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JAY STONE X THE EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE X FALL 2015

EDITOR’s NOTE

EDITOR’s NOTEApparently the black body is worthy of being “flagged.” For the sake of bringing the experience (no pun intended) of The Experience Magazine in all its grandeur, I tweaked the cover so that it will be “acceptable” for issuu to put on its news feed and that my audience will be able to access the magazine through their smartphones. The real cover is here simply because you can NOT put a censor on freedom. ART is the Power and it is the keys to Freedom.

- JAY STONE

PRODUCTIONS

T I M E S

PRODUCTIONS

T I M E S

TABLE OF CONTENTSFALL 2015

P: 10 | CURVING THE SYSTEM

P: 18 | FALL OF THE KINGS

P: 24 | ALL THE ABOVE

P: 33 | SPARKED MINDS FEATURED ARTIST

P: 40 | SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

P: 48 | BODY OF WORK I

HEAD OF PHOTOGRAPHYY

JONATHAN ALONSO

EDiTOR in CHiEFJASON STONE

PR: KITTY LEIgH

The SPARked MiNdS COLLECTIvE

MOLLY

JAY STONEGRAPhiC deSiGN

JASON STONE

Pray For Nigeria

Curving The SySTem

INTERVIEWED & SHOT BY: JAY STONE

Behind a very charming southern personality, Jonquel Norwood has an artistic mind only made for shaking the industry cages and perceptions of reality. If it was up to her, she would usher in a world where women of all sizes portrayed true fashion for everyone. For now, she puts it in her incerediby detailed illustrations that wowed us on first glance. There is no doubt that her work and her ambition will wow you too.JS: Do you think your path plays out the way it does had Hurricane Katrina never happened?JQ: I can honestly say the answer to that is no. An experience like that changes your very core, my entire world was flipped upside down.

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Curving The SySTem

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JS: What was your experience like coming to NY for the first time?JQ: Moving to NY from the south was like mov-ing to a foreign country. I moved to NY in the winter. It was cold and overwhelming at first and the pace was so much faster, every cor-ner I turned there were something new to see. The city seem to almost be alive and breathing and every borough has its own unique personal-ity, but I’ve come to love this city

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“Moving to NY had the biggest impact on my body image and art. I was all of a sudden sur-rounded by these amazing plus size women who oozed confidence and that classic NY “I don’t give an efff ,”attitude . I was inspired by

them, I wanted to draw them I only draw what I think is beautiful.”

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JS: Your pieces are great! They are definitely something differ-ent and refreshing. What was the inspiration behind the “body positive plus size fashion” illus-trations that has become your signature?JQ: The inspiration mainly came from my own confidence journey, I struggled with my body issues my whole life. I’ve always drawn women, they just never looked like me. I used to draw the “ideal” female figure because that was what I wanted to be, I never saw beauty in myself. It wasn’t until this year, that the shift came. Mov-ing to NY had the biggest impact on my body image and art. I was all of a sudden surrounded by these amazing plus size women who oozed confidence and that classic NY “I don’t give an efff ,”attitude. I was inspired by them, I wanted to draw them I only draw what I think is beautiful. So if the artwork I’m creating is beautiful, then that means I’m beautiful, because I look just like what I’m drawing.

JS: Why do you think there is this false perception of how a model should look like? Especially times like these where all body types should be fully embraced.Because the fashion industry is all about creating a fantasy. In or-der to get you to buy their items the industry has come up with these completely unobtainable

ideals of what perfection looks like. “Now if you buy this bra you can look like Giselle,” as if Giselle is the ideal, “if you buy these shoes you can play like Mike.” That’s what it’s all about, the av-erage woman is a size 14 and the fash-ion industry wants you to believe if you reach for these ideals you can achieve these fantasies.

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JS: An extended version of the pri-or question, in an age where body shaming is heavily criticized, why do you think that bigger, curvier and or plus size women haven’t been ac-cepted by the fashion community? JQ: Again it’s all about creating a fan-tasy and a need. Living in a fantasy is so powerful that women are willing to starve themselves just to fit in to a certain dress. This system has been in place for years and it’s threatened by the plus size community.

JS: Something about your illustrations is really special. Its as if Tim Burton de-cided to make elegant instead of dark. This can be seen throughout various paintings like “Dead Cold” “Playtime” “Death and Maiden 2” and “The Witching Hour.” Who are some artists that you love.JQ: Well you hit right on the head Tim Bourton and Walt Disney are two of my main influences. Other artist that inspire me include: Hayo Miyazaki, Koralie, Kuku-la, Hayden Williams, Jasmine Becket Grif-fith, Takeuchi Naoko and Yuko Shimizu.

THE PHARAOH

QUEEn LiFE

JS: I really loved “The Pharaoh” and your “Storm” pieces. It seems as if your art is evolving into something really special. What are your aspi-rations in the field of illustration? You do anime-type work. Looks like there’s potential for a little anime series, you think?JQ: I’m a hardcore anime fan and cre-ating my own series or comic book would be the greatest thing. My goal to top all goals would be to call Disney a client. My aspiration list is a mile long, lol. I also want to create my own fashion doll and collaborate with Monster High. I would like to continue my fashion illustration and hopefully work with Full Figure Fashion Week and NYFW (as well as fashion weeks across the world). I want to see my art used for a major beauty campaign and on store displays.

JS: Last question! Any desires to get into fashion design?JQ: Well I’m actually a freelance textile designer. I’ve designed fabric for a com-pany named Bene Scarves. To answer your question directly yes, I would love to create my own clothing/accessories line as well as continue to create custom fabric for other designers.

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iNSTAGRAM.COM/JONQUeLART • JONQUeL.COM

MOnDAY

nADiA

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Fall of the Kings

The Fall of the Kings play currently running up til November 1st at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx! This is an amazing performance piece that you don’t want to miss. Last weekend I caught this play and to my surprise, summer featured artist David “D-Black” Roberts was in the cast. The play, set in 1940s Boston, MA de-picts many aspects of a black family going through identity crisis, family issues that includes colorism, mental health & much more all through an economic firestorm. The writing and overall story seems ahead of its time. During an intermission I briefly spoke with playwright/director Mai Sennaar on her thoughts on her play & more.

Fall of the Kings

October 16, 2015The Fall of the Kings play currently running up til November 1st at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx! This is an amazing performance piece that you don’t want to miss. Last weekend I caught this play and to my surprise, summer featured artist David “D-Black” Roberts was in the cast. The play, set in 1940s Boston, MA de-picts many aspects of a black family going through identity crisis, family issues that includes colorism, mental health & much more all through an economic firestorm. The writing and overall story seems ahead of its time. During an intermission I briefly spoke with playwright/director Mai Sennaar on her thoughts on her play & more.

JAY STONEKITTY LEIGH

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JS: When i read a synopsis of the play: “A play about class & differences within the African diaspora, about colorism within the African- American community, female identi-ty, mental health and resilience.” Considering the timescale of this play, the overall mes-sage is pretty well ahead of its time. These are things that black folks are engulfed in now, heavily. When this was over, what did you want people to walk away with?MS: A willingness to adress some internal family conflicts. The play deals with how con-flicts within familes are destructive not only to the next generation but to society at large. Also how societal pressures that might create racism, financial issues or loss of home, real-ly require the family to not succumb but to instead unite and fight together. So if you’re dealing with family conflicts to look at it and go, “maybe we can work this out” so that we are prepared to handle outside pressure and not creating our own problems within our-selves.

JS: Tell me a bit about each character, their initial inception and overall development.MS: The lead is Sylvia, the daughter of the pa-triarch who is dying. For me, she represents a person who is organically quite intelligent and strong but because shes a female she lacks the agency to be able to effect the change she wants to able to see in her family and the world. She works through her husband and others and it frustrates her.

There is Solomon who immigrated from Cuba with his brother. he married into Sylvia’s fami-ly. he is struggling to find his identity between becoming an heir to a passing man and who he really is as a man. Coming to terms with having being a share cropper and a commu-nity in Boston that is really elitist and trying to move past that. So he wrestles with shame, pride, guilt and more.

Charlie represents what Solomon has to come to terms with and also his own story of being a soldier. its a story a lot of men in that time period. i have military family, its a part of a way a lot of black men were able to make it. it was a good job at the time, very prestigious.

Than there is Mr. Lorey who is plays the attor-ney and he’s all about being the antagonist force of the play.

JS: What was the inspiration behind this play? You mentioned you have a lot of milatary family so was that the inspiration behind it?MS: Certainly family issues were an inspira-tion. experiences in my life certainly influ-enced moments in the play. A big stylistic influence was old films and the drama, con-clict and the way its presented in old movies certainly influenced what i wanted to do with the play.

JS: What was the significance, if any, of hav-ing this play here in the The Andrew Freed-man Home ?MS: huge significance. The play deals with property. it deals with proprety of value and property thats unsual, unsually ornate, valu-able and desirable. i think this building rep-resents that, being a history landmark in New York City.

The Andrew Freedman home stands for, in terms of celebrating artists of color, art period, giving people in the community a opportuni-ty to access really high quality art. i think its a privilege to be here and participate in that. if you walk these rooms, just being in the envi-roment hugly inspired last minute changes to the play. The period aspect of the building is very inspirational.

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All the Above

Ike Slimster24

Ike Slimster INTERVIEWED & SHOT BY: JAY STONE

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The art of being able to pull off any and everything is extremly admirable. Something about being able to con-trol your art in various forms of media makes an individ-ual the ultimate creator. That is how i look at ike Slimster. A graphic designer, music producer, videographer, fine artist and more, he just creates. Each aspect of his craft has been carefully orchestrated over a span of his young life. So it comes as no surprise we found this great artist to pick his brain and learn what exactly he plans on doing with his ever expanding artistic skills and mind.

JS: How do you manage wearing so many hats? From photographer, to graphic designer, to producer and more…. Is there ever a feeling of exhaustion? IS: It comes naturally, ever since high school, before i even identified them as tools for trade or an ambition, i was just passionately curious to learn it all, my obsession was being able to con-vey a message or project my visuals with sounds and images in as many ways possible, and that’s still the goal really. the exhaustion does happen, es-pecially moving to new york and realiz-ing that people will want to utilize you or your abilities, especially the conflict of knowing your abilities should be used to help people but you still want to maintain the uncontrolled fluidity of your work, the business side of things can desaturate that and that’s where the exhaustion lies.

JS: When did you have a sense for the arts?IS: Bruhh, all my life, since like 2 year old stick figures, I just kept building, some skills analyzed and crammed to be used later when the tools where

available to me, for example; painting, it costs in space, tools and time.

JS: Brother, you have some wonder-ful work all around. Tell me about your passion for each field [Graphic Designer, Photographer, Producer, videographer] IS: Graphic design came second in my venture into art, shortly after coming to America (lol) ...I became a bit (ok maybe not a bit), addicted to the in-ternet and everyone knows how much of a big deal torrents were and still are. After surfing through these app stocked blogs and websites, I discov-ered photoshop, gimp, corel and many more apps i just kept experimenting with, it was definitely a hobby and slowly became a passion, we’re talking 8 hours straight trying to create vec-tors and image manipulations As for photography, that came third, after learning to manipulate images, I want create mine with my images, I wanted to create the images as well as manipulate them, I wanted to show people how vividly I saw life and peo-ple, all the colors and details, so I start-

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ted with a little samsung coolpix pock-et cam and with time I graduated to currently being able to use a canon 7d.

Producer - this came simultaneously with photography, (in reference to the app surfing phase) I also discovered music making apps from wavepad to FL studio to adobe audition, it got pretty deep, because at the time I was mentally dead ambition wise, I was just over working myself , 10 hours on these apps, no food or water, I don’t even know why , I was just so into it.

Videography - as with everything else, (in reference to the term “passionately curious”) I just wouldn’t stop, I started making visuals to go along with the music I was creating, just cinematic feels, playing with motion pictures to tell a story, meaning that whatever I made up in my head, I could put to-gether in clips, that was awesome to me.

“Black women come in so many varieties, so much beauty, it’s

hard to capture in any medium and my goal is for every other man to view black women

the way I do, not in sexuality but in deity, with every smile and

every character.”

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JS: I notice you mentioned early Russian graphic design work being of major influence. Yet, I notice your Nigerian roots all over your artwork. How important is it that you incor-porate where you came from while fusing it with other styles you’ve learned?IS: Its embedded, there’s no staging or cool artist come-up gimmick here, I just can’t help it, my mom, grand-mother, aunties and sister dressed like on occasion, my idea of the natural beautiful woman is that and our art is a reflection of who we are and what we’ve seen, you can see the hints of my influences all over my work and it’s important to me because that is how I have an identity, identities are birth of fusions I believe.

JS: One thing I really appreciate is while going through your IG, you can see your growing process and the fan base building up right with you. Considering the field we’re in, what advice would you give a young artist looking to breakthrough?IS: Honestly, I don’t know, just keep going at it and maintain your true nature, I have loved vivid colors and contrast for forever and still never let it go, I may stray from the norm but I maintain that true nature and be pa-tient, I remember wanting to be like the other artists on instagram and tumblr who were able to do big pieces and get that “wow” effect but I nev-er had the money or the space, so I continued with what I could, paper , ink and occasionally even my phone as a digital coloring pad till I was able to afford the space and the painting equipment’s, so don’t stress it, life is too fluid for you to ever stress any-thing, when we live in a world where anything can happen.

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JS: You have an affinity & apprecia-tion for black women and it shows heavily. Tell me about this appreci-ation that is displayed through you work. IS: They are radiant, personalities and outlook on life, and this is not a pro black statement, it’s just me being honest, black women come in so many varieties, so much beauty, it’s hard to capture in any medium and my goal is for every other man to view black women the way I do, not in sexuality but in deity, with every smile and every character.

JS: You’re a real soulful dude. I was listening to your instrumentals and it took me back. As if I was listening to some old Erykah Badu, Tribe Called Quest type music. I wish I rapped just to get on these beats! For a young man where did you get this keen sense for this sound? Have you

tried getting these out to a major?IS: HAHAHA, thanks man, i just love soulful music, I wanted more of it sampled and made, but there weren’t enough out there, beat makers /mu-sicians were always trying so hard to be experimental, very few stuck to program, making music feel good!, I wanted to make music I could coast to, those al green/ Sam Cooke drum breaks, the sax floats and major keys they ride on, like I close my eyes and feel it and then the syncopation of percussions you follow to the eventual drops, the midway break and crescen-do, aaahh! Its all so good! As for going major, not really, I’ve tried to send them to instrumental blogs, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but I always stick to making sure it’s something I would feel if it wasn’t me making it.

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JS: What is your particular outlook on things? In society? In our black culture? In our art culture & scene? I ask because you define the idea that one can do anything they set their mind to. So what is it that gets you up and going throughout the day?IS: I think society is ever progressive from the large scale to the pluton-ic, whatever we believe or think will make advancements over time and we fail to understand that as a soci-ety, everything you are or will be will pass, whenever we encounter an ob-stacle, we do two things, challenge it or reset, find spirituality and humility, nothing new under the sun but once people understand that things don’t end with a decision, we also have the reprecaution, which we call karma which has been demonized and when seen as negative can hold us back in

making any life changing decisions. but whether we move or don’t move, everything else will, now you can live your life or watch it go by, most of the miniscule things we think matter, don’t on a deathbed, think about it. The black culture is also ever progressive and malleable, I think we fail to realize this, there will be ignorance as much as there is consciousness, the ying and yang theory, the ignorance is what gives your consciousness any value, each is important to each other vitality, so preach, don’t condemn, self love with self reflection, do whatever makes you happy but always in moderation. my nindo (means ninja way, got it from Naruto lol)

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JS: There isn’t even enough time to get into your photography & videography work. Yet just to round this all up, what is your ultimate goal with being the total package? IS: To be a creative director, I want to have a lab and a team where we can create, basically like art consultants, bunch of kids in t shirts and vans with crazy art vision, naw mean.

iNSTAGRAM.COM/ikeSLiMSTeRikeSLiMSTeR.COM

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Sparked Minds ALEX THE DESIGNER

INTERVIEWED BY: JAY STONEikeSLiMSTeR.COM

JS: Your work to me is criminally slept on. There is an edgy yet very sophisticated & telling style you have. Going through your pieces it seems like you have the kind of illustrations that should get more recognition. Do you ever feel that way? ATd: Yea i do, but i also feel that it’s my fault that my art isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. i don’t really network like i should or promote my art to the fullest. i put off the stuff i should do with the stuff i want to do.

Most of the time I just want to draw but life gets in the way, got to make a living till my art starts paying the bills. i’m still working on myself though and bettering my craft. My procrastination is improving, and I plan to get my art out there more this coming year.

JS: What drew us to your work was the Assata & the Panther piece. What was the inspiration behind that? It’s so raw!

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Sparked Minds FEatured ARTIST

ATd: My inspiration for “Assata & the Panther” comes from an animation short i watched on Cartoon hangover. Cartoon Hangover is like Cartoon Network, but more edgier and raw. Great channel on YouTube, totally recommend checking it out. The short is called “Manly”. The style of the animation is vibrant and colorful. The characters are drawn simple but cre-ative. The story line is deep too, it deals with a young woman of color conflicted on whether she should be what her father (society) expects her to be or who she truly feels she should be.

When my friend, Julian referred me to be in a show he would be the main photog-rapher in, i didn’t feel i had enough pieces for the show and I wanted to paint some-thing big. So i thought, “Why not paint a piece that tells a story about the end of police brutality?” i came up with the idea to create a story telling how Assata comes back riding on a panther and defeats the evil corrupt pigs without weapons. it re-lates to the cartoon hangover show, “Man-ly” in a way that shows that some people will treat you based on how they expect you to act rather than how you truly are based on superficial prejudice like your skin color and that is wrong. her mascara runs cause she has been crying for so long, seeing how corruption interferes with world peace. i had to visualize this in a still portrait. Three days before the show, the story I wanted to tell was summarized into “Assata & the Panther.”

JS: You seem like a deep guy. Your work exudes everything about being proud of being black. Was this always the case growing up?ATd: No, not really. i didn’t care about skin color growing up, i still don’t but that’s also evidence that racism and prejudice is taught and not a natural occurrence. i mainly just enjoy illustrating my culture and my people in a creative artistic way, showcasing our true beauty that most people want us to be ashamed of. Grow-ing up, I was taught to be kind and make choices i feel were right. My mom always encouraged me to make friends instead of

of enemies. Never hold grudges, life is much easier without being mad all the time. Banksy tagged a truck in New York and it read, “The grumpier you are, the more ass-holes you meet…” i love that saying and i do hate meeting assholes so, I think we should all just get along and not let stereotypes and superficial prejudice guide our actions and how we relate to one another. diversity is a beautiful thing and we should not make it into something ugly with discrimination. There is always more to someone than their body art, crazy hair or skin color.

JS: Did you ever try getting your work into Afropunk? If not, how come?ATd: Nope. i’ve never been to Afropunk sad-ly, but i always wanted to go. At the time my financial situations was horrible so i couldn’t make any of the festivals. i want to go next year, but only to enjoy the experience. i wouldn’t want to talk about my art first time being part of Afropunk, I rather have fun with my friends.

JS: Where do you see yourself taking your brand of art? Your Ultimate goals?ATd: The goal is to be able to live off of my art. i want drawing, designing, and creating to be my career. i want my art to be a way of living for me. A simple studio where i can paint even bigger pieces all day to sell would make me feel that I have reached my goal. My ultimate goal, however, is to create pieces that make people feel something. i believe art is a medium to express things that you may not have the words to truly express. People will have different percep-tions of the same art and take what they want away from it but as long as something is felt, discovered or relatable deep down inside, i’ll feel like my goal has been reached.

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ALEX THE DESIGNER

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Resistance [ri-zis-tuh ns]

1. the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding.

2. the opposition offered by one thing, force, etc., to another.

[ri-zis-tuh ns]

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SCRATCHING THe SURFACeINTERVIEW BY JAY STONE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JON ALONSO

There are some artists who put exactly what they mean in his or her art. Sometimes the piece is to the point or even not up for interpretation. The thing that makes Mathmatics Patterson an exception to the rule is the fact he wants you to sit down & have a full conversation on what he just finished painting. In a scene where most art that hangs in “prestigous” museums are microwavable in attention span and rather pretenious, Math delivers incredibly thought-provoking that should be mentioned some day in a class of its own as opposed to even being compared to past greats. A class of artists in the now, that demands their viewers to dig a little deeper into their minds and always ask the questions we often never get a chance to think about.

JS: Why don’t you have an official website to put up your work in portfolio format? Is that intentional?MM: i would like to thank you first for allowing me to shed light on my art-work. This means alot to me. Bless up. great way to start off the questions good brother. its very intentional that i do not have a “Official website” or a whatsyourname.com. Websites are overdrawn and borderline unrealistic to me when I see a pages that has art work on it. Today plenty of people have quality pictures but the work isn’t. in addition, the attention span of today is 10 seconds. i can’t compete with that

truthfully nor does it help. Today we are over saturated with the blah blah blah.com’s. Oh my god that sucks! Come check my work out in real life, because the experience is soooo much different. You get to feel who i am for what i am. Online isn’t personal as much and if i’m gonna give you a head shot, it looks better in real life. doing this is a uncon-ventional way of looking at things and I know it. Plus webpages seems like they are becoming the new buisness cards of today also. That to me is a bad thing to me because I have shelves of cards that i never use or contact. Why? Be-cause we care about what we care about and webpages today are only about the people who design them to me.

JS: Break down how you got your start in the arts. How did the politics of college bas-ketball lead you to the art world for good? MM: The breakdown was simple. i got tired of the shucking and jiving of the game of basketball in a professional setting. ( Thank you hOV ). it was all about the money and more money. After noticing that part, my heart wasn’t in the right place so i stopped taking it serious. how did this get started? This is in my blood. This was my destiny from the start. To create, grow, elevate, inspire and do it all over again. knowing this with all my heart keeps me in this game for good. ( Side note, anyone wanting to play ball holla )

JS: What does black pride mean to you? MM: Oh!!!!!!!!!!! This is good. Love this ques-tion forreal! Black pride means establishing a foundation for your people to remain success-ful. This comes in two parts. One is setting the tempo for your people to thrive is what one part of what i think black pride means. One side is family. My grandmother started that in the best way she could for my family by edu-cating her children to teach us. As of today, we are continuing to do the same for our families. When i have a child, i will have to do the same. My wife and I will have to do the same for our kids to be the best they can be. The other part is community. everyone plays a part in building a foundation to thrive as well. You want to stay in the kingdom, play your part and shine on. That’s what black pride means to me. Being strong for your family, Community responsibil-ity , understanding love is golden , Believing in god and respecting mother earth.

JS: Do you practice any kind of spirituality or even philosophy? A lot of your personali-ty creeps into your work….. You have a very unique understanding of life. MM: Well growing up in a family that attend-ed church on a regular was cool ( Wassup East end ), but i didn’t grasp on to a particular name of a spirit or a certain philosophy like others did. i kinda took what i learned from the east and west and combined them. All praises due to the most high, love is love and always take the good with the bad. You peeped how my persona creeps in the work? Thank you. That’s

bless. Looking back at all the shit i’ve been through and what i’ve done to myself that something was looking after me which to me is higher in power. i feel like my art work says that every time.

JS: The Charts is your dopest piece yet In my opinion. Something so simple yet it’s very telling. Was it difficult for you to have to put down those names of lives lost? Knowing, that the totality is larger than the handful you could maybe only fit on the canvas? MM: Oh really? Thanks for that love good brother. it is a really simple piece, but the story of how it was created is the timing parts of it. Originally the frame had the acronomins “Col-ors Runs everything Around Me” C.R.e.A.M painting on it. That same piece was hanging in a bathroom like around 2013 at 3rd eye isola-tion. That pissed me off so i ripped the canvas part out of it and kept the frame laying around. Fast forward….2015. My uncle asked me to do something with his target practice charts he had laying around. he wanted guns and all types of other stuff on it and that didn’t feel right to me. All in this same time, i felt like more and more black men were being killed and it was shown in the news with the name and then BOOM right ( because im from new york )it all kinda came together right in front of my eyes and then I started to research how many black men were killed by police. Actually three charts pieces have been made of the charts.

“I want the viewer in to come up with your their own conclusion. How did this start? What made him/her think of this. When I do pieces like Hangman, The Award show, Selassie Christ, Pop Jesus, American History 2.0….it’s to tap into the viewer’s mind and start the critical thinking process.”

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One was done at Marthalicia’s basement series and the other hangs at my big bro SOL TBC crib. it wasn’t that difficult to add the names but frustrating to know that i couldn’t add all 400+ names even on three 4x6ft pieces. That pissed me off to know no matter the occupation , sex, marital status of my people that we are still being killed by a system that never had a con-science to begin with.

JS: Conceptually how do you start the pro-cess of a piece? When I look at pieces like Mathface, Black Dolla, & Hangman; I feel like this brother is onto something, I wonder what he is going through at the time.MM: how do i start? depends. Sometimes it boils down too what i think what’s good for me and the viewer. Sometimes i get a feeling and it clicks. Sometimes i work on a particular idea. You mentioned three different types of style i choose to do. i know the viewer needs a logo because of how we are programmed to think at a certain level. That’s why you have the MathFace. Simple marketing tools that are

used. My black dolla pieces represent the mes-sage behind what i think black pride is. Simply put. “Financial responsibility to your economy”. The hangman piece is full on artistry. The piece was part soul and mind. i look at hangman in two parts. Like, art in its fullest because of the texture and style then how the viewer mind set. I want the viewer to think and scratch below the surface on the origins of where the design comes from. Not just look at it for what it is. Like “oh those are slaves, and that’s a noose with a halo on top”. i want the viewer in to come up with your their own conclusion. how did this start? What made him/her think of this. Why is this hanging? What’s the message. When I do pieces like Hangman, The Award show, Selassie Christ, Pop Jesus, American his-tory 2.0, The church Vs State, Amen and other jewels ( I could go on for three more pages lol ) it’s to tap into the viewer’s mind and start the critical thinking process.

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JS: As a teacher, what is it that you look to instill in your stu-dents? How do you make sure life lessons get understood as you aim to breed a next generation of awakened critical thinkers?MM: The objective is to help de-velop the critical thinking process on the level that I can help succeed moving forward. how do i make sure the lesson’s are understood? if I get word back from someone else after what’s been said, it has been applied by the action shown and was passed on. That itself shows that my connection with that per-son rubbed off to someone else and made it way back. it happens to me alot and shows and tells the something i’m doing is right.

JS: I’ve come back to spirituality & black pride here after scanning over your “Baduizm” piece. Is that a message you look to break-through to your audience? MM: That’s the message at all time. That’s all i ever want to do and not just being black but being black and a critical thinker as well.Too much black and too much love equals forever!!

JS: What is the toughest thing about being a teacher & an artist? Do those worlds ever cross paths professionally?MM: Nothing. i’m never in a tough spot with my abilities to teach oth-ers. everything is a step. i’m never in a rough spot when it comes to my art work either. everything is about the flow. All champions think this way. Meaning never down or think-ing i will loose. Speaking on both crossing? Well, now as i teach art. its funny, because my projects make me as important as a chemistry teacher in school. it’s all on growth and development. True G status.

JS: What are some of your aspira-tions and future goals? Where do you see the next chapter in the story of Mathamatics taking you?My goal is to hang my work in the Brooklyn museum. Brooklyn is my town and I will work hard till I get in there. Some body tell Anne Paster-nak and Stephanie Ingrassia that I need space. i’m coming in 2017. if I could say where do I see myself or the next chapter in my life…..Spreading more prosperity, love and light. Simple.

Instagram.com/mighty_math

BLACK DOLLA

THE GOD BODY THEORY

BLACK DOLLA

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SCRATCHING THe SURFACe

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HAnGMAn

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BODY OF WORK

JAY STONEGRAPhiC deSiGN

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T I M E S