I WANT TO BELIEVE Farewell Lorimer St. t-shirt

Gimme! Coffee on Lorimer St. holds a special place in my life, and like so many of its customers that stopped in every day, numerous times a day, I've felt the massive weight of its sudden absence like a collapsing star in my heart. Soo, I went and got some t-shirts made for everyone.

This is a second run, and a slightly updated version, of a collab between myself and Williamsburg's favorite coffee shop. This new X-Files inspired tee has a bonus message across the back to honor Lorimer St. passing into the great beyond that includes the years it reigned over all from 2003-2020, and our crew's favorite constructive critique: "Only disgusting people drink coffee here."

After the incredible outpouring of generosity from the barista relief fund I've decided to take all the profits from the shirt sales and distribute them to North Star Fund, NAACP, OKRA Project, Feeding America, and the Rwanda Landslide Relief Fund which will help coffee farmers impacted from the recent mudslides and flooding.

PRE-SALE HAS ENDED!!!! Thank you to everyone who placed an order. Info on shipping to follow.

The original shirt and a-frame from years back are pictured below for nostalgia sake.

Breakdancing in Quarantine Times

"We Gotta Breakdance to Save The World"

14.5 x 19.5"

This is the last of 3 new pieces I made for a spring show at Homegrown Skateshop in Ithaca, NY that, sadly, is not going to happen for the foreseeable future. Some of the scenarios happening in this drawing actually happened while we skated the park in our younger days, and even happened as recently as last year. I'll let you decide what is fact and fiction. Hopefully we can pull a show together for the fall so people can actually see these bad boys up close. 

I originally was going to have the gas station at night be the setting of this piece but decided to save this for another piece.

Jamming with Bigfoot in Quarantine Times

"I Sharted During My Solo"

14.5 x 19.5"

So, I had no idea there was so much Bigfoot fan art there when I started working on this piece. I guess there's just a lot of us that want to imagine Bigfoot is out there just jamming away in complete solitude. There's even someone who gets dressed up and plays music under the name Saxquatch. Wild stuff. It does feel very appropriate during these self-isolating times.

Influencing in Quarantine Times

"Just Trying to Justify My Existence to a Bunch of Strangers"

14.5 x 19.5"

I started making this piece right before shit hit the fan back in March. It was originally intended to be about the complete lack of class influencers have when it comes to selling themselves and others out on social media. Now, seeing how our government has decided to throw small businesses overboard, I feel like this just sums up how the majority of us are feeling while money for small business is being offered up to companies who surely don't need 20 million. As much as I criticize social media, I kinda wonder, would these companies have given that money back if they hadn't been publicly outed for digging so deep into a relief fund for companies with fewer than 500 employees. Hmmm. Anyways, the influencers are still out there being tacky as hell through all of this.

American Illustration 39 Chosen

Happy to report that a few illustrations I made in 2019 have been chosen by the judges of American Illustration 39 to appear in this years online archive. Amidst all the craziness of the last couple months in NYC I felt guilty for not jumping for joy, which I usually do when AI emails me that my work has been accepted, but it does really mean a lot to have my work acknowledged by the judges and I'm very honored to be included in this year's batch of winners. So, I would like to say Thank You to all the judges this year. This news did brighten my week. 

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe out there. Looking at the 3 pieces that were chosen makes me look forward to the days when we can go see live music together again, dance at Jonathan Toubin's parties and sit together in open spaces next to all our friends without having to wear masks. 

That rocket ship should have been a loaf of sourdough. If anyone is running out of space in their kitchen and needs to unload some bread they've been baking, hit me up. I will gladly be a taste tester for all your sourdough tests.

Fundraiser Time

I'm having a little fundraiser on my website. While we wait out this COVID-19 crisis, I am taking some of my old paper scraps and doing little portraits on them. Back when I finished up my senior thesis projects I had about 10 days between finals and graduation and looking back on it, I probably should have just bummed around town but I went from working like a dog to being completely free to do whatever I wanted for 10 whole days and it was a tough adjustment. I spent some of my time taking all the old scrap paper from the year and experimenting with colors and my ability to record information with ink straight to paper. Now that I am finding myself in a similar situation due to lack of any work coming in, I'm returning to old ways to keep myself from falling out of practice.

I'm selling this first little batch of heads on my website. Each one comes with some extra gifts as well. They are all listed on my website right here -> STORE and I will probably be adding to it as time goes on. These purchases will help me keep the studio lights on as we continue to wait this storm out. 

One thing I want to add: When you click to purchase the item you want, your purchase will be secured but it will not be shipping immediately. Being in NYC, and at the center of this crisis, I want to be as safe and responsible about this as possible. So, as not to put anyone at risk and put any more strain on the mail carriers, all items will ship out as soon as it appears safe enough to do. Thank you for your support and understanding.

RIP Gimme! Lorimer St.

The day has come folks. I had mentioned in an earlier post that because of the COVID-19 situation, Gimme on Lorimer St. was suspending their service until they had a better idea of what the future would bring. Well, for small businesses, the future is not looking great and unfortunately, Gimme has decided to close up their stores in the city. I've thought about writing some lengthy eulogy but for now I'll just leave it how I had left my earlier post; A big THANK YOU to anyone who supported my work through the store. I'm truly going to miss our community around Lorimer St. It was a wild time and place, full of amazing people, some who I worked with and some who I served on a daily basis.