boston artist Archives - Wicked Cliche Art and Books

Goals For Age 43

Last night I posted a list of some of the things I achieved while I was 42, and it was an impressive list. I’ve been keeping lists of my achievements almost every year now for many years, whether around my birthday, the new year, or both, and I’m incredibly proud of myself as I watch my growth, in ways that matter more than how much money I make, which still isn’t really much of anything, but money has never been a goal except that I wish to be able to live at least as well as I do now, but independently. My life is no magnificent thing as it is, but if it were mine rather than being dependent on the government, that would make me happy… but even while I need help, I am still a person. I still matter. I still make huge waves in the universe with my contributions in many forms, and most of them are positive. I work very hard to be able to give back to the world in whatever ways I am able, because giving back is a priority for me…and I want to give back love and hope and joy and inspiration. I do not wish revenge, even for the people who hurt me most. I want to give back good to the world, in hope that I can be part of the revolution and help us work towards peace and a better world. I don’t know what that will look like. I have my doubts that peace on earth is even possible, but I work for the Universe and I do it in the name of peace and balance.

What can I do this coming year at age 43 to grow even more as a person? I have some ideas…

daily meditation (to my best ability)
get outside for air and a little walking (daily, but also to my best ability.)
if I don’t get outside, I absolutely MUST meditate, even just for a couple minutes
regular gratitude lists
keep creating art, trying new things and trying to master old things… one thing I wanna work on especially is drawing hands.
create at least one suite of tarot cards for Inktober….pot leaves, records, paint brushes, or microphones
do a book signing and reading at the gallery
do the craft show at my mental health center in December.
get to my cousin’s wedding party for a family event
redo The Godchild Part 1 and call it “My So Called Delusions: The Godchild”, “My So Called Delusions: The Mixtape Years”, and “My So Called Delusions: Becoming an Artist”
publish “My so Called Delusions: The Godchild” around Easter
get stress test
start walking to the pharmacy to get my own meds again, and maybe walking to the pond, and making an event of it each time… even if I have to buy myself a little toy from the toy section or a candy bar. It’s only once or twice a month.
get back to losing weight. After my med increase, I’ve gained weight for the first time in months, but I wanna turn that around and get under 200 pounds, or at least fit into my Skidz, which I only need to lose about 10-15 more pounds to fit into
start seeing friends more… inviting people over and maybe even going out
possibly work on new books “Moo, the Cat” and “Good Catholic Kids”
get back to music in some major way, whether it be writing and performing more hip hop songs (even if I can’t do it live at first), learning a song on bass or keyboard, or learning to make beats. Ultimately, I’d love to perform my rap in front of an audience again, but we will see how that goes.
start dancing and lifting weights again
possibly get one of the many tattoos I’ve been putting off for a decade, if not something completely brand new… but maybe that brick wall I was gonna get as a sleeve with VERA in graffiti letters.
stretch more often and maybe even try yoga
do another art show
attend art shows at the gallery
go to reunion or get together with Beacon friends
see the ocean
have a friend or two come visit me from out of state
watch some of my all time favorite movies to help inspire me for when I try to turn “Good Catholic Kids” into a screenplay
get to know some new music, since I haven’t paid as much attention to new stuff the last couple years
go experience live music
walk in the woods in autumn
add my own graffiti to the graffiti wall
see family more
finish reading the book I’m reading, and read at least a couple others. Seeing as I didn’t read any at age 42 except for my own, nearly 20 times and a few books about publishing. If I finish “On Writing” by Stephen King and read a couple others, I’ll be happy to start there.
cook at least once or twice a week and keep up with cleaning!!!

Accomplishments Of Age 42

held a kick ass zoom party for my 42nd birthday with friends from all over the world performing and showing art, since I never had a 40th party
did several paintings including this new one from September 2021

performed a few songs live at the Armory with Parama and Steve

helped elect a new president
high school reunion on zoom
many zooms events for Jam’n Java and Soulkore open mics
hosted 2 more zoom open mic art parties, all successful
found a record bookcase in the trash and collected records to fill it

designed 22 major arcana tarot cards

worked on designing web site Wicked Cliche Art and Books, including page for creative friends
learned web site marketing techniques to get the site seen
picked out and framed 25 old drawings and 25 old photos for a 2 part art show with 2 successful in person shows

these were a few of the photos in the show

did some political activism, mostly fighting for accessibility in the local art community (Sign a petition to help save Out Of the Blue Gallery)
wrote “I Write the System” (autobiography)
wrote and illustrated “Be The Best You” (children’s book)
started major rewrite on the godchild (memoir trilogy)
designed a cover for my book
learned about amazon advertising and other ways to get my book seen
had stickers and business cards made
hand-made hundreds of stickers including a couple I put on a utility box over racist graffiti

sent out over 100 press kit announcements
did several paintings
designed and sold t-shirts and other merch
bought art from a few friends
created a home gallery
did major cleaning
put several pieces of furniture together
edited “I Write the System” 17 times
wrote query letters to about 75 publishers
got a bite on my book from a publisher but would have taken months to years so I decided to self publish again
found, created, and cooked new recipes
lost 50 pounds
visited with koda
went swimming

walked in the woods
went to Robin’s Farm Park to take photos
went to the graffiti spot a few times

created new digital art
sold a couple pictures and some stickers
participated in a spirituality group
practiced meditation
broke up with a sort of toxic boyfriend
better learned how I want to be treated
talked to a friend about maybe wanting to know them better
wrote a few songs and poems, including a poem about “The Godchild”
spoke up about mistreatment in a number of health care and housing situations
had my apartment inspected and rejected several times and dealt with the fear of having to move, which would have been a huge downgrade most likely if not homeless
visited my parents a few times
made many new friends
saw a few good movies and shows including “Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom”, “Kid90”, “Disclosure”, “Legend of Korra”, “Summer Of Soul”, “His Dark Materials”, “Cobra Kai”, “13th”, “Da 5 Bloods”, and now trying “Sweet Tooth”
tried all kinds of new delivery places I loved
learned to start wearing masks or face shields when i went places despite the anxiety attacks
got vaccinated
dealt with severe mental health symptoms and all kinds of extreme stress, daily triggers, and so on, and I am still here
started learning keyboard and got a little better at bass
published two books

“Truth Is Ammunition” – When You Love A Song Nobody Knows. Do You Share It?

A few weeks ago, when my boyfriend was visiting, I played him one of my all-time favorite songs, in which I am one of, if not the only person who even has a copy of it anymore. He was madly in love with it, and how could he not be? I have great taste in music, and this is one of my favorite songs of all time, easily.

The artist is a local Boston folk singer named Pamela Means, who I saw perform it at a house concert in Arlington when I was about 21 years old, so that’s like, 1999/2000ish, and that is around the time the song came out.

I was in a photography class at Middlesex Community College when I went to the house concert, so I took some photos. I decided to do a little photo manipulation and upload the song to Youtube so that others can enjoy this beautiful song I can’t get enough of. Definitely check it out if you made it this far.

Pamela Means at a house concert in Arlington MA

This song is a personal anthem to me…

That’s a photo of the CD “Cobblestones” and my 8×10 photos in my old photography binder.

Here is one more random picture of my pin-up board in the kitchen, where I have a similar themed message “The truth is a virus,” which isn’t from Pamela Means, but my all-time favorite movie “Pump Up the Volume.”

The message is out there. This song speaks to me.

“TALK HARD” (Also from Pump Up the Volume)

Heard Back

Well, I heard back from the publishing company who wanted to read my book, and they said that 1. they can’t publish it as quickly as I hoped, so it wouldn’t work anyway…2. that in the future I probably shouldn’t try to rush a publisher (oops… but, of course I was only trying to be fair and tell them I was already planning to self publish and had already sent out press kits announcing it, so if I didn’t hear from them by the 20th, I would need to begin uploading to Amazon. I sent the query to them 5 months ago….but I get it, and knew it was a risk to attempt it) and 3. right now publishing companies almost exclusively only accept memoirs from subject matter experts, celebrities, and popular social media influencers. They did not end up even reading it, so no feedback on the actual book, but I’m proud of myself for getting the callback response from them. It is a sign that I am a good enough writer, with an interesting sounding book to get the attention of a publisher. Most never get this far, so I will take the achievement and move forward with the regularly scheduled programming…

I’m really not too upset that I’m gonna be self publishing again. A lot of people say it’s actually the best option for mildly successful authors who write the kind of books that speak to a certain type of people more than mainstream society. It’s not like a blockbuster film or summer reading…That kind of stuff does well with a publisher but indy type authors can get totally taken advantage of by publishing companies sometimes, and while I know the place I heard from was a legit small company, I don’t have a clue what going with them would look like, or if it would even be something I could make work. I already know how to self publish even though I’m planning to use my own ISBN’s this time and have to figure all that out, but I’m in control and I mostly know what I’m doing and what to expect, so it’s a lot less anxiety right now to just self publish anyway, and I can release when I said and not be like Kanye.

I’ve been doing a lot of editing, and tonight I made a video of myself reading a chapter from my book, about my first time in the psych ward, and I will post that in a couple days. One day at a time, one thing at a time, I am getting there.

Here’s a picture I took of my street art. It’s hot as fuck out there.

My Vacation In Digital Art Images

This time last week, I was settling in with my boyfriend on our first night together in two years when he came to visit for 5 days. It was a great opportunity for me to take a break from the stress, socialize, get out, do some fun stuff, listen to some of my favorite albums, watch my favorite movies, and eat my favorite foods…and share them with him, of course. We had a blast. At first my transition back into the daily grind was off to a difficult start and I had a meltdown three days in a row, but the Universe sent me a little sign at the very least, if not some great news, that one of the publishers I sent a query to wants to take a look at my full book. I don’t know if I’ll go with them or not, if they even choose to go with me, but if they do, it will depend on a number of things. I wrote down all my questions tonight, just in case, but I don’t know what to expect. I’m just grateful I got a letter back that wasn’t a rejection. That’s a good sign I’m doing something right.

The rest of this post will be the manipulated photos from my staycation… I took and altered all of the photos, except for the ones of me in the water, which were taken by Koda but altered by me…

Getting Ready For “I Write the System”

I’ve been working on some promotional art and my book cover. Here’s what I have so far. The first picture is something I made using the art of the original book cover in which I decided not to go with, but I put a lot of time into it and thought I could still use it to promote…

“I Write the System” explores how society forces us into separate, binary genders. Intersex people and others who don’t fit into society often fall through the cracks and suffer great trauma, which for Jymi Cliche led to a life of dependence on the very system that abused him from day one, when he was operated on at birth and conditioned to believe he was female.

The book begins with Jymi at age four, exposed to the system for the first time through nursery school, where he knew right away that he’d never fit into this world. The story follows him through school, friendships, addictions, the mental health system, and too much trauma to handle at times. It wasn’t easy for him to rise from the ashes of the constant disasters going on around him and begin to put his life back together. He has dreams of being successful one day, but is still fighting Complex-PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, and a number of other severe diagnoses, along with being a non-binary trans man in the binary system.

Using dark humor and inspirational stories to balance the trauma and struggles, Jymi offers ideas for change and a message of hope. His memoir encourages the idea that in time, things can get better, even if it feels impossible.

Here is the cover… It’s an androgynous baby photo of me in the late 70’s and the layout is meant to resemble a political campaign poster, as well as a classic rock concert poster, and the colors are meant to resemble the pink and blue on the trans flag, but I don’t really like pastel and didn’t want it to look like a baby book, so I darkened it. It is also sort of meant to loosely resemble the American flag, which really doesn’t mean all that much to me, so I am okay with altering it, but I am talking mostly about the American government system when I talk about “the system”.

I’ve done about 14 edits on it and plan to do one more before I prepare to upload it for its September 11th release date…

Fun From the Wicked Cliche Art Show at The Armory

The Wicked Cliche Art Show, “Falling Apart, Breaking, And Putting Myself Back Together Through Art” was yesterday and it was a hit. We had a lot of fun and helped raise some money for Out Of the Blue Art Gallery/Parma Chai Gallery at The Armory in Somerville.

I’ve had an especially rough week, but the show made it worth the effort. Here are some photos

There were actually a bunch of other people there who I forgot to take pictures of, including my therapist who I actually haven’t seen in person in over a year, so that was nice.

And here’s a short video of my 25 pieces in the hallway…

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A post shared by Jymi Cliche 🦁 (@wickedcliche)

I made enchiladas a couple days ago…

I took this picture of my altar, which I’ve had since 1992

and I found these Menotomy Rocks…

I grabbed one as a gift for my sister’s 40th birthday and one for my boyfriend who’s visiting at the end of July, and I left the rest…

I’ve been doing some editing and I sent my book out to a few friends to look at and haven’t heard from any of them yet, so part of me is worried they think the book is terrible, but I’m pretty sure they’re just busy with other things.

Unfortunately it’s getting to be hot as fuck and will be for a few days, so here is a little music to chill too. The King of Emo..

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…

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…