Ciarallo: Jersey City is always changing.

It's very transient.

As costs go up, a lot of artists had to move out and weren't able to stay in the neighborhoods that they helped build and nurture.

They evicted all the artists, and they demolished the building, you know, under the guise that they were going to build, like, you know, a luxury tower.

And so this has been a vacant lot for over 10 years.

-For a lot of the community, they don't know what's going on in the arts in Jersey City.

-I used to have a studio where now it's a condo building.

-I've lived in this neighborhood for 18 years.

We were called the Powerhouse Arts District, and we've struggled to, in my mind, sort of maintain that.

Ciarallo: Despite the changes and despite some of the industrial spaces where artists had long lived and worked, you know, no longer being here, there's still a strong support from the community.

You have Jersey City Mural Arts Program, Pro Arts, Art Fair 14C.

You also have the Jersey City Artists and Studio Tours and a lot of other organizations that are committed to making sure the arts stay vibrant in Jersey City.

If I'm doing a mural or a painting, you know, the abstraction kind of represents the chaos of living in such a densely populated area where it's just nonstop.

I use the words "entertain", "engage", and "inform."

I hope my art is just something beautiful for people to see.

What once was a blank utility box or a blank wall now has a burst of color on it.

So on their commute to work, their walk around the neighborhood or in a museum, it's just a little something to brighten up their day.

-The 2024 New Jersey Arts Annual Exploring Our Connections is part of a unique series of exhibitions that are sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and we received over a thousand submissions this year.

Lawrence's work really is large scale.

It's bright.

It's colorful.

-The piece that I have in the Montclair Art Museum is called Just Tell the Truth.

Look, in the summer of 2020, hip hop duo Run the Jewels came out with their fourth album, and there was a song on there.

The title was "Just", and the chorus says... Man: Look at all these slave mastas posin' on yo dolla!

Get it?

-I had made a kind of lattice, and I attached about eight skateboards to it, and so on the skateboards with some mixed media, I just spray painted "Look" again and again.

So what I was really going for was you have this long, sordid history filled with capitalism, but there is always beauty that exists within that.

You think about Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave, the most horrible thing a person can experience.

But the underlying beauty is she escaped slavery and was able to free not only her family, but freed hundreds of other slaves.

And I really wanted to depict the beauty that exists despite all the darkness that can be present in our daily lives.

On a personal level, for me, it's very therapeutic.

No matter what's going on in my life, if I can get into my studio and work on a painting, just simply working with some bright colors will, you know, make you feel happier.

I use a lot of different elements -- collage, mixed media, acrylic because I really want to engage the viewer in a meaningful way, you know, bring them into the painting, so to speak.

Have them search out all the different elements, and you're going to want to analyze, you know, all the little details.

And then another thing I've recently been doing is incorporating my daughter's drawings.

A lot of the subject matter I use can be maybe political or current events or cultural things.

So using the headlines of the day can give more context or depth to the subject matter.

As a son of an immigrant, you come to learn about the history of this country.

We as a society are fighting some of the same battles, if you will, that they were fighting in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

I choose a lot of those activists from the 20th century Civil Rights movement to depict.

I just think of all the obstacles they faced, the adversity, the violence that they went up against and they never despaired.

John Lewis.

-When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, say something.

-[ Cheering ] -Do something.

Get in trouble.

Good trouble.

Necessary trouble.

-Shirley Chisholm.

-Chisholm: Give me your help at this hour, join me in an effort to reshape our society and regain control of our destiny.

-James Baldwin.

-I am not a nigger.

I am a man.

The white population of this country has got to ask itself, north and south, because it's one country, who are the white people that invented it?

And you got to find out why.

Ciarallo: Thought it was very important when I painted it in the summer of 2020.

There had been a number of horrific deaths by the hands of law enforcement.

The quote was just as relevant then as it is now, as it was when he said it in the 1960s.

I felt the need to emphasize the "I'm a man" part because we think of that hatred, that racism, people that espouse those kinds of hateful rhetoric need to ask themselves the same question -- why they need to vilify others, and just to reiterate that they were human beings and deserving of respect and dignity.

I always look to use my art to uplift people, and so hopefully the JCAST community can see that.

Man: Ready or not, here I come.

Ciarallo: Today, we're here for the 35th annual Jersey City Artists and Studio Tours.

Artists will have their studios open, and so hopefully people can appreciate, you know, all the hard work that not only myself but all the artists in this building put into their paintings.

-There's not a lot of things for the community to see art on first hand basis out of a studio.

I think it's educational for a lot of people.

The spaces like this that open up and are helpful for artists to have a little faith is so necessary.

I was commissioned by JCAST to photograph all of the artists.

I went to every studio all over Jersey City that's open today.

Bray: I think it's important to open the studio just because it really helps bring artists together and the community together.

I mean, I've met, you know, people and I see them every year now.

Maloy: Jersey City has changed.

I mean, it's gentrified a lot, but it's grown in a lot of ways.

And as an artist, like your journey is always growing, and hopefully you're always trying to improve.

It could be really good for all of us as artists.

-The one thing I always think about with my art is what unifies us.

I don't know if my art can change, you know, a community or the world, but I think it can definitely improve people's mental health and their mind-set.

I think it can definitely do that.