Mixtape III (2021)

The highly-anticipated follow-up to “Mixtape I” and “Mixtape II” is finally here, nearly a year after all of these songs came out. “Mixtape III” features imagery inspired by my top ten songs for March 2020. We’re all going to politely ignore that we’re only a few weeks away from March 2021, because only I’m allowed to make fun of myself for being horribly behind on this particular project.

Stylistically, this is similar to the previous pieces, but there’s something different (beyond the fact that I used a different pen on different paper). The composition feels less cluttered, even as certain images overlap with one another. The larger figures add an extra layer of motion and storytelling. I don’t mean to pat myself on my own back, but it definitely feels like a step in the right direction.

For those who are curious, here’s a list of the songs used for this particular piece:

1. Waxahatchee - “Can’t Do Much”

2. U.S. Girls - “4 American Dollars”

3. Niall Horan - “Heartbreak Weather”

4. Melanie Faye - “It’s A Moot Point”

5. HAIM - “The Steps”

6. Brandy Clark - “Pawn Shop”

7. Dua Lipa - “Hallucinate”

8. Triángulo de Amor Bizarro + Ariadna Punsetes - “Acosadores”

9. Megan Thee Stallion - “Captain Hook”

10. Róisín Murphy - “Murphy’s Law”

The final piece is about 9 x 9 inches with 6 x 6 inches of covered space. Much like the previous installments, I don’t have any intentions to frame this or show it anywhere. That said, I do think it looks much better in person, so there’s a possibility I’ll reconsider that in the near future.

IS THIS PIECE AVAILABLE?

“Mixtape III” is available in my online shop.

WHERE CAN I LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST?

The playlist can be streamed on Spotify or YouTube.

Mixtape II (2020)

It’s pure comedy to me that I’m sharing a playlist of my top ten songs for February 2020 in the middle of summer. While I have no idea when I actually finished selecting these songs, I do know that I dragged my feet on creating the cover art. It just didn’t seem like something I needed to prioritize, given the current state of the world.

Once I got started, I used a similar technique to “Mixtape I”. Sections of the paper were designated for certain songs, then filled with imagery inspired by the lyrics. This time around, I found myself using text as a bit of a crutch, but I actually enjoy the way the random phrases interact with one another. It's chaotic in the best way possible.

For some context, here’s a list of the songs used for this particular piece:

1. Caribou - “Like I Loved You”

2. Grimes - “Delete Forever”

3. Car Seat Headrest - “Can’t Cool Me Down”

4. Alex Newell - “Boy, You Can Keep It”

5. Christine and the Queens - “People, I’ve been sad”

6. Soccer Mommy - “crawling in my skin”

7. Jessie Ware - “Spotlight”

8. Orville Peck - “Queen of the Rodeo”

9. The Avalanches (featuring Blood Orange) - “We Will Always Love You”

10. La Roux - “21st Century”

The final piece is 6x6 inches, and I don’t have any intentions of matting or framing it any time soon. I’ve scanned and edited it for digital purposes, but admittedly, these pieces are mostly for my own enjoyment.

IS THIS PIECE AVAILABLE?

“Mixtape II” is available in my online shop.

WHERE CAN I LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST?

The playlist can be streamed on Spotify or YouTube.

Mixtape I (2020)

Every month, I sift through 80+ hours of music and pick out ten songs that I enjoy. It’s a daunting, time-consuming task that literally nobody asks me to do, but I’ve somehow convinced myself that it’s essential for my sanity and well-being.

It’s become a running joke (with myself and maybe one friend) that I’m constantly behind on these playlists. For example, it took me until the end of March to narrow down my favorite songs from January 2020. I could give you a thousand reasons why it took this long, but it’s very likely that you do not care! You listen to your own music, and you probably do not need my stale recommendations.

With that horrendous attitude in mind, I decided to create a cover for my January 2020 playlist, using a technique similar to my “Let’s Get Wild” piece. I played the following ten songs on repeat, as I weaved together a piece driven by the lyrical content, music videos, and production:

1. Sarah Mary Chadwick - "Let's Fight"

2. KIRBY - "Kool Aid"

3. Dua Lipa - "Physical"

4. Daniela Rathana - "UT!"

5. Rina Sawayama - "Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys)"

6. Tame Impala - "Lost In Yesterday"

7. Selena Gomez - "Dance Again"

8. Tennis - "Need Your Love"

9. Sotomayor - "Menéate pa' mí"

10. Destroyer - "Crimson Tide"

The resulting piece is approximately 5 x 5 inches. It was scanned upon completion and lightly edited to remove a few imperfections that drove me crazy. Since the content is so specific and personal, I have no intentions to show this anywhere but online spaces.

Is this piece available?

“Mixtape I” is available as a limited edition print in my online shop.

The original is no longer available.

WHERE CAN I LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST?

The playlist can be streamed on Spotify or YouTube.

My Boo (2018)

“My Boo” is the first piece I completed in which words formed a shape or symbol. The idea popped into my head as I was dancing around to Ghost Town DJ’s 1996 single “My Boo”, back in our apartment in Seattle. All of a sudden, I realized that I needed to compile the song’s lyrics in the shape of a ghost.

To complete this piece, I grabbed an 11 x 14 inch sheet of vellum paper, then measured out a rectangle in the center of the page. The rectangle was then shaped into a ghost through a combination of freehand drawing and careful measuring with a ruler.

Once the shape was in place, I rotated the paper and filled in the outline with a black Sakura Pigma Micron 005 pen. As soon as I filled the space, I carefully erased the pencil lines. To my horror, I discovered that I mixed up one of the words in the chorus, and I’d have to do the piece all over again.

This might sound like an overreaction, but it changes the entire meaning of the song! Version one (right) includes the wrong lyric: “I want to be your lady, baby”. Version two (left) includes the correct lyric: “I want to be your lady, maybe.”

To correct this mistake, I grabbed a piece of wax paper and traced the ghost on the original piece. I cut out the shape with an X-Acto knife, then used it as a stencil to retrace the shape onto a new sheet of paper. Then, I repeated the process all over again until the new piece was completed.

At one point, I wrote “baby” again by mistake, but I crossed it out and embraced the error. It was like a little Easter egg, a reference to the piece’s unique history.

“My Boo” appeared at Salon Bar-Kon as part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk. it was one of the first pieces to sell in that show, and in a pleasant surprise, the original version with the wrong lyrics wound up selling, too. I’ve affectionately named that version “My Bad Boo”.

Is this piece available?

This piece is no longer available.