Commission, 2022
Browsing Category
My Work
Which Way EJ?
The “Triple Cities”: Endicott, Johnson, and Binghamton NY, 2017-2021
The Middle of the End
Seattle, WA, 2007-2017
Holga 120, Holga modified for 35mm, and various digital cameras
“He experienced much and hid much. Within his hard outer shell, he concealed his sweet, spiritual fruit. A very harsh father to himself, but also a very loving father to his children. He never beat them with the law.… As minister of the Most High, he did not tread the earth, and as co-administrant of the sacraments he shone upon the world.”
– Elder Paisios
St. Arsenios, godfather of St. Paisios of Athos, shepherded the Anatolian region of Pharasa while under Ottoman rule. After Turkish-perpetrated genocidal violence, he guided his flock along a 400 mile journey to Greece, dying 3 months after their arrival. A collection of Psalms, as assigned by St. Arsenios for particular occasions, was brought on the journey from the mother church in Pharasa. Later, this Psalter as a Book of Needs was shared by St. Paisios of Athos, and published in O Geron Paisios by Hieromonk Christodoulos.
This Psalter is arranged by need. It also contains a table so that a particular Psalm can easily be found. Further, at the end of each Psalm is the page of the next, in case one would like to read them in order. I designed and arranged, formatted, then hand-bound with hard covers these editions. The first edition is sold out.
Featured in the first issue of Hobo Nickels, RAT GAS is my own name for the extremely prolific artist of the “Triple Cities” area (Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City, NY), since “rat gas” is a term used in a few of his pieces. He wheat-pastes, staples, and nails hand-written posters with three main themes: God is good, drugs are bad, and abortion is wrong. Through presidencies and panics, he very rarely strays from these three topics. Between 2017-2021 I photographed his work, and even had the chance to meet him once (he was a friendly man). These are some of those photos:
In over 15 years of involvement with graffiti/street art, even the most prolific artists rarely come close to the scale of RAT GAS, who will paste five, six, seven layers of his own work atop older pieces as they begin to deteriorate and fade, and who walks miles on foot across town to spread his messages. Any time I have occasion to visit the area I keep an eye out for him. RAT GAS sightings were one of my very favorite parts of living in the area.
You can hear my interview on Doomer Optimism, with Donald and Keturah, here! We mostly chatted about Hobo Nickels and writing, iconography, noise in the world and the heart, and getting off the internet (oops). I had a lot of fun. Doomer Optimism is “a collective dedicated to discovering regenerative paths forward, highlighting the people working for a better world, and connecting seekers to doers.”
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819 edition
This is the companion link to Hobo Nickels n.4. Below is the complete 1983 Sandia Labs document. It’s huge, but the parts referenced in issue 4 mostly follow page 99 for those interested in looking further into it. You can also learn a bit more about how the radioactive material is stored here. (archive)
(As referenced in issue #2 of Hobo Nickels, QUIET):