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The Queer community often places Marsha P Johnson as a lead character in the mythos surrounding the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City- but more important than throwing the first brick or shot glass was her commitment to her community. At seventeen, Marsha was living on the streets and old enough to be a mother figure to other homeless queer youth of color called “street queens” She met Sylvia Rivera when Rivera was twelve years old and bought her a spaghetti dinner for $1.25 (Marsha was known to buy food for anyone she could. The name “Johnson” comes from the Howard Johnson chain of restaurants which street queens would often eat at without paying when they had no money for food) Together they would go on to found STAR- Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries - a queer movement for those who couldn’t be saved by the respectability politics and appeasement methods of groups like Mattachine Society

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Today's project: An oil painting based on a page in my old sketchbook of the Angel in Angels in America

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Working on a project for my hometown arts and culture center (assuming the event isn't canned for the pandemic or otherwise)

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Do what you can but avoid worry, fear, and fatigue- advice from the 1918 flu pandemic. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-r1pD2gGML/?igshid=1gftcky7og44t

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Another OC drawing. I started it expecting the clothes to signal history and possibly nostalgia not the fact that they’re friends in a study circle! Though of the course the thirties had plenty of economic, viral, and existential anxiety of its own!

href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9w8E88BWAB/?igshid=1cxu1a6thx9y">https://www.instagram.com/p/B9w8E88BWAB/?igshid=1cxu1a6thx9y

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Current sketch based on images and advice from 1918

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Work in progress sketch!

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Carol Ruth Silver; Jackson, Mississippi 1961 (drawing completed early July 2019)

In her own words “On June 2, 1961, I got on a bus in New York bound for Jackson. The bus went to Nashville, where we wrote our wills. When we arrived in Jackson, on June 7, I went into the bus station waiting room marked ‘Colored.’ I took three steps and was arrested and transported to the city jail.” This portrait is based on the mug shot for that arrest, in she sported a smile demonstrating pride in her work as a Freedom Rider and disgust at the oppressive system. She also served on the same board of supervisors as Harvey Milk and testified at the trial of his assassinator, amoung a laundry list of other political positions in the city of San Francisco.

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Work in progress, which now that I'm coloring it seems subconsciously inspired by something I saw months ago on a jewish art blog

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Emma Goldman (1869 to 1940) was at one point considered the most dangerous woman in America for her Anarchist and Feminist ideology and action inspired by her experiences with abusive power structures in her family, her upbringing under the Russian Empire, and as a worker in American factories. This drawing was inspired by the @jewishlives podcast episode about her life and activism that I highly recommend.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4TCbiaAklT/?igshid=145adfshv83zp

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(Another) Passenger on the Saint Louis, 1939. Drawing completed June 22 2019. This is from the same big group reference photo as the post from Saturday night (which I would recommend checking out for some background) but this woman’s position in the very back left a bit more room for extrapolation. I often get to make up colors but this time I had to decide what exactly this woman was holding in her hands, as the bit of white between them wasn’t that obvious. In real life I’d guess this was a bit of food- Maybe she was sharing it with the child beside her. But I decided on either a pocket watch or a locket, some hackneyed bit of symbolism and added a contrasting background that symbolizes a change in fate. I thought maybe hope for the future, but as I write this I can see how someone might think it’s distraction from bad things coming. The thing about drawing from historical photographs is that, just like any other model, you have no idea what their fate is going to be, but you know it’s already happened.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3nNH0cgA5m/?igshid=ag8xrxw99q92

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Riff Cohen, Tel Aviv, Israel 2010s. September-October 2019. I’ve done a lot of these portraits and a lot of other projects that touch on grand historical circumstances with really heavy themes, but sometimes interesting historical circumstances just make for really interesting music! I’ve listened to some of her songs on Spotify and it’s a really interesting mix of sounds, so I recommend checking it out if you want to listen to something completely different from your standard American fare.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3knF0fAjoP/?igshid=11y2ppa51ugpo

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Passengers on the St Louis, May 1939. June 18 2019. (Paraphrased from the US Holocaust Museums website) In May of 1939, a few months after Kristalnacht, the St Louis and it’s 937 passengers (mostly Jewish refugees) sailed from Germany to Havana, Cuba. Except Cuba would not allow them in because none of the papers they’d obtained were actually legally binding. Attempts were made to allow the ship to land in Florida as most of the passengers had applied and were waiting for US visas. The US denied the refugees entry. The captain knew that these people could not go back to Germany because of the political situation and ordered Nazi crew members to stay in line and removed pictures of the leader of the Nazi regime so that the refugees could worship in peace. His efforts resulted in four European countries stepping up to take his passengers, with over two hundred being admitted to Great Britain, however the rest went to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands which would soon fall under Nazi Control. 254 of the passengers were murdered by the time the war ended six years later.

I think it’s easy to be dissuaded when attempts to do good seem to be overshadowed by cruelty and inaction indistinguishable from cruelty, but it’s only more reason to treat strangers with dignity and respect. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3iDfQkA1wy/?igshid=4uuiklxgzk48

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Gonna share some posts from my Instagram just to have a more complete portfolio here, hopefully gradually enough not to be spam

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Hey I'm gonna be otherwise occupied for the next week like maybe I can send something out but I'm not counting on it so if you want anything DM me so I can send it Monday morning!

Wow I'm terrible at maintaining this Tumblr but I have prints available! $10 for the rectangular ones (5x7 inch) and $7.50 for the squares (4x4 inch) payable through PayPal

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Wow I'm terrible at maintaining this Tumblr but I have prints available! $10 for the rectangular ones (5x7 inch) and $7.50 for the squares (4x4 inch) payable through PayPal