Tag: boston art scene

My First Art Show In Over A Year & Trying To Save the Gallery

If you are from Boston, you know that gentrification has closed down most of the art and music spaces in Boston even before the pandemic and almost nothing remains here for us now except for a few places including Out Of the Blue Gallery/ Parma Chai Gallery, which moved into The Armory in Somerville right around the beginning of the pandemic, and they’ve spent the year fixing up an ancient building that is an actual armory and small castle from the Revolutionary war. It’d been run down for decades and wasn’t until Out Of the Blue Gallery moved in there last year that it turned into such a remarkable, gorgeous gallery that is sure to add hugely to the Boston art culture once people get back into going out again. Out Of the Blue Gallery is accessible to real artists who may not have had the privilege of being born rich or going to art school, or even knowing the right people. The gallery took in starving artists for decades in its previous locations, and that is where I, a transgender, non-binary artist with Complex PTSD and Bipolar Disorder who spent 20 years in and out of psych wards and then ten more years in abusive relationships, managed to turn my life around. The gallery is extremely diverse, from the owner to every one of the artists, yet the fancy, rich, and mostly straight and white Somerville art people seem to be attempting to buy it out under us for themselves, in the name of “saving art”. I am not an expert on the subject, so you may wanna read about it in The Herald or follow the gallery on Facebook…

https://www.facebook.com/ParmaChaiGallery

Please sign this petition to help save the gallery…

https://www.change.org/p/city-council-help-protect-ootb-gallery-and-other-arts-businesses-in-the-armory?recruiter=622598&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=petition_dashboard&recruited_by_id=2bc642c0-54a5-11e7-bf6d-0f936dc062c6&utm_content=fht-28916467-en-us%3A0&fbclid=IwAR0DBAals8Nr726BqPw6x3WBGHNn3nwE-UmMhVbWaaXpSCcs2PJQhMg7CBU

In other, related news, Out Of the Blue held a small, private showing of my May photography exhibit on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. A few close friends came and hung out in the new performance space they are in the middle of fixing up and preparing to hold events with live music again. Here are some of the pictures I took…

sometimes the masks end up upside down

The Armory, Somerville MA

Here is some info on my show, which is going on through June. It’s called “Falling Apart, Breaking, And Putting Myself Back Together Through Art”. The Armory is open to the public Monday-Saturday 9-6 and they even have a cafe in the building.

http://wickedclicheart.com/wicked-cliche-psychosis-art-show-at-out-of-the-blue-gallery-with-art-photos-a-poem-by-jymi-cliche/

For music this time, I’ll put up a video that was taken at the Armory this past year, inside Out Of the Blue Gallery, of me rapping over Parma Chai. It was completely improvised and I’m still sort of a beginner, so there were parts that sound better than others, but it was pretty awesome and I’m hoping there will be more to come.

DBT Skillz To Pay the Billz (Or To Just Help You Through Stressful Situations)

There’s been some stress the last few days, but I’m trying not to let it get to me and I’m being as assertive as possible to get my needs met. There’s a skill in DBT to help with communication and getting your needs met and stuff. There are two sides with similar charts; “asking” for something, and “saying no” to something. On both sides, you evaluate what’s most important, getting your needs met, keeping the relationship good, or feeling a sense of self respect. Depending on what your biggest objective is, this can can change how you ask or say no. Like, if you need a favor from someone and you mention it and they sound unsure… if your objective with that person is to keep the relationship good, and you can find someone else to help you, then you decrease the intensity of asking, but if they are the only person who can help and it’s something you really need, then you increase the intensity of asking. There’s a lot more to it. It involves charts and acronyms and all sorts of stuff, and it takes a lot of practice, but learning to use it effectively can really improve your interpersonal relationships. I found myself using it a lot today, and am grateful for it because I’ve had some challenging moments with people and handled most of it a lot better than most people would have in my position. I was proud of myself, but at the same time, I feel a little guilty about “increasing the intensity of asking”; especially with my mental health worker. She’s the best though and I’m grateful. I’m just feeling overwhelmed by all I do in the world for almost nothing in return.

This is a painting I sold at an art show 3 years ago. Here’s a few other photos from that day…

Tom Tipton: Founder of Out Of the Blue art Gallery

I’ve been doing these shows with the gallery for a few years now. This was when it was located in a house in Medford. Now they’re at the Armory in Somerville, but they need help. You can read about that here…

The Center for Arts at the Armory needs your support

Please help if you can!

In other news, there isn’t much other news. I’ve just been editing, and I created a LinkedIn account. You can find that here…

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jymi-clich%C3%A9-566a57211/

and here is a picture of my cute best buddy cat…

and a picture I found of myself from 2009

I look about the same, except I had short hair then and wore scally caps.

Here are some songs. This just came on the random playlist; a favorite from 1992…

classic… and because I was wearing a Beastie Boys shirt in that old photo, how about my favorite Beastie Boys song?

and that’s it…