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2014-2017, 2016, 2022, Atlanta, Banks, Blackphotographers, car problems, Carrigan Farms, cell, Charles Hamilton, childish gambino, church, cottonfield 10, cottonfield 11, Cottonfield 6, covid, DBZ, Emancipation, Euphoria, existential 2022, FkA twigs, Free Party, Friday Night plans, gallant goon, Goku, google voice, house of the dragon, huntersville, internet friends, Invincible, jano ryusaru, Jrpg, Kirby, LCI, Legend of Vox Machina, Libra season, Life Center International, make up, media team, Megan thee stallion, melting, midtown, Mooresville, New Orleans, Nightlife, no signal, Nova Twins, pizza, Pontiac Grand Am GT, retro arcade, Rock Hill, Sheningans, side quest, solo art show, summer 2022, summer 2023, sunflower samurai, sunflowr, Thanos snap, The BOys, this is america, volunteer
Dear Janolytes,
Wow its been damn near 3 months
3 fucking months…Shit.
I feel like i have done a lot and not enough at the same time, its such a weird paradox bro. Since we spoke last I went to ATL for my birthday with my girlfriend to see FKA Twigs who performed on my bday.
That was Yeetable, and visually inspiring.
Which was more Yeetable. Since I used the same concept to make the digital pamphlets for my very first solo show.
Jano, you did your first solo art show?
Sure did Janolytes, which will be a whole another issue when the time comes but until then you can check out the pamphlet and artist roster on my new page. My show was called Synthesizing Soul. I will say from post birthday trip to the show in early May was an act of closing every single fucking tab. From pending projects and the administrative task of getting shit ready.
Side note follow me here to see updates on when my next show is.
Fun times…kinda. There is joy in using your degree and love of art especially when you work in Cottonfield that treats you like 3/5th a person….if that.
Which sadly I am still there….I hate this shit…..so much.
Disassociation and breathing exercises have become my best friend. Shout out to me having art projects to help keep somewhat grounded. Yay.
I said I was going to do nothing after the show and that lasted for maybe a week.
I tired bro, I did. Now I’ve resumed working on my new book and random images of my characters for my comic series.
Meanwhile I’m trying to plan my next solo show.
On a non art note, I’m going to New Orleans for my anniversary next week. I went when I was a Lil Jano, but I don’t remember shit honestly. I remember a monstrous bridge on the way down there, but that is about it. Feels like a nice break after the litany of art projects that have been happening since the fall, plus the fuckery of Cottonfield 12.
Fuck 12 bro.
Anyway time for the flashback of the month which is the last photo shoot of the existential year of 2022. Never trust a year that the calender year of 2016…don’t ask.
Back in 2019 I did a shoot with a friend who I knew off the internet, which was a chill time. I told her I owe her because the lead up to that was a not a chill time because finding someone to do the project was a not a chill time.
Life resumed with life at cotton field 10 at the time, trying to work on my comic series, the world shutting down because of a virus that was Thanos snapping humanity at a whim, me leaving cotton field 10, more racial injustice, me going back to Cotton field 6 out of desperation. Just random things occuring over the course of a year and some months.
At some point she mentioned she would want to do a photo shoot in a sunflower field. That sounded like a dope thing to do and said we can do it. But life said before we do that, here is some car fuckery for you to deal with from March 2021 to October 2021.
I’m amazed that I still have to reference this arc, but its hard to follow your art dreams when you can’t get around like you want. But much like when I shot my homeboy this sunflower quest was halted from manifesting.
Side note, typing this out I feel like Cell when he Returned after Goku transported him to King Kai and he was telling the remaining Z fighters his origin story up until that point.
Side note 2, This new Friday Night Plans album is calming my spirits as it slaps me cheeks with passion.
Anyway.
With more money being made from Cotton field 11 and my car back in action I was able to live a regular Jrpg art journey again.
2022 arrived and I talked to my homegirl about doing the sunflower shoot at some point. She literally didn’t remember our convo but was down. I try to repay my debts of those who have helped me out during these art journeys.
Fun Fact I use to volunteer at a church for a media team in 2014- 2017.
Jano you went to church?
Yea I know it is a wild concept. Back when I worked at Cotton field 5 I had trained someone. During the training I had told her that I was an artist and photographer, she suggested I be on her church’s media team. So I went with her 1 Sunday and met the team. One of who would be my supervisor and teacher for this arc. It was koolio for a while,but eventually I got tired of waking up early on Sundays and event photography got boring. The urge to learn to shoot people in a 1:1 on capacity took over and that is how we got this website a decade ago.
Wow, the concept of time just swallowed me up like Kirby.
Anyway my former supervisor had posted pictures of him in a sunflower field. I emailed him asking where did he shoot at and gave me the details. I relayed the information to my homegirl and we picked a day.
Oh what a day. I drove down there in what I refer to bum fuck Rock Hill.
I swear to fuck I hate Rock Hill, I swear to fuck my nigga I hate it.
Drove past the area I knew into the country. How Country was it Jano?
NIgga they had a HUGE Trump and Pence Flag flying in the stratosphere.
SHENINGANS!!!!! This was not a safe place.
My friends were on the way down there as they approiacehed I was still trying to figure out where the fuck was this field and a giant flag filled me with cream fear filling. Eventually I messaged my old supervisor details of the area, and I relayed it to my friends. Side note my google voice number stopped working because of lack of signal and I messaged them from my phone phone number.
Lets recap. 3 niggas in bum fuck rock hill, deep in the trenches of the country, with a huge flag supporting 2 racist white men in power.
Hey Google play This is America by Childish Gambino.
Eventually I figured the place out and my friends arrived. We walked into the field that was set on Broil. My nigga we might as well been on an oven sheet lined with aluminum foil. The Sunflowers drooped as we walked inward, we settled on a destination and maybe 10 mins in we said fuck this. My friends make up was melting off, we were all uncomfortable and decided for a later date. A random dude talked to us and at some point told us that the Sun’s broil setting was making the sunflowers droop the way they were.
Makes sense.
We headed to our cars and decided to pick a day in the fall, Late September Early October and dispersed. Side note I had grabbed a sunflower and I took it to my car……and somehow it disappeared.
At least 3 months pass.
I’m in Super Slave Season of Cottonfield 11, not knowing it would be the last 1 since it would shut down at the end of March. I knew it would shut down but I didn’t know the time frame. I contacted my homegirl and we picked a Saturday. We researched locations that had Sunflowers still at this time of year. Because super slave season was in effect in a cotton field with no signal and fatigue over took me when I Got home I didn’t have much time to research any thing. I found a place and was banking on it being worthwhile. The thought of carrying this project into the warm months of 2023 didn’t sit well with me since I already had a few that had yet to happen.
Side note, at this current time most of those projects have been completed now with only 2 remaining. It was 3 but I consolidated 2 ideas into 1.
YEEEEEET!!!
We all awoke early 1 Saturday morning 2 weeks prior to Halloween and headed to Carrigan Farms in Moorseville. I arrived first, texted my homeboy happy birthday as I waited. The area was vast but the sunflower fields were small areas that were alternated with another crop. A visual representation would be ABABAB..
But each area was big enough that it wasn’t a problem. We chose a field and went in. This was different from other outside shoots because I had limited vantage points to shoot from, but it wasn’t that much of a problem especially since I had a step stool. We were honestly out there for an hour at best, but as usual I snagged a lot of shots.
After that we grabbed Pizza from this place I had seen a bunch of times in Huntersville. It was very old school 1 part pizzeria, 1 part arcade. I had said I would go back but honesty forgot about it until right now as I type this. When it was over I went home and passed out. I actually didn’t get to work on the images until maybe mid November until super slave season ended. But then I had strep throat which was fun.
Anyway. Some images from this floral adventure can be found here.
Moral of the story, Paying back your homes will yield dope results. Or something like that.
And that’s it the last photo shoot of 2022. The rest of the year I spent coloring the last few issues of my book and I wouldn’t actually pick up my camera for a while. Not without effort though. My next photo issue will be similar to another issue
A Side Quest Interlude. None of the shoots were planned. worthy of being shared but none really are justified in a get a whole issue. Summer 2023 was prob the best summer I had since 2018. It was filled with peace, I saw homies I ain’t seen in a while, I was unemployed and worked on my book until my cpu fragged on me, and I got to sleep like a regular person until I started the fuckery of Cottonfield 12.
Pray for my freedom bro.
Jano out.
