For the second rendition of "Humans Of Creativity" West Virginia Born Creative Mind, Garrett Yurisko, explains to us his passion for Photography, how he has started his own collective himself (DayOneLifeStyle and Friends), as well as an upcoming event known as "The April Showers Show" that has been running for 3 years now. With all the hard work he puts in and brilliant ideas he shares, Garrett is truly your modern day Mountaineer.
1. Could you tell us about when the first April Showers show was and why did you start this event?
It was my junior year of college, so spring 2015? Honestly it was about to be my 21st birthday and I never really was that big on birthdays but everyone kept asking me what I was gonna do since it was the big 21. It hit me why not Showcase my friends I've been working with the last few years and turn it into a concert and give people something different to do rather then the same old same. I wanted everyone to come out and have a good time so we made it $1 to get in and the money we made for the show we then donated to charity. All the artists were cool with it so it worked out great . Now going into our third show we have been trying to progress little by little to make it something that people look forward to at the end of the year all for a good cause.
2. How has photography impacted your life?
Photography has been awesome to me but honestly i played basketball every day growing up. Seriously though every day. If it was winter, we were finding a gym when we didn't have practices and games. We started filming "trick shot videos" in high school which sparked my interest to be behind the lens. When I was started looking at colleges it was essentially maybe get on some small school team and ride the pine or go to WVU so I chose WVU. I ended up getting a new camera and I really started taking it serious and crafting my style the last 5 years. Now it has helped me get to see places I may have not got to explore without it. I've also got to meet some awesome people by just exploring with a camera in my hand.
3. Since you have done numerous photography shoots, which project have you enjoyed most?
Man that's tough, I would say as far as a complete project, I did one last Spring where I found tons of old Morgantown photos and then took a shots at the same spots and photoshopped parts of both together. That was very fun because it made you think of that time and how things have changed. I showed some people that grew up here and hearing their stories made me really enjoy doing it.
4. Explain what DayOneLifestyle and Friends is and what you plan to bring to the community with this project.
Where to start.. through a lot of lessons learned by trials and errors DayOneLifestyle and Friends is basically a group of people all trying to help support each other in whatever they do. In the last few years I think the annual show is a good example of what our goal is as a group. To bring people together for a good time and also a creative platform I guess you can say that dips the paint brush in a mixture of art, music, clothing, photography and anything else you can think of.
5. What is your focal point pertaining to the DayOneLifestyle podcast?
I always thought being a sports broadcaster would be a cool job growing up. Of course I have been more photo heavy recently But I graduated with a broadcast JRL degree so I figured why not start a podcast with my old roommate . We spent the last 4 years at WVU bs'ing about what we do on the podcast such as sports, music and a lot of food talk. The coolest part about it is we can keep our same goal of helping each other and anyone we know doing something creative. For example you may see a Hounds Interview in the future you never know. Overall we're trying to be consistent, something for people to look forward to and be able to bring on some individuals and friends also to share their story .
6. Who are some of the people that have influenced your creative plans and ideas?
More than anything I feel like a lot of my ideas come from just wandering around enjoying the day and interacting with people or listening to music. I guess you could say musicians because of my deep ties with music. If I had to name drop someone creative that I think is great I would say Baron Batch. He is a very cool artist and love how he creates and spreads his art pieces . A guy close to where I'm from named Oj Hays does a lot of artwork for chance (The Rapper) now. That's inspiring man, from a small town in West Virginia basically creating an art direction for one of today's biggest musicians . Besides that any of my friends or people I know that work hard, that makes me want to work hard and continue to keep going .
You can follow Garrett at @Fabs304 for his photography and personal work as well as @Dayonelifestyle to get more information on his collective. Don't miss out on "The April Showers Show" which will be held on April 27th, 2017 at 123 Pleasant Street. Doors open at 9PM and cost is $1 to get in. All proceeds go to The Norman Jordan African American Arts & Heritage Academy.
