"Apparitions (Pt 2)" in support of Mi Valedor
For Part 2 of "Apparitions" I'm digging through my archives and reflecting on other sign/ text based works that create the foundation for Mixed Signals, currently being exhibited at PHANTOM GHOST by Taller De Gráfica Nahual in Mexico City.
My portion of any sale made during the show's run is being donated to Mi Valedor - a social project that, through a bi-monthly magazine, workshops, and healthcare networks, offers vulnerable groups (homeless people, migrants, older people and disabled people) an opportunity to get back into the workplace and society.
Much of this artwork is about the shaky ground and slippery slopes that exists between words and authority; and its been enormously rewarding to learn about Mi Valedor and their use of language to recognize the dignity and humanity in all of Mexico City's residents. I highly recommend checking them out.
You can visit part 1 of "Apparitions" by clicking here. And now for a trip down memory lane.
Comrades (Shadow Boxing) , 2012
I'm amazed how much these collages share in common with the Mixed Signals series, given they were made 13 years a part and how very different my life is now. They're definitely some of last pieces I made before we left Gowanus Brooklyn in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and (perhaps) the first time I used the term Comrades in a title. The sidewalks in our warehouse neighborhood were littered with paper "No Parking" signs that would inevitably wall off whatever rusted metal surface they were temporarily posted on. Abandoned and waterlogged, I can remember being amused by how flimsy most forms of authority are... So I ripped them up, photocopied them into oblivion, and then reassembled the pieces to suit my own aesthetic fancy.
I'm fairly certain that their secondary title came from GZA's Liquid Swords; but I also would like to believe that Fiona Apple was involved as well. A decade and change later, let's just give a shout out to both of them. I was thrilled to show Comrades (Shadow Boxing) at the Rats 9 Collective space in beautiful Montreal, along with a zine that made connections between other pieces of back alley, Post-Sandy, flotsam and jetsam.
Yes Trespassing, 2015
Ed. of 15
I created this sign towards the end of my first year in graduate school. We arrived to California in the middle of historic drought, and I spent most of my time hopping fences and exploring Santa Barbara's bone dry Mission Creek waterway. It was an irony to vast to fully understand: I'd just left a place devastated by too much water, only to arrive to a place withering away from the total absence of it.
When you're new in town the ability to access meaning- to make a place for yourself- can be a really difficult and alienating process. At some point wires crossed in my brain, and the different entry points into the creek became gateways to understanding the realities of my new life. And I was hot damned if a few No Trespassing signs were gonna regulate me back into loneliness.
The ghostly YES was achieved by using a stencil and transparent spray paint; a unexpectedly subtle form of vandalism that was only evident when viewed in shifting light. Its my humble honor to say they've been exhibited and collected pretty extensively over the years - becoming the conduit to many new connections and friendships.
Recovery Drawings, 2022
These drawings are part of a series I created while recovering from bi-lateral hip replacement surgery. The pairings of words: GRAY AREA, FREE JAZZ, BONE RUIN come from the hundreds of combinations written in my various sketchbooks. There is a harmony or symmetry to certain phrases that immediately settles my otherwise perpetually racing mind. They come to me seemingly out of nowhere, ready made and fully formed; and I consider the simple act of writing down an essential part of my creative practice.
A recent entry scanned from my sketchbook.
To labor intentionally over these pairings- drawing them single line by line - was exactly the meditative process I needed to heal. Aside from my wife and daughter, these pieces have never been seen by a public audience. Thanks for checking them out.
Mi Valedor (“My Mate”) is a social project that, through a bi-monthly magazine, workshops, and healthcare networks, offers vulnerable groups (homeless people, migrants, older people and disabled people) an opportunity to get back into the workplace and society. These people are the Mates.
We're all working too hard to feel this alone...
A call to action, commonly known by the initialism CTA, is a strategic marketing tool designed to spur an immediate response from an audience, guiding them toward a specific action.
NNH began with the (perhaps naive) hope that it could be of service to folks who needed it. I wasn't exactly sure who that meant- Was it the potential readership? The Mutual Aid groups that would be featured in each post? Or other creative types (equally fed up with the constant "me at the center" paradigm required by our Tech Overlords) looking for a place to get weird and do some good.
SO, if you're out there- whomever you may be- Let me know. Leave a comment. Click a link. Tell a friend. Pitch an idea. Do anything to feel less alone in the world.
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