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From YouTube: Artist Interview: Rob Swanstorm
Description
With the hope to connect, entertain, and provide a taste of culture to people through his free library. His library provides free books to anyone in his neighborhood, but it also provides a gallery space for people to display their work. Creative Neighborhoods: COVID-19 Work Projects was launched by the Office of Arts + Culture and Create Boulder: https://boulderarts.org/public-art/creative-neighborhoods/covid-19-work-projects/
B
Okay,
hello
world:
I
am
rodney
swanstrom
coming
to
earth
in
1961
august
25th
1961,
you
do
the
math
okay
and
I
I
came
to
earth,
I
think,
as
an
artist.
Actually
I
think
that
was
my
that
was
my
soul
being
for
being
here,
and
so
since
I
made
it
through
the
public
education
system
with
art,
as
my
saving
grace
and
then
went
on
to
art,
school
and
continued
on
from
there
as
a
freelance.
B
A
B
At
the
time
right
and
I
had
the
spirit
and
these
these
dreams
at
night,
they
were
telling
me
to
go
to
the
big
city,
and
you
know
I
had
these
like
fire
escape
and
shadows
and
windows
and
things
that
were
kind
of
telling
me
to
go
beyond
right.
So
I
I
packed
my
backpack
and
my
sleeping
bag
and
went
for
a
journey
out
in
the
iowa
cornfields
and
came
back
with.
I.
B
C
B
Because
I
bought
a
one-way
ticket
to
new
york
city
and
on
the
third
day
I
was
there,
I
met
a
person
who
was
what
I
call
my
art,
soul,
mother.
She
was
an
artist,
a
painter
that
was
looking.
She
had.
She
had
shown
me
the
written
documents
saying
stating
that
she
was
like
asking
for
a
you
know,
a
young
helpful
artist
to
kind
of
help
her
create
these
big
paintings
that
she
worked
with,
and
I
was
a
lucky
recipient.
B
We
lived
and
worked
together
in
new
york's
chelsea
district
back
in
the
late
80s
early
90s
and
ruth
kligman
since
has
passed,
but
her
legacy
lives
on.
She
was.
She
was
jackson,
pollock's,
mistress
back
in
the
day,
and
so
when
I
was
living
at
the
studio,
living
and
working
at
the
studios,
have
people
like
jasper,
john's
call
and
william
defoe
stopped
over,
because
he
wanted
to
play
the
role
of
jackson,
pollock
and
she
had
written
the
book.
B
So
it
kind
of
transformed
my
commercial
art
into
more
of
a
fine
art
kind
of
more
self
explorative
vision,
and
through
that
I
had
the
interest
in
architecture.
Early
on
and
when
I
was
living
in
the
back
of
that
new
york
studio,
there
was
a
beautiful
skylight
in
the
roof
of
this
studio
that
I
lived
in
in
chelsea
and
that
kind
of
came
into
my
sketchbook,
which
then
came
in
to
break
my
paintings.
Up
with
that.
Consider
myself
a
painter
at
that
time
and.
B
You
know
on
that
blue
chip
level,
so
it
was
really
a
part
of
my
education
and
and
so
then
I
went
to
europe
for
four
years
and
lived
in
germany
and
was
working
with
a
non-profit
group
over
there
with
these
crazy
german
kids,
who
are
just
kind
of
doing
this
crazy
stuff,
and
I
was
just
on
the
ship.
You
know
as
a
shipmate
having
a
great
time
and
I've
been
in
boulder
now
for
10
years
and
been
kind
of
doing.
My
thing
in
boulder
been
I've
shown
at
the
dairy.
B
B
A
B
My
gosh,
you
know
the
livelihood
part
has
has
hasn't
really
affected
me
that
much
you
know,
because
I'm
I'm
independent.
I
do
my
my
art,
I
also
do
ought
in
jobs.
You
know,
as
a
small
contractor
builder,
able
to
do
that
and
a
lot
of
people
are
looking
for.
Just
you
know,
people
who
are
a
lot
of
its
neighborhood
jobs
that
I
do.
My
main
job
is
to
take
care
of
the
boys,
and
so
it's
affecting
me
that
way
because
we
are
and
my
wife
we
are
around
each
other.
A
B
C
B
There's
been
a
lot
of
really
great
things
that
have
happened
that
have
come
out
of
it.
For
me,
I
you
know,
I
think,
for
a
lot
of
people,
it's
been
an
inconvenience,
but
I
think
when
we
look
back
on
it,
you
know
in
even
five
or
ten
years
people
will
go.
You
know
that
was
really
a
great
time
that
we
got
to
spend
together.
You
know,
as
long
as
someone
that
you
love
or
know
doesn't
get
sick.
B
B
B
A
A
B
Yeah,
absolutely
my
project
had
been
kind
of
in
the
weight.
Actually,
it
was
perfect
timing
because
I
had
built
this
little
free
library
in
our
neighborhood,
which
is
up
in
the
upper
university
area
off
chautauqua.
So
my
my
wife's
grandparents
built
this
house
in
the
50s
and
that's
the
only
reason
we're
able
to.
B
B
B
Okay,
you
haven't
seen
it
so
if
you're
out
and
about
up
at
chautauqua,
come
off
of
six,
just
a
block
to
cascade,
go
left
and
then
take
another
left
on
willowbrook,
and
it's
this
you
know
independent
freestanding
little
free
library
that
has
a
gallery
space
in
the
top.
So
I
figured
this
would
be
a
perfect
time
for
me
to
install
this
art
installation
up
in
this
upper
area
of
the
little
free
library,
because
you
know
galleries
are
closed.
Museums
are
closed.
B
All
the
cultural
establishments
have
been
shut
down
for
this
cove
thing,
and
I
know
that
people
I've
got
a
few
responses
from
people
that
are
like
oh
yeah,
that
was
so
great
to
see
someone's
art
outside
of
the
normal
museum
or
gallery.
Just
you
know
out
in
the
neighborhood
24
7.,
and
you
know
I
feel,
like
it's
really
been
beneficial
to
the
neighbors
to
the
community,
so
happy
that
kovid,
the
covid
grant
kind
of
pushed
me
over
the
edge
to
get
it
completed.
Thank
you.
A
B
No,
I
just
I
would
like
to
invite
people
to
stop
by,
like
I
said,
the
the
little
free
library
gallery
and
check
out
the
skylight
installation
there
it's
on
it's
on
the
website.
The
map
is
on
the
website
under
rodney
swanstrom
and
stop
by
check
it
out,
leave
a
post-it
note
or
something
that
says:
you've
been
there
and
any
responses
on
I
need
to
get.
Oh,
can
you
turn
the
light
switch
on?
Everybody
hang
on
a.