Jojo Miyake-Faraji

@loud.majik

Loud Speaker No. 03 - Denim, polyester patch, cotton, metal chain, 22" x 29", 2020 - $500
Loud Speaker No. 7 - Denim, polyester patch, acrylic, metal chains, 24" x 23", 2020 - NFS
Loud Speaker No. 14 - Denim, polyester patch, cotton, acrylic, 29" x 20", 2021 - NFS

Artist Statement

As a Japanese-American, television only provided a template for success using the lexicons from the hegemonic agenda of capitalistic ideals. My works reassess influence of popular media by speculating how the world of entertainment impacts identity, personal preference, social and economic status, behavioral and psychological development, and racial hierarchies. My wearables are fictional gang jackets which belong to the “Loud Speakers” who wear their jackets as a form of body adornment and awareness of how popular media effects us. Gang jackets are reminiscent of the 90’s, punk, and Japanese gangs (Yakuza, Bōsōzoku, and Sukeban) The backs of each jacket don the “outer shell” of former idols - idols whose identities have been construed to appease the capitalist agenda despite the drastic consequences they faced. Each member chooses their own pop culture icon that has been made some mark on them in their lifetime, making each jacket one of a kind. While my choice in imagery referencing pop icons, products, or advertisements, is packed with information it is expressed through forms of craft which require constant and careful attention.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"As someone who identifies as Asian American, there are many others that would argue against that. When visiting family in Japan I was viewed as American and in America I was viewed as Asain. Being highly influenced by pop-culture growing up I also felt as if I didn't match up with Hollywood's depiction of Asian Americans, it became important for me to find my own place of belonging. It meant finding my own way of being unapologetic about representing myself and all the complexities that come with my identity. The "Loud Speaker" gang is how I honor my BIG MOOD. Gang jackets are reminiscent of the 90's, punk, and Japanese gangs (Yakuza, Bōsōku, and Sukebean). Jackets are made to give myself and others a form of body adornment that owes no explanation to anyone other than the one who wears it. These wearables acknowledge pop-cultures as an entity that has shaped us all in some way and we wear a piece of that history in a state of awareness."

Morgan Bukovec

@morganbukovec

doll face - cross stitch on guest checkbook, 6.75" x 3.5" x 0.25", 2021- $650
how are your jugs - cross stitch on guest checkbook, 6.75" x 3.5" x 0.25", 2021 - $650
smile for me - cross stitch on guest checkbook, 6.75" x 3.5" x 0.25", 2021 - $650

Artist Statement

This series of work is the result of the past decade of my work in the service industry. In truth, this work’s inspiration stems further back, budding from my first awareness of the commentary my female body endures without my consent. Each remark, command, and question are quotes taken from my experiences as a server, with male customers. This series is a personal release, and a way to gain ownership over the words said to me by men. It is the acknowledgement of language that perpetuates sexism, microaggressions, and sexual harassment spoken and heard not only in the workplace but in all spaces. This series breathes with intention. The guest checkbooks have made their way into my life as I unconsciously bring them home, accumulating them over the years of serving and bartending. These notepads attach themselves to my body during my shifts, becoming a part of me, we are the same, possessing the qualities of fragility, reflected within small rips and tears that can only be inspected from a close distance. The sharp point of the sewing needle is a metaphor for the pain of microaggressions that slowly and unconsciously reveals themselves and worsen through repeated infliction. Just as the stitches in these works are permanently punctured, the words said to me by men cannot be erased or undone. My needle, sewing thread, and guest checkbooks act as tools of meditative resistance while referencing the historically rooted practice of cross-stitching and needlework as “women’s work.” This series aims to grow into one- hundred works that individually and collectively question the patriarchal dominated society we live in while acting as a living force of both personal release and ownership of my female form.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"I honor my BIG MOOD by leaning into my vulnerabilities and creating power beneath it through my art practice. "

A.M. Disher

@amdisher

(Manic) Depressive (When The Party's Over) - oil and enamel on wood, metal piping, party streamers, 25" x 31" x 25", 2021 - NFS

Artist Statement

The wood becomes viscera and flesh, then becomes a self-portrait. The wood, like A.M., has no gender and can act as a material metaphor for their queerness and non-binary identity. Much of the wood they use are pieces that have been damaged when the tree was alive and then began to heal. These events cause irregularities in the tree that become flesh-like. A.M. paints the wood to be in a permanent state of healing, with bruising and scabbing wounds. People with mental illness are in a perpetual state of tending to wounds that never will completely heal and remain in flux. A.M. aims to de-stigmatize mental illness and to connect with others who also suffer from it. The materials that they use in addition to the wood are intended to create a narrative that responds to various facets of mental illness. The vulnerability of the subject matter paired with the boldness of the work exudes an air of power and defiance over the illness as they are formed. A.M. is exploring places where beauty and the grotesque intersect, this exploration becomes the documentation of their illness; it is the anatomy of their melancholy.

How do you honor your big mood?

"My BIG MOOD can sometimes seem bigger than I am in a way that feels like a threat, I honor this by making this mood into a physical object for it to embody. The time that I spend is a mediation on this mood and feels as if I am casting away the mood onto the object."

Lisa Simms

@lisapockets

The Bachelor - holographic purse, stickers, 12" x 10", 2020 - $1000
Apathy - digital photo, 24" x 18", 2020 - $800

Artist Statement

In the fall of 2020, I began to create work that subverted products traditionally marketed towards my own demographic, a twenty-something cisgendered white woman. These pieces began a conversation in my work about the links that corporations are drawing, arbitrarily or not, about what myself and my peers desire in a product. There is something inherently frustrating about a product that is obviously useless and absurd in the “Juniors” section, or peddled in between scrolls on Instagram. The integrated text in my work is a reaction to that absurdity. The voice often shifts, sometimes the voice is mine, sometimes I assume the voice of a fictional prospective consumer. No matter the voice, it is a purposefully humorous one. As a stand-up comic, I find humor is the ideal entry point to larger conversations.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"I honor my BIG MOOD through my use of sardonic text that is about everyone, but mostly about me."

Tianna Bracey

@tiannabraceyart

Untitled - oil on canvas, 24" x 30", 2021 - $1900

Artist Statement

Over the past year we’ve lived in a world of isolation, even moments of togetherness we remained apart. For Black women, this was an especially layered year. It was a time of grief and fear, but we were also galvanized to invoke change. With the death of Breyonna Taylor and all the names we don’t know, there was a sense that our lives were inconsequential. Yet, Black women dominated culture - from music to TV & Film to politics. This submitted works explores these dualities, while amplifying the presence of black women, timestamped for this particular moment.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"Through an unapologetic gaze. Whether it's resting B face, smizing, or simply just refusing to smile when prompted - it's a BIG MOOD."

Danielle Attoe

@danielle.art.jewelry

Regal - silver, brass, patina, 3" x 4" x .25" - NFS
Repose - silver, brass, pink opal, patina, 4.5" x 3" x .25" - NFS
Stepping Out - silver, brass, patina, 4" x 4.25" x .25" - NFS

Artist Statement

In the Flesh is a series of pendants that focuses on the representation of the fat body. Each piece depicts a figure, rendered in silver wire, interacting with a frame made of patinated brass in an oval shape in reference to the cameo. The frame sometimes dissects the visibility of the form but other times the figure breaks out of the frame allowing a moment of unrestricted visual access to the complexity of each body’s shape. By creating each figure out of wire the negative space in each pendant allows the skin and clothing of the wearer to be seen through the piece and adds an additional layer of complexity. While each of these pieces can be seen as a beautiful object the goal is not to transform the model from abject to clean or reinforce societal expectations on the representation of the female body but to bring a missing element into the gallery. Each pendant seeks to confer that same status of preciousness onto the body it is presenting.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"I am honoring my BIG MOOD by making this work because I am so sick of the disgust thrown at fat people for existing. These big, proud pieces are a rejection of that notion and are instead a declaration that bodies like mine deserve to exist in the gallery and the art world."

Eva Gabriella Flynn

@e.gflynn

Rio Bravo and Me - acrylic and oil on canvas, 40.5" x 64.5", 2020 - $3000
It's all good - acrylic and oil on unstretched canvas, 72" x 108", 2020 - $1000

Artist Statement

My earliest memory is at the US/Mexico border. I am four and agents have separated me from my mother because they cannot see our resemblance. I am questioned; I want to go home, but I don’t know if that means turning back or crossing. Today, my work exists in this liminal space at the border between these two countries. The artwork is intuitive, depicting both my abstracted experiences as a Mexican-American woman from the border. I paint landscape and body as entities that are politicized, romanticized, and fetishized—ever-adapting beings in a balancing act of celebrating vast beauty with harsh reality. While working, I consider the Southwest’s violent history of colonization, migration, and military occupation with the sharp contrast of my nostalgia for its wide open skies. This work reflects a disconnected narrative of history, love, conflict, and cowboy hats.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"I honor my BIG MOOD by being the chingona my mother taught me to be."

Jaina Cipriano

@jainasphotography

Waiting - photograph, 11" x 17", 2020 - $250
Empty Spaces - photograph, 11" x 17" - $250

Artist Statement

Jaina Cipriano is a Boston based artist working with photography, film and installation. Her work explores the emotional toll of religious and romantic entrapment through immersive sets and emotional performances that mirror the subconscious.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"I do not censor the emotions in my art. In my life, I am careful to pull back dramatics and react in a way that's not hurtful to others. But in my art, I let everything go - you can always pull back in the edititing."

Mär Martinez

@meatvoid

Lucia - acryclic on wood, 23.5" x 23.5" x 3", 2020, - $3,200

Artist Statement

Anger and outrage are emotions that are often denied to women, as lived experience can be devalued and downplayed through infantilization. To be able to access these emotions is a 'big mood': Lucia references the plight of St. Lucia. In one version of the morality tale, a man complements her eyes, so she tears them out as to not lead the man into temptation. It’s absurd to expect people to minimize themselves and desecrate their own beings for their safety; the onus of respect, responsibility, and self-restraint should lie on the aggressor and not the oppressed. Lucia resists enforced constraints of purity culture and reclaims autonomy through a refusal to be victimized; an eye for an eye of the aggressor. There is often a tension in my work between the body language of intertwined figures, whether it be sexual, aggressive, playful or submissive. The delineation is blurred; often an act of violence is not within the explosive act, but is slow and deliberately built up like the delicate strokes of the fur. The piece is physically cut out by hand, to reference the inherent violence of our cultural abuse of power. I aim to contrast the violent immediacy of the physical cut with gentle, subtle glazing. The fur is fluffed like a kittens instead of on its end. The playful fur contradicts the aggravated body language of the fighting cats. The desire to infantilize is a defense mechanism. Instead of interacting with people that challenge imbalances as fully actualized versions of themselves, it’s easier within a rigid power structure to remove autonomy of threatening presences by demeaning them.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"By refusing to be made smaller."

Raina Belleau

@rainabelleau

OMG <3 - apoxie sculpt, acryclic paint, electric candelabra, flicker flame light bulb, steel, wood, wire 11" x 14" x 6", 2021 - $240

Artist Statement

I have a love-hate relationship with my hands. They are a source of both joy and pain. In 2017 I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis, an auto immune disorder that causes inflammation in the joints and surrounding soft tissue. As a sculptor, I had built a large part of my identity on being able bodied and capable of physical activity in what still felt like a male dominated field. At 28 I felt like art making was beyond my ability. I was unable to draw, sculpt or write, needed immediate carpel tunnel surgery, and I was unable to go up or down stairs. For six months I thought I’d have to change my art and career as an arts educator or quit all together. It’s taken a few years, but with the right medications and daily activity, I’m able to do nearly everything I once was. Unlike before, I’m constantly checking in with my body, taking note of each action and noticing minute changes in dexterity, some for the better, others for the worse. Even on bad arthritis days, I’m grateful for the new understanding I have of my body and self that my autoimmune disorder has brought me. OMG <3 OMG: An abbreviation for “oh my god”. An exclamation of disbelief or excitement. A juvenile expression associated with girls and young women. <3: A combination of symbols on a standard keyboard that create an image of a sideways heart. A heart emoji from before there were emojis. Pronounced “heart” when spoken aloud. OMG: I can’t believe I pulled a muscle gesturing too emphatically. Ugh, arthritis sucks. Last time this happened I did physical therapy for like six months. OMG: I know! I talk with my hands way too much too. You should see me on Zoom. It’s crazy. OMG: WTF. I can’t believe I did that again. I don’t think I’ll get anything done in the studio this week. OMG: Where did I put that sling you bought me at Walgreens last time this happened? I’m gonna have to postpone that demo for my sculpture class. OMG: Have you tried Apoxie Sculpt? It’s seriously the best. Like way better than Sculpy. I don’t have an oven in my studio and this stuff is archival. It’s basically plastic. OMG: I missed my injection again. Ugh. Why doesn’t this med tracking app have better reminders? This medication is basically the only reason I can make art right now. OMG: I only look this cute because I feel like shit. Dressing up helps my cope with the fact that all my joints hurt. It’s like, “Well, at least I can look good even if I don’t feel good.” I even did my nails. I never do my nails. Sculpture and nice hands don’t really go together… OMG: The “Relaxation Yoga” is the only one I can really do right now, but it’s so good. I can’t believe the other videos are “Beginner”. And I don’t think that’s the arthritis talking. Lol. Whatever, moving is good for me and anxiety literally makes my hands hurt. <3 Raina

How do you honor your Big Mood?

I never really thought about my body until it stopped working the ways it used too. I honor my big mood of through conscious scans of my body each morning and night. I focus on my hands and wrists, the primary tools of my sculpture practice. These mental body scans are an embodiment of my anxieties and hopes.

Mary Willette

@mary.c.willette

Shaping Silence - time, silence, lead crystal cast glass (Cast glass is NFS) Photo prints of glass - 12" x 12" - $100

Artist Statement

I had a secret to share, but no one to tell.
No one was listening.
So I tried to swallow it, but it sat there.
Calcifying in my mouth.
Until I decided to give it to you.
Can you understand its shape now?

Alginate was spooned into my mouth until it was full, I then began trying to say a secret that had been laying silent. As I spoke my words were muffled with the obstruction of the hardening alginate, simultaneously giving shape to my desired expression and choking me with it.

How can we understand one another when language is cut off? What tools are available for sharing the shape of our desires?

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"It took me a long time to reconcile a childhood trauma that I continued to carry within my body emotionally. Many years were spent trying to shrink into the background and make myself as small as possible. Shaping Silence was essential in my journey towards honoring myself and that experience as worthy of taking up space. Words and actions are invisible forces that hold so much physical power. Through this work, I accessed the deeply hurt part inside me that had grown silent as others around me failed to hear. I honored my BIG MOOD by excavating that shame from my inner landscape and asking others to see its existence."

Isabel Monti

@isa_artizf

Don't Mind Me Just Air Drying My Delicates - neon and clothesline - 120" x 180", 2019 - NFS
See Me (Self Portrait) - Digital Image, Neon, 2019 - NFS

Artist Statement

Don’t Mind Me Just Air Drying My Delicates and See Me are neon lingerie and undergarments that are meant to be viewed on a clothing line. Inspired by my experience of living alone on the first floor of an apartment building, the idea of vulnerability and exposure resonated with me and thus I came to relate it to neon. The red neon, like an open window, demands our attention and holds us captive, but its material fragility reminds us that there’s always more to an experience or object. The clothing line is a part of our homes that are often outside and on display, giving us a snapshot of the lives within. These works are meant to symbolize contemporary womanhood and sexual empowerment. It has become a way to express the confidence and the desire to be vulnerable and open about these things and for that vulnerability to be as commonplace as a clothing line outside a home.

How do you honor your Big Mood?

"One of my favorite ways to set the tone for the day is to put together an awesome outfit. I love fashion and the ways it allows me to express myself. In a small town, it can easily feel like I'm overdressed or out of place based on what I wear. But I have been pushing past this uncomfortableness and allowing myself to enjoy my clothes. A well curated outfit makes me feel confident and emopowered and it's been a great way to strike up a conversation with others. My motto is, "Look good, feel good!"

Rïse Peacock & Power Clash Art