This Saturday, Frances Jetter came into for our Narrative Art class to talk about her work. She’s petite & very friendly - it’s a little bit disarming, considering how dark her work is. And I mean this is a really good way.

cry uncle

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am I home yet?

pencil & corel painter, 28 x 11”

This piece was part of the show La Bracera, which closed a few weeks ago in Manhattan. It channels the work of women in my family- mothers & grandmothers who set the roots and created homes. They pushed and pulled family together from one place to another- north to south, east to west - amidst instability, displacement, and violence. The women in my family are the sources of memory and the homes to which we return.

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Trying to find an apartment in new york city is like a dating game in which insecure singles pursue unattractive candidates for the chance to be locked into grossly unsatisfying relationships.

First things first, you are stripped of any “rights,” “hobbies,” and “self-esteem” you may have thought you had. Do you like to cook? Take up space? Have friends? Occasionally breathe at a slightly louder volume than average? Naturally, all of these things are unacceptable.

Once you have given over your soul & 6 months of savings to the swollen vortex that is first and last month’s rent AND deposit AND broker’s fee, you are also contractually obligated to nurture & massage your new roommate’s many quirks, feed & love his or her multiple cats, socialize on demand with said roommate/cats, and accommodate all of your new roommate’s unwanted furniture into your sad, squalid quarters with a grateful smile.

For these overwhelming privileges, you get to pay up the ass for a small square coffin with light, airy walls through which you are treated to the musical offerings of roommates/neighbors humping, stomping, and “jamming” with their “band” into the wee hours of a whimsical Tuesday night.

So if you enjoy being robbed of what little self-esteem & money that you have, if you relish emotionally abusive, one-way relationships with an amorphous monster that is your roommate/master/child, then apartment hunting in new york city is probably your best bet.

AWESOME!

nostalgia via 2007

"Art is the way to the absolute & to the essence of human life. The aim of art is not the one-sided promotion of spirit, soul, & senses, but the opening of all human capacities - thought, feeling, will - to the life rhythm of the world of nature. So will the voiceless voice be heard and the self be brought into harmony with it."

bruce lee

dirty old hip hop

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Art, music, drink, & good people.

All the ingredients for a tasty Saturday night…

beez in the trap

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LIFE THESE DAYS has been crazy. Feeling alternately/simultaneously burned out & blessed. Lots of good things in the works.

This here’s a highlight from the past few weeks- a sample book cover for the gangster we are all looking for, an old favorite.

Process: scrawly pencil sketch, scan, retouch in Photoshop, colors & waves in Painter, back to Photoshop, then Painter, erase, repeat, repeat, print, erase, repeat.