Hey there and thank you for joining me for another episode of YQG In Bloom.
I am your host Tracy Martens and don't forget to like and subscribe to my podcast.
Today I have Rachel Gray from RayGrey Cosplay.
Hey.
Hi everyone.
And I'm so excited because I want to know exactly what is cosplay.
Well, do I have a tale for you?
So originally cosplay when it came like it came from Japan and it meant costume play.
So in Japan a lot of things are very structured and very solid and there's you know 95 or
not even 95, 90 whatever and they wanted a way to express themselves and to kind of
free up from that stagnant energy.
So people would start to dress in characters from their different animes and things they
used to watch.
And then actually the very first cosplayer in America was actually Wonder Woman cosplayer.
Yeah.
It was a big deal because people didn't dress up to go to Comic Cons and there was a first
girl who was like I love Wonder Woman and I'm just going to dress like her and she blew
everyone away.
That's so cool.
Early San Francisco.
Oh no sorry San Diego.
Early San Diego.
Now I really enjoy going to the Comic Cons and seeing all the people in the costumes
and how much they get into it but it's nice to have a backstory because I mean realistically
you look at it and it's like okay there's adults running around in Halloween costumes.
So it's fun and it's a community is it not?
It sure is.
It's definitely a very vast community but it's all based on kind of the love of the
fandoms.
I find a lot of times people really love whatever movie or video game or manga or anime or whatever
it is the piece of media and art that they love kind of transcends and transfers into
this physical thing which is why people do it.
I mean they also do it because it is a lot of fun when you're dressed up and you're
a different person and a different character you kind of get into a different mindset so
that can be fun sometimes.
It's like acting without the paycheck.
Very, very much.
Sometimes with the paycheck.
Well with the paycheck this is true and you are one of them.
You've turned this into a job of sorts.
True I've gone through a lot of different variations of what a cosplay job is because
there is definitely multiple different types of jobs.
You know there's the professional or the content creator type version who just makes a lot
of stuff and does a lot of stuff and puts it all online to get monetized.
I don't really monetize as much.
I should do a little more.
But there's that side of things where there's what I do mostly do is judging so I go to
the conventions they bring me in just because of my eye because I've had a lot of years
experience building things and making things and I could tell you from a mile away what
that's made of and how they did it or at least close enough to how they did it because some
people would surprise you.
There's very much ingenuity in cosplay and like engineering and things like that.
I mean even with you what is your background in school?
I know you've told me this before.
I've done a lot of things.
My background technically is musical theater.
So singing, dancing, acting.
But when I was in musical theater I originally I wanted to be a fashion designer so I would
like I was applying to things and I just wasn't getting back what I needed because of math
related stuff.
But when I was in school for musical theater I would do the whole day.
I would sing, dance, act my little heart out and then after all that I would go and I would
help them sew the costumes in the evening.
Well and that's what I love and if you get a chance go to Ray Gray.
It's R-A-Y-G-R-E-Y cosplay dot com because first of all your website I was looking through
it last night.
Oh thanks.
And it is so cool.
I love all the color.
I do need to edit some things.
Some stuff needs to be updated.
That's for sure.
I don't have like a web person so I really do everything myself.
But you're sewing because I know you make your costumes.
They are amazing.
They don't look like they're homemade.
I know a lot of people sometimes are like where did you get that?
How did you get that?
That last blue one.
Oh Vaporeon?
Yeah.
It's like okay she made that.
You could have.
Within like three days too.
You could have an entire career on just making costumes.
I want to.
The issue is it's hard to kind of break into that industry especially here because it's
not really a vibrant industry here.
So I'd have to do say commission work or I'd have to like outsource the things that I do.
And like I said I'm one person.
So not only am I my own seamstress and you know person who does all the dyeing and the
dremeling and cutting and all those things not only do I make it but I do my own social
media and video editing and sound and lighting and makeup and hair and wigs and hair and
production and I'm my own director and producer and publisher and whatever.
Like I do it all but it's just it does you hit a wall after a while.
So you need a break in between things.
You're also a local content creator or you've got new events that I've gone to.
So fun.
It is.
It really is.
It's a nice little community itself which I enjoy.
Now what got you started in the cosplay?
I know you like to do the sewing and the theater.
I do.
I was doing that way before.
Like I was for a while and it's funny that I'm gonna go see Dee Dee tonight hopefully.
For a while Dee Dee and I were actually doing fashion like runway shows in bars.
Yeah.
So she had her own little company already started and now it's like way bigger.
But I just did it for fun.
I wanted to make some cool stuff and she was like why not do this?
I was like that's such a great idea.
Why don't I do that?
So I joined but a lot of my stuff was very fantasy based.
You know like medieval or armor or like comic books or things like that.
Everything that I enjoyed I kind of encapsulated into it.
But I didn't realize that people made costumes.
Like in high school I would just make cool stuff because I wanted cool stuff.
And then later on one of my sister's ex-boyfriends introduced us to Comic Cons.
He said do you know what Fan Expo is?
And I was like no what's Fan Expo?
At this point in time I was reading a lot of comic books and one of my exes actually
had given me a comic book technically about myself.
And I thought that was fascinating.
Which comic book was it?
It's Excalibur.
So for those who don't know, for the X-Men, because X-Men is really big right now, for
the X-Men, Jean Grey and Scott Summers, they get together in a different alternate universe
and they have kids.
One's name is Hope Summers and one's name is Rachel Summers aka Rachel Grey with an
E.
So and it's interesting because especially right now with my short hair we look exactly
alike in the X-Men 52.
So that was my first thing.
I was like you know what?
I'm already a superhero.
I'll just be myself.
And then I made the outfit for her.
Nobody knew who it was because it's very like niche character.
That's okay.
Yeah.
Everybody thought it was Jean Grey and that's fine.
It's her mother.
She's still cool.
She had Wolverine.
Heck yeah.
Family resemblance and everything.
So yeah I went to Fan Expo for the first time and I looked around and I'm like wow these
costumes are amazing.
These people.
The artistry.
They're big for art all around.
So I just was like you know what?
I can do better next year.
And then it was this ongoing thing of I can do better.
What am I doing?
Yeah.
I remember I think it was like 2014 and me and my husband were just together almost a
year and him and his daughter used to go to Fan Expo and I was the type that I don't
read comic books.
I don't watch these like Marvel things.
All the superhero movies.
And he's like well let's go to Fan Expo and I'm like okay Toronto I'm there.
Heck yeah.
And I ended up having so much fun and seeing the people.
It was just insane.
But then I'm also the type that will go up and start talking to the people without paying
for it.
Oh like to the celebrities.
I'm bad.
You know what?
It used to be fine.
It used to be okay and everybody was like just excited to talk to people.
Now the celebrities are like it's $20 for a selfie.
Yeah a selfie with your own phone.
$20.
$40.
Because we went a couple years ago and it was like the Motor City Comic Con.
That is a fun one.
And Princess Leia was here.
I saw that costume.
Did you like it?
Oh yeah.
Oh my god.
I think you hit every boy's fantasy in that costume.
Maybe.
I don't know.
There's trolls online who tell a different story but they're trolls so who knows.
It's okay.
I think it was fabulous.
So you'd look a lot better in it than I did.
Honestly it was really fun and I like my little video I made about people yanking my chain
and telling me jokes.
That was really good.
The whole you got to scroll through her Instagram but there was people that were pulling you
by the cheek.
Now were they taking pictures for themselves as well?
Because that looked like you guys were having a blast.
Yeah it's always fun at Motor City.
I find that to be one of the best ones and one of the ones I have the best memories with.
Like with Michael Rooker.
He's so great.
In the 2014 when I said I'd go up and talk to everybody.
I had not really watched The Walking Dead or just minimally.
Okay.
And had no idea who he was.
And I'm sitting there and there's nobody in line and I'm just chatting with him at the
side thinking it was a handler.
Sometimes it's just like that.
And after about 5-10 minutes we laughed and as I'm looking I'm like oh my god I told my
husband.
I talked to him.
Hold on.
He's like really?
I'm like yes I did.
One of my favorite pictures of all time.
I was dressed as Gamora and he had just done what was the Guardians of the Galaxy.
It was after the second one.
So I'm dressed as Gamora and I walk up to him and we're chatting and stuff and I said
can we take a picture but like a funny pic.
Like I want a funny picture.
I don't want like a oh we're here smiling and yay go us.
No I don't want that.
I want something like memorable and fun.
Can we do something like that?
And he said sure stick out your tongue.
I'm like huh?
He's like yeah just stick out your tongue.
I'm like okay.
Stick out my tongue.
He grabs a hold of it.
He's not holding my tongue and I'm just like okay.
Funniest.
Funniest man I swear.
Oh my goodness that's awesome.
He's hilarious.
I would have died but.
I did.
I mean that's so cool too.
Come on.
I guess.
Another really good like celebrity story I have is from first Windsor Comic Con we've
ever had.
The very first one was my very favorite because they had everything.
They're ducks in a row and tons of people were excited for new like event and avenue.
I think I was at that one.
Oh yeah the first one was amazing.
And I mean I maybe I just loved it because they treated me like a celebrity which was
really sweet of them.
Like we were driving around a little golf cart and we had to go around the city doing
media stuff.
Me and Batman and Lou Ferrigno right.
So the three of us I was riding in the Batmobile.
It was all a good time.
Brampton.
Shout out to Brampton Batman for his Batmobile.
But yeah so we were waiting at the police station and I'm poison ivy so I'm kind of
like you know I'm scandalous and I'm chilly.
Lou Ferrigno just like gives me his coat.
I was like oh that's so sweet.
Seriously can you find a nicer man than that.
I don't know.
And he's been in the scene for a long time.
From what I've heard he has been he is so nice.
He is.
I've never had the chance of meeting him.
He's one person that I would pay to meet because I heard that he's just got a heart of gold.
I would love to go and just be able to do stuff like that.
I love the makeup and the hair and the costume.
You should try it sometime.
You just have to pick whatever character really like feeds into your soul or what you're feeling.
I find it always works best if you really care about the character.
Either be it their design or their backstory or what have you.
Now some of your costumes are they well I know actual characters but are some just characters
you've created?
Not technically I don't think.
Or your own spin on them.
Yeah I mean there's always I always have my own tiny little spin on it because I pick
really niche stuff.
I don't know why.
There is this designer that she like a graphics designer that she does a bunch of different
designs and her name is Hannah Alexandra.
And she does a lot of very art nouveau beautiful goddess like versions of like new regular
characters we all know and love.
So I've done a few of those.
I wouldn't consider them my designs personally like obviously but I mean it is different
from like regular Poison Ivy right?
And when it comes to her I have taken liberties on how I want to do things or like where it's
not all it's based off of a specific like here's a picture boom.
But some of it is.
You have so many multiverses and different genres and that so realistically when you're
dealing with any of the comic book characters you can take liberties because there's so
many different ones.
Especially with Harley and Ivy forget about it.
It's all whatever variation you want.
Yeah exactly.
Okay so outside of the fan expos and the comic cons what do you do that is cosplay related?
I have done multiple things.
So I have done like free comic book days and or I've done events with LaSalle lights and
things like that where we dress up as Disney princesses and we're there for the kids reading
books and things like that.
Oh I bet they love that.
Oh the kids love it.
And well and I've been a camp counselor for my entire life.
Yeah.
Like I always I was doing camp counseling at Braeside for a while.
I did camp counseling in Alberta for a summer.
I don't know I've always just been really good with kids probably because I am one.
Internally.
You don't have to be.
Internally I'm five years old.
Have fun with your costumes.
Yeah so I don't know there's some costumes.
It's a definite strange balance for me because as much as I love doing children's entertainment
and things like that because I do love performing and the kids get a kick out of performing
very well.
I also though am an adult who loves adult things so there's a very fine line of like
what I wear where and I try to like be mindful of it but sometimes people don't give me information
and then I'm in something that's a little more scandalous and I would have chose something
else.
Yeah.
You know it just it really depends.
Now I know that you have also had an affiliation with the circus school in Windsor.
Yeah.
You know have you taken classes there or taught.
You know I have actually taken classes there originally back when like the original circus
school was working.
I won a thing to go for like a week or something.
Oh that's cool.
Yeah so I learned silks there and I was going to continue but then COVID happened and then
everything got shut down which was unfortunate especially because I'm very active person
and a lot of the costumes or characters I like are also extremely active like cartwheeling
or back flipping or I mean I can't do a back flip.
I wish.
But I but I love Lyra.
Like I picked Lyra up this no sorry last year I picked Lyra up at Movadi and I don't know
I fell in love with it ever since so now I'm just anytime I can get myself on a hoop I'm
on a hoop and originally when I started doing it my whole thing was okay well I love cosplay
but I sometimes get bored at conventions because I feel like I need to be doing something which
is why I like being a part of like helping with the convention because then I'm doing
something and I'm not just like I'm here I'm in a costume you know and I mean some people
love that some people love to get dressed up and they just like to hang out and vibe
and have a good time and relax.
And that's fine too but I don't know where relaxing is.
Well the thing is is if you you can only stand there for so long before you're looking going
okay is it done yet.
Right you're right exactly so I always try to find something to do or like some kind
of fun gimmick to add in or like something.
And then it draws attention to you as well.
Sure yeah I don't really do it for that per se.
No but it does and I'm sure it helps.
People enjoy to see your costumes.
Yeah of course and I think they see the amount of work that I put in to stuff.
Well you really get into your character.
I've noticed that you really get into it and you're like a little chameleon when your hair
will be all blue and you won't even know it's you the makeup is phenomenal.
Oh thank you.
It really is I was looking at those pictures going and online I'm like darn.
Is that her?
That is nice especially that I think it was the last thing you posted on Instagram.
There was like the four of you and you were in the blue costume.
Like Vaporeon?
Was it Vaporeon?
I think so let me just.
So the Pokemon stuff?
I'm just going yes yes that costume was amazing.
Thanks I was unsure about that one.
That one technically is my own design like when you asked about if I did my own design.
That one technically was.
I really wasn't sure it was going to come together because I wasn't running off of a
base pattern like usually when I'm making something especially if it's like already
a shirt or skirt or something then I'll have a base pattern to go off of and then I will
just like add to it or extract from it or things like that edit it as I go along but
this one I literally just was like okay here's what a bathing suit shape should be and I
cut it and then I did like a mock up and I'm like okay and then yeah it just kind of came
to life from there.
It was beautiful.
Thanks.
And I know.
It's nice fabric.
The fabric turned out.
Yeah.
That dye job not to suit my own hair.
You dyed it?
Yeah you know the fabric for the tail and like a little yeah it was like a white fabric
actually no it was purple and I was like I wonder if I can re-dye this and then I put
it in blue dye.
And it matched perfectly.
To give it that little ocean wave vibe yeah and then I sprayed some starch stuff on it
to hopefully stiffen it a little.
It kind of did but then it gave it like a splatter effect and I'm like it looks so good.
It did.
It matched perfectly.
You'd never known that it was purple before.
Yeah.
Straight out purple.
It was blue.
I loved it.
Yeah.
Now I know last year you went and worked at ScareHouse with Velvet Entertainment and it
was the carnival noir.
Yeah.
Now which deadly sin were you?
I was envy.
Envy.
Honestly it was the most fun sin to be because I got to be the nice one.
Oh here I go.
I can't stop touching my microphone.
I got to be the nice one.
Oh cool.
Yeah.
I mean I made my lovely outfit, my green little, I wanted it to look like a snake kind of wrapping
around my body and I feel like I did a perfect job of that.
But my whole thing, my whole gimmick I wanted to do all night was because there's two different
envy cards and so the first one I would like I gave people they had to come and take a
picture on our little chairs.
Okay.
And then they get their first card and the first time around I go oh my god I love that.
Oh my god I love that necklace.
I'm envious of like whatever it is they have and I'm like I want that.
You know?
The second time around they had to come back to me and be like I'm envious of you.
That's how they got their second card.
Oh that's cool.
Yeah.
And if they didn't know then they didn't get their second card and then they didn't win
the top prizes.
So yeah.
I am so upset that I missed that.
You know they're doing another one again this year.
Good.
I'm definitely going to be there.
Red Death I think.
They're calling it Red Death this time.
It's off of Stephen King.
Yes.
Stephen King.
So they're doing another one this year?
Yes.
It's called The Red Death and it's based off of a Stephen King novel.
So we'll see how that goes.
And are you guys doing something coming up soon with the circus school as well?
It's not technically with the circus school.
It's with Alex Embodiment.
Okay.
Yes.
So Alex Embodiment she is going to be doing a wellness retreat but it is circus related
so she is partnering with Velvet Edge and with me I'm going to be there helping her
with social media related things and just kind of celebrating circus and the circus
arts as a whole.
When is that?
August 2nd.
Well the whole weekend.
So August 2nd to the 4th I think.
Oh.
Right.
Friday to Sunday.
And do they still have enrollment?
Oh yes.
You can still purchase tickets.
You can purchase them with Alex Embodiment on her website or Velvet Edge if you feel
like you want to go there.
Either way.
And they are also, when we are speaking of other things that I'm helping out with, there
is an eSports tournament coming soon.
July 20th even sooner.
So July 20th there is called The Summoning and it's going to be a big eSports entertainment.
They are going to have multiple different Battle Royales tournaments and then we are
also going to do some cosplay related stuff.
I think we are going to do a red carpet for Nintendo related cosplay.
Where is that going to be?
It's going to be at St. Clair.
Oh that will be.
Yeah they are partnering with St. Clair.
Oh yeah because they have their...
For their eSports.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
I think it's going to be a good time.
So you are busy.
Oh yeah.
Tell me about it.
But that's a good thing.
Well and I'm still trying to work on my own things too.
I have three different characters in the works at the moment so I'm trying to slowly chip
away at that while I'm also trying to live regular life.
Do we have a little sneak peek of what those characters are?
Oh sure yeah.
Well I mean I'm working on Zelda from Tears of the Kingdom.
Well technically Breath of the Wild Zelda.
It's her blue dress.
It's her like very royal, very regal.
I've been working on it for a while and the girls have been like get it done.
I will.
It's got to be perfect.
I will.
It takes a while.
Certain things and I mean they don't have a pattern for everything.
I'm going off of my own patterning and intuition right?
And then well we are doing a Sailor Moon shoot on Sunday at Jackson Park so I'm going to
be Sailor Mars on Sunday.
And then I have Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn that I'm working on.
I have to finish her but that's going to take a while.
There's a lot of detail work in that one.
I don't know if you've ever played that game or seen it.
Which game is it?
Horizon Zero Dawn?
No.
No?
It's basically a story about this red headed girl which I question if it's always the red
heads that I pick.
But it's the story of this red headed girl who is like an anomaly sort of.
So she's shunned from her society because she's not part of her society and she has
to figure out why.
She's an orphan.
She doesn't know where she comes from and so she's searching around to kind of try to
find where she came from.
That's the game.
You're running around in this jungle but there's all these machine dinosaur type things that
you have to learn how to kill or control.
It's a very interesting story.
It sounds like it.
It's very much about planet Earth too.
It's about helping planet Earth.
That would be a good show.
A good TV series.
It would be a good TV series.
I wish that they would turn her into a TV series because it would be fascinating.
That sounds really good.
That would be interesting.
You can technically watch it on YouTube like a TV series.
Technically.
Oh watch the gameplay.
It's not the same.
Yeah.
It's not the same.
No.
What else?
We might do Marvel vs. Capcom because I have Cami and I really haven't done much with her.
I do want in the realm of Zelda related things I have her armor in mind that I really want
to build.
It's one of those things.
I'm going to be going into Toronto in August so I don't know how much time I have for anything.
Fan Expo.
Yes, true.
Fan Expo.
I'm going to be going to Fan Expo.
Beyond Fan Expo I'm also working for the CNE this year again.
It's in Canadian National Expo.
I haven't been there in years.
I love it.
I love it so much.
Yeah.
It's so many people though.
It's so overwhelming.
It is.
So it's the same weekend as Fan Expo?
Well it's the whole month and a half.
Month and a week or something.
So Fan Expo is right in the middle of it.
Right in the middle.
Yeah.
I remember the year we went it all started at the same time.
Really?
They started the CNE at the same time?
It was insane.
It was literally insane.
Yeah that seems like maybe they knew that and they changed it.
They had to because Toronto was crazy.
You couldn't get into a lot of the attractions.
So we ended up going to Fan Expo the second day because...
Interesting.
Yeah.
But it was fun.
So what costume are you going to do?
Do you know?
Fan Expo?
I don't.
I never really...
I mean back in the day when I first was fresh to building certain stuff I would have a
goal of okay this is really what I want to do for this specific event or like year or
whatever because sadly there's a...
There's this thing with cosplay especially after COVID where certain characters and their
popularity kind of hold more...
I don't know what the word is I'm looking for.
It just holds more so people try to cosplay the...
Like the popular stuff more.
So people just looking for that kind of bump I guess.
I mean or they just love the character but usually you know when Barbie came out there
was a million Barbies.
Yes.
There was a million and a half Barbies.
And you don't want to be that...
You don't want to be the same thing so you want to be unique.
It is cool but I don't know.
I personally...
You want to be your unique Barbie.
Sure.
Yeah.
Redhead Barbie.
Why not?
Go on.
I don't know.
I do like to do popular characters but I only like to do the popular characters that I truly
love or else I don't really feel...
You have to resonate.
Like it's true to me.
Yeah.
Exactly.
I want to resonate and if I'm not resonating it's like what's the point and then halfway
through making it I'll be like what's the point and then I'll give up and I don't really
want to give up on things if I can help it.
That's a really good thing about you is that you're doing what you love and the characters
that you feel a connection with and not just going with what everybody else is.
You're putting your own spin on you and you can still be going the same way but it's unique.
It's usually what I do.
I try to stay within like okay if we're doing a certain theme then I'll stick to the theme
but like...
But you stand out because you do... you look amazing.
Is that why I stand out?
Because it's different?
I never really thought about it.
Yeah.
Well it's different but the same.
Like you said you want to stay within the theme but you put your own spin on it so of
course it's going to stand out and like that costume you did with the Nintendo is just...
you had all of you guys standing there but your costume is like wow and that's great
that you take the time and the energy to do that and that way people really enjoy it more.
Cosplayers really find that drive and passion into whatever it is that they're making.
You can see, at least me anyway, maybe most people can see it but I can see the love and
care that people put into it which is why I love being a cosplay judge because I get
this very special moment of where the kids come closer and they show me all the details
and they're so proud of what they've accomplished and I too am proud for them of what they've
accomplished right?
So I just...
I love when they explain stuff or when I get to talk shop, oh my gosh, I love talking shop
like what did you use?
How did you do this?
What kind of technique is it?
Like I get really into it and maybe that's just because I'm usually on my own making
my own stuff so when I get around people who kind of do the same thing we geek out together
right?
Oh gosh yeah.
But even as somebody that doesn't do cosplay going to something like Fan Expo and it's
insane and I'm not going to stand in line for the stars because they're insane but...
Some of it's crazy.
It's so much fun to see all the people in their costumes and the characters that they've
created and it's like...
And the love and care that they take for some of those things.
It's true you can tell and the enjoyment they get when you compliment them or when you recognize
who it is.
Yes.
Oh that's the best.
Especially if it's something that's a little on the unique side that you wouldn't expect
and they're like you know?
Oh you know?
That's the best feeling when you're some niche character or like you know you're some random
TV show that no one's ever watched and then you're walking in and you're like oh my god
yes!
We get it!
Yes!
It's such a good feeling.
I swear I could sit here and talk about this all day because it is new to me and I mean
just in the last 10 years I've really learned to enjoy the Comic Cons and the Fan Expos.
I actually think I enjoy them a little bit more than my husband now.
Nice.
And I love watching you evolving and honestly if you guys want to check her out it's Ray
Gray r-a-y-g-r-e-y cosplay for Instagram and dot com her website and just take a look at
the costumes and everything that she's up to and find new events.
I'm trying to think of what else.
There was something else I wanted to talk about but I can't remember.
Well I just wanted to speak on the creation part of cosplay because I think that's really
important and I think that's something that we're losing in the world.
Like creativity.
We're kind of being drained out of the world a little bit and I want to just inspire people
or I want people to know like it's a good thing.
It's a good thing to take your time and like stay creative.
Stay painting.
You know stay drawing.
I know it sometimes we think okay well we're wasting our time with all these things and
AI is coming up on everybody's tail.
No.
Don't even get me started on that.
It's really important and I love to do like when I've done panels at conventions before
my panels are usually art into reality.
So it's talking about what it takes and like the process of taking a piece of art or a
design that you love and transforming it into a reality and bringing all of that to life.
I had the nicest thing happen to me at Motor City this year where there was a girl that
I had met a few times and I can't remember her cosplay name right now.
I think it's Unravel Co.
But she looked so awesome and I was like your armor looks so cool.
Like it's the greatest thing I've seen in a while.
You know she's like thanks it's because of you.
I was like what do you mean because like I know we've talked before.
Like I knew who she was but she's like yeah that panel that you did at Great Lakes you
were talking about armor and you gave us some tips and tricks and showed us some tools and
things we could do to make things better and yeah like I took the tips and tricks and like
you know I watched some stuff on your YouTube page of the tools and got myself some good
stuff and yeah I'm only standing here where it is now because I've learned from you and
I was like that's literally all I ever want is to like help inspire a new generation to
stay creative because sometimes we're all tired and we don't want to do it.
I've been tired and I don't want to do it sometimes.
It really helps with your brain.
It does.
You know because we've all become so sedentary.
It's just so easy to sit there and play games on your phone.
It's so easy to go online and just buy something.
Yeah but you.
At least put your spin on it.
Exactly and I mean everybody's so impatient and they're just you know watching TV or playing
games on their phone or on their Xbox or whatever but I like to see that people are getting
back into the arts.
Yes me too.
Being creative because realistically creativity whether you are acting or sewing or doing
cosplay or any crafts that really helps you down.
You don't realize how much that helps you down the line with your cognitive skills.
And you're like and you're processing emotions and things like that.
It's very important.
You hear me Windsor?
You hear me University of Windsor?
Art is important.
Yes don't even get me started on the UP and the fact that they are getting rid of.
It's insane.
I'm sorry but like it's insane.
That is a problem I think with all like cities combined is that they don't want to give grants
or things.
They don't want to celebrate the arts.
They don't want the arts to continue and so we get all of this like a randomized art that
is there and is great but it's just so random and people don't know about it and they don't
hear about it and they see it too late but if we actually if the city itself and the
people actually came together and helped it grow like they helped the sports grow we would
be in a much better place.
And it shocked it really honestly shocked me because seeing the arts that are growing
in Windsor-Essex County like not only movies are growing I mean the Capitol Theater and
the oh my goodness between the plays and the symphonies and the various symphonies and
then I did Cortisone Theater and then there's the other theaters like for them to get rid
of them.
And they are doing it so hard like they're trying so hard to keep it going.
And they're really good too.
And they are the stories are phenomenal and hilarious and beautiful like the art coming
out of there is fascinating.
I think that's why we've been going to see things.
Yeah and it's really just starting to build up like people are really getting back into
it and enjoying it and we need to do something to keep it going for definitely for the university
players and you know St. Clair College and Capitol Theater and all the small little independent
theaters that we have.
Yeah because what is life without art?
It's so much.
It's rab.
Yes.
It's gray without art.
Yeah and I mean.
Without color?
I will never understand that.
I love this color.
This is gorgeous.
I know.
You gotta go big.
But Rachel thank you so much for being here today.
I really enjoyed our conversation.
Yeah me too.
I've learned today you can't talk cosplay without talking creativity.
Never it's a very big part of it.
And I'm very much a person for art as a whole.
So regardless of cosplay which is more costume related or design related like I said engineering,
physics there's so many vast things.
Technology because people are learning how to do LED work or robotics or all kinds of
things.
The kids we saw at the Capitol Theater doing newsies.
Exactly.
Oh my god.
Like that.
We can't take that art away.
No.
There's no way.
Those were high school students.
They were amazing.
They were the music choice.
Well I mean newsies in general the music's great but like they practice and the choreography
everything.
The lighting.
Yeah.
Immaculate.
I don't want to ever see a world when we're living without art.
Yeah for sure.
I want it to keep going and to keep growing and that way people can express their feelings
and express their love of just everything.
The world.
For sure.
Yeah.
It's how people express love and love is necessary for the world.
I agree.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for being here today.
Thanks for having me.
I really enjoyed it.
It's been so fun.
It has.
And my name is Tracy Martins.
And I want to thank you for joining me for another episode of YQG In Bloom and don't
forget to like follow and subscribe and if you have any comments feel free to leave them.
You guys have a good day.