“Spring Up” with Francis Beaty and Jessica Zawadowicz, MAR 6- MAR 28, 2020, PII Gallery, 242 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Click here to read the Q&A with Jessica Zawadowicz
You can listen to Artblog Radio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Thank you to Kyle McKay for composing Artblog Radio’s original podcast intro and outro!
Wit López: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Art Blog Radio. I’m your host for today, Wit López, and I am absolutely excited to be sitting in the gallery at Pi Gallery, which is located at 242 Race Street in Old City, Philadelphia. Uh, coming up for First Friday in March, there’ll be a show called Spring Up, and I have the pleasure of sitting here with one of the artists, Francis Beatty.
Welcome to the show, Francis.
Francis Beaty: Oh, thank you for having me, Wit.
Wit López: So, I love your work. Your work is absolutely amazing. It is beautiful. I love how sculptural it is. The paintings are very, very sculptural and have kind of a 3D element to them, but also felt very show stopping when I walked through the door was the sculpture on the wall, this multicolored metallic sculptural piece that is huge, takes up the entire wall, is five pieces together and just pops off of the wall. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Uh, and I would love to talk more about it, but first, what got you into art?
Francis Beaty: Oh my goodness. I’m going to try to make this short and sweet, but I have to go way back and share a little anecdote. Um, growing up in school, we had what was called picture study, and it was a small book. And in that book there were paintings of famous artists. And that’s where I first got to see all the classics, all the artists that I needed to know growing up. So I always – that was my favorite class naturally ’cause all we would do is look at beautiful paintings and then there would be a quiz and you would remember what that painting looked like and you’d get to know the clique, the Masters, Renoir. Michelangelo, all those things. So I’m going to say it started way back when I was about 10 years old, but I, it was never really cultivated throughout my life until I started to, um, decide that later in life it was time to go back to that, that those memories never left me. And I felt that a calling to, uh, connect with art on some level, but I know as where the seed was initially planted.
Wit López: That’s awesome. That’s really cool. [Francis laughs] I love that it started when you were a child, like still in grade school, so you had time to kind of get into it and build it along the years. So you mentioned before that you began a path towards architecture. Uh, so what got you moving toward architecture?
Francis Beaty: Well, believe it or not, again, it was after I had graduated from college. I was a teacher. I graduated with a teaching degree, and that was all well and good, but to be honest with you, um, when I was home with my children, I still felt the urge. This three dimensional calling was coming to me, and there was a community college near our house, and I decided to enroll in their architecture class that I could take night classes. So I was, I took that for a few years, many interior design, history of architecture, drawing, perspective drawing, and my teacher at that time became what I would now call my mentor. We became fast friends and he was the one that then started to encourage me to pursue my art. But he also said that I had, I had something. Now who knows what that was [Wit laughs], or I’m going to credit it to, his name is John Michael. He has just passed away-
Wit López: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.
Francis Beaty: -um but I feel that, uh, he’s, he’s right there always supporting me. And his wife, they were instrumental in helping me learn how to see, uh, something I didn’t understand until I kinda, they’d kinda took me under their wing. Um, I never completed the architecture. I ended up getting offered a job in a cabinet shop doing their drafting and their, um, shop drawings.
Wit López: Oh, amazing!
Francis Beaty: So I was very proficient in perspective drawing and. All of that. And I love that the detail work. And to be honest with you, it was great because it paid the bills.
Wit López: I hear that.
Francis Beaty: And so there I was doing this drawing and never finished the architecture, but did then become offered a job to become a kitchen designer. Now who dreams about becoming that? But that’s what I ended up doing for 35 years [Wit laughs] doing the drawings, and then I had to get into the internet and learn kitchen design and interior design on the computer.
Wit López: Wow.
Francis Beaty: So I kind of grew with the times, you know-
Wit López: That’s amazing.
Francis Beaty: -I’m old school from the drafting board and the pencil to a computer. So, um, I’m kind of happy that I had to go through it slow like that, uh, ’cause I do have a total appreciation for people who can still draw with a pencil in their hand. Uh, but it also forced me to continue growing, which is what we talked about a little bit. That I felt, I’m happy that I feel that I’ve continued to grow as I age and growing with the times and with technology and I’m trying to, um, not miss out ’cause I’m only here once, so I want to explore as many options as I can for my own growth. So that’s where the art started to come from. And the very first show that I had, my two professors, my mentors came and they said, “Oh, where’s the price on your work?” And I said, “Oh oh, price, who would buy this?” [Wit laughs] And they said, “We would”.
Wit López: Aww.
Francis Beaty: So they bought my very, very first piece of sculpture.
Wit López: Aww that’s so nice!
Francis Beaty: I was so honored. I’m talking about, it was a uh, I used to find many junk pieces of metal, and I had this huge, uh, piece of a baseboard heating element that I turned into a piece of sculpture and they ended up purchasing it and they, they hung it in their living room.
Wit López: Aww!
Francis Beaty: So to me, that was, as we say, almost like dying and going to heaven, [Wit laughs] that somebody that I was in awe of would purchase something, you know, and I joked when I’d go to visit, I said, you can, you don’t have to put this up every time I come over to visit. [Wit laughs] And they laughed and so, they really were the, the, uh, important part of my life.
Wit López: That’s beautiful. That’s- and it’s, it’s always really nice to have mentors who are supportive of you. Not even just in the, in the ways that they know you, like in the field where you first met, but also like into your growth and shift too.
Francis Beaty: Oh yeah, mmhmm.
Wit López: That’s, that’s really beautiful. That’s really beautiful. So you mentioned how architecture and kitchen design kind of have an impact on the work that you do.
Francis Beaty: Right.
Wit López: But how do you, how do you feel that they might still play a role in your current practice and painting and sculpture design?
Francis Beaty: Oh, absolutely. Um, I’m feel it, every time I start to play, and honestly I consider it playing, uh, I, I don’t, uh, sketch, I just immediately paint, but I’m always compelled to create a third dimension somehow. Whether I build up the canvas with mixed media or gesso or paste, but I like to get my hands dirty and I like the tactile feeling and I like – a big part of what I like to create is having things looking imperfect.
I’m a big believer in that concept of Wabi Sabi, which is, there is beauty in the art of the imperfection that, um, it, to me it’s more human, uh, not so contrived. So if I want things to look imperfect and almost a little bit unfinished because I, having studied different philosophies of architecture, the Japanese philosophy is very- and I lean towards that, and you may not notice it, but I know internally, I believe that- that when you look at a picture there should, you should always leave a part for the viewer to finish [Wit agrees] an unfinished area of a piece of work that the viewer can then create with their mind. And that’s one of the things that my mentors talk to me about. And it kind of helps when you’re deciding when you should stop painting to leave. It kind of helps, but, um, that’s a lot of what I’m talking about. So that is where the organic and the imperfect and the nature- I’m very inspired by nature. I walk, uh, on the canal in Manayunk almost every day. And it’s all about being with the trees and nature, and even in the dead of winter, it’s incredibly beautiful with the shadows and everything.
Wit López: So I, I noticed in your piece that’s called Puddle, right? It’s kind of red and yellow paint mixed together coming onto the white canvas and then it looks like a puddle at the bottom, so you don’t see where the puddles coming from, right? So this what you just mentioned, Wabi Sabi, this unfinished quality that allows the viewer to kind of imagine where something is originating or what else is not pictured.
Francis Beaty: Exactly.
Wit López: Is that something that-
Francis Beaty: Exactly.
Wit López: Okay.
Francis Beaty: Exactly. That’s exactly what I like to go for. That the, the viewers’ brain will be awakened or jarred or “What? Why would she do that?” Like leave it a question mark [Wit laughs]. What’s that about? Or where’s it coming from? So then a way to create dialogue with the viewer by having something not there by, we had this invisible conversation, um, with some of the pieces.
And I feel like in all of them, I like to keep people scratching their heads. Like, what? Why is that? And you know, and why is it, it looks kinda like she didn’t finish or it’s pretty messy. Intentionally. Intentionally. Cause we’re humans. I don’t want it to look perfect. I’m not perfect, far from it. So my work speaks of that and people get to know that about me.
Maria, when we were hanging something with Maria, then, Kraybill, the curator of this show, she, she was laughing because when I bring it in sometimes like, “Oh, it’s fine. I can just squish it into the car. That creation, that sculpture”. I said, it’s like nature. If you, you can buy a beautiful plant, but you can crush it a little bit and it usually comes right back. And if not, sometimes it even looks better.
Wit López: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so when I saw Puddle in my mind, I imagined like someone pouring out of a ladle into it. So I love that you mentioned that you left that opening so that there is a dialogue with your viewer to imagine part of the painting too, and kind of also like a performance element where they’re kind of performing what else should it be there?
Francis Beaty: Correct, correct, correct.
Wit López: You know? I love that. I love that. That’s really great. [Wit laughs] Thank you for sharing that.
Francis Beaty: Glad you got it! That’s great.
Wit López: No, that’s awesome. So I do want to get back to that sculpture on the wall, which is honestly, I think it’s the only piece it’s actually installed right now. Right. Um, so for those of you who are listening, the show is still in the process of being installed, so many of the works are laying along the floor along the walls presumably where they’re going to be placed once they’re up on the walls. Um, but the one piece that is currently installed is this giant sculptural, beautiful piece on the wall. Can we talk about that painting?
Francis Beaty: Sure. It’s called Primordia, which means organism. So at first glance, and I don’t want to give it away, I think people will say, what is that organism? What kind of organism? Well, there you go. It’s whatever kind of organism you want it to be. And I just number them. And I feel it, it allows itself to have shadow because there are holes in the material. It’s made out of screening, and I’m a big fan of using things with grids because grids- because of my architectural background- grids create third dimension, create shadow, and they’re a little bit of mystery. And then, and it’s almost a happy accident, like when the screening lays on top of each other, you come upon something.
So for me it’s, it’s also a little journey that I go on when I create the piece. I don’t even know the shape it’s going to be. I just start playing with it and manipulating it, and I really don’t know what it’s going to look like till I hang it up and have some light cast upon it. So each piece is a little private journey for me as well. So that’s why I like making those. I’ve, I’ve done them, quite a few of them. My very first one, and crazy me, I was commissioned to do it outside. So not only did I learn to make these interesting shapes, these organisms, but I had to attach them to a brick wall, and not ever having a commission like that it was quite a learning experience dealing with being outside and the wind and the elements. And um, I grew from that. And the, it was, it hung successfully. It was about- like this piece is five pieces, that had about fourteen elements.
Wit López: Wow.
Francis Beaty: So it was a similar look. But, um, it’s, it’s tough. I don’t think I would, I’m not looking forward to hanging it again outside [both laugh], because when you create it, it’s kind of like hanging your baby outside on a wall-
Wit López: Oh no! [Wit laughs]
Francis Beaty: -and you hope that the baby that you’ve dressed the baby and taken care, because once you, you know, you bring this thing into life, and then you put it out in the elements, it’s a whole different feeling as an artist. So I laugh about it, but it kind of was like that. I had to go check the baby, and make sure it survived a big heavy wind, or it was up during the winter and up with ice on it and it did fine, but boy, oh boy, did I learn from that one. But it’s all good. All new experiences are all good for me.
Wit López: Absolutely, absolutely. Um, so I noticed your paintings also, like I said earlier, kind of have this 3D element to it. Um, and which I think is absolutely beautiful. But in addition to your paintings, there were also some paper kind of pieces. I’ll call them pieces. I don’t want to call them sculptures because I don’t know what you call them, but they’re, they look like painted paper. Possibly some of them are painted or maybe some materials sprayed onto it, uh, and they’re inside of frames. Can you tell me a little bit more about what those are?
Francis Beaty: Well, these are, um, a series that I did just recently in September. I was lucky enough to be in a residency with nine other artists in town called Ille-sur-tet in France and I was there for two weeks. And knowing that I was traveling that far, I didn’t take a lot of art material with me. I only took some cotton rag paper called Cotty paper, and I challenged myself to see what I could do with minimal materials and, um, also being in an environment that I never was in.
So I, each day I challenged myself to do three small, 12 by 12 pieces, but again, I had this paper, so I started ripping the paper, um, dipping it in water, maybe a little bit of watercolor. Different artists would say, “Oh, here’s some of this. Would you like to try this?” Kind of finding out what, how you can make art with very little materials and also going out in nature and gathering things and being inspired by nature.
So again, um, it was ripping the paper. One of them were printed papers. I dip the paper in the pool that we stayed in.
Wit López: That’s amazing.
Francis Beaty: And the pool, and this is another one where I dipped them in the pool, which was a salt water pool, just happened to be. And then I took these three papers- there were three of them, cause I had to do three that day- and I pressed them up against these beautiful stone walls that surrounded the property and let them dry in the shape of the rocks that imprinted on this paper.
And when they were finished, I outlined them with some black and they became kind of, um, takeaway of a, of a beautiful, mountainous scene. Little did I realize it’s, that was what was all around me. The Pyrenees mountains were all around me and here, this was just from dipping it in the pool while I was swimming, and “Okay, what will I do with it now?”.
So I’m more about seeing what my material do for me and allowing myself to let the material tell me what it wants. All a good experience. And that’s what the ripped paper, the one where you saw the ripped paper. I was ripping the paper and I would throw it on the ground, but one of my other artists came up to me, wonderful Japanese artist, and he was, “No, no, mmm no, you must use that”. So again, getting different viewpoints, different eyes, learning how to see even more, um, honing my sensitivity. The result of that residency, I have a 30 pieces of work
Wit López: That’s amazing.
Francis Beaty: Thirty pieces, and they’re all framed and they’re kind of a personal diary of my 14 days, and that’s how I’d like to look at it. It’s a very, um, personal expression. Um, not having my studio to back me up, and all my goodies [Wit laughs],STOP 17:40 I went there kind of, uh, without anything, and just to see what you can create from nothing.
Wit López: And you’ve created something really wonderful. So you mentioned that you, you said you had to do three pieces that day as, and in was mandatory for you to do three pieces. Was that something that was outlined in the rules of the residency?
Francis Beaty: No, it was just my idea. Some of the artists didn’t do anything for four or five days. They would just sit around and relax, and I felt that I needed to be productive because how often am I going to be in this beautiful old town and there were no distractions. They, they cooked all the meals for us, so I was in a perfect environment to just stay in art mentality and just kind of be inside myself. So that’s why I felt like I have to. Not have to, I actually wanted to. It just kept coming out of me cause I was in a perfect situation to experiment with all this paper and also to appreciate little works.
Um, you know, sometimes we, people wanted to be big and shouting at you, but then this subtlety is what I realized I was coming upon after a couple of days at them. I said, Oh yeah, here we go. This is what I’ll do. I’ll make triptych each day. Now listen, if there was a day I didn’t feel like at the next day, I didn’t say, okay, tomorrow I have to, but it kind of turned out that way because I would be stimulated. Oh, let me try it this way, this way. So for me it was a, it’s very personal. I feel like there’s a blossoming of me, and like I said, as I’m older, you wonder, can you? There’s more blossoming to come.
Wit López: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, I really love those pieces. Like they’re, they’re really beautiful. They seem to play with like light and dark. Uh, and because the pages are ripped or the paper is ripped, you have the light around the edges and the dark towards the middle in some of them. Um, what were your choices in- I mean, what were your ideas behind the choices of where to place color?
Francis Beaty: Well, again, it’s, it’s, that does come from my architectural training and my design training, that any good design needs to have a focal point. So if you look at a flower, you know, there’s always a focal point. Like maybe it’s the center, but it’s not necessarily always the center. So I always make sure there’s an area that’s, uh, there’s a focal point that’s required and, and a place of interest, and then that empty place for the viewer to decide to put themselves into the piece.
So I feel like those are the three principles that I try to follow and making sure that there will be shadows. That’s it for me. And the irregularity and the ripping of the paper. I mean, some people that would, they don’t want to spend two seconds looking at that, but then there are some people, the texture.
And if you look up close and it’s just the fibers coming together and attention to detail that sometimes we don’t take time for.
Wit López: It’s true. It’s true. A lot of folks miss that, and I love, I love artwork that makes us slow down, right? Because we tend to move pretty fast. You know, as as humans, we were always go, go, go, go, go.
Francis Beaty: Right.
Wit López: But I feel like your works definitely give the viewer the opportunity to slow down and to kind of become part of the work, too-
Francis Beaty: Well, thank you.
Wit López: -by viewing it and by experiencing it. And also by, like with your paintings, by also imagining another part to it. So, that’s really awesome. That’s really, really wonderful.
So the third, the 30 pieces that you made while you were at this French residency, or was it a fellowship or was this a residency?
Francis Beaty: It was a residency.
Wit López: So the 30 pieces that you made, how did you ship them back here?
Francis Beaty: Well, ‘member, they were just the pieces of paper. So once they were all made, we pack them up in a box, and my other artists who spoke French fluently, fortunately, we marched ourselves off to the post office and we mailed them in one box.
Wit López: Oh, that’s great.
Francis Beaty: And they were just on the cotton paper. So I just packed them up with newspaper and they made it to the US, no problem. And then I put them into frames, cause then it’s when I decided I was going to be my little personal diary here, my story, you know, and then so series, and I call it the Ille-sur-Têt Series.
Um, and it’s also a way to encourage, um, other people to look at things in terms of three, like even when you think, I mean, I think three can be symbolic in a lot of ways for people. Uh, the beginning, the middle and the end. So I kind of feel like, oh yeah, that three was speaking to me. You know, it’s kind of a story beginning, the middle, and the end. So I feel like it’s still a complete, um, statement. Now I feel like I’m not making sense.
Wit López: No, no, you’re absolutely making sense [Francis laughs].
Francis Beaty: Right? So that’s how I felt. Oh, that would be good. So, and it was funny that the pieces came. I actually was invited to go to France because I’m in a group called the Global Art Project. I belong to this group, and I had just been in a group show in Ghent, Belgium before that.
Wit López: Wow.
Francis Beaty: I show- I did a large piece, very different from Primordia, uh, in Belgium. And the, some of the artists that were there were invited to go to France. None of us knew each other [Wit laughs]. So on that, on that alone, I knew none of these people. And after the two weeks with these people, I mean, I’m emailing these people every day sometimes and going to see them again. So it’s something when everything is out of the way and you’re just talking art. We became very, um, intimate with each other on art levels.
Wit López: Absolutely.
Francis Beaty: Then I could say, what do you think about this? And they get it. So it’s nice cause you can’t really find that, you know?
Wit López: Yeah, no, it’s true.
Francis Beaty: So I had quite a lucky, lucky happenstance last summer that things just went that way. Yeah. And I’ll be participating in a few more shows. I’m going back to Ghent in the end of May to be in another show.
Wit López: Oh, wonderful!
Francis Beaty: They invited me to show again, and this Global Art Project, I’m in a show called Crossing Borders. And that is going to be showing again in California. So I also like this because I like to be around, um, people from different countries. They have different viewpoints. Like I said, I need to continue growing and keeping an open mind about things and getting that dialogue from people. So I found this to be, um, really exciting for me to have that influence and not just staying in Pennsylvania or the East coast. Um, you know, with the internet and things like this, there’s no reason to not reach out. So that’s what I’m about [both laugh].
Wit López: That’s wonderful. And I love that. I love that you’re mentioning the idea of still growing, because I think sometimes we think that artists who have really prolific practices, which I consider your practice to be very prolific.
So for artists that have prolific practices that they are, they’re, you know, they, they’ve, they’re, they’re, they don’t have to go anywhere else. Right. So I love that you’re saying that, you’re, you are as a person are still growing and that your worldview is still growing. And that you’re, and it’s influencing your art practice so that your art practice continues to grow as well. I think that’s really wonderful.
Francis Beaty: Right. For me, it seemed like the right path for me, while I’m still healthy and, um, I’m very invigorated to do it, and the worldview is so important, um, for me, and it’s not for everybody, but it seemed right for me.
Wit López: Absolutely, absolutely. So I did have a question about your color choices-
Francis Beaty: Oh, okay.
Wit López: -because I noticed that your paintings, which they all seem to be kind of on square, uh, wooden pallets-
Francis Beaty: Right, like a panel.
Wit López: Yeah, panel. Um, they have bright colors and there’s some white in there as well, kind of like in the background or on a portion of it. But then with the paper, it’s just white and black. And I know that you mentioned it’s because you didn’t have your materials that you usually have. If you had brought your materials, do you think that the colors in the paper pieces would have changed?
Francis Beaty: I probably would have stayed with the natural. Yeah. I don’t think for me, having those brights, the vibrant colors, um. No, I could have painted. The other artists were offering me paint all the time and I was like, I’m fine. I just felt like, oh, it was enough for me to just take in the textures and the natural colors of nature and keep it very, um, soft.
I don’t know. I don’t know how I might expect, but I had it. I could have had any color I wanted, but. It wasn’t my mindset. It was about peeling back the layers on myself, almost like tissue papers who I felt like it had to have a delicate quality to it because it was a personal journey. So there’s an element of delicateness for sure that I kind of came through.
Wit López: That makes sense. And it definitely shows it definitely. It feels very delicate when you look at it.
Francis Beaty: Yeah. Cause I want it to be emotional. Like it’s a diary.
Wit López: Absolutely.
Francis Beaty: Kind of like private and in some ways, uh, as close as I could get. And then the other pieces on the wood panels, they’re a very different beast.
Wit López: Absolutely.
Francis Beaty: But that’s how I am, you know, I can be as- I can do delicate, but then there are times, and I can’t, all I want is a bright color, but I think color has to be used very sparingly and carefully for me. You know? Um, a color choice to me is a big deal. Like if I’m gonna make something with red, I better make sure that I’m, I’m, that means that’s powerful or strong. So each color to me kind of has a definition [Francis laughs].
Wit López: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, how do you feel that the two bodies of work are connected? What do you feel is a thread between these bold paintings that you have that are very brightly colored, and then these, uh, kind of understated, a little muted, but as you said, delicate paper works that are black and white, or shades of gray?
Francis Beaty: Well, I think it’s, it’s prob- it has to be my whole personality that there’s, there’s two sides to me, and maybe it’s what you keep personal, like the delicate and the, you almost like the very colorful ones or the more powerful or more, uh, confident, but not necessarily. So I just feel like it’s… all of these are emotional statements of where I was at that time. And I feel like at that time, when the bright ones were being created, I was feeling the need for that. But they’re all emotional expressions for me. Uh, like some of them are called different things. A Union or one painting that’s red, white, and blue: Union. So I try to put some kind of spin on the combination of color, but I think it is. It’s just the two sides of me that are there. I, some people, they always will paint in bright colors. Um, but I don’t know. I think of my emotions. I’m in touch with them enough that I want to sometimes stay soft, and then other times I want to be bright. So it’s just emotional. It’s a type of therapy for me, honestly.
Wit López: I understand [Both laugh]. Yeah, definitely. Uh, so with the piece that’s on the wall, that beautiful, beautiful, wonderful sculptural piece. Uh, what was your inspiration behind that? I know you mentioned that organisms and kind of shapes from nature.
Francis Beaty: Well, it has that painterly quality of a Matisse or a Monet, there is the painterly quality that honestly, look, I love to paint and I could paint if I wanted to. So I wanted to pad that, that watercolor feeling to it, uh, but also nature. Um, but the reflective quality, again, that comes on to the, the walls from lighting is nice, but it’s also, uh, the delicateness again of this screening. People have asked me if it’s a tool like that they make petticoats from.
Wit López: That was my first thought, yeah.
Francis Beaty: People thought it was that material, and, it’s again, it’s kind of uh, the contrast to material. So I have this, it’s metal screening, but it looks like it’s soft and material. So it’s kind of uh, a play on your brain, like what is that? It’s a hard material, but it’s coming across with a soft dialogue. It’s speaking softly. It’s acting softly, but it’s a hard material. So that’s a lot of what I like to do. I use odd materials and like try to transform them. So that’s what this was. Picking something that’s hard and making it have a different, uh, emotion. A different look.
Wit López: It’s amazing.
Francis Beaty: Thank you.
Wit López: Everything that’s here is amazing.
Francis Beaty: Well, thank you.
Wit López: Your work is really brilliant. And I hope that people will flock to come see it here at PI gallery on March 6th during the opening reception. So for those of you who are listening, the opening reception, as I said, is Friday, March 6th from 5 to 8:00 PM. The show will be up through March 28th.
So even if you can’t make it to the opening reception, you have time to come see this amazing show at Pi gallery. Again, the address is 242 Race Street in Old City, Philadelphia. Uh, the hours of operation here are Fridays and Saturdays from 12 to 5:00 PM and other days are by appointment. So make sure you come to see Spring Up before it comes down.
And thank you again to Francis Beatty for sitting here to speak with me on Art Blog Radio today. And thank you to Maria Kraybill, the curator and manager of the gallery here, who’s doing really amazing and wonderful work. Thank you again, Francis.
Francis Beaty: Oh, thank you so much, Wit. It was a pleasure.
Wit López: Absolutely. It was a pleasure speaking with you and learning more about your work and for those of you listening, have a great day.
Enjoy yourselves. Bye now.
