Six weeks ago I started shooting my feature length experimental film Ordinary Time, a memoir and memorial for my first boyfriend who later died of a drug addiction. Here are some video stills from the work so far, which you can read more about at the link in my bio.
Thank you so much to everyone who supported my campaign so I could begin this massive project. There is still a bit left in the funding goal if you'd like to see your name in the credits! Donation options on the website. 🤍
#queerart #queerfilm #experimentalfilm
I am currently raising funds for my next film, Ordinary Time. This will be my second feature, a memoir and memorial for my first love who later passed from a drug addiction. I will pair footage taken on a long walk through my hometown with the audio piece from my performance "for G" that layers together cell phone recordings I made when I heard the news, addressing him directly as a way to mourn.
Ordinary Time will show grief stripped down to the very real, first-person experience of going about daily life amidst lifelong, compounding losses of untimely queer d**th, the opioid crisis, and the gun violence epidemic.
I am working with a very modest budget for a 75-minute film to cover production and promotion expenses, and pay me in lost wages to shoot the footage and work on the final edit. Being self-employed and living paycheck to paycheck, it's often impossible for me to take time away from paid gigs to focus on my own work. Anything you can contribute will be truly so helpful, including sharing this post!
All the info and ways to donate are at the 🔗 in my 🅱️.
Join us at Comfort Station on 9/8, 9/16 & 9/22 for Art for the Living and The Dead, a 3-part series facilitated by @differentanders , and featuring @alej_salinas .
When artists make work about death, we are affirming our relationships to the living world. Doing this well requires that our studio practice be focused on asking questions, seeking connection, and inviting collaboration – with the living and the dead, with the past and the future, with the human and non-human.
These three stand-alone workshops will look at many different ways to engage with death, mortality, and grief through art and community. Artists will find new ways to work with these topics in their own personal studio practice, and do so with the utmost respect and care for themselves, their subjects, and their audience.
We will read and discuss short pieces of writing, look at artworks, and experiment with creative writing as critical tools for the visual artist. You need not be an artist to join us! Readings are available for free in advance here: /art-for-the-living-and-the-dead
This program is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (@neaarts ) and the Terra Foundation for American Art, (@terraamericanart ) and are part of Art Design Chicago, (@artdesignchicago ) a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
Visit comfortstationlogansquare.org for more information.
Thank you @newcitymag for my Design Feature in the April magazine! It was such a pleasure to answer such beautifully engaged questions from @vasiarigou and an honor to share pages with all the Breakout Artists, including familiar faces @nyeemamorgan and @iammoustache 🤩!
Pick up a copy in town or visit the L in my B!
Israel is not David, it is Goliath.
It is a right wing Western military & propaganda machine occupying the land of Palestine for generations through colonization and apartheid. At this very moment, Israel is openly trying to k*ll 2.2 million people in Gaza, half of them children because so few adults can survive what Israel has done to Gaza for decades. This ethnic cleansing of Gaza is being done with our tax dollars, and they are claiming moral superiority as they do it.
Israel is not protecting Jews. Israel is Jews committing genocide against Muslims whom they've trapped in the largest open air prison in the world. These crimes against humanity begin with Israel's abuse of its incredible power, and they will end when the world finally holds Israel accountable for its sins.
It is alarming and heartbreaking to have to turn off comments on such an obviously true statement. The whiplash of hearing so many progressives claim to support BLM, Ukraine, human rights, indigenous sovereignty, AND Israel is just too much for me.
If my position shocks you, please read about the Boycott Divestment & Sanctions movement, the March of Return in 2018, the Amnesty International report on Israeli apartheid, the Intercept on how Israel intentionally helped create Hamas. Listen to Palestinian journalists like @mohammedelkurd and others on @democracynow . Follow @jewishvoiceforpeace to see Jews resisting the violence of Zionism being done in their names.
Graphic by @sbeih.jpg who created a broadcast channel for #standwithpalestine
"for G" is a memorial for my first love who later died of a drug addiction. It is made of a handwoven shroud and an audio piece created from my cell phone recordings addressing him in death as a way to grieve. I will be giving a new version of this performance at @artlitlab in Madison, WI on Sunday, Aug 6 at 7pm as part of the next installment of the group show "Aesthetics of Loss," curated by @nirmal.raja (July 11 - Sept 1). Visitors will be invited to sit with me in the shroud on a wooden bench as we listen together and gather afterwards. RSVP at the in 🔗 in my B. You can also come sit with the cloth and listen on headphones during regular gallery hours.
Thank you forever to the incomparable @moll_jean for these photos of the earlier version at @uimachicago on March 23, and to everyone who attended the performances. Thank you @chicagodcase for supporting this work with an Individual Artist Grant, and thank you to @jillhcasid and @mariannefairbanks who were my teachers and mentors for the creation of this project back in 2018.
Visit @harmreductioncoalition to learn how to reverse an overdose with Narcan.
#chicagoartist #queerartist #transartist #textileartist #handweaving #memorialart #opioidcrisis
Thrilled to announce I received a @chicagodcase grant for Burial Blankets and my memorial performance "for G"!
This funding will help me upgrade my loom with accommodations I need to protect my joints, participate in "Aesthetics of Loss," my first exhibition since receiving my MFA, and produce a line of ready-made shrouds that meet requirements for the @greenburialcouncil certification.
As a low-income artist entrepreneur, this level of funding is truly essential and transformative for me. It means so much that my city puts money towards working artists, and believes in my work.
Special thank you to @nirmal.raja for convincing me that my shrouds belong in fine art spaces, @hopeless_hope of @lmrm_chicago for her steadfast friendship, and my physical therapist Tracy Alvarez who wrote me a letter of support for my application. 💜
#dcasegrants #chicagoartist #fiberartist #handweaving #greenburial
It’s summer, Chicago! And last winter’s ice + seed sculptures have bloomed into a garden of native plants! Please help us celebrate on June 10 from 10am - 1pm at our Triangle Garden Party. You can make seedpaper pinwheels with @loverfoo98 , preserve native flowers with @ricky.chenn , and make cyanotypes with Anders while Latham DJs and Sarita serves up @pleasurepies . Let us know you're coming at the 🔗 in 🐝 !
Thank you again to @earthartchicago and @tsa_chi for your support of this public art installation fighting climate change on a neighborhood scale. 🌼🌱🌸
CHICAGO DEBUT! I am giving two performances of my piece "for G" on March 10 and 23 as part of the group show Aesthetics of Loss at @uimachicago (open now through April 16). Doors at 6:30 and performance at 6:45 sharp, running about an hour. It is a "be there for the whole thing" kind of piece, and both events are identical. Let me know you're coming at the L in the B. 🖤
This work will also be at @artlitlab in Madison, WI in July 2023.
Thank you @lindamarcusdesign and @nirmal.raja for the opportunity, and to @ebti_shedid@cassidyearly@briannalhb and @jessicameuninckganger for sharing this space with me.
RENT PARTY for @spudnikpress on Fri March 3 from 7-10!!! Drinks, dancing, DJs, print sale, costume contest, raffle, door prizes, photo booooooth!!! Come party in the print shop and help us keep the space funded! $20 at the door (or R S V P on their syte). 🩷💚🧡💙💛
"Aesthetics of Loss" opens Saturday 2/18 - 4/16 at @uimachicago and I could not be more honored to share gallery space with these artists, all of us making work for and about and through our grief. This is my first exhibition in Chicago since moving here with my MFA in 2019 and the works I've included span the story of how I came to start Burial Blankets.
Performances of my piece "for G" will be on 3/10 and 3/23 (Details and R S V P at the L in my B.). Later this year, the show will travel to Madison, WI and Minneapolis.
@nirmal.raja@lindamarcusdesign@ebti_shedid@cassidyearly@jessicameuninckganger@briannalhb
