Since December 5 was the 20th anniversary of the once beloved hiphop platform, Mugshot, I wanted to recognized and big up my roots. The figures and stories behind the founding of Mugshot are legendary. As I said on social media, “This is where I got my start, Mugshot Magazine. I was a kid fresh out of college and the founders, Peter Feld, Amber Fosse, and Gida Snyder took me in. They turned every perceivable roadblock into a possibility. After taking …
Tag: art
The Eternal Flame Project was founded by Cuban artist Erik Ravelo. It is to give hope to all the extraordinary artists out there who are struggling to survive. Now is the most crucial time to be making work. If you are alive then you still have hope. Visit The Eternal Flame Project website and send him a video of your eternal flame of art. …
Here’s my latest, Eye: Notes to a Poet. I wrote about Care Bears, Public Enemy, white Jesus, writer Kiese Laymon, space travel, Brer Rabbit, and artist Sheena Rose. Painter Titus Kaphar contributed a poem and painting. To say that this a big deal or a high honor is an understatement. These people are like Gods to me. I am beside myself. It never occurred to me that I’d ever write about becoming a writer. I always thought that talking about …
Looking at David Ball’s mixed-media paintings is analogous to staring at alien creatures that function as your reflection. They exist in a parallel universe where life is represented through cultural fragments that are made to unlock as opposed to enslave. When watched, the paper hearts of these colorful creatures feverishly swell and sputter, “friend or foe?” Trapped in an undefined narrative, they are frozen in motion, in a space and time that dances on the inside of eyelids. Ball, who …
The evolution of Sam Grant’s art has gone through mutations searching to settle on a well-fitted aesthetic. Some of his earlier output involved a man nailed to the cross of a satellite dreaming of space, F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) made a wrist doubt its pulse while a woman turned her back to a pathetic mushroom cloud. After years of producing paintings, illustrations, and collages, he started making zines. They were attempts at using story to evoke absurdity, humor, and …
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