Olivia Gude: I haven't looked in this box for years. I just went and got it out of the basement. This is my archives box for the project. Let's see what's in here. Oh, yeah. These are like the transcripts. So basically, what I'd do is I'd interview people. Then I'd type up big chunks of what they said, and then I'd go through them so out all of this, like, "Where are you going?" "Home," or, "Probably to a warmed-over dinner from tomorrow." And those words are in the mural. And actually, I'll just pass this around if you hold stuff in the light. These are the people. These are the people, not all the people, but a lot of the people…from the transcripts, and then you can kind of see in this. What I would do. And this was like the big… See, this was funny. You look at it. It's like so funny. You know? Guess what I had? I had my first MAC computer. It was 1992. You know? And so I was so excited, because I had all these different fonts. Remember when that was a big deal? All the fonts, you know.

Voices: [laughing]

Olivia Gude: And basically I spent a lot of time over at Kinko's. Our Kinko's with the guy smoking the blunt. And I would basically make these pieces. And I would make…you know, here they are covered with paint and crossed out. And then basically, let me show you the mural stuff. The picture stuff is actually down below. I also took photographs. So those are some of the people. Like you recognize her; right? She's this very beautiful black woman who's in the mural. And people would tell me things, though. One of the things that I'm really proud of in my life…like, I got in trouble when I was in 4th grade and I got in trouble all the time in school. But when I was in 4th grade in particular, this nun had been moving me around the room. You know how you try to get that kid to quiet down? And she said, "Olivia Gude, you could make a stick talk."

Voices: [laughing]

Olivia Gude: Well I was like, "For a Catholic kid, it's like a miracle. Right?" So people would talk to me about…and I just love to talk to people too, you know. And they'd talk to me about all these things. And people would tell me things, like, "I'm leaving my husband." And you'd think, "Well, I really…" and it would be fabulous material. But you'd be like, "I really don't think we want this man to find out his wife is thinking about leaving him in a mural."

Voices: [laughing]

Olivia Gude: But I mean I'd have these really deep conversations with people about their lives. You know, we'd stand there talking. And some people would talk to me for a couple of minutes. But some people I'd talk to like for 45 minutes or something. And the thing is though, everybody…See one of the things that's interesting about doing this again in adding to the mural is people would know…you see, I would tell people. I mean, I'd say to them, "I'm going to paint this in a mural." You know? "I'm going to take your words and your picture's going to be here." But I don't think that anybody had any clue what I was talking about. Because I know some of the people who ended up in the mural. And I didn't put any words in the mural that people didn't want to have in there. But I know people who were in the mural were just like, "What? I'm there! I'm twelve feet high!" And I'd be like, "Well, I told you I was going to do it." "Yes, but I didn't realize it was going to be big!"

Voices: [laughing]

Olivia Gude: Okay.

M3: How did they come back to you? Or how did they find you, even?

Olivia Gude: Well, I was there painting or standing on the sidewalk. Right.

M2: …might chase some of those people down and see…

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