rockyjunerose

[rockyjunerose]

"Tools of Abuse. Minds for Resistance"

I’ve been making some progress

To detangle bitterness, anger, and hate

So, I’ve come to some conclusions

Made some recognition

 

I don’t hate Generative AI

Let me compute, elaborate, and put it straight

What I do hate is the laziness

Because that’s what this is, isn’t it?

 

Manifested with each prompt, burned tree, or steal

This attitude of disingenuous gratitude

To stab another human in the back

To light the world on fire

Just for one Ghibli-fied photo

Not art, not even entertainment, just a lazy attempt at misinformation

 

Misinformed to the point that you believe it’s a solution

But it’s just an accelerated tool that solves non-existent problems

Because there isn’t a problem with illustration, animation, or writing

It’s just the soft knife routine of labour abuse, transit misuse, and the hot breath of the rich that breathes down your neck at midnight.

 

So, yes. I hate laziness amplified. I hate that the Truth is minimized.

Because laziness means we stop thinking. Stop believing.

Stop deciding

Start rolling on our bellies

Eating slop and brain rot

Waiting for the next tyrant or king to caress our cheek

Only to spit in our face

 

I want us to think, I want us to feel, to dream

But you can’t do that without the work

Work isn’t the problem

It’s time we take away

It’s time we demoralize

 

We’d rather have steel bodies fully automated

Rather than free thinkers who breathe, know the earth, and care

It’s not all about work, though

You need to read

You need to feel

 

Cause I love caring

I love it so

It’s an active, not a passive decision

To participate, engage, to know

 

Just know that it is a human you are talking to

Because art is the process of communication of meaning

We design and create ways of understanding and knowing

 

It takes work, it will always take a lot of work, but it’ll be worth it

Because that’s what you do when you want to build

When you want to rebuild

There are always communities worth building

[rockyjunerose]

“Healing begins when you share your story with safe people.”

— Unknown

[rockyjunerose]

Introducing my Thesis: "We Want to Remember" debuting in person at GradEx 2025 and online on rjrannikalui.com on May 7-11th.

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What is "We Want to Remember"? A collection of artworks critiquing systems, spaces and identity under the Global Caste System. The artworks imagine a way to break away from these hierarchies focused on economics and land by seeking diverse collective empowerment.

All artworks include original illustrations and experimental poems inspired by numerous professors at OCAD U, life experience, and the many books I hope to source on the webpage for this art collection. A quick shoutout to @isabelwilkerson for her fantastic book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.

Where will "We Want to Remember" be shown? The collection of artworks will be shown in person at OCAD University, 100 McCaul St., on the 6th floor, with OCAD Illustration. The section is still TBD. Entry is free!

For accessibility, it'll be available for online viewing on rjrannikalui.com. An audio description will be available.

Feel free to DM ahead if you'll be going. I would love to meet with any of you while the art show is showing! Thanks for all the support and hope to see you there.

[rockyjunerose]

💜A prelude to Thesis... (Full essay available in Bio)

--- https://www.rjrannikalui.com/post/the-loss-of-diverse-collective-empowerment Before I share my thesis, I want to introduce my academic side to all of you. Over the past couple of years, I've been studying a combination of things: Illustration, Creative Writing, and Identity. Much of this culminated in this essay to grapple with my tensions with representation in media. After seeing the rise of PoC content since I was a teen and the hateful content that has arisen since then. Much of this tension was trying to grasp if this was all truly racism. It felt like an insufficient definition.

Thanks to many of my professors and @isabelwilkersonson book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent." I wrote this essay and consequently created an entire Thesis around it called "We Want to Remember."

So, here's the prelude and more to come of the 7 pieces made in reflection of everything.

[rockyjunerose]

✨“We can’t change what fate has in store for us, but we don’t have to face it alone.” - Mel Medarda ---

An admission to my audience--I play League of Legends. This little practice venture sparks from amidst the drama of Rito taking away hex tech chests and me wanting to hone my art style. I was particularly bummed that Mel Medarda never got an official standard icon like the other champs upon release.

So, here's to the Arcane fans, the league fans, and Mel Medarda fans. No hex tech key is required! Enjoy the free profile picture!

[rockyjunerose]

Urge to design an articulated paper snake lantern intensifies

[rockyjunerose]

“Choosing to be kind is not choosing to be passive. It’s choosing to end the cycle of abuse.”

— Melissa Grey

[rockyjunerose]

Dragon room

[rockyjunerose]

Concluding my "Where" poetry series for now with this entry. It's not for anyone in particular and is more of a poetic tired scream to end 2024. Here's: "Where does it hurt?"

Sometimes I wish you’d be brave enough to ask, where does it hurt?

It will not be as transparent as you make it to be

It is the soft knife in the grooves of routine

 

The repeated calls we make in the evening

Where we tolerate one another's beliefs

Cause sometimes it hurts darling more than it seems

 

I want to love so badly

Just so you know you are seen

But consequently, my body fades, my mind shatters, and my heart breaks

 

I’m used to sitting in a room, hearing all the critique

Learning about the multi-facet breakdown of what I believe

But identity is not just the beliefs we subscribe

 

Not the items we discard

Or the memories we receive

I want you to know it hurts when it isn’t seen

 

I like listening to the puns we make

Maybe even the silence in between

But it’s a fine line we’re crossing today

 

I’m not saying I’m perfect

I’ve done my fair share of prodding

Wondering how much it hurts

 

When I push you away

In my head, I say it’s not your fault

When I slam the door in your face

 

But part of me still wishes for you to ask

Not just take

I’m not your world

I’m not your toy

I’m not your joy

 

Because the pain is in my heart

The pain is in my eyes

The pain is in my veins

 

I feel like I’m repeating my life like it’s a buzzword, the sad part is the word is just: abuse.

[rockyjunerose]

Decided to explore this "Where" poetry series the past few weeks so here's the second entry. A little cheeky but heartfelt poem to all my Aunties and nosey besties. Where is your boyfriend? An excerpt: I have been asked this question time and time again

From fourteen to twenty-four. Ten years of wishing the question would change

More adequately a question should be posed and perhaps something sincere

Where is your love?

[rockyjunerose]

Wrote a poem recently: Where is your depression?

I’d tell you my answer would be different. For my depression travels like I do.

I developed depression initially when I was 11. My consciousness awakened at the reality of my environment. My depression presented in the fluctuations of my voice. I was silent. I was angry. The flip-flop between the two and the exhausting practice that would carry—

At 12 it was the pressure between my eyes as I watched my friend slowly die. Lung cancer, then liver, then death. I stared at her corpse as my first experience of life.

At 13 it was my heart. Too bleak I won’t recount.

At 14 it was my wrists. Depression blinds every inch of a world already shrouded in gray. I tried to take my life at the bottom of a lake. But God intervened.

At 15 it was my mind and that was the song I sang till I was 18.

At 19 it was my world. Another awakening of something deeply wrong occurred. Abuse in love and self.

At twenty to 22 I moved forward from it. A village and God carrying me through it. My heart is whole. But—

I’m 23, it’s 12 again. The pressure between my eyes. Cause my mind knows, my heart weighs, and my eczema screams. My friend died at 23. Her cancer preventable was the hardest pill to swallow. She grew up in a home with parents who were addicted to a completely legal drug. Even when she had chemo, they didn’t stop the smoke. I can never fully blame them.

Yet, I’m going to be 24. I will outlive her. So, I know my depression will be in a scream. Because I can’t blame anyone fully. Not her parents, not the legalization of drugs that clearly kill, not the system of research that failed her, not the Healthcare that wasn’t enough for her, and not the sin in the world that ate her.

No. Cause it’s everything.

So, I got out of bed with the pressure between my eyes and threw a brick in the bank window.

[rockyjunerose]

Hi 👋, My name is Mohammad, and I’m reaching out in a moment of desperate need. I’m a father of three young children living in Gaza, and we are caught in the midst of a catastrophic war. Our home is no longer a safe haven, and the future here seems increasingly uncertain. 💔

I’ve launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $40,000 to relocate my family to a safer place where my children can grow up in peace and have a chance at a brighter future.

Unfortunately, my previous fundraising efforts were abruptly halted when my account was terminated without explanation. However, I remain determined to keep fighting for my family’s safety and well-being. 🫶

If you could take a moment to read our story, consider donating, or simply share our campaign with others, it would make an incredible difference. Every act of kindness, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to safety and a new beginning. 🙏

Thank you for your time, compassion, and support. ❤️‍🩹

https://gofund.me/fd1faea2 🔗

For further info to the campaign^^

[rockyjunerose]

“I’m much happier at 53 than I was at 23.” (x)

[rockyjunerose]

The latest blog post details a conceptual project of a multiplayer side-scroller game called, Travelling through Sanitallo. This game takes place in my multi-media series, Illium's Universe. Its focus is on the planet Sanitallo from the Speronavi Solar System.

This adventure and puzzle game focuses on completing levels to reach the final destination, the planet's core. The “boss” battle is instead a final choice on whether or not to take the planet's core to restore the dead planet, Speronavi.

This choice is affected by how you choose to interact with the planet and its inhabitants. If you choose a play style of non-violence and don’t disrupt the environment you are rewarded buffs to help you end levels faster. You will also leave Sanitallo without the planet's core.

If you choose a play style of violence and disruption you have a percent chance of ending levels faster. You will also leave with the core effectively leaving the planet to die along with the inhabitants. More info on my process and details of the game are available on the blog post!

[rockyjunerose]

The latest blog post detailing my sun from the Speronavi solar system. This project focused on exploring what their culture would be and how it would be affected by the environment. Further process and explanation is found in the full blog: https://www.rjrannikalui.com/post/speronavi-research-center

[rockyjunerose]

Cows out past dark

[rockyjunerose]

One of the things I swear by as an artist is my artistic routine. That’s basically the time I set aside to draw, learn, and replenish my creativity.

As someone who can easily burn myself out or run out of ideas, having a manageable and realistic routine is the only thing that’s helped me maintain a steady output for over 21 years of posting my art online. I have so many ideas about how to set one up - here’s a little snippet of a longer video I made about the topic! You can watch the full video over on my patreon.