. And I was. Amazing to have an opportunity to do that, even in the midst of all that and to build, you know, in the midst of all that.

Grayson: Yeah. So just since this is more of an audio medium, do you want to actually describe what your artwork was?

Dan: Yeah. It was a, a UFO. It was sort of like hanging off of a fire escape. So as you approached the UFO, it like a motion sensor. Kind of like detected, you're getting close to it and a beam would kind of shoot into the ground. And you know, sort of illuminate your presence as you're getting close. So I wanted to have something that was interactive, but that you didn't have to like physically yeah. Touch. Cause that was kind of like not allowed. So you were able to interact with something, but still kind of be far away from it. And it follows kind of this theme that I've heard. With my art pieces, which is like very scifi, very very sort of psychedelic, multidimensional very colorful all the things that I like to have in my pieces. So, and is it a continuation from my Lusio piece? The one that you probably saw, which was You know, a similar sort of like SciFi landscape that one being more interactive because people could actually like lie down next to each other. Whereas this was just a continuation of that piece. And the one that I submitted an application for isn't is still a continuation of both of those things, kind of going into something else. So.

Grayson: Nice. Yeah. I'm excited to, I'm excited to see it cause I'm sure you'll get in.

Dan: We'll see, nothing's guaranteed these days. So

Grayson: I really understand that, but I'm excited to see it nonetheless.

Dan: Be building, I'll be building the piece regardless. Just because I have, I have other avenues to exhibit and plan to hopefully at burning man this year, even though there won't be at burning man, but there'll be people heading down to that location and it will need arts. So. I'd be happy to put something there this year as well.

Grayson: Nice. Yeah. So just to kind of describe the, the piece as I remember it from it, that was two years ago. I think, cause I think I was still living in, on Capitol hill at the time. It was like just about to leave. And I'm just about to go back now. But it was because it was, if I remember correctly, you had like carpeted or either that, or the grass was really soft. Since, sense memory is a little weird, but I remember it being somewhat like pleasant. And then you had places to lay down and then you had costuming that was on mannequins that had li light up space helmets. And then I think that it was syncing to music if I

Dan: Yeah, your memory is alarmingly good, but I, I would, I wouldn't. Have thought otherwise. Yeah, the, the piece was titled the closest encounter and I wanted to portray a sense of like, you know, aliens were around, but there wasn't anything disturbing or separate, you know that like people would, yes, they would sit down. There was pillows essentially on the ground. But the ground was pretty soft because it was like it was in this sort of tree canopy, which was perfect because the canopy itself, which is why I love when Lusio was in volunteer park, because all these trees and all these canopies like reflect all the light that you have in there. And so on the tree was a large sound reactive heart and it wasn't necessarily music. It was music, but the emphasis was on this one. Steady heartbeat. But you could, you know, it was like had enough base that you can kind of like hear it and feel it, but there's not a lot of sound art because it just gets really noisy. So I just kind of kept it really low. And so you can kind of hear it and feel it, and it, it calms people down. Like if you're, if you're hearing a heartbeat at a certain rate, it feels like you kind of synchronized to a little bit. And so I just wanted to portray this calming connected space that people could feel that they could be present in hanging out with their friends and the mannequins are there to just sort of add an element of like scifi immersion. And I had created the space helmets before and exhibited them at one of the Lucio conservatory events that they have which are pretty amazing if you ever get it. Go to one of those cause you're, you're in these tighter spaces with all these plants and there's all these like projected art. And so I was just happy to have something to put in there. And they, you know, they made a good addition to, you know, adding to a, sort of a larger visual scape like that. So. It allowed me to sort of bridge a bunch of different pieces as I was working on and had finished in some cases before. Whereas all the pieces I've created since I've been like conceptualize on their own, this was sort of like a conglomerate of a couple ideas, but it worked out really well and I was happy with it and people seem to respond to it well, so

Grayson: Yeah.

Dan: really why I do it, you know, and to have it's trying to put a smile on people's face, you know, and.

Grayson: Yeah. Were you so for your inspiration, for like the, the, the sense of calming and communing really with, in, in that shared space were you inspired by any of the research that people have done about how heart rates synchronized.

Dan: didn't. I wish I would. I wish the answer to that was yes. It was more of just hearing from other people that. Could or does happen the, the heart piece, which actually people on camera can't see, but, you know, I keep it on my wall. It it's great because when you do synchronize it with a heartbeat or something like that what I notice is as you increase the heart it does do something to like edit at a faster rate. You feel a little more agitated. You feel a bit more on edge, but on a slower rate, you do feel more calm. And so I, I definitely should you know, find the actual abstracts on that. But but what people have told me is they definitely feel calmer and more relaxed. When they're in the presence of both the sound and the light sort of pairing off each other, My favorite things to design are sound reactive pieces because there is something synesthetic about seeing music hearing, you know, something and seeing light react to that in a variety of ways, not just like in a literal sense, but also like reflections and shadowing and it's pretty amazing. I certainly react pretty strongly to it and that's kind of what got me started was just finding ways to. It was crazy visually sculpturally as I can.

Grayson: Nice. So you know, playing off of that kind of idea of, of Tennessee, Tennessee, Stinnett. I can't say it I'm trying too hard anyway, playing off that idea of like the, this, the senses, like in her, in her playing with each other you know, when coming with visuals as well as sound, there's a bunch of different ways that you can create that connection. And it seems like at least from the work that I've seen. You choose to use LEDs for that. Why, why do you choose LEDs over any other form of light? Just started to curiosity.

Dan: Mainly because I like, I like sculptural pieces as much as you know, I'm surrounded by these amazing, you know, projection, light artists and other forms of mediums that use you know, like matrix LEDs and it's, it's, it's, it's also within my wheelhouse. It's just like, I.

Grayson: I

Dan: The first few pieces I created were LEDs and they were using strips and I was just kind of like learning the process of how to program them and solder. And I just realized there's so much you can do with them. You can place them on the edges. You can place them behind something. They're relatively flexible there. You know, I can, I can put them outside and just waterproof them.

Grayson: Okay.

Dan: They were great in a variety of different sort of mediums, whether it's wood, plastic metal and yeah, and again, it, it comes down to really like my, my love of sculpture when it comes to light art. So I, I found other things to use, but it's kind of like my main paint brush. I, I just find that I can do so much with strips because they're relatively, cost-effective. Relatively, you know, like projects can get really ramp up and, and, and, you know, it's also like I've done in my head. It's like somebody tells me a certain amount of lights that needs to be in a project, I'll know exactly, you know, I'll know exactly how much power it's going to need and what I may need to bring, or like what its capabilities might be. And so I can just keep expanding on that. But it's not the end of my, you know, explorations of. I want to build or insert into some of these pieces, but I'm still not done with that as my brush. So but yeah, led strips are, are just what I love. And I have so many other ideas that I haven't even put to put to tasks.

Grayson: yeah, yeah. I get that. So, okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna geek out for just a second on leds because I also like love working with LEDs. Like,

Dan: please do.

Grayson: So what type of LEDs do you use? Like, is it the WS2812 dotstar? Like,

Dan: Yes.

Grayson: I can.

Dan: The WS2812s. These are my main go-to and it's like the dot stars are great, but the refresh rate is a little bit too much for a lot of the controllers that I use. So it's a little bit overkill. I and dot stars are also amazing if you're doing pieces that move because. They tend to form tracers and things like that in the dark, which are very pretty not my expertise, but definitely something that I thought of playing with. But yeah just, you know, your standard, you know, Neo pixel or whatever data fruit term is my, yeah, my go-to

Grayson: to,

Dan: and usually five bolt. I like to stay in the five volt range, mainly because. It keeps my projects relatively easy to manage power wise for bigger, for bigger pieces that run lengths. Like there's components of it that need to be 12, but for the most part, it's five. And also I can convert things to wearables really easy when you're dealing with five bull which I like to do wearables a lot too.

Grayson: All right. Nice. What what's the, what is your favorite thing that you've ever made? That is a wearable.

Dan: My boots. I have these moon boots that I wore through a couple of festivals and they were just standard moon boots, like I'm six, five. So it's amazing to be in any space with a lot of people and a tall person being even more tall. Eventually I'm like I'm wearing these boots so much. I have to light them up. And you know, the boots, I like, I like doing things on rigid components of wearables because it makes it much easier to like fold them and not break things. And so boots are just, just make sense because there's not a lot of space for you to bend the boot in such a way that you might damage the lights. And so after putting all the lights on it was, I was very impressed. How it turned out and the batteries hide extremely well. I can barely even notice them. They're just like, they're just ultimate wow. Factor. I mean, the helmets are fun, but you just can't wear those everywhere, you know? Cause it's like covering her face. You might have a different, you know, you might have makeup on or something. You might have, you know, your hair done well. So, but the boots can be worn in a lot of places. Yeah. Currently my friend George is borrowing them, but I can't wait to wear them again or, or design something similar so that I can put those to rest.

Grayson: Nice. Now. So for the, for the helmets, did you, did you use them for like, COVID like, like distancing at all? Cause we've got the visors and all it

Dan: no, actually yeah, my, my friend George he. He has he has a place near Capitol hill and he likes to, he likes to use them for some of his window displays where he lives. So he's, he's had them for four months just having fun with them and doing things with them. And eventually I need my art to leave, so I can both have the space to work on new things. And also just to kind of like force myself to. To move on from it. So I, I tend to gift a lot of my stuff away if it's, if it's been in my possession for too long. But yeah, I do miss. Those were just fun. It's just like, I wore them at a couple of nightclubs and it's like, they're always a hit. Cause you know, once they synchronize the music, people just go crazy. You just you're, you're forming this sort of. Energy, you know, that, you know, existed on the floor before, but you know, you're just, you're just adding, you're just adding something to it.

Grayson: Yeah, you're becoming like kind of a an attractor of the, of the energy and the energy swirls around you. I can understand that. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. And it's easy to just take off and borrow around, but no, I didn't get a chance to really like use it as a COVID mass. That would have been,

Grayson: I guess I could see you going,

Dan: that would have been a quite good idea.

Grayson: I mean, go grocery shopping with it on like, yeah.

Dan: effective. I mean, nobody would have said like, you still need a mass. I mean, it's pretty, pretty much covering your entire face. So.

Grayson: Yeah. So Let's see, let's, it's actually kind of you talking about kind of the quarantine. We've like, you know, a lot of, a lot of the places where I would go and get inspiration for my different art. You know, either we're shut down or inaccessible during COVID and I'm definitely one of those kinds of creators that has to recharge very often in order to keep creating.

Dan: me too.

Grayson: How did you do it?

Dan: Well, I didn't make as much art as I normally would. Maybe making and part of that is I like making things sort of triggered from some sort of event or, you know, usually every year, you know, I'm a part of a burning man camp. And so that would just automatically ask, you know, me and people that I work with to make pieces for either our camp or for other purposes that. That we have bringing art down there and having that be gone and other festivals away, you know, it's like, I'm not even creating totems and not doing any wearables. So yeah, like I was saying, what, what helped was just these friends that had these new spaces that they've opened up business wise that allowed me to basically use their walls and ceilings as sort of like canvases to. To put stuff in. And that was amazing because without that, I would have been pretty in a way. But as far as, you know, seeing inspiration kind of in the midst of this, yeah, it was rough like festivals and other shared space events with human beings where we're dancing or we're just, you know, in the same environment together, sort of having art around us is sort of my main. Inspiration and like virtually none of that was available. So, you know, you just, but you get antsy and you just want to build something sometimes. And I sometimes just look for excuses to do that. And I had a couple excuses, so I was happy, but I'm certainly not in a capacity where I'm. Satisfied. Just sort of, I felt like I just topping off a little bit from where I'd like to be, but.

Grayson: Yeah. I, I completely get that. Like I think I, I am. Two things, no three things. Cause I was involved in the COVID house of horror show. But yeah, I basically three things in a year is not nearly enough for me. But I'm, I made a film, I did an installation, I did two installations. That was my year. And I mean the film was basically just me like dealing with my mental health issues. The.

Dan: Oh I need to see this

Grayson: it's it's on my website. I'll send it. I'll send you the link. I'm not plugging myself here, so I'll send you the link individually? stuff as much as you no, no, like I I'm here to, to lift up other people, not to lift up myself. But yeah, and then I, I kind of, at the beginning of COVID I used to, you know, I was working for a data visualization company at the time. And And we were kind of like the collecting all of the data for the United States for COVID COVID cases, testing, that kind of stuff. And we were just like creating this this portal of data. And so I was like, well, what can I do with that data? And I had a manager. Just like a mannequin bus that I bought from like architectural salvage down in which I don't think it exists anymore, but down in Sodo and

Dan: Everyone, every artist needs at least one mannequin.

Grayson: right. Yeah.

Dan: Regardless of their medium, you know,

Grayson: I spent, I spent like easily two weeks, like nonstop, scraping the paint off of it to get it into a good shape. Like. Blank canvas for myself. Cause it had like this really gross kind of latex paint on top of it. And then I projected data visualizations about COVID and the spread of COVID onto the front of it. And just put that in my window. My, my neighbors think I'm weird. It's okay.

Dan: Good.

Grayson: This is why I'm moving back to the hill. Cause like

Dan: No, no. It's let your neighbors think that you're strange. I mean, mine certainly do. It's like you come by where I live and you know, it's unmistakably. Something is going on in there. Just like lights happening in different ways all the time.

Grayson: Yeah, I've got an

Dan: That was just obvious. Cause I've got, I've just got pride lights on right now. So just like, okay. It's it's on brand, but yeah, let them, let them eat cake.

Grayson: Yeah. I mean, I do have an aerial rig in my living room where I do silks. So like with the windows all open, so like whatever.

Dan: Let them think whatever about that either.

Grayson: Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm totally fine. It's going to move out to the living room or to the, to the front yard soon. As soon as the weather is actually consistent

Dan: I'm always inspired. When I see households of, you know, it doesn't even have to be like art in their minds, but anybody that has lighting or some sort of like special tea, and they're like, I'm talking about like, outside of like the holiday

Grayson: Yep.

Dan: umbrella. Just, you know, even if it's like people putting up a few Hues in their main window and, you know, judging up their plants or something outside, just, I always appreciate that. So yes, people listening do do more with your lighting. Your neighbors will appreciate it, even if they act weird. See it.

Grayson: Yup. I, 100% agree with that. Like, like make your house unusual. Because cookie cutter houses or apartment complexes kind of suck

Dan: They don't have to, you can make them smile. You can make them spicy.

Grayson: Yeah, exactly. And it doesn't take much, right?

Dan: Doesn't.

Grayson: Yeah. A couple of spotlights. You're all good. Let's see what out of all of this stuff that you've created. What is your favorite installation? So like not wearable so we can kind of move away from that. And then conversely, what is one thing that you Really not regret, but like the way that it came out was just so off of what your vision was that it was like, it feels like a failure, even though, like, I don't think any art is failure, but like when things deviate so much from your vision that can feel like failure.

Dan: I'm going to give you a surprising answer because it's the same piece for both answers. So my favorite. Piece that I've created thus far was also a heart, but it was a three-dimensional heart that I used as a a topper to a 30 foot dome that we have when we bring it down to bring in and it's so high up, because you're placing on top of another really high structure. And you can imagine it's like it's 10 pulled out almost like six feet in the air. And then this like huge heart is like displayed outside of it. And which is also sound reactive. Although when you're viewing at a distance, you're not aware of the music aspect of it, but you know, something is pumping about location. And I, I love that piece so much because it just lasted years. It like you're imagining having anything out there just being dusted and blasted. And I just loved it for its durability. It's also one of the reasons why it was sort of a failure in that I had needed constant maintenance and what I mean by constant. So I originally, I designed it with my, my ex and we did it out of. It's like metal and I'm not a welder, but I can raise metal. You know, you can like melt softer metals or whatever. And so we made it out of this like metal cage and he just kind of chicken wire it over that for strength. And then inside of it inside this cage is all these like lights and then there's lights kind of on the outside, all strips as you know but very complicated in its conception. And. That's what made it frustrating was that I designed it without thinking about how it was going to maintain it over the years. And so like every year I would have to literally like cut open this heart. We got like open-heart surgery And replace things inside of it, you know, rephrase the outside. So it kind of, I was really, I was really upset by the end of it, how much work it took just. Everything going, but it was so amazing to look at. So eventually I think this year I want to recreate it, but not out of metal or make it like, have it cans or something to open up so I can, I can work on it and still have it be somewhat structurally sound. But yeah, I learned a lot from that. And you know, if you're gonna, if you, if your projects are going to not just kind of be throwaways. You need to think about like the long-term strategy of, of maintenance and and that's, I mean, that's a challenge in, and of itself with all of our light pieces because they break down, they're electronic, you know, they succumb to the elements, you know, strips themselves are just notoriously annoying to work with and you have to, you have to be very. Aware of like your joints and all of your, all of all, how you put things together is critical. So I've, I've gotten really good at just making absolutely sure. Nothing moves where and pieces that are soldered. It's just the most protection possible so that, you know, there's no shorts later.

Grayson: Yeah. And solder is such a tenuous. Physical connection to anyway, like you have to back it up, right. To make sure that it doesn't like when it bends, it doesn't actually break. So like I get that.

Dan: I love soldering. Now I get into flow. I mean, if people get into flow at different parts of their art and for me, the process of soldering, when you have, you know, my, my process is like, I lay things out. I get them like something. Structurally like close together, so they're not moving. And then I start the soldering process. And then once I start that process, I sort of get into this flow. It's just like you, the world around you just sort of disappears your breathing changes. You may be listening to music, but like I gotta get into this mode where time to sort of like slips away and it's amazing.

Grayson: Absolutely.

Dan: My most favorite part of a project, especially when you, like you finish, I'll usually like test each joint, like one of the time, but sometimes the flow gets like, so I get lost in it that I've done like four or five joints without testing and I panic and I'm like, oh no, how far along am I? Where I need to make corrections, you know, so

Grayson: Cool. Well, I think I think we're at a good stopping point. I usually like to ask people if they would like to, if there's anything that they want to plug immediately or any last words for the audience.

Dan: I mean, nothing, nothing imminent to plug. I mean, I'm hoping to exhibit Lusio this year and if that's the case and you know, even if, even if I don't exhibit I'll, I'll most likely be there and, you know, supporting fellow artists and yeah, so please, you know, attend Attend, these events attend these events where, you know, small, local artists like myself and yourself you know, have these opportunities to exhibit. And yeah, patronize my, my friends businesses, if you want to see my art and one of them is a Seattle plant daddy run by my roommate, wonderful roommate, Joe, and my other friend pioneer barber company. If you need a good hair. And I had my art in both places, so you'll be able to see some old work of mine. And I hope to hope to get the new ones out this August. So

Grayson: Awesome. And I will put links to both of those places in the show notes so that people have access to them and I can find them,

Dan: Yeah. And similarly, if you if, if there people listening or, you know, yourself have friends that have small businesses locally I'm very eager to, you know, support, you know, our, our queer businesses and our local businesses and just sort of collab. So if you've got wall space and you are looking for a certain design, you know, I'm, I'm literally always wanting to, so I'm happy to, you know, make things for people that, that have space and have an idea.

Grayson: Nice. And I would love to collaborate with you on some things we've talked about that in the past and now

Dan: Yes, I would. Now that we're, now that the snow is melting on, you know,

Grayson: yeah. Yeah, and, and, and, and vaccinated, and like, I'm, I'm ready to start getting back out there and doing stuff. And then another collaborator that I'm meeting with later or next week, basically to talk about projection on water. So that's kind of going to be our next medium. I can, I, if you wanna join us.

Dan: yeah. Actually send me, send me something about that. Again, I'm not an expert on projection light work, but I love it. It's gorgeous. The more I can learn about this stuff, the better.

Grayson: yeah, it's a learning experience for all three of us. So yeah, let's, let's do that. I will, I will touch base with all three of us and and get it scheduled. I think it needs to happen on Tuesday cause he's going out of town after that. So for at least through the week, but so yeah, anyway, we'll talk. Cool. All right. Well, thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. It's great to catch up and, and kind of hear about your process. And yeah, if if you like the show, please rate and review that helps us get in front of more people. I think that's what I'm supposed to say. I don't know.

Dan: Yes. You know, support, support, you know, local creators of all types. We, you know, keep each other in, you know, in the orbits. So the more that.

Grayson: 100%. So anyway, thank you so much. And bye everyone.

Dan: Yeah, happy June. Happy summer. Happy. Be pride.

Grayson: Yes. Happy pride. Hello, this is editor Grayson, and I realized that I forgot to mention that. You can find all of the information about this episode on gays making.com and please do rate and review us on iTunes, Stitcher. No, we're not on Stitcher Spotify and all the different places where you could possibly review us and rate us.