My little brother James died on Monday, May 4th. He struggled from a severe case of myalgic encephalomyelitis that he battled for the better part of a decade. Although his body gave out on him years ago his mind was a force.
There’s this Norm MacDonald joke (James loved Norm) about people saying someone “loses a battle when they died and that’s such a shitty way to describe it because the last thing you did in your life was you lost at something. Lol
I’m mentioning this for 2 reasons- 1. James was a funny mfer and throughout everything he always had time and somehow energy to crack jokes. He’s like me in that way or maybe gets that from me but either way cracking jokes was a majority of our communication. 2. You could never in a million years describe James’s experience as losing a battle. James lost his body, he lost his ability to function in most ways and yet since that time he made more music, wrote more, made more art, than most people who have no physical limitations to speak of will do in a full lifetime. Every single day that he was able to overcome his suffering to communicate or create something to share with the world was a win and a gift to all of us, one I’ll never take for granted or forget. But fuck all that circumstances being what they were shit, at the end of the day he was just such an incredible guy. Full stop.
I’ve been with my family over this past week, just us sitting with his passing, grieving and reminiscing, loving him through memories and sharing stories that we are compiling to share. There’s also a ton of writing and music he’s made that he never got to put out and we’re going to make sure that gets shared with the world as well. If you have any memories, stories, photos, music etc that you’ve made with him, for him, about him, please send it to us so we can include.
James Strazza lives on forever, with everything he put out into the world he made sure of that. We’re all going to do our best to honor that, carry his legacy and remember him for exactly who he was- a kind, loving, thoughtful, funny, immensely talented, mfing force. Rest in peace, James❣️
When times is hard you hard post It’s been a while since your main man posted on main
4 recent works made in @lava_baby studios (thank you I love you) available now DM for details keep it simple 1-4 in order of appearance. All 11x14 this is the last time I’m making these at this size (meant as a threat) so holler now if interested cause we about to scale tf 🆙 Are the big things coming in the room with us now? Keep it locked 🔒
This is the story of my trade with the incredible multitalented multidisciplinary @pocketlu my painting first slide hers last slide the rest are inspirations for painting and life including advice like rise from your grave and power up! So glad to put this transaction in action 🤝 could not be happier with the results thank you love you Luz!
In a highly unanticipated and unprecedented turn of events I took almost no photos the entire time I was in Miami mostly attributed to the fact that when having the best time ever you want to be present & assume you’d rather have the moment than the pic. Problem with that logic is, in that state (Florida) there’s absolutely no way you’ll remember most of what happened. Luckily for me I was accompanying bonafide art superstar, Emma Stern during an art week therefore I understood (she made me sign a liability release waiver) that there would be content I was obligated to participate in. As they say pics or it didn’t happen well damn shawty in this economy that’s proving to be like so true
What else is new having a great time doing a weird pose Mezcal Paloma ad shot by my really cool famous photographer friend @nataliekeyssar@nowadaysnyc for @aurorahalal happy summer y’all ❤️🔥
