ART SKOOL DAMAGE : Christian Montone: Belle Epoque: Flourishing Through Fall

By the time you see this it will be too late.

You will already be amazing so you won’t be able to doubt yourself.

It will be too late to be fearful because you’ll already have

enough of everything you need to move forward.

It will be too late for anyone to even attempt to discredit or

devalue you because you’ll already be a great success. If you’ve

read this far it’s way too late to fail because you have already won.

STUDENT: How’d ya get all these water cups

for the classroom? ME: Mmmm... I dunno.

Pep Rally Alumni Surprise

Everything is cancelled... I'm busy.

RIP Ginger Baker

STUDENT: “4th of July... Is that on July 4th?”

A new day is always yours to claim.

A new day is a turning point. At any moment

you can decide that THIS is your new day.

THIS is your next phase. THIS is the moment when

all things will change, when your intentions and actions

are focused on moving forward and when you will be,

you will do and you will have all of the things you

know are possible. Remember that every last thing

you focus upon is being selected, curated and written

into the fabric of your life path as you create each

of them in your mind. Our minds are not just storehouses

of ideas and memories, they are laboratories for creative

thought. Keep your intentions clear and focused, keep

your heart open for surprises and don’t let anybody

or anything get in your way. Future You is activated, amazing

and will embody, experience and enjoy

more and more of your best intentions every single day.

Everyone Has A Choice

Marisol - Women And Dog (1963 - 1964)

George Bellows - Dempsey And Firpo (1924)

Paul Cadmus (1930s - 40s)

Edward Hopper Sketchbook (1930s)

Above Images - Whitney Museum

Weird Flex I Know But

Check My Bougie New Drip

Flea Marketing With my friends Steve,

Vanessa and (of course) Michelle Pfieffer

Friday Night • Basic Judy Garland Gays

SENSE MEMORY • As a 12 year old in 1985 I saw the film Style Wars on PBS. Already engaged in all forms of art, I was awestruck by this film about the artists or “writers” that “bombed” NYC subways, walls and structures with graffiti murals. My hometown of Staten Island had many prime targets for these massive (and illegal) creations. Each week a giant new piece by somebody called ZAP! would appear on the handball court of Edwin Markham IS 51 in the late 70s and early 80s. The SIRT system ran trains on trestles through projects and playgrounds from St. George to Tottenville. Many of these were slathered with spray painted murals and marker “tags”... Quick name markings drawn with a ferociously quick hand. It was around this time that I started attending Saturday and summer art classes at ArtLab, which had an on-site supply shop. With the money I earned assisting my teacher with younger students (or whatever cash I could scrape together) I began buying EF Design Markers there. These rather expensive, vibrant, durable and pungent smelling pens were coveted like gold bullion among art kids, especially those like me who enjoyed filling notebooks with multicolor sketches of the bomb graffiti murals they hoped to finalize in spray paint. The satisfying feel of that metallic barrel in my hand was only matched by the sweet, pungent chemical aroma that emanated from the tip... intoxicating and highly specific. At one point, I bought an air gun that attached to the markers, connected by a hose to a can of compressed air for an airbrush / spray paint effect. One could also dip the markers in alcohol and blow on them to get a splatter pattern. 34 years later I found a large number of these markers on eBay with the exact barrel markings and 1960s style type I loved as a kid. My dalliance with bomb graffiti never reached beyond paper or the walls of a room in my grandparents’ basement (which they generously allowed me to spray paint before it was renovated) but I did throw my tag up throughout Staten Island in the mid-1980s. That said, if you saw CRAZE! scribbled on a wall back then, you now know who did it. #sorrynotsorry

Scott’s Roses • Still In Bloom In October

OMG MOM WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

Today Is Magic. So Are You.

Inspiration is a clever and bewitching muse. Sometimes it pops up in seemingly empty spaces: a wide open sky, a blank canvas or in the spaces between our memories... That nameless location in our mind between things we saw and the artifacts we are left with. The best inspiration for anything (a project, a movement forward or a new way of thinking) comes when we examine what we’ve witnessed and develop a unique point of view from those events. Remember: your experience is yours. By marking, memorializing, telling or depicting your life experience in any way you have claimed it and made it your narrative. Every day and any moment is a blank canvas on which you can create your story, pulled from the ether by way of divine inspiration, gloriously colored by your spirit and intellect. Stay inspired.

Here’s a reminder that you are relevant. You do not have an expiration date. You are not five minutes ago. You are here now, therefore you are relevant. Who and what you are in this moment is largely up to you. Who and what you are in the next moment is also your call and your creation. Nothing you create is irrelevant. Once you create something, whether it be internal, external, energetic, physical or a combination of these it exists because you made it so. If it exists now, it is relevant. If it is your will to be, to have or to do something it’s yours as long as you decide to speak the word for it and follow through on the promise to its full fruition.

“I am” is a very powerful statement and when you start a sentence with “I am” people will indeed notice. Some may treat you differently or test you, but if you say “I am” with conviction and know you can deliver the goods that go with it, you’re bulletproof. Go ahead... Decide what you want. Make those plans, even if you have to do it quietly. Move ahead. Block out the noise and judgements of others. Remove the excuses and obstacles in your mind and they’ll fall away like dominoes. Surround yourself with those (and only those) who support your dreams, wishes and identity. Keep your eyes forward, stay focused and watch it all come together. You got this.

Nope... Not Sketchy At All.

NUGG LIFE

That Ever Changing Doorway

Another Basquiat Visit • 57 Great Jones Street

West 23rd Street • Ghost Of The Chelsea

Afterhours • Ghost Light

Felt Trashy Might Delete Later IDK

Highline • Whitney Museum

Spider In The Night Sky

That thing where I bribe one of my seniors into finishing her

painting by procuring sugar for her tea. I’m trying to imagine

asking one of my high school art teachers “Hey, can you get me

some sugar for my tea?” Yeah... That would’ve ended well.

I’m so glad I went to art school and have two decades in

art education so I can wait tables while I teach. “Okay, finish

working the contrasts and how many sugars would you like?” Name

another art department that provides service like this... I’ll wait.

Also: What is my life?

Who is Future You? Future You is the person who gets to be who they want to be. Future You doesn’t accept any limitations placed on them, either by themselves or others. Future You doesn’t need permission to speak, laugh, explore, think differently or exist. Future You begins when you decide to develop this person into being. As soon as you decide that you will be, think, act, speak and explore differently or engage in things you’ve always wanted to, you have activated Future You.

It starts with thought, as all good things do. Think about who your best Future You is. Don’t get caught up in the step by step process, just trust that by changing your thinking about who you are, what you are deserving of and refusing to accept limitations of thought, Future You is in development. It can start with one small thing. It can start by reading that book you’ve been putting aside. It can jump forward to carving out time to step away from everyday activities and clear your head with a walk or a swim. It can include making a list of the reasons why you deserve a career move, a more comfortable home or a different social outlet. Once you empower yourself with these realizations and begin to act upon them, changes will occur. You will carry yourself differently, your conversations will change, your perspective on others will change and people will indeed start treating you differently.

Once the ball starts rolling, the law of attraction will bring new influences and inputs your way. You may identify new friends, social opportunities, career shifts and physical changes that you will not only step into with confidence and ease, but find that each of these will fit you like a glove. That “perfect fit” feeling of meeting who and what you’ve been seeking may even feel very familiar and that is with good reason. Here’s why: In greeting all of these changes, you are merely accepting all of the aspects of Future You that you had been creating in your mind all along. Here’s to Future You. I hope that Future Me runs into Future You somewhere out there because you sound AMAZING.

Sometimes the actions we take “by night” are the actions that define us. The moves we make and the things we build behind the scenes, in private, when nobody is looking can be quite profound. These are the internalized decisions we make without seeking permission. These are the forward movements we activate for our own good. The things we decide, create and externalize without soliciting the opinions or seeking the approval of others ultimately become the truth of who we are. Remember, as you quietly develop the most integral parts of your authentic (and best) self you are creating a point of attraction. While caring for yourself and focusing on your own forward movement you can expect a series of results and responses that you have manifested. These may be subtle at first but they will indeed increase and expand in volume, tone and size. Be prepared for unexpected reactions, surprises and positive changes. If you hold the energy of prosperity, positivity and light in all that you do, you will eventually attract all of those things. In addition, negativity, distractions and toxic people and situations will become easier to identify and disengage from. Work quietly, move confidently and live fearlessly knowing that all of the best things are coming your way.