Kickstarter Update #51
You can see close ups at my Instagram: ca_ghost
I wore coveralls and rolled huge swaths of yellow. I fucking love yellow. You can see it from space. Once I had Marvel’s Black Panther and “Black Lives Matter” blocked in on the mural, locals started with the kind words. I painted a mural once before and it was quadruple the size of the one I put on the front of Cape & Cowl Comics in Oakland, California. When I was done, I felt great but knew this was not for me. Mural work is it’s own craft and I didn’t want to invest in learning it. I have enough unprofitable artistic endeavors. I’ve seen the folks slinging paint in Oakland and I do not want to event try to get to their level. Joshua Mays wins.
Then the world blew up again. The quarantine broke open to rally for black people getting murdered by the police. My local shop is downtown near Oscar Grant Plaza which houses the police. The city named the plaza after Frank Ogawa who was a city council member who died in 1994. The people named it for Oscar after the Bart Police murdered him. Like a lot of people, I have rethought my life after George Floyd’s murder. I have protested police brutality before. Donated. Kept myself informed. Now is different though. I’m different.
I did this mural a couple years back. I looooove me some YELLOW.
This little mural is nothing. Like Black Panther is owned by white people and I was unsure about using him. Except black kids love him. The shop is populist. I put my politics aside and tried to make something that showed solidarity but also felt safe for kids. God, I love Oakland. It was nice to do something passive and small. I donate. I march. I am far more vocal than I was before. I am trying to be more than passive good. I want the racists to be uncomfortable. I want them to know I will not be polite any more. Fuck Republicans. Like we know it’s a death cult now. I’m like KINDA okay if you voted Republican once or twice in the past, but now? You gotta be off that shit to come to my barbeque. For real. If you donated to my Kickstarter, come get your refund. I don’t want racist money.
So I’m working in my own art again. I took a couple of weeks to focus on helping black people directly and find a way to keep that up. Art is my life though and, while I’m still being politically active, I’m back to my work. I’m lettering MONUMENT #2. Honestly, does the world need my emo white man story? I’m honoring my agreement. Even in the 90’s when we all thought racism was dead because Bill Clinton was “the first black president” and we were going to be millionaires, I experienced profound doubt about whether my stories should be heard. Now? Bruh. I dunno. Art is my job and I’m doing it. I’ll let the audience decide if they want to do anything with it.