Art imitates life, art changes lives, art fights, art stands up when everything else is silenced, art is the representation of frustration, art is everything. I am an artist and I say what I believe in.
I either have to totally love or despise something passionately for it to make it into my performance or painting. Politically charged performance is what I have based my entire burlesque career on. I scream my political agenda at the top of my lungs because its important. It is my air.
I was sitting in the lobby of every woman’s worst nightmare. There were young girls with their moms for the first time, women who have been there too many times before, single moms with no other choice, victims of rape, victims of society, victims of being born with a vagina between their legs.
Life giving creatures waiting in line to just make it all fucking stop. Proof that you can never be too safe and it can always happen to you. Boyfriends that didn’t want to be there, one night stands who had no clue, lovers with no real grasp of whats going on, best friends, and sisters all along , literally, for the ride.
I sat there thinking how necessary this place was, how many people have fought and died for it to exist. I thought about Demi Moore in If These Walls Could Talk and I thought about dead teenage girls with bloody coat hangers and basement butchers. This is how far we have come.
12 hours. The whole process took 12 hours. Sitting in torment. One doctor to 50 patients. Women who are already in pain having to endure that long of a wait was atrocious.
“How long she gonna take, she was in there for an hour” ignorance. “It’s never like this, the other times I have been here I was in and out” sadness. And then a woman burst in to the office with the biggest attitude I have ever seen. She was pissed off that security was so strict that she had to put her ID up to the camera. Her friend had been waiting and could not be admitted for her procedure until her ride had arrived.
“I’m going to be late for my hair appointment, if I miss it you are going to pay for it” and then went on about the heightened security. The girl behind the counter answered with one of the most grim things I have ever heard, “Because three people died in a shooting at an abortion clinic in Colorado, THATS why!” Dumb bitch who wanted to get her hair did “Well, this ain’t Colorado, this is Buffalo.”
What the fuck is wrong with people? I’ve never wanted to choke slam someone so hard in my life. This woman represents a kind of deep seeded ignorance that I cannot even fathom. I bet she is too inconvenienced to vote too. It pisses me off when someone doesn’t even understand that where we are had to be fought for.
It seems like it sucks, but its still much better than it was. The right for a woman to vote and female reproductive rights are monumentally important. I remember being 18, voting in the Democratic primary, my first time in the booth. My candidates included Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama, a woman and a man of color, holy shit. I wept. There was a time not so long ago that women and black people could not even vote, now they sat here on the ballot.
I stood there in that booth and cried because I knew what kind of moment this was. I knew that people fought for this and that there was so much more fighting to be done. I have a lot of work to do. We all do. A change is a coming.
I literally had to go home and transform myself into Donald Trump for a burlesque show later that night. Don’t even get me started on that asshole. He represents next level evil, the uber scary kind that gains power through the dumb masses of Wal-Mart shopping, Bible thumping (not reading, just thumping), television obsessed drones that take up precious space in our dying world.
He is not as smart as Hitler was. I can’t even believe that it has gotten this far. Of course I have to imitate him. I often dress up as the worst kind of man, mullet wearing, ignorant, American, alcoholic, misogynist man, but at least Cock Sinclair is lovable, there is hope for him. There is no hope for Donald Trump or anyone who supports him.
FUCK REFUGEES, FUCK WOMEN, FUCK THE PLANET.
He spews hate and fear, stirring the pot with no filter, and no common sense. How can you feel right about what you are saying when it causes you to be banned from parts of the world? Promoting violence against Muslims and a culture based blind hate and mass ignorance.
Becoming him was an easy task. I needed a navy blue suit and a red tie, a stupid trucker hat, a shit load of fake money and the worst combover ever. It was fun to transform into this abject monster.
I dressed up my friend Juicy Lucy as Bernie Sanders with a terrible old man mask and a hat with pot leaves on it. She wore pot leaf pasties and undies and came out smoking a bowl with a sign that said FEEL THE BERN on it.
I wrapped myself in a Christmas box that to America from Santa then crossed it out and wrote Satan. I burst out as the song began, the crowd erupted, they were dancing and screaming, it was such a perfect moment, everyone in that room was mad at Donald Trump.
I felt like I was the bad guy at a wrestling show. I personified evil. This show was like GWAR without the blood. Trump made it rain dollar bills as he stripped and ejaculated American flags. Bernie then pulled a pride flag out of his pants, hog tied Trump, and gagged him with money. It was one of the most glorious moments in my life.
I wish someone would have caught it on on tape, even a shitty cell phone video would do. The whole performance was to an original song by my favorite local band Folkfaces called Freedom Fries which they are about to release as a single:
I have pulled many flags out of my very American penis to this song. Protest music is so necessary. The voice of a generation, the momentum of the movement, the beat of a fight song, the power of good energy and important words, saying what people are too afraid to say. Loud and clear. We need it.
My art is either about love or politics and atrocities. To make a comment against police brutality I once wore a pig face and a cop costume and had women smash donuts on me to Fuck the Police and I once wore a Cosby sweater and had people dump pudding on me to protest rape culture and talk about consent. My Kitty Porn series combines cats and hardcore porn to showcase the most exploited things on the internet.
I made a painting the night I found out about the Ferguson riots, I just had enough, I could not sleep until the image was out of my brain:
I also did a piece about the dangers of Fracked oil being transported on dangerous bomb trains across the United States. I have made art about food waste, animal abuse, child abuse and more.
Everything I do must have a purpose, it’s like an insatiable urge to make things right in the world. I just hope that I can spark inspiration into others like I have been inspired by my fellow artists, both peers and past revolutionaries.
FUCK RACISM. FUCK REPUBLICANS. FUCK FEAR.
Someone has to say it. Propaganda is a different kind of art, paving the way for every war. Protest the propaganda. Stifle hate with beauty and truth. Make the world a better place to live in by taking an active part in its reconstruction.
Start with the dust on your own hands. Art is the only true voice. The clearest sound heard when there is nothing but muffles. Don’t let your art be quiet. MAKE IT YELL.
