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Featured Guest:
Steven Joseph Gonsalves, Artist and Founder, @SoDetailed Published June 19, 2025 In this episode and second 1:1 interview, host Jackie Morreale engages in a deep conversation with artist Steven Joseph Gonsalves about his artistic journey, the challenges of content creation, and the personal connections that inspire his work. Steven shares insights from his 52-week art exploration in New York City for @SoDetailed discussing the highs and lows of his project, the evolution of his identity as an artist, and his future aspirations. The conversation emphasizes the importance of creativity, personal growth, and the beauty found in both man-made and natural art forms. Listen to/watch the trailer, full podcast recording, or read the transcript below: |
1-Minute Trailer:
Full Interview with Steven Joseph Gonsalves (33 minutes):
"At the end of the day, I'm just an artist. In everything I do, through and through till death does us part. I'm just an artist." - Steven Joseph Gonsalves (Wisdom for Wannabes podcast episode 5, 02:08)
Interview Transcript:
Jackie Morreale (JM): Welcome to Wisdom for Wannabes, a new podcast series hosted by me, Jackie Morreale. Today I am joined by Steven Joseph Gonsalves, who has been leading an unwavering lifelong journey as an artist. He not only creates his paintings in his studio, but spent every week of 2024 exploring the hippest, hottest and most happening art shows, art galleries and art museums in New York City, as well as many iconic landmarks and destinations.
His journey also included food, drinks, pop culture, classic men's fashion, and dry humor, all captured and shared for audiences on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. So check him out as his art journey continues to unfold. As part of my own journey to gain wisdom and creativity, I want to start by saying, Steven, I'm so inspired by you and your journey in artistic exploration. And I want to be better at exploring my own creativity and observing the beauty around me. I also want to be better at painting and content creation too. So thank you for indulging me and joining me for this conversation today.
Let's start with some basic questions. What is your full name and where are you from?
Steven Joseph Gonsalves (SJG): Well, hello, my fellow art lover. How do you do?
JM: Great!
SJG: Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, you got to brush up on your Sherlock talk. Proper response to how do you do is to simply repeat back, how do you do? So how do you do? Once again, lover. How do you do?
JM: How do you do?
SJG: My name is Steven Joseph Gonsalves and I'm a dual citizen. I was actually born in New York City, but grew up in a small town named Digby in Nova Scotia, Canada. The best of both worlds. Like Hannah Montana. So interesting. So where do you live Let's see. I live in Astoria in New York City in Queens. OK. A big piece of my heart was always in the Big Apple and I felt it pulling me my whole life, pulling me back, everything I've done, every decision I made was to get me exactly where I am sitting right now, talking to you.
JM: Absolutely! Tell me more about what you do.
SJG: What don't I do? How much time do we have? I completely agree. What don't you do? No, but seriously, by day, I've actually been a hairstylist for the past 28 years. I've explored basically every facet of that industry. That's a whole other podcast together.
At the end of the day, I'm just an artist. In everything I do, through and through till death does us part. I'm just an artist.
JM: I have watched your series, and I think we can take away the word just and just say you are an artist. How long have you been an artist?
SJG: Oh gosh. Since I was five, I always say it's like a state of mind. Really. When you're an artist, everything you do is art from how you talk, how you dress, how you think, how you brush your teeth or tie your shoe. I completely I've just always been an artist and I've accepted it. The thing I love the most about being an artist is when things go extremely well, you can say, hey, I'm an artist. And when things go terribly wrong, you can say, hey, I'm an artist. I'm an artist.
JM: I totally agree. Well, you are so detailed in everything that you do. I think the mention @SoDetailed is so perfect for your art and your art exploration, for all of these years of your life.
I love the amount of detail and effort and every angle that you look at is so interesting to me as an outside person watching and I'm sure your audience would agree. So just to get into some of the nitty gritty, let's talk through some quickfire questions to learn a little bit more about you.
SJG: I love quickfire.
JM: Yes, do it. so what is your favorite city?
SJG: New York City.
JM: Right answer. Of course there's no wrong answers, but of course me too. Drink?
SJG: Beer, wine, whiskey, depends on the task at hand, but that is my trifecta.
JM: Okay, love that trifecta. Book?
SJG: Anything Sherlock Holmes.
JM: Sherlock Holmes, indeed. Movie?
SJG: Dorian Gray, the 2009 production.
JM: Ooh, very nice. Place to create?
SJG: In my mind. Okay. My safe place.
JM: I love that, in your mind, absolutely. Favorite artist of all time?
SJG: I've given this a lot of thought and it is Leonardo da Vinci.
JM: Beautiful. I understand and agree and appreciate his work as well very much. Art and science, period of time or style in art history?
SJG: 1850 to 1899. So many great things happened in there.
JM: Wow, that is "so detailed". Love that. Okay, last one. My favorite modern-day designer?
SJG: Me. And that Peter Marino guy is pretty good. Yep. He's like a visionary architect.
Yes. And Thomas Pink designed some nice shirts.
JM: Thomas Pink does have some nice shirts. There's a lot going on in menswear.
Before you put me on the spot and ask me quick fire questions, I'm going to keep going. So last year you went on a 52 week personal art journey through New York City featuring artists, galleries, events, museums, training museums and restaurants, New York City iconic places, and so much more.
Tell me more about the why behind this project. Why did you start this @So Detailed artistic journey? What was your inspiration behind the project?
SJG: First of all, you have to understand how I feel about New Year's resolutions. I take them religiously. I value the opportunity to reassess, make a plan of action, set goals, and challenge myself for a period of time.
It was December 2023. I was fed up that I worked around the corner for 18 years from the J.P. Morgan Museum and still hadn't gotten there yet. I think we all know what it's like. There's things we want to do where we live, but we get stuck in this routine. Go to home, go to work, go to home, go to work. I said, that's it. 2024, I'm going to jump the track. I'm going to lean in to New York City's art scene and see what's happening.
It's probably the best thing I could do to get away from my easel and get away from my paintings because I know no one's gonna come knocking on my apartment door to discover me. I to get out there. Then I got really excited about the experimental factor of it. Like what would happen if I immersed myself in New York City's art scene for 52 consecutive weeks? Has your painting changed as a result of your critique and your exploration? Actually, not quite yet. I'm sticking true to my guns. I'm sticking true to you. I have a lot of inspiration.
The funny thing is, the videos were actually an afterthought because I was concerned how I would remember everything so many weeks muddled together and then I remembered I have 15 years' experience creating video montages so I thought that would be an excellent souvenir and I could share them with my mother and bring back good memories for her of when she used to live here for 20 years. Oh man, your mother must be so proud. I look forward to showing them to her at the end of every week as much as she looked forward to seeing them.
JM: How beautiful is that? I'm so happy that it all started with a New Year's resolution. Most people say that they're going to go back to the gym and kind of fail miserably after the first couple of weeks. So, I think being able to put together this passion project that went through an entire year, every single week, new content. Now that you just told me that you have these 15 years of video montage creation, I understand and I really appreciate the work that you did.
Your content creation skills are amazing and you curated the art so beautifully with music, with fashion.
SJG: I'm glad you noticed that.
JM: With @SoDetailed, I really appreciate every little bit that you put into this project. Being from New York myself, I haven't been to many of these places on your 52-gallery list. I've been to the mains, right? The MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim.
You really took it to such a detailed, beautiful journey that I think everyone who would watch it would be incredibly impressed by it. Let's talk more about your process because the process was incredible. You just pump out content and so quickly. What drove you to keep going week by week?
SJG: Well, my word is my bond. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I say what I mean. I mean what I say.
There is no option for quitting, but planning is what really helped it flow and facilitate smoothly. I had the whole year planned in advance based on weather patterns and holidays and things like that. My love for planning stuff helped things really flow. One thing that really, really, really drove me is my father. He was an amazing New Yorker, rest in peace, Paul Joseph Gonsalves. I loved hanging out in the city with him because no matter what neighborhood we were in, no matter what district we were in. He had so many stories and memories about every park, every building, every block, every street. So, every week I felt like I was out there with him. I felt closer spiritually, like he was with me and proud of what I was doing. It really helped me bring closure to the greatest loss of them all and process grief. So really, between my mother and my father, that's so many people I was doing this for and my passion for art. That is so beautiful.
JM: I can only imagine that absolutely would bring you closer to your dad and your mom. That sounds like a beautiful reason for doing it just for you and your family. I feel like a very lucky bystander on the outside to have been a small part of that and get the souvenir and be able to watch the videos. I love the souvenirs and you made them in such nice bite sized pieces. You took so much information, so many paintings, so much talent, and we're able to put it into a couple of minutes to cover each week and really make it a fast paced, educational and entertaining, so educational, so entertaining and you yourself or syllable was wasted. Everything was planned. @So Detailed. I loved it. Exactly. I think that anybody who's interested in art or their own personal journey and trying to understand the fortitude and the perseverance you had to get through this, it would appreciate your project.
Stepping back and looking back at your journey for creating @So Detailed, what would you say would be the high point, the low point and the weird? So High, Low, Buffalo of this project?
SJG: Okay. Recap it. One high point was getting free tickets, getting comped free tickets for the Volta Art Fair in week 36, a gallery that I featured in week 32, a gallery, Remfurt was so happy with my feature that they sent me free VIP tickets for this huge art fair. So thanks to them. It was a great time, week 36. Another definite high point was meeting the artist Duane Bousfield in week 39, and then featuring his art studio in week 45. He is a kindred spirit. Since then, he's introduced me to so many art professors, art teachers, gallery owners, big time art dealers, writers, fashionistas, photographers. I love going to his parties. He's like the Gatsby of Hell's Kitchen. Thank you, Duane.
JM: Amazing. We're talking high low Buffalo, but let's talk about the high in more detail. It sounds like those weeks in the 30s. If you started in January and you ended in December, those are the fall weeks were where you hit your stride. In the beginning you had a concept and you followed through, but it really felt like your work, just took off on its own in those later weeks.
SJG: I appreciate that and I just wanted to point it out because I loved it. So fun to see the progress, the editing, the shooting, the filming, the storytelling and how it really progresses. Yes. Yeah, I really did hit my stride somewhere in the middle. The first four are shaky and hard for me to even watch now. I was holding the camera the wrong way.
(Continued below)
His journey also included food, drinks, pop culture, classic men's fashion, and dry humor, all captured and shared for audiences on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. So check him out as his art journey continues to unfold. As part of my own journey to gain wisdom and creativity, I want to start by saying, Steven, I'm so inspired by you and your journey in artistic exploration. And I want to be better at exploring my own creativity and observing the beauty around me. I also want to be better at painting and content creation too. So thank you for indulging me and joining me for this conversation today.
Let's start with some basic questions. What is your full name and where are you from?
Steven Joseph Gonsalves (SJG): Well, hello, my fellow art lover. How do you do?
JM: Great!
SJG: Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, you got to brush up on your Sherlock talk. Proper response to how do you do is to simply repeat back, how do you do? So how do you do? Once again, lover. How do you do?
JM: How do you do?
SJG: My name is Steven Joseph Gonsalves and I'm a dual citizen. I was actually born in New York City, but grew up in a small town named Digby in Nova Scotia, Canada. The best of both worlds. Like Hannah Montana. So interesting. So where do you live Let's see. I live in Astoria in New York City in Queens. OK. A big piece of my heart was always in the Big Apple and I felt it pulling me my whole life, pulling me back, everything I've done, every decision I made was to get me exactly where I am sitting right now, talking to you.
JM: Absolutely! Tell me more about what you do.
SJG: What don't I do? How much time do we have? I completely agree. What don't you do? No, but seriously, by day, I've actually been a hairstylist for the past 28 years. I've explored basically every facet of that industry. That's a whole other podcast together.
At the end of the day, I'm just an artist. In everything I do, through and through till death does us part. I'm just an artist.
JM: I have watched your series, and I think we can take away the word just and just say you are an artist. How long have you been an artist?
SJG: Oh gosh. Since I was five, I always say it's like a state of mind. Really. When you're an artist, everything you do is art from how you talk, how you dress, how you think, how you brush your teeth or tie your shoe. I completely I've just always been an artist and I've accepted it. The thing I love the most about being an artist is when things go extremely well, you can say, hey, I'm an artist. And when things go terribly wrong, you can say, hey, I'm an artist. I'm an artist.
JM: I totally agree. Well, you are so detailed in everything that you do. I think the mention @SoDetailed is so perfect for your art and your art exploration, for all of these years of your life.
I love the amount of detail and effort and every angle that you look at is so interesting to me as an outside person watching and I'm sure your audience would agree. So just to get into some of the nitty gritty, let's talk through some quickfire questions to learn a little bit more about you.
SJG: I love quickfire.
JM: Yes, do it. so what is your favorite city?
SJG: New York City.
JM: Right answer. Of course there's no wrong answers, but of course me too. Drink?
SJG: Beer, wine, whiskey, depends on the task at hand, but that is my trifecta.
JM: Okay, love that trifecta. Book?
SJG: Anything Sherlock Holmes.
JM: Sherlock Holmes, indeed. Movie?
SJG: Dorian Gray, the 2009 production.
JM: Ooh, very nice. Place to create?
SJG: In my mind. Okay. My safe place.
JM: I love that, in your mind, absolutely. Favorite artist of all time?
SJG: I've given this a lot of thought and it is Leonardo da Vinci.
JM: Beautiful. I understand and agree and appreciate his work as well very much. Art and science, period of time or style in art history?
SJG: 1850 to 1899. So many great things happened in there.
JM: Wow, that is "so detailed". Love that. Okay, last one. My favorite modern-day designer?
SJG: Me. And that Peter Marino guy is pretty good. Yep. He's like a visionary architect.
Yes. And Thomas Pink designed some nice shirts.
JM: Thomas Pink does have some nice shirts. There's a lot going on in menswear.
Before you put me on the spot and ask me quick fire questions, I'm going to keep going. So last year you went on a 52 week personal art journey through New York City featuring artists, galleries, events, museums, training museums and restaurants, New York City iconic places, and so much more.
Tell me more about the why behind this project. Why did you start this @So Detailed artistic journey? What was your inspiration behind the project?
SJG: First of all, you have to understand how I feel about New Year's resolutions. I take them religiously. I value the opportunity to reassess, make a plan of action, set goals, and challenge myself for a period of time.
It was December 2023. I was fed up that I worked around the corner for 18 years from the J.P. Morgan Museum and still hadn't gotten there yet. I think we all know what it's like. There's things we want to do where we live, but we get stuck in this routine. Go to home, go to work, go to home, go to work. I said, that's it. 2024, I'm going to jump the track. I'm going to lean in to New York City's art scene and see what's happening.
It's probably the best thing I could do to get away from my easel and get away from my paintings because I know no one's gonna come knocking on my apartment door to discover me. I to get out there. Then I got really excited about the experimental factor of it. Like what would happen if I immersed myself in New York City's art scene for 52 consecutive weeks? Has your painting changed as a result of your critique and your exploration? Actually, not quite yet. I'm sticking true to my guns. I'm sticking true to you. I have a lot of inspiration.
The funny thing is, the videos were actually an afterthought because I was concerned how I would remember everything so many weeks muddled together and then I remembered I have 15 years' experience creating video montages so I thought that would be an excellent souvenir and I could share them with my mother and bring back good memories for her of when she used to live here for 20 years. Oh man, your mother must be so proud. I look forward to showing them to her at the end of every week as much as she looked forward to seeing them.
JM: How beautiful is that? I'm so happy that it all started with a New Year's resolution. Most people say that they're going to go back to the gym and kind of fail miserably after the first couple of weeks. So, I think being able to put together this passion project that went through an entire year, every single week, new content. Now that you just told me that you have these 15 years of video montage creation, I understand and I really appreciate the work that you did.
Your content creation skills are amazing and you curated the art so beautifully with music, with fashion.
SJG: I'm glad you noticed that.
JM: With @SoDetailed, I really appreciate every little bit that you put into this project. Being from New York myself, I haven't been to many of these places on your 52-gallery list. I've been to the mains, right? The MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim.
You really took it to such a detailed, beautiful journey that I think everyone who would watch it would be incredibly impressed by it. Let's talk more about your process because the process was incredible. You just pump out content and so quickly. What drove you to keep going week by week?
SJG: Well, my word is my bond. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I say what I mean. I mean what I say.
There is no option for quitting, but planning is what really helped it flow and facilitate smoothly. I had the whole year planned in advance based on weather patterns and holidays and things like that. My love for planning stuff helped things really flow. One thing that really, really, really drove me is my father. He was an amazing New Yorker, rest in peace, Paul Joseph Gonsalves. I loved hanging out in the city with him because no matter what neighborhood we were in, no matter what district we were in. He had so many stories and memories about every park, every building, every block, every street. So, every week I felt like I was out there with him. I felt closer spiritually, like he was with me and proud of what I was doing. It really helped me bring closure to the greatest loss of them all and process grief. So really, between my mother and my father, that's so many people I was doing this for and my passion for art. That is so beautiful.
JM: I can only imagine that absolutely would bring you closer to your dad and your mom. That sounds like a beautiful reason for doing it just for you and your family. I feel like a very lucky bystander on the outside to have been a small part of that and get the souvenir and be able to watch the videos. I love the souvenirs and you made them in such nice bite sized pieces. You took so much information, so many paintings, so much talent, and we're able to put it into a couple of minutes to cover each week and really make it a fast paced, educational and entertaining, so educational, so entertaining and you yourself or syllable was wasted. Everything was planned. @So Detailed. I loved it. Exactly. I think that anybody who's interested in art or their own personal journey and trying to understand the fortitude and the perseverance you had to get through this, it would appreciate your project.
Stepping back and looking back at your journey for creating @So Detailed, what would you say would be the high point, the low point and the weird? So High, Low, Buffalo of this project?
SJG: Okay. Recap it. One high point was getting free tickets, getting comped free tickets for the Volta Art Fair in week 36, a gallery that I featured in week 32, a gallery, Remfurt was so happy with my feature that they sent me free VIP tickets for this huge art fair. So thanks to them. It was a great time, week 36. Another definite high point was meeting the artist Duane Bousfield in week 39, and then featuring his art studio in week 45. He is a kindred spirit. Since then, he's introduced me to so many art professors, art teachers, gallery owners, big time art dealers, writers, fashionistas, photographers. I love going to his parties. He's like the Gatsby of Hell's Kitchen. Thank you, Duane.
JM: Amazing. We're talking high low Buffalo, but let's talk about the high in more detail. It sounds like those weeks in the 30s. If you started in January and you ended in December, those are the fall weeks were where you hit your stride. In the beginning you had a concept and you followed through, but it really felt like your work, just took off on its own in those later weeks.
SJG: I appreciate that and I just wanted to point it out because I loved it. So fun to see the progress, the editing, the shooting, the filming, the storytelling and how it really progresses. Yes. Yeah, I really did hit my stride somewhere in the middle. The first four are shaky and hard for me to even watch now. I was holding the camera the wrong way.
(Continued below)
Artwork by Steven Joseph Gonsalves
Holmes at Home by Steven Gonsalves, 2018, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
1450 Broadway by Steven Gonsalves, 2021, oil on canvas, 24” x 48”
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Flatiron Building by Steven Gonsalves, 2009, colored pencil on paper, 19” x 24”
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(Continued)
JM: I wouldn't say that at all. I thought they were beautiful. But to hear that you had all these kind of magical things happen when you were over 26 weeks would be halfway. Past your middle point is where you hit your stride and you're meeting all these incredible people and seeing all these incredible things, being comped, being valued for your position as an art critic. Do you kind of feel that at one point you kind of went from being artist to art critic or art educator or did your identity in the art scene sort of change as you were doing this project?
SJG: I never tried to be a critic. I am a creator. One of my lines when I'm at an art show talking to people, I say, which one of the three C's are you? People are very intrigued. Like, I'm a three C. What is this? What is this? I say, are you a critic, a creator, or a collector? Because those are the three types of people you're going to run into. Exactly. Some of are like, oh, I'm everything. I'm like, well, I'm just a creator. I'm not just a creator. I never wanted to be a critic. But to meet other people and see myself through their lens, I realized I'm doing some pretty special things that I never sit around and just tell myself I do, but actually have feedback and people seeing what I do. Yeah, now I feel like I have a little bit more presence in the art community now in New York City than I did a year ago or a year before last.
JM: Again, I think we need to remove the word just before a creator, because you're definitely a creator. Humble.
SJG: What you get from growing up in Digby.
JM: I love that, it's so interesting how, you don't consider yourself a critic or a collector, but you've given yourself this position in the industry that's really given you a sense of, distinction. I think by appreciating other people's work, it helps you explore your own and what your own perspective is. I love that more than halfway through the project that you found your high points. What was the low point of the project? Was there was one?
SJG: The lows, the lows. Every week, many lows, so many miscommunications, so many misunderstandings. The website. Google says one thing, you get there, the gallery says something else, sir, no videotaping here, always a low point. Technical difficulty. Rain in the Spring, a leak in my right shoe, and it took my soggy toenail like nine months to fully recover. So there was that. Recording audio was... my biggest pain in my butt the whole time. Recording audio on the city streets, the honking and everything and trying to figure out the technical parts of audio was my biggest challenge for sure. And editing every night until five o'clock in the morning was difficult on top of my other human responsibilities like my full-time job, groceries, laundry, chores. Just being around for friends and family.
JM: You'd never know that you had any low points on this project. I thought everything was beautiful and it was really nice to hear that there are some human elements, because my one question really going into a 52-weekend project, right? We're doing everything pretty much Saturday, Sunday. You have a life, you have a family. Did you ever take anybody along on this project? Where was it just a solo thing where you were exploring on your own?
SJG: It was solo. was when I was on the shoot day, I'm in director mode. And I thought of inviting people, but they're really just gonna slow you down. It's a date with you and your selfie stick. I feel like a third wheel. Right. Pay attention. I'm like so focused. I'm in director mode. Can I get this shoot? Can I get this frame? How am going to angle this? Repeating my script in my head, my lines like I wouldn't be talking to anyone if they were with me. I'm constantly rehearsing, rehearsing my lines in my head and going through my scripts and fiddling with all my gadgets, my wires, my camera, my stick. I couldn't bring anyone with me.
JM: It was very much a one day just for you. You were able to get all these amazing camera angles. You got yourself on a subway with different mosaic hats on top of you. You got yourself in, so many different galleries and museums, restaurants.
I think New York City is just this feeding ground for all this art, but I didn't know about so much of it. I thank you for bringing this to light. The weird parts you want to know about. I want to know the weird parts!
SJG: There was one scene where I had to walk barefoot through 23rd and Broadway. then I told my client the next day at work, was like, so when's the last time you walked barefoot through Manhattan? He's like, never. Yeah, I hope I never have to.
I said, you're not living. You don't know what you're missing. The feel of that warm asphalt on the ball of your foot and that itching burning sensation you get the following day. He's like, haha, yeah, you can keep that itch to yourself. And then there was another week where I had to lay down in a lavender bush. I had my mind, heart set on getting this one shot. Okay. I was laying in a lavender bush with my lavender suit on and turns out bees like lavender bushes a lot and I was standing there waiting for them to leave. There was like five or six bees swarming around.
I'm losing good light and I got to keep it going. So was like, okay, this is a high risk factor, but I'm going to lay down in this bush full of bees with an 80% chance I'm probably going to get stung all over my face. I did it for your own entertainment, put myself at high risk and I laid back and I got, I did a couple of takes, got the shot I needed. You can see the bees swarming past my face as I'm doing my outro.
JM: Oh my gosh.
SJG: But that's the level of commitment that I do for your entertainment and yes, very high stakes. I almost got beat up by a break dancer.
JM: Well, you're in New York City. You're an artist. You're going to encounter a lot of other artists, right, who are very proud of their work as well. whether that's visual, dance, theater, you're just surrounded by it. I don't know what happened with the break dancer, but I'm glad that everybody walked away.
SJG: Actually, I'm dying to tell you, but it's such a long story.
JM: Well, let's hear it. Did everybody walk away OK?
SJG: OK, I'm going to do a shoot. I'm on the train.
One of those Showtime dancers comes on, you the doors closed, glamour beatbox music, ghetto blaster, they're spinning around doing acrobatic break dancing off all the poles. Yep, I've seen them many times. Yeah, it's happening. I'm thinking to myself, Oh, I should videotape it. This is a real artsy cultural moment. I think it would be good my video. But then there's like people I got to get past and then other strap hangers would be mad. They're going to be like, don't videotape them. Don't encourage him.
Then I realized I only got $2 and that's not enough to give him a tip. And by the time I'm done with this mind struggle with myself, he's done. And then he goes around with his hat, nobody tips him, he gets very irate and starts yelling at people, I can't believe you guys don't appreciate my art. This is how I make my money. Everyone's getting kind of scared. Boyfriends are holding their girlfriends a little closer. Then he rips into them saying, oh, why are you trying to act so macho now? Why are you trying so hard to impress them that you see every day? And he's like telling off a couple of couples.
JM: That's a good way to get tips by the way, lol.
SJG: Not phased by his rants at all. I'm just in director mode like, okay, I got to formulate a solution. I had an idea. He's going to go to the next train at the next stop. I'll just go and commit to it. I'll get his Venmo, you know, and I'll get his permission, and I'll videotape him. So, he goes to the next train and I follow him. Bad idea. Irate dancer. He's going to the center of the train to do a show. He looks back and says, no, tell me you're not following me from the other car. I'm like, Yeah, I'm following you. I'm trying to catch up. He's like, you better not be following me from there.
Tell me you don't wanna be following me from the other car. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm closing in on him. Then he's like, when I walk away from something, that means it's done. It's over. When I walk away from something, it means it's done. I start to realize Spider-Sense going off, hair standing on end. I'm like, oh man, he thinks that I wanna have it out with him. I wanna put up the dukes. He thinks I'm one of the people he offended back there. I got on sunglasses, cowboy boots, a biker jacket.
JM: I was gonna say. Did the smoking jacket give it away from one subway car to the other?
SJG: It was a biker jacket that day. I had glasses on, sunglasses. He couldn't see the kindness in my eyes. Then I realized, OK, I got to get off the next stop immediately, because this guy could jump up and roundhouse kick me. I could get shot in the leg, stab, jab, shank. There's a reason these guys are down there and not up on the ground level in Times Square with the other dancers, the ones that break off and go rogue to the subway. There's a little shaky something off with them. I got out of there.
Unscathed looking over my shoulder making sure he wasn't following me now. Exactly. A whole dance troupe. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a story. High risk factor all your entertainment.
JM: Oh, man. The stakes are so high.
SJG: It's so true.
JM: I mean, you're putting yourself out there, right? You're saying your script in public places, where other people are and look out of my comfort zone.
SJG: Outright. I've really got comfortable with it as the weeks went on.
In the beginning, you can see I was a little bit more, not talking so loud, a little more reserved. But man, by the middle of the summer, I'm recording talking scenes inside of cars with other strap hangers. Well, get out there with a selfie stick and I duct tape it to the conductor's door like black tape. I pace back and I start and I'm thinking, God, everyone probably saw me come in black taping devices to the conductor's door and said, here we go.
Wrong place, wrong time. This guy's going to blow up the train. No, they probably took out their phones and loved it and were like, who is this? What's he doing? I want to be in it. Comfort zone for sure.
JM: Wow. Let's see, was your comfort zone more within the first month within the first couple of months within that 30-week period?
SJG: By week 11. By week 11 you were pretty good with the black tape. Pretty comfortable, still a nervous at the St. Patrick's Day parade.
JM: Yeah, exactly. Well, any sort of, you know, public event with drinking.
SJG: Still everyone else is around you. Look, I'm sure there are a lot of New Yorkers like me who love what you're doing and admire what you're doing a lot and want to be more like you. That's the reason why I'm so curious about your process.
JM: I would love to be able to have the confidence to do what you did and record and put myself out there and do what I love to do every week. That's why I'm doing this now.
SJG: I was just going to say, aren't you doing that right now?
JM: That's why I'm doing it now. Right now I'm in that, shaky early period where I'm starting to get my bearings. I'm so excited to hear from you that you survived and, lived to tell the tale and didn't have to break any dancer bones.
Let's talk about you as a creator, as a painter. Tell me more about your painting style. How can we describe your aesthetic as an artist? How can we support your paintings?
SJG: I've asked myself that exact question. After being random for so many decades, I stepped back and looked for patterns. I noticed that I ebb and flow between two types of beauty that seemed to catch my attention. There's the man-made beauty, like architecture and structure.
Then there's that natural God-given beauty of a striking face or hair blowing in the wind or the anatomy of a tree. From there on, I tried to narrow in and bring those two elements closer together. As you know, I don't shy away from the details. I revel in them. So I do love the details. Actually, it was my audience every time I show a picture. Ever since I can remember, they always say, it's so detailed. So when it was time to name my website in 2010, I just plucked the name right off of their lips.
So thank you to my audience for my website's name and my whole brand, if you want to call it that. Isn't that great? I mean, that's my style. Yeah. I just tried to balance the manmade beauty with natural beauty.
I think it's quite evident in the Sherlock Holmes. I have such a structured the homes at home painting. It's actually is right there. It's very structured and all the lines point towards these striking human features.
JM: Yeah. So interesting. So detailed, in fact.
What would you say to someone who is looking to break into the art world in New York City? What advice?
SJG: I guess I'd say manage your expectations. Like all the arts, it's a roll of the dice. It's crap shots shot in the dark music, dance, acting. We're all just crabs in a bucket. You know what I mean? So manage your expectations.
Take advantage of YouTube. Hey, we all got YouTube.
Watch Stefan Baumann, watch Contemporary Art Issue and take advantage of these mentors that are online. I never had a mentor growing up. I never went to art school. I've just been winging it since I was five years old. So maybe I'm not in the position to really give all that much advice.
I do have some personal philosophies, like:
- Follow your heart and do what you love.
- Don't be afraid of your imagination. On the contrary, embrace it.
- Pay very close attention to your thoughts. I say that's very helpful.
- Don't compare yourself with others. I'd say that's really important.
- Believe in what you do.
(Continued below)
JM: I wouldn't say that at all. I thought they were beautiful. But to hear that you had all these kind of magical things happen when you were over 26 weeks would be halfway. Past your middle point is where you hit your stride and you're meeting all these incredible people and seeing all these incredible things, being comped, being valued for your position as an art critic. Do you kind of feel that at one point you kind of went from being artist to art critic or art educator or did your identity in the art scene sort of change as you were doing this project?
SJG: I never tried to be a critic. I am a creator. One of my lines when I'm at an art show talking to people, I say, which one of the three C's are you? People are very intrigued. Like, I'm a three C. What is this? What is this? I say, are you a critic, a creator, or a collector? Because those are the three types of people you're going to run into. Exactly. Some of are like, oh, I'm everything. I'm like, well, I'm just a creator. I'm not just a creator. I never wanted to be a critic. But to meet other people and see myself through their lens, I realized I'm doing some pretty special things that I never sit around and just tell myself I do, but actually have feedback and people seeing what I do. Yeah, now I feel like I have a little bit more presence in the art community now in New York City than I did a year ago or a year before last.
JM: Again, I think we need to remove the word just before a creator, because you're definitely a creator. Humble.
SJG: What you get from growing up in Digby.
JM: I love that, it's so interesting how, you don't consider yourself a critic or a collector, but you've given yourself this position in the industry that's really given you a sense of, distinction. I think by appreciating other people's work, it helps you explore your own and what your own perspective is. I love that more than halfway through the project that you found your high points. What was the low point of the project? Was there was one?
SJG: The lows, the lows. Every week, many lows, so many miscommunications, so many misunderstandings. The website. Google says one thing, you get there, the gallery says something else, sir, no videotaping here, always a low point. Technical difficulty. Rain in the Spring, a leak in my right shoe, and it took my soggy toenail like nine months to fully recover. So there was that. Recording audio was... my biggest pain in my butt the whole time. Recording audio on the city streets, the honking and everything and trying to figure out the technical parts of audio was my biggest challenge for sure. And editing every night until five o'clock in the morning was difficult on top of my other human responsibilities like my full-time job, groceries, laundry, chores. Just being around for friends and family.
JM: You'd never know that you had any low points on this project. I thought everything was beautiful and it was really nice to hear that there are some human elements, because my one question really going into a 52-weekend project, right? We're doing everything pretty much Saturday, Sunday. You have a life, you have a family. Did you ever take anybody along on this project? Where was it just a solo thing where you were exploring on your own?
SJG: It was solo. was when I was on the shoot day, I'm in director mode. And I thought of inviting people, but they're really just gonna slow you down. It's a date with you and your selfie stick. I feel like a third wheel. Right. Pay attention. I'm like so focused. I'm in director mode. Can I get this shoot? Can I get this frame? How am going to angle this? Repeating my script in my head, my lines like I wouldn't be talking to anyone if they were with me. I'm constantly rehearsing, rehearsing my lines in my head and going through my scripts and fiddling with all my gadgets, my wires, my camera, my stick. I couldn't bring anyone with me.
JM: It was very much a one day just for you. You were able to get all these amazing camera angles. You got yourself on a subway with different mosaic hats on top of you. You got yourself in, so many different galleries and museums, restaurants.
I think New York City is just this feeding ground for all this art, but I didn't know about so much of it. I thank you for bringing this to light. The weird parts you want to know about. I want to know the weird parts!
SJG: There was one scene where I had to walk barefoot through 23rd and Broadway. then I told my client the next day at work, was like, so when's the last time you walked barefoot through Manhattan? He's like, never. Yeah, I hope I never have to.
I said, you're not living. You don't know what you're missing. The feel of that warm asphalt on the ball of your foot and that itching burning sensation you get the following day. He's like, haha, yeah, you can keep that itch to yourself. And then there was another week where I had to lay down in a lavender bush. I had my mind, heart set on getting this one shot. Okay. I was laying in a lavender bush with my lavender suit on and turns out bees like lavender bushes a lot and I was standing there waiting for them to leave. There was like five or six bees swarming around.
I'm losing good light and I got to keep it going. So was like, okay, this is a high risk factor, but I'm going to lay down in this bush full of bees with an 80% chance I'm probably going to get stung all over my face. I did it for your own entertainment, put myself at high risk and I laid back and I got, I did a couple of takes, got the shot I needed. You can see the bees swarming past my face as I'm doing my outro.
JM: Oh my gosh.
SJG: But that's the level of commitment that I do for your entertainment and yes, very high stakes. I almost got beat up by a break dancer.
JM: Well, you're in New York City. You're an artist. You're going to encounter a lot of other artists, right, who are very proud of their work as well. whether that's visual, dance, theater, you're just surrounded by it. I don't know what happened with the break dancer, but I'm glad that everybody walked away.
SJG: Actually, I'm dying to tell you, but it's such a long story.
JM: Well, let's hear it. Did everybody walk away OK?
SJG: OK, I'm going to do a shoot. I'm on the train.
One of those Showtime dancers comes on, you the doors closed, glamour beatbox music, ghetto blaster, they're spinning around doing acrobatic break dancing off all the poles. Yep, I've seen them many times. Yeah, it's happening. I'm thinking to myself, Oh, I should videotape it. This is a real artsy cultural moment. I think it would be good my video. But then there's like people I got to get past and then other strap hangers would be mad. They're going to be like, don't videotape them. Don't encourage him.
Then I realized I only got $2 and that's not enough to give him a tip. And by the time I'm done with this mind struggle with myself, he's done. And then he goes around with his hat, nobody tips him, he gets very irate and starts yelling at people, I can't believe you guys don't appreciate my art. This is how I make my money. Everyone's getting kind of scared. Boyfriends are holding their girlfriends a little closer. Then he rips into them saying, oh, why are you trying to act so macho now? Why are you trying so hard to impress them that you see every day? And he's like telling off a couple of couples.
JM: That's a good way to get tips by the way, lol.
SJG: Not phased by his rants at all. I'm just in director mode like, okay, I got to formulate a solution. I had an idea. He's going to go to the next train at the next stop. I'll just go and commit to it. I'll get his Venmo, you know, and I'll get his permission, and I'll videotape him. So, he goes to the next train and I follow him. Bad idea. Irate dancer. He's going to the center of the train to do a show. He looks back and says, no, tell me you're not following me from the other car. I'm like, Yeah, I'm following you. I'm trying to catch up. He's like, you better not be following me from there.
Tell me you don't wanna be following me from the other car. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm closing in on him. Then he's like, when I walk away from something, that means it's done. It's over. When I walk away from something, it means it's done. I start to realize Spider-Sense going off, hair standing on end. I'm like, oh man, he thinks that I wanna have it out with him. I wanna put up the dukes. He thinks I'm one of the people he offended back there. I got on sunglasses, cowboy boots, a biker jacket.
JM: I was gonna say. Did the smoking jacket give it away from one subway car to the other?
SJG: It was a biker jacket that day. I had glasses on, sunglasses. He couldn't see the kindness in my eyes. Then I realized, OK, I got to get off the next stop immediately, because this guy could jump up and roundhouse kick me. I could get shot in the leg, stab, jab, shank. There's a reason these guys are down there and not up on the ground level in Times Square with the other dancers, the ones that break off and go rogue to the subway. There's a little shaky something off with them. I got out of there.
Unscathed looking over my shoulder making sure he wasn't following me now. Exactly. A whole dance troupe. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a story. High risk factor all your entertainment.
JM: Oh, man. The stakes are so high.
SJG: It's so true.
JM: I mean, you're putting yourself out there, right? You're saying your script in public places, where other people are and look out of my comfort zone.
SJG: Outright. I've really got comfortable with it as the weeks went on.
In the beginning, you can see I was a little bit more, not talking so loud, a little more reserved. But man, by the middle of the summer, I'm recording talking scenes inside of cars with other strap hangers. Well, get out there with a selfie stick and I duct tape it to the conductor's door like black tape. I pace back and I start and I'm thinking, God, everyone probably saw me come in black taping devices to the conductor's door and said, here we go.
Wrong place, wrong time. This guy's going to blow up the train. No, they probably took out their phones and loved it and were like, who is this? What's he doing? I want to be in it. Comfort zone for sure.
JM: Wow. Let's see, was your comfort zone more within the first month within the first couple of months within that 30-week period?
SJG: By week 11. By week 11 you were pretty good with the black tape. Pretty comfortable, still a nervous at the St. Patrick's Day parade.
JM: Yeah, exactly. Well, any sort of, you know, public event with drinking.
SJG: Still everyone else is around you. Look, I'm sure there are a lot of New Yorkers like me who love what you're doing and admire what you're doing a lot and want to be more like you. That's the reason why I'm so curious about your process.
JM: I would love to be able to have the confidence to do what you did and record and put myself out there and do what I love to do every week. That's why I'm doing this now.
SJG: I was just going to say, aren't you doing that right now?
JM: That's why I'm doing it now. Right now I'm in that, shaky early period where I'm starting to get my bearings. I'm so excited to hear from you that you survived and, lived to tell the tale and didn't have to break any dancer bones.
Let's talk about you as a creator, as a painter. Tell me more about your painting style. How can we describe your aesthetic as an artist? How can we support your paintings?
SJG: I've asked myself that exact question. After being random for so many decades, I stepped back and looked for patterns. I noticed that I ebb and flow between two types of beauty that seemed to catch my attention. There's the man-made beauty, like architecture and structure.
Then there's that natural God-given beauty of a striking face or hair blowing in the wind or the anatomy of a tree. From there on, I tried to narrow in and bring those two elements closer together. As you know, I don't shy away from the details. I revel in them. So I do love the details. Actually, it was my audience every time I show a picture. Ever since I can remember, they always say, it's so detailed. So when it was time to name my website in 2010, I just plucked the name right off of their lips.
So thank you to my audience for my website's name and my whole brand, if you want to call it that. Isn't that great? I mean, that's my style. Yeah. I just tried to balance the manmade beauty with natural beauty.
I think it's quite evident in the Sherlock Holmes. I have such a structured the homes at home painting. It's actually is right there. It's very structured and all the lines point towards these striking human features.
JM: Yeah. So interesting. So detailed, in fact.
What would you say to someone who is looking to break into the art world in New York City? What advice?
SJG: I guess I'd say manage your expectations. Like all the arts, it's a roll of the dice. It's crap shots shot in the dark music, dance, acting. We're all just crabs in a bucket. You know what I mean? So manage your expectations.
Take advantage of YouTube. Hey, we all got YouTube.
Watch Stefan Baumann, watch Contemporary Art Issue and take advantage of these mentors that are online. I never had a mentor growing up. I never went to art school. I've just been winging it since I was five years old. So maybe I'm not in the position to really give all that much advice.
I do have some personal philosophies, like:
- Follow your heart and do what you love.
- Don't be afraid of your imagination. On the contrary, embrace it.
- Pay very close attention to your thoughts. I say that's very helpful.
- Don't compare yourself with others. I'd say that's really important.
- Believe in what you do.
(Continued below)
Rockstar (Miley Cyrus) by Steven Gonsalves, 2010, hair dye on canvas, 48” x 36”
Adriana Collage by Steven Gonsalves, 2004, graphite pencil on paper, 11” x 14”
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Lioness by Steven Gonsalves, 2013, oil on canvas, 11” x 14”
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(Continued)
JM: I Agree with everything that you said. Power of positive thinking, everybody else is taken, be yourself. Let's talk more about the mentors and people that have helped you along the way.
Any shout outs to folks you met or folks that you want to give back and, shout out their gallery or restaurant?
SJG: Well, not too many shout outs because like I said, I didn't have any guidance. Just been winging it. But there is a gallery in Chelsea, London called a Gagliardi Gallery. They selected the Holmes at Home painting to represent the United States of America in a prestigious international competition in the summer of 2023 and art shows. I want to thank them so much for giving me the opportunity to shine on that world stage.
JM: Congratulations!
SJG: That was a priceless experience for sure.
JM: Wow. What's next for you, Steven Joseph Gonsalves? What's next?
SJG: Thanks for asking, Jackie. What's next? I'm actually working on 12 paintings right now.
JM: 12. Of course you have 12 planned out because you have to think of a year in advance, right? This is how it works.
SJG: The collection is called Little Women, and it features young starlets from my favorite period piece, Victorian movies. I'm really aiming to capture dramatic expressions and dramatic moments in the character's story arc where they transition into an adult state of mind. So it's a very dramatic experience, a very dramatic collection.
JM: It's going to be interesting, no doubt.
SJG: The Little Women is what I'm working on now as I'm trying to ride on the success of Sherlock's shirt tales and work on narrowing in my niche and becoming known as a detailed painter of Victorian literature. So there's lots of like Anna Green Gables is one, Tess is one, Phantom of the Opera, Sleepy Hollow.
Young actresses from these movies. Each one's a different movie. A little princess is in there. There's 12 of them. And it's such a painstaking process. I have to watch the whole movie. I have to videotape every moment where I think there's like a gem. Then I have to go through and scroll through each one of those second by second to get the perfect composition, lighting, make sure the lips are doing the right thing, the background. I have a strict checklist of criteria that has to meet. Then I have to take the whole movie and narrow it down to one frame that encapsulates the feel of the entire movie and the drama and tragedy of that character's story arc.
I love Victorian movies. I own over 200 of them. I watch them regularly. I have special dates and times. I watch each one so they all get their time to shine. I'm about that life.
Obviously my apartment's designed to look like a Victorian lounge. That really enhances it when there's always a classic Victorian movie playing when you come in here. I make some drinks here at my bar.
It won't be ready for another year at least, but that's what's happening now.
JM: I want to learn more about how you get inspired. It's just in film or do you read the literature? I love that you're focusing in on those old fashioned black and white movies just to get the exact details correct so that you can be inspired for your painting. I remember in one of your episodes, you said that your favorite type of painting is realism. If I got that right.
SJG: It's true. Yes. Beautiful realism. Yes, beautiful realism.You're going for something that's over a hundred years old and bringing it to life now in a current modern way.
JM: It's such a beautiful way to bring the past back. And I think there's so much wisdom in the past. I love that you love these movies about strong women.
SJG: I'm very much of the past. Some people are of the future or of the present. I'm a man out of his time. I'm very much of the past. Yes. And I accept it.
JM: You see such beauty in these strong female characters, right?
If someone were to want to buy one of your pieces, would it be through your website or would they have to contact you? What is the best way to?
SJG: Not hard to find on Instagram and on YouTube. @Sodetailed. That's one word. That's my handle. Unfortunately, the website's temporarily under construction. Used to be able to buy things there, but I'm redoing that.
So, sodetailed.com is temporarily out of service, but I have an Etsy store now that I think of it, where you can buy the Sherlock Holmes prints on canvas or paper or even the mug or the jigsaw puzzle or the reading cards or the tote bag. Etsy again, So Detailed, one word.
JM: Love it. If you were to do your 52-week journey again, would you and how would you do it differently?
SJG: I would not do it again. I would do like a periodic, maybe once every three months and make it a little bit more developed, make it not so quick and fast, but a little more something with the interview, something longer. I think that's what I would do. It was just an unsustainable to do that. Like I said, staying up every night. It was ultra fast. One of my clients said, are you still doing that thing you do on Fridays? I was like, This is my life.
JM: Exactly.
SJG: I've shot every day of the week, every time of the day. Like there's one week, week 18 where I filmed the sun coming up. Time lapse sunrise behind the United Nations. That wasn't some stock I pulled off the internet. I woke up in middle of night, got dressed up looking all like George Washington running through midtown in the dark with my selfie stick, taking it to a railing, sitting there waiting three hours for the world to turn.
Then as time lapsed into like five seconds, so the sun just goes, zoop. That's like the level of commitment when I reshot and reenacted the breakfast at Tiffany's. I had to get up, get all dressed, blow-drying my hair at three in the morning, getting there, you know, when Fifth Avenue is empty at six in the morning.
Do that shoot. It was like every time. I was amazed by the breakfast at Tiffany's where you're doing the exact same movements. At one point I even finished Audrey Hepburn sentence for her.
JM: Yes, it's amazing just the level of detail. So now I understand that you're an old soul. Wouldn't do it again, though?
SJG: Yeah, wouldn't but I could imagine again in a different way in a different way. Break size, like more quality, not quantity, I guess. Yes.
Week 26, though, I just have to say, like you said, all the weeks were just very small, fast moving, three minute videos, but one stands apart from all the others. And that is week 26. It's the 17 minute episode. It is like a short film, where I play a dual role where I interview my alter ego. He presents and explains my artwork to me here in Joseph's Victorian cocktail bar lounge. It really puts everything on display, my writing, my acting, my directing, my storytelling. There's a complete story arc with like twists and turns in it. I really recommend week 26 if you want that cinematic experience. It was my birthday. I had to do something special. June 25th for my birthday. One man show, one man interviewing another man and telling the other man how he I'm constantly tearing myself apart. I'm making fun of my alter ego. He's making fun of me. I created such a contrast between the two characters that
Some people didn't realize halfway through that this is actually me as the ego.
JM: I think the hair was a little bit different, I remember. The eyes.
SJG: Yes. demeanor and the posture.
JM: You said that you're into visual art, but I just can't believe that you haven't found your love, your self on stage in theater yet because it really seems like it's your innate talent to put yourself out there and really feel character.
SJG: I missed something somewhere.
Maybe I should have done that. Maybe I will do that. You never know. That might be the next 52 week adventure. Just putting it out there. Cause I think you're really good at it. I can't wait to see what you come up with next. You're so creative. I can't wait to go see your Etsy store. I've seen all the videos. I want to get Sherlock Holmes for my own morning mug. I'm going to send you one.
JM: Thank you. I'm so excited for you and you really inspired me. Here I am kicking off my own journey into podcasting for wisdom. I really appreciate you sharing your journey with me. I'm a little sad that you said you wouldn't do it again. Let's talk in 50 weeks from now and see how goes for me. I really appreciate your advice for a newbie and trying to put myself out there too.
SJG: Thank you for having me.
JM: If there's anything else that you want to talk about or promote, let's talk about it.
SJG: One day I was vacuuming and I thought, let me just put a like an art slideshow on in the background. I went to YouTube looking for art slideshow and I was so deeply disappointed. I was like, why didn't they add this one? Why didn't they add that one? It would be cool if they were like maybe in order chronologically or if they had the title and the name and the date at the bottom at least for a moment. So you could get like some context.
And I said, you know what? I'm going to make my own art history slideshow and things got a little carried away. Now it's a chronological art history slideshow that runs for five hours long. Each picture is up for 10 seconds. Oh my gosh. 1230 late medieval to really showcase exactly how much Renaissance changed everything and start basically where in my opinion, art started to get really good. So it runs for 800 years, 1230 to 2022 is last time I updated it. There's over 500 artists. There's over 1400 beautiful paintings. It's in chronological order. You have 10 seconds to enjoy it. You have the name of the painting, the name of the artist, the year it was done. And it's like looking at the history of the world through the lens of art. You see the reactions of all the movements. See all the movements in art responding to the things that happened in world history. It's really amazing. You can like jump to the certain time period if you want. You don't have to sit down and watch the whole five plus hours of it. I don't know what to do with it. I'm just keeping it to myself. I play it all the time. I love it. I never went to art school. So it was a chance for me to really school and learn myself because I had to scour. I did so much research that now I know so much I didn't know. I basically invented art program for myself to teach. I was going to say it sounds very much like you could teach an art history class. Velasquez, they're all there Rembrandt, Vermeer.
All the favorites. It gets so interesting at different parts, like when you have like the pop culture and poster art and even some comic art and things like that. It must have been so fun to put all those things together in one place. It's fun. Apparently people tell me that I spent a lot of time doing it, but I don't even know. I don't remember that part. I just remember loving doing it so much, finding the perfect resolution of pictures, scouring, reading biographies, looking for the date it was done, looking for the proper spellings. I had to do so much research on each picture. It's like going to school for myself. If anybody has a brilliant idea what to do with it, let me know because I have no idea what to do with this if I sell it or just, I don't know, broadcast it on the side of the building some night and see if anybody stops to look or really break into sellable bite sized pieces or sell it to AI or something. I don't know what I should do with it.
JM: Man, I wish I had the answer to that question. With AI it is a totally different thing, right? And who knows? And I love that you're, an old soul of the past and appreciate it. I remember in one of your episodes, you recommended the series, The Impressionists, and I can't wait to watch it. That's one of my favorites. I love Claude Monet and all the art that was created. There's so much there.
Again, I can't wait to see what you do next, with this special five hour slideshow. The Little Women collection.
Thank you so much for your time today, Steven. Thanks for your appreciation.
SJG: I'm going to send you this beautiful mug. It's funny. I go through painstaking hours and years to get in every detail for the wood grain, the vein in his eyes, the text in the newspaper. And this is my most popular selling product. And this is some mug. This big. I should have just shaded that in. Didn't have to go all out.
JM: That's OK. You know it's in the details. So you know that it's there. And that's what's important.
Thank you very much for your time and I forward to speaking to you soon.
SJG: Thank you. Have a great day. Bye now.
JM: You too! Take care.
JM: I Agree with everything that you said. Power of positive thinking, everybody else is taken, be yourself. Let's talk more about the mentors and people that have helped you along the way.
Any shout outs to folks you met or folks that you want to give back and, shout out their gallery or restaurant?
SJG: Well, not too many shout outs because like I said, I didn't have any guidance. Just been winging it. But there is a gallery in Chelsea, London called a Gagliardi Gallery. They selected the Holmes at Home painting to represent the United States of America in a prestigious international competition in the summer of 2023 and art shows. I want to thank them so much for giving me the opportunity to shine on that world stage.
JM: Congratulations!
SJG: That was a priceless experience for sure.
JM: Wow. What's next for you, Steven Joseph Gonsalves? What's next?
SJG: Thanks for asking, Jackie. What's next? I'm actually working on 12 paintings right now.
JM: 12. Of course you have 12 planned out because you have to think of a year in advance, right? This is how it works.
SJG: The collection is called Little Women, and it features young starlets from my favorite period piece, Victorian movies. I'm really aiming to capture dramatic expressions and dramatic moments in the character's story arc where they transition into an adult state of mind. So it's a very dramatic experience, a very dramatic collection.
JM: It's going to be interesting, no doubt.
SJG: The Little Women is what I'm working on now as I'm trying to ride on the success of Sherlock's shirt tales and work on narrowing in my niche and becoming known as a detailed painter of Victorian literature. So there's lots of like Anna Green Gables is one, Tess is one, Phantom of the Opera, Sleepy Hollow.
Young actresses from these movies. Each one's a different movie. A little princess is in there. There's 12 of them. And it's such a painstaking process. I have to watch the whole movie. I have to videotape every moment where I think there's like a gem. Then I have to go through and scroll through each one of those second by second to get the perfect composition, lighting, make sure the lips are doing the right thing, the background. I have a strict checklist of criteria that has to meet. Then I have to take the whole movie and narrow it down to one frame that encapsulates the feel of the entire movie and the drama and tragedy of that character's story arc.
I love Victorian movies. I own over 200 of them. I watch them regularly. I have special dates and times. I watch each one so they all get their time to shine. I'm about that life.
Obviously my apartment's designed to look like a Victorian lounge. That really enhances it when there's always a classic Victorian movie playing when you come in here. I make some drinks here at my bar.
It won't be ready for another year at least, but that's what's happening now.
JM: I want to learn more about how you get inspired. It's just in film or do you read the literature? I love that you're focusing in on those old fashioned black and white movies just to get the exact details correct so that you can be inspired for your painting. I remember in one of your episodes, you said that your favorite type of painting is realism. If I got that right.
SJG: It's true. Yes. Beautiful realism. Yes, beautiful realism.You're going for something that's over a hundred years old and bringing it to life now in a current modern way.
JM: It's such a beautiful way to bring the past back. And I think there's so much wisdom in the past. I love that you love these movies about strong women.
SJG: I'm very much of the past. Some people are of the future or of the present. I'm a man out of his time. I'm very much of the past. Yes. And I accept it.
JM: You see such beauty in these strong female characters, right?
If someone were to want to buy one of your pieces, would it be through your website or would they have to contact you? What is the best way to?
SJG: Not hard to find on Instagram and on YouTube. @Sodetailed. That's one word. That's my handle. Unfortunately, the website's temporarily under construction. Used to be able to buy things there, but I'm redoing that.
So, sodetailed.com is temporarily out of service, but I have an Etsy store now that I think of it, where you can buy the Sherlock Holmes prints on canvas or paper or even the mug or the jigsaw puzzle or the reading cards or the tote bag. Etsy again, So Detailed, one word.
JM: Love it. If you were to do your 52-week journey again, would you and how would you do it differently?
SJG: I would not do it again. I would do like a periodic, maybe once every three months and make it a little bit more developed, make it not so quick and fast, but a little more something with the interview, something longer. I think that's what I would do. It was just an unsustainable to do that. Like I said, staying up every night. It was ultra fast. One of my clients said, are you still doing that thing you do on Fridays? I was like, This is my life.
JM: Exactly.
SJG: I've shot every day of the week, every time of the day. Like there's one week, week 18 where I filmed the sun coming up. Time lapse sunrise behind the United Nations. That wasn't some stock I pulled off the internet. I woke up in middle of night, got dressed up looking all like George Washington running through midtown in the dark with my selfie stick, taking it to a railing, sitting there waiting three hours for the world to turn.
Then as time lapsed into like five seconds, so the sun just goes, zoop. That's like the level of commitment when I reshot and reenacted the breakfast at Tiffany's. I had to get up, get all dressed, blow-drying my hair at three in the morning, getting there, you know, when Fifth Avenue is empty at six in the morning.
Do that shoot. It was like every time. I was amazed by the breakfast at Tiffany's where you're doing the exact same movements. At one point I even finished Audrey Hepburn sentence for her.
JM: Yes, it's amazing just the level of detail. So now I understand that you're an old soul. Wouldn't do it again, though?
SJG: Yeah, wouldn't but I could imagine again in a different way in a different way. Break size, like more quality, not quantity, I guess. Yes.
Week 26, though, I just have to say, like you said, all the weeks were just very small, fast moving, three minute videos, but one stands apart from all the others. And that is week 26. It's the 17 minute episode. It is like a short film, where I play a dual role where I interview my alter ego. He presents and explains my artwork to me here in Joseph's Victorian cocktail bar lounge. It really puts everything on display, my writing, my acting, my directing, my storytelling. There's a complete story arc with like twists and turns in it. I really recommend week 26 if you want that cinematic experience. It was my birthday. I had to do something special. June 25th for my birthday. One man show, one man interviewing another man and telling the other man how he I'm constantly tearing myself apart. I'm making fun of my alter ego. He's making fun of me. I created such a contrast between the two characters that
Some people didn't realize halfway through that this is actually me as the ego.
JM: I think the hair was a little bit different, I remember. The eyes.
SJG: Yes. demeanor and the posture.
JM: You said that you're into visual art, but I just can't believe that you haven't found your love, your self on stage in theater yet because it really seems like it's your innate talent to put yourself out there and really feel character.
SJG: I missed something somewhere.
Maybe I should have done that. Maybe I will do that. You never know. That might be the next 52 week adventure. Just putting it out there. Cause I think you're really good at it. I can't wait to see what you come up with next. You're so creative. I can't wait to go see your Etsy store. I've seen all the videos. I want to get Sherlock Holmes for my own morning mug. I'm going to send you one.
JM: Thank you. I'm so excited for you and you really inspired me. Here I am kicking off my own journey into podcasting for wisdom. I really appreciate you sharing your journey with me. I'm a little sad that you said you wouldn't do it again. Let's talk in 50 weeks from now and see how goes for me. I really appreciate your advice for a newbie and trying to put myself out there too.
SJG: Thank you for having me.
JM: If there's anything else that you want to talk about or promote, let's talk about it.
SJG: One day I was vacuuming and I thought, let me just put a like an art slideshow on in the background. I went to YouTube looking for art slideshow and I was so deeply disappointed. I was like, why didn't they add this one? Why didn't they add that one? It would be cool if they were like maybe in order chronologically or if they had the title and the name and the date at the bottom at least for a moment. So you could get like some context.
And I said, you know what? I'm going to make my own art history slideshow and things got a little carried away. Now it's a chronological art history slideshow that runs for five hours long. Each picture is up for 10 seconds. Oh my gosh. 1230 late medieval to really showcase exactly how much Renaissance changed everything and start basically where in my opinion, art started to get really good. So it runs for 800 years, 1230 to 2022 is last time I updated it. There's over 500 artists. There's over 1400 beautiful paintings. It's in chronological order. You have 10 seconds to enjoy it. You have the name of the painting, the name of the artist, the year it was done. And it's like looking at the history of the world through the lens of art. You see the reactions of all the movements. See all the movements in art responding to the things that happened in world history. It's really amazing. You can like jump to the certain time period if you want. You don't have to sit down and watch the whole five plus hours of it. I don't know what to do with it. I'm just keeping it to myself. I play it all the time. I love it. I never went to art school. So it was a chance for me to really school and learn myself because I had to scour. I did so much research that now I know so much I didn't know. I basically invented art program for myself to teach. I was going to say it sounds very much like you could teach an art history class. Velasquez, they're all there Rembrandt, Vermeer.
All the favorites. It gets so interesting at different parts, like when you have like the pop culture and poster art and even some comic art and things like that. It must have been so fun to put all those things together in one place. It's fun. Apparently people tell me that I spent a lot of time doing it, but I don't even know. I don't remember that part. I just remember loving doing it so much, finding the perfect resolution of pictures, scouring, reading biographies, looking for the date it was done, looking for the proper spellings. I had to do so much research on each picture. It's like going to school for myself. If anybody has a brilliant idea what to do with it, let me know because I have no idea what to do with this if I sell it or just, I don't know, broadcast it on the side of the building some night and see if anybody stops to look or really break into sellable bite sized pieces or sell it to AI or something. I don't know what I should do with it.
JM: Man, I wish I had the answer to that question. With AI it is a totally different thing, right? And who knows? And I love that you're, an old soul of the past and appreciate it. I remember in one of your episodes, you recommended the series, The Impressionists, and I can't wait to watch it. That's one of my favorites. I love Claude Monet and all the art that was created. There's so much there.
Again, I can't wait to see what you do next, with this special five hour slideshow. The Little Women collection.
Thank you so much for your time today, Steven. Thanks for your appreciation.
SJG: I'm going to send you this beautiful mug. It's funny. I go through painstaking hours and years to get in every detail for the wood grain, the vein in his eyes, the text in the newspaper. And this is my most popular selling product. And this is some mug. This big. I should have just shaded that in. Didn't have to go all out.
JM: That's OK. You know it's in the details. So you know that it's there. And that's what's important.
Thank you very much for your time and I forward to speaking to you soon.
SJG: Thank you. Have a great day. Bye now.
JM: You too! Take care.
Steven Joseph Gonsalves, artist and founder of @SoDetailed
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Rave Girl by Steven Gonsalves, 2006, colored pencil and ink on paper, 11” x 14”
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Follow Steven Joseph Gonsalves' @SoDetailed brand on:
Youtube: SoDetailed - YouTube
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