Hey, everybody. This is Andrew back with another episode of Books Closed. Thank you for joining me.

This is one that I am very excited to share with you. I have admired the work of Julian Bast for years,

and I finally had the chance to meet him. I went to Ann Arbor, Michigan to get tattooed by him at Name Brand Tattoo,

and then spent some time after at his secret art

layer, a small room in the back of his family's home that is packed with his exciting thoughts,

ideas, and artwork. Julian's approach, often fueled by a deliberate sense of childlike wonder,

was always evident to me just from seeing the finished product from afar.

But now, having had the chance to spend this time with him, I have an even deeper appreciation

for what he does. My mind was blown into pieces after this one, and I hope it does the same for you.

There's a full video version of this one on YouTube, which I highly recommend

watching as well. This episode bounces between segments of a sit-down conversation, as well

as other footage we shot of Julian pulling out a lot of his artwork as he shared his process

and insight. Enjoy.

Oh yeah, the next one was him looking at this tree here.

For a long time, I noticed a lot of, like when a character emerges, like when there's a similar thing that you draw a lot

one of the number one questions is like what's his name what's his name and for now he's

i like to think of him as the observer i mean i think that's a cool name for him yeah yeah well the

observer feels like the you that's aware that you might be experiencing psychosis when you don't know where you are.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

That is that guy. That's the observer, I think, is that is...

This is him too.

...