week 17 - Sketch Book Pages part Two

I'm falling behind. Lay off me.

week 16 - 50 Cent is a Fucking Dork

I’ve recently discovered that 50 Cent is planning on writing a YA Novel. And I’m actually a little upset about it. I figured I would kill two birds with one stone, since I’ve actually wanted to make fun of 50 Cent for a little while now. This may seem immature to virtually everyone reading this, but I have good reason. Follow this train of thought: Lending a hand to children’s education is in no way cause for complaint – unless your idea of education is actually going to hurt. Let’s look at 50 Cent’s accomplishments and messages thus far.

50 Cent is a fucking dork. He has consistently dealt blow after blow upon black culture with his deleterious lyrical messages. He released an album called “Get Rich or Die Trying”. Are you fucking kidding me? As if there could be a worse bit of advice to spew out into black culture. As said in the linked article above: “…rappers have a real opportunity to sway the opinions of kids”. And even more, black culture in America has primarily manifested itself in music. I would ask if 50 Cent knows that “superficial” is a pejorative term, but I actually don’t think he’s even aware of the word.

Showing kids that it is acceptable to die to be rich is vapidity by definition. And even with all ethics aside, promoting the idea of excess material wealth in America at this time, or any time after the banking collapse of 2008, is like saying “I desire to make the same mistake twice.” Material gluttony is the destruction of capitalism, and any other system which depends on cooperation. 50 Cent is obviously not the only perpetrator of this crime.

I understand the plight of the black American is very much centered on economic stability. It’s more than a symbol of status; it’s a symbol of black progress in society. And if white Americans had a history more acquainted with oppression (cultural, racial, economic, etc.), we’d certainly have more of a proclivity for getting as far away from poverty as possible – and we’d discover this proclivity through culture. After all, economic stability is a real, tangible solution to the problem of economic oppression, a matter of dollars and cents, really - whereas things like cultural, racial, and social matters have much more illusive answers that will probably follow suit.

So if the racial harmony can begin, most simply, by fixing economic disparity, where is the harm in black culture fixating on material wealth? The harm is in the fact that this fixation does not typically manifest itself in legal forms of commerce. The problem is that a lack of opportunity within black America results in high-risk ways (drug deals, theft) of material acquisition - which is ultimately encouraged by culture.

In addition, 50's lyrics are beyond consistently violent, bigoted, homophobic, and altogether crass. He has also ‘tweeted’ that if you don’t eat pussy, you should kill yourself. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a part of the whole idea that our reputations and careers should be linking to our social networking doings. I don't think that anyone should be scolded for breaking from politically correct standards now and then. But it is aligned with his character as is consistently revealed in his lyrics. Lyrics are thought out – they represent you. Who you are as an artist represents you as a person. There is no escaping that.

So why attack a sort of irrelevant artist and an album that came out 5 or 6 years ago? There are more relevant pop artists who I’d much rather make fun of – like Lady Gaga and Lil’ Wayne – simply for the sake of balance, deflating hubris, and taking a stab at their ridiculously overrated artistic credibility. But the axe has to come down on somebody, and the book was the final straw.

I should make the point is amidst the day’s socially insatiable thirst for unconditional respect - it may be more important than ever to denounce things that you do not approve of. Depriving something of its oxygen or focusing on the positive is sometimes not enough to make the problem go away. Especially if no one knows that it’s okay to disagree. If you think something is stupid and even more, is totally problematic, fucking say so. Opinions are safe in numbers. Be the first one to be honest about something controversial and you will invite honesty and healthy contrast into the discussion.

Speaking of disagreement I should probably add that 50 Cent’s book is to be on the subject of anti-bullying. I don’t even understand what the big deal about bullying is. It is only because of websites like Facebook that the cruelty of children is brought back to light for parents who must have forgotten about it. Kids are cruel - kids fight. Big deal. That’s how they learn how to interact and develop social grace and sensitivity. Only a few decades ago, people used to fight a lot more often – and it was not so much a cause for concern. Take a second to ask yourself – is a conflict really so bad? Don’t forget that you are the one who decides how bad it is. You should be proud to have a child that experiences conflict – that’s what gives a child backbone. Mark my words – if we keep trying to take children away from exposure to negativity we’ll have a generation of kids made of fucking gelatin – mentally and physically. It is this childish reaction to negativity from parents, which is in turn forcing us to limit basic freedoms so that we never have to face the same challenge twice. Keep it up, parents – you’re making challenge extinct. It’s too bad that our freedom to react to perceived injustice is antithetical to the very idea of freedom itself. Childhood is not supposed to be a walk in the park – it’s supposed to be hard. Fights are not a big deal. Let’s not forget; we are animals and we are very capable of fighting and killing.

I want to put these opinions out there because I think people don’t make fun of shitty artists enough. Granted – art is a far cry from the enemy – but art is educational and informative. For kids who feel detached from their K-12 education, culture and art are where they learn. But when we have entire demographics being spoon fed a homogenized slop of purely formulaic, totally obvious art, with vacuous, uninspired and trite messages, it seems like a good place to begin to say; “hey, everyone - this sucks.” Now this is most likely simple stuff for anyone who is, in reality, reading this is. But there are plenty of hypothetical people that I imagine (haha) realizing for the first time “wait a minute, it’s okay to think celebrities are wrong?” Yup. It’s also good to know that in today’s culture of infinite access, immediacy, and banality of pop culture - celebrities are probably wrong. That’s probably why they’re celebrities.

And finally, 50 Cent is writing a bullshit book. I don’t care if he may or may not be more mature. I don’t even want to imagine the kind of advice 50 Cent thinks is illuminating if he made it this far without understanding the most basic lessons I learned in high school. There are plenty of other great YA novels out there. Please, politely dissuade people from buying 50 Cent's book. He doesn’t need your money, and nobody needs his bullshit life lessons.

week 15 - John Frum

Will post more, later. But these are close ups from a new image.

week 14 - Prints & Revisions

I'm now two weeks behind! But it's all good. I just finished a print I'll be selling on June 11th (12 - 6pm) at the Paradigm Handmade Market. The other dates for the bazaar are as follows

Sunday, June 12th (12-6pm)
Sunday, July 10th (12-6pm)
Sunday, August 14th (12-6pm)

I'll also have a giclée print of my Hue of Worth image, which I just revised. Here's what the revision looks like.