Digital Portfolio
I opened up a new tablet today, and this is the product of my first beautiful two hours of simply messing around without experience, training, tutorials, references, models, mirrors, planning, or expectations.
I don’t think I even realized WHO she might be, until Joey peeked at it over my shoulder and told me that he liked the way “my” hair looked…
Thank you.
Today was a little rough around the edges. I miss my city; I miss my people; I was angry. I am still angry. I did not plan this drawing, AT ALL. Joey and I were about nine minutes out from the apartment on a way back from a grocery store run – when I needed, needed, NEEDED, craved, indecently craved, was absolutely drowning with lungs filling up with the realization of how powerless I really am, was gasping to breathe – no, not to breathe – to MAKE –
So I had to. I HAD to. I HAD TO.
So here’s what I made.
(Script of final scene; actors are pulling up to the apartment:)
(Mickey: scribbling one last squiggly suggestion of a blouse – “Uhhhmmnnnehh…”)
(Mickey: squinting at drawing while turning drawing up towards Joey – “How does this look?”)
Joey: “That looks exactly like you.”
(Mickey: “Really?????????”)
Joey: “Yeah, that’s probably the best likeness I’ve seen of you, in a sketchbook…”
Joey: thinks a bit, as all actors shift stage to inside the apartment –
Joey: “Yeah, no, really, no one who knows you would dare mistake – oh wait, I’m getting a call -“
“Free M” (Double entendre intended, of course.)
My first street art/graffiti! No photo references – just Graffiti Alley (of Baltimore, Maryland), spray paints from Michael’s (of Towson, Maryland), some rain (of the sunny variety), and two hours (of my 22nd birthday).
I recognize self-expression as a basic human right, not a privilege. However, it was a privilege indeed to sit down with many who are being actively denied this right, right before creating this work. I hope to return this honor by channeling the expressions of those who are no longer at liberty to safely do so themselves. I pray for change.
This is probably painted over by now, but don’t worry – more is coming.
My love and thanks to the one who caught those photos of me – Joey Massaro, my partner and best friend of over four years, and, God willing, many more.
During the first half of June of 2021, I had the privilege of traveling to Texas with my partner and friends.
Here is some of what it inspired!
Over the course of the trip, while laughing and talking and waiting for our food in a restaurant, or singing together in a car ride, or in the quiet, still hours after my morning runs while everyone else was still asleep, I was also growing something more from my imagination than from my observation. I didn’t let myself use mirrors or photographs or other references. If I had to guess, I’d say that this composition grew primarily out of my mind’s eye and the afterimages of what my eyes were seeing over the course of the trip.
Friday, May 22nd, 2021
Mixed Media; Cutting; Ripping; Pasting; Painting; Layering; Loving
