The Creative World of Jymi Cliche'
I have been taking photos of this graffiti spot for almost 15 years. It has changed quite a bit over the years… most notably from an abandoned illegal spot only a few people knew about, to a bike path going right through, where artists are now welcome to paint legally.
Sometime I should do a collection of the best photos I’ve taken there over the years. It’s gotta be over a thousand by now, easily… but here are some from when I went last week.
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…
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..
The days have been a challenge and I can only hope that means better times are on their way. I haven’t been my best self lately.
I went to the doctor on Thursday to get an EKG and some blood tests. There doesn’t seem to be any huge concerns other than my sugar being a little high, but they want me to come back soon and do a stress test in a couple months.
I stopped on the way home to mail about 40 press kits and drove by Spy Pond where the sun was sparkling on the water. I’m still struggling to get out. I really should have driven around or went for a walk to take pictures, but I’m struggling with agoraphobia and institutionalization after being kept indoors almost two of the last three years.
I took some photos when I was out, and when I got home, I found that the free editing program I’ve been using was no longer working on my phone. Technically the app went down in 2018, but it still worked on my phone until the other day. I asked for suggestions of good free photo editing apps and was told to try Snapseed and PicsArt, so I gave them a go.
These were the photos I took…
I thought that one was kind of cool with the grunge effect. It would make a cool book cover for a psych ward book.
That same day, my parents went to the beach and my mom sent me a picture of her wrapped in the towel I gave her for Mother’s Day from my Wicked Cliche Store.
I did some work on the Wicked Cliche Creative Friends page that features art by a very diverse group of artist from around the world who I call friends.
Please check that out.
I got a gift in the mail from my friend who makes soap. She’s listed last on the Creative Friends page under WickedSoftOrganics. This is the Trans flag one.
I listened to my favorite Nas album, God’s Son on vinyl.
and I cooked this delicious meal….
I cheated and got pre-made sour cream and chive mashed potatoes, but I made the chicken which had salt, pepper, and fresh thyme on it, and was cooked in a sauce made from honey, pineapple juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, and cornstarch, plus pineapple chunks and cashews. It was delicious and easy. I’ll do it again for sure.
Here’s an inspiring song from the God’s Son album by Nas…
Happy Juneteenth, if you can really say that. It seems more like it was made a holiday to shut people up while actual actions to fix systematic racism are not being taken.
Peace
I have a lot to be grateful for, despite the last few days which have been kind of awful. I won’t get into it all right now but my anxiety and stress are through the roof and the shit that’s been happening is not fair to me and it’s my life story and I’m tired of it. It’s a constant fight that gets me seemingly nowhere. BUT this entry is going to concentrate on some of what I’m grateful for, because although I said I’d throw these last couple days away, there was actually some good too.
June is Pride month and I found a few of these old photos from Boston Pride in the 90’s. Fun times with old friends, most of whom are still in my life.
I got some pride soap from my favorite soap maker WickedSoftOrganics
That’s it below. It smells delicious.
I got this mask in the mail the other day. I bought a set of 2 Bob Dylan masks for my dad for Father’s Day, but I know he wouldn’t wear this one. I dunno if he’ll even wear the one I’m giving him, but I kept this one and took a selfie in the heat…
I made some new stickers for my press kits and sold 2 packs of 6.
And I got my pack of 250 stickers of my logo in the mail and they came out better than expected…
I texted about 50 people for addresses to send press kits to and got to talk to all kinds of people I hadn’t really talked to much, some of whom are interested in the book, so that is good news!
I started editing “I Write the System” by reading it aloud because that’s something highly recommended to people who edit their own books, and it’s been great, because for one thing, I can tell how it’s far better writing than The Godchild and everything flows naturally and sounds great, but there were a few very minor things that I definitely wouldn’t have even noticed were wrong if I hadn’t read it aloud, so I think it’s gonna be worth doing. I’ve also been trying to figure out what chapters I might be able to read from it if I were gonna do a book reading, and I found a couple so far that I think might work. It’s been good to get that done.
This gift to myself also came yesterday, which cheered me up. I can’t afford to buy myself much other than a couple little things under ten bucks, but I put most of my money towards stuff I hope will turn into money coming back to me at some point, like the stickers, envelopes, printer ink, and stamps for my press kit and I’m thinking of buying my own ISBN numbers for my future books rather than using the free one on Amazon that keeps you limited to them for life. Unfortunately it’s $200 for one ISBN or $300 for ten, so it makes sense to go for ten since I already have plans for three book releases in the next year and I especially don’t wanna get stuck with Amazon for the children’s book because I heard the quality of their children’s picture books aren’t great….but, I can’t afford $300 for anything right now so I’m hoping to ask for the money as an early birthday present. But yeah, this Funko Pop of Hitchcock was too cool. I still wanna direct a film some day and he was one of my earliest influences.
What else? It’s hot as fuck, for one thing. I need a vacation from the stress.
BUT I’m grateful to be alive. I got my medicine and took a cold bath with my pride soap, I have the AC in the bedroom, music playing, food to eat, a bed to sleep in, friends, family, etc. Speaking of family, my sister helped me learn how to do something new with my web site. I’m using it on this page. I’ve been reading from an incredibly helpful list I got on LinkedIn about how to make a web site that actually gets seen. Obviously that’s the goal of making a site, but of course it isn’t easy… at all, but I’ve already learned a few things and redid the front page if you wanna check it out here.
That’s all folks.
Here’s a random song I’m in love with for the road…
My last post was about haters on the internet and whether it even makes sense to ask strangers their opinions on art or writing. It was stemmed from some hate I got about my book cover the other day. A bunch of people said they wouldn’t even pick up my book because the cover was “too busy”, “unprofessional”, and one person said they wouldn’t know what the book is about by looking at it (as if any book cover can really do that)… but it was eating at me because so many people emphasize that the cover is the first thing people see. If I get a professional publisher, I may not even be able to use it, but it’s looking more and more like self publishing is the most likely thing to happen, and I can live with that, but I don’t wanna scare people away with an unprofessional cover, yet I also felt my cover was nearly perfect for my book… maybe not perfect graphic design, but it felt right to me. It was what I envisioned… So… with the help of the basic Paint program, I added a few lines here and there and I think it’s better. Here is what I plan to go with…
Here is what it looked like before.
So, I just made a few adjustments, but I think it’s better.
I’m heading to bed because I already took my night meds, so I can’t do a full post about my show at The Armory yesterday, but I will when I wake up.
Here’s my new business cards though….
And here’s a song I wanted to share that I fell in love with…
I saw my family for Mother’s Day today. We hung out for several hours preparing food, eating, talking, sharing photos of pets, etc. My sister helped me figure out how to add tags to my blog posts, but we still haven’t figured out how to use it as a regular blog to follow other bloggers. I may not be able to, but we will see. Both my sisters helped me create a linktree account though, and that should help point people in the right direction as well. I can put it on my Instagram as my main link, so I don’t have to constantly switch the links depending which page I’m promoting in my post…
https://linktr.ee/wickedcliche?fbclid=IwAR3SSUgUD-o_DOi4fqo9ROJz3OixFc5YLCiZiSLDUXJMQGrb21UKTz1TcTY
You can click there to see it if you want. It’s not especially exciting, but I am kind of excited about it, as it is a helpful tool.
The other thing I’m most excited about today is that I created a cover for my upcoming memoir. I’m gonna try to redo it with some different colors and hopefully a better drawing of the person at the machine, but I got this idea the other night and was excited that I was able to make it work, even if I have to do it over to make it a little better, I think it’s kinda cool…
“I Write the System To Fight the System So I Might Right the System”… coming out around the 20th anniversary of 9/11 if I self publish.
What else? I don’t really know. I gotta get back to the usual life later today, but it was nice to get a break.
I’m looking kinda vintage…
or do I mean old?