An Interview with Casey Collier

Transcription Interview

Breonca: Can you state your full name for me please?

Casey: My full name is Casey Lynn Collier

Breonca: And where are you from?

Casey: I am from Washington DC

Breonca: Ooooo so how is that different from Richmond, Virginia?

Casey: Um, its-it’s pretty different. I have spent my entire life in DC. And the only other –like big city I had ever been to was New York. And so I was really use to like this extreme- like (unclear word) kind of city and so when I was looking up colleges, I was only looking up colleges in cities and so I said Richmond was one so I was like oh okay, so I was expecting like to me DC was the smallest city I’d ever been to so I was expecting something like that and then I came to Richmond and it was not so similar. Um, but I really like it. I feel like, at home, is very commercial and shiny and every thing is just the way it is and it’s very centered around the government and a lot of place obviously. Like Richmond is nice ‘cause I always describe it as being very like dirty and old but in a very endearing sort of way, where everything is – there’s just one of it, it’s very unique, like there’s only one Rumors, there’s only one National Theater, there’s only one galaxy, I really like that about Richmond, that it’s more eclectic, than back home.

Breonca: So what would you say it was like growing up in the city? Or a small city as you put it.

Casey: Yea, well I don’t consider a small city anymore now that I’ve been hanging out I Richmond. Um, I –I liked it, I didn’t live in the parts of DC that people usually think about. Like, I’m not from southeast, which is the part that usually ends up on the news. Similarly, I’m not from the area where the federal government is, which also ends up on the news. I guess the coolest thing that I live near is natural zoo and that’s kind of still far away. I live out in the northwest so it was nice, I really liked it. Um, it’s really interesting talking to other people like from Richmond now about things I’m used to doing. Like I grew up riding buses and metros and like I didn’t get a driver’s license until like a year ago but apparently that’s very strange. Like, outside of DC, um but it was interesting because my school was very diverse, um, the public schools in DC are really bad and so I went to private school to avoid that and I guess in DC they try to make the private schools extra fancy so that the dignitaries would be encouraged to send their children there and so there’s a lot of diversity at the schools that I went to ike there’s a lot of people coming in from just everywhere all over the city and then also we had a fair number of people who came from other countries, a lot of people from like…growing up with a Latin American background, and their parents just moved from America, and now they live here, and they’re incorporated that way. Like a lot of my teachers are that way, they just came here from...a lot of Puerto Ricans and dignitary children. So it was pretty diverse which I liked. Um, and then I started going to catholic school, and that was not very diverse, it was very waspish (unclear word), so that was very different.      

Breonca: So what would you say was your start in pursuing art?

Casey: Um, I’m not sure like, I have memories of always just producing art. It was always just something I liked to do, but I guess I never really took it seriously till I was in the eighth grade. And people would notice that my drawings were very very good and would tell me about it. So I guess in high school I started really trying to pursue art. Figuring out that I wanted to go to art school. For a long time I wanted to be a clay maker like in the Wallace and Rabbit movies, like that was like what I had decided I wanted to do. Clearly that is not what I am doing, but it was a pipe dream for a long time.

Breonca: So what made you want to choose art education?

Casey: It was a process cause I didn’t choose art education originally. When I, um, after AFO when you have the portfolio process I had wanted to be a crafts materials studies major because I just like that sort of thing, but at the time I was taking a drawing class and my teacher would look at my drawings and would encourage me to go into painting and printmaking instead. And so I did, and I spent a semester there and I didn’t like it because it was, it was really self focused and I just couldn’t take it, because its like you would sit in your studio and produce art all day. It was just about you producing your own stuff, and I just wasn’t about that. I felt like its taking up a lot of my time that I wasn’t willing to give up. So I switched to art education cause I thought it was more people focused, and like later in life it would be easier to like maintain whatever sort of life, cause if you’re a painter you have to move to New York, you have to move to Chicago. But if you’re a teacher you could move to wherever there is people, like that so, that was my thought process.     

Breonca: So what’s your hopes after graduation?

Casey: Um, I don’t really know. I’m kind’ve on the extended senior plan so im not graduating right away but I am hoping to stick around Richmond for a while cause Im really involved in this church here and I would like to be able to uh give back to it in the area before I went somewhere else. Honestly I would be fine staying in Richmond for the rest of my life, but I could probably say that about anywhere I moved, that I would want to live there for the rest of my life. So.. 

Breonca: are you thinking about doing grad school? or…

Casey: No, I am not doing grad school

Breonca: I agree (laughs) um, what community are you focusing on?

Casey: I’m focusing on the homeless community of Richmond. Specifically there’s a health care organization on Grace Street, on grace and Belvidere, called The Daily Planet, which offers health care services to the, the homeless community of Richmond. And they’re very amazing, I’ve never seen a…a homeless organization that does the kind of things they do like they contribute a lot. Specifically I am focusing on their medical respite program, which is in the north side and it is a place where people who are homeless and have recently been in a hospital can go. Um, when usually they are discharged to be on bed rest, um if they’re homeless they don’t have a bed to go to so they go to this program and they can stay there until they are ready to get back on their feet.

Breonca: And what made you interested in choosing that community?

Casey: Um, well the homeless I’m specifically interested in is because I have this sort of interesting relationship with the homeless where like I grew up around…I grew up in a city that’s dripping with homeless people and so you see them all the time. And the ones that approach you are the more aggressive hand handler types and they’re very scary but through school like I would get involved with community service and I got to know a different side of homeless people. Like through volunteering at soup kitchens and the ones that you meet there are very different like they, they aren’t aggressive, they aren’t pushy, they’re not trying to hurt you, they’re just regular people and you can get to know them that way and they’re great. And so there is this discectomy of homelessness out there. Its just something I’ve been thinking about recently so….or doubt that I was able to think about it more through this class.

Breonca: And has being involved in the church that you, um, briefly spoke about, has that also enabled you to learn more about this community as well through different, um, community service events or anything?

Casey: Not really. Kind’ve. Um, it’s more like, the ministry I’m apart of is specifically focused on like trying to live by the bible. And so a lot of the things that I do is to help other people know what scripture says and then teach them to obey it. So on my part I read (unclear words)…and taking care of the poor people and I’m trying to obey that too, and we’re trying to get more community focused, uh and involved in the community so this is a great outreach, but I wouldn’t say that the one springs the other.

Breonca: That’s nine minutes