xposted to a blog post for class

"Pursue Your Passion."

I found this post-it note while I was perusing around on another fellow blogger blog Things We Forget. It's a pretty bold statement. It should be something we all live by, but sadly, it gets lost in the muddy mess of what we call our realities. We get caught up in what is expected from us and what we need to be doing at certain deadlines, that sometimes, actually most of the time, we forget why we're doing them in the first place. Or our insecurities get the better of us that we give up before we even try. Dreams that we began to be so passionate about are now just that, dreams, never realities. It is our choice to to live the way we do, whether it is exciting or sadly blase.

Passions are what inspire us to do anything in our lives. It inspires us to write, to dance, to play music, to love, to live. Without passions, nothing really motivates us to do anything or accomplish anything. And our passions are individual to each person. Someone may be really passionate about engineering, while another person may be really passionate about dance. My friend Paolo Aragona and his crew teamINFORMATION just got rejuvenated yesterday when they danced at the Tyra Banks show and someone asked for Paolo's information so he can come back and perform. Dancing is what he is passionate about, and he loves bringing happiness to people with it. My other friend Matt Campana is passionate about composing music. Earlier this year he put together an album where all proceeds will be going to Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, a non-profit organization that provides food, shelter, clothing, and health care for many women and children in Baghdad. Passions bring people together, it keeps us connected together in this big puzzle piece of a world.

So what are you passionate about? What keeps your heart beating?

[Photo Shout Out to Things We Forget!]

paintings in progress

sorry for this shitty webcam picture. so the colors are definitely off. a painting on illustration board that is in progress. it has a mix of ocre, magenta, and burnt sienna acrylic paint in the background. and ink for the subject matter. it's my halloween monsters themed painting for the month. i'm also currently working on a commission project lately, right now they're just huge squares of color. not too interesting.

who said that you were a part of the scene?

Look at you, with your off of the wall tattoos and your five eighths of an inch outstretched ears
In your basketball shorts hanging way too low showing too much info that I would want to know about you and your bottom half…thank you
Why don’t you give me the 4-1-1, the low down on your upturned hats and huge ass chains
Can’t you see that while you are dancing around, your faces will get rearranged
Because you do not belong
While you are flailing your arms in this awkward motion of shaking them around, to not even the sound of the breakdowns
Or what about your variation of a two-step where you’re bouncing foot to foot and hanging your arms like a primate
I think you’re late with the times, and you’ve committed way too many crimes against the rules of the pit
The rules to this world that we have created that you have stormed and barraged your way into

How about these girls on your arm
Do they really listen to the same music you do
Or are they just the band’s groupies you just so happened to snag
Because the bands, are there for the music, for that rise in their chest of aggravation and anger the need to let out and express
Not these girls that come out to play just to get noticed and maybe become a play date for the night
In their Abercrombie tees and their correlating machine made distressed jeans
Hair pulled back with their sunshades
Biddies in their oversized t-shirts that they have mistaken for dresses
Excuse me, didn’t your mom ever tell you that you have to have respect for yourself
Not throw everything you got, to a group of kids who aren’t thinking about you
Has she ever told you that you aren’t made for this crowd unless you are ready to beat up and get beat down

There is a violence in the silence before a breakdown
The preemptive moment of preparation for the iron wall to fall
The slowdown of heart beats in the steam sweat filled room as the base drum starts its thunder call
There is a moment in a song where it can’t be replicated again in another time in another place
It is dependant on the faces in the crowd, the energy in the room, the energy that the band brings to the plate

But with your presence here, it’s leaving this taste in our mouths that we can’t get rid of
Not from the countless swigs of water bottles to replenish ourselves from the sweat we’ve mustered on our backs
How can you not disagree that the same energy isn’t there when you are here
Maybe you are just too much about being a part of something that you don’t really know
And that “trying too hard” vibe isn’t rubbing us the right way
But then again this scene is known to be pretentious
Being a hard knit group that has grown up together and beat each other up into bloody noses and cracked ribs, we became a family and adoption was not an option
We were just angry kids needing outlet, and we kept on thinking we were the only ones
I suppose we were designed to meet, to come together in this messed up bit of raw hurt emotions forced into anger and seclusion, where nothing matters but this moment
Differences aside, at the core, we’re still yearning for that moment of release
We’re waiting in that standstill moment of push and pull
Then you hear the roar, and the start of the anthem soars

-new spoken word piece after a hardcore night at 7@7. this new wave of hardcore kids are messing with me.

flowers and fires

flowers and fire i & ii
10''x20'' acrylic painting on .25" foam core on .5" foam core base
$30

(can get them separately for $15 each)

looking forward for the new day

i'm laying here in bed really restless because i just can't contain my excitement for tomorrow. there is such a stirring in me that i can't really hold it in and stay still long enough to go to bed. there's a feeling of monumental change that is lurking under my skin. tomorrow is not just going to be some random concert/festival/show/whathaveyou. it's not just going to be a typical day in some random field in the middle of bumblemess pennsylvania. there's a change in the air. there's breath in the air. and dare i say it, there is hope for a change in the air. i am excited to meet and see many people. hang out with good friends. hear great speakers. listen to good music. i'm coming notebook in hand to draw and take notes, make notes and leave letters. i'm coming with a camera to document the day and just to capture "those" moments. i am so looking forward for the new day.

"And God must be a pretty big fan of 'today', because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live." -jamie tworkowski

this is an invitation

these are more than just words. this an outreach. this is love.

only You exist.