ok lets face it

I really blow at blogging, just flat out the worst.

Alot of cool stuff has happened since Freaks Ball XI so im going kinda just dilly dally around and tell ya about it because I have 34 minutes left here at work and if i dont do something im going to go bonkers.

This means pictures will probably be lacking...but thats ok, becuase we have updated JessMessin.com and pictures to all of these events are in there!

Also, I lost my phone, AGAIN...yeyea, i know what you are thinking...so with that went alot of dope pictures.

So, use your imaginations and go back in time with me.

So since Freaks Ball i displayed 3 paintings with Michael Weintrob at Brooklyn Bowl (man I love that venue) and showed my first Stage Drop ever with the killer band TRAGEDY at the Mass MoCA- thats the Massachucetts Museum of Creative Arts...i mean thats CRAZY right?

Both of these events were big milestones in the world of JessMessin. 

It was a year ago that I was at Brooklyn Bowl for the first Soulive Residency ever, aka BOWLIVE.  I went with my friend Kathleen and in my Brooklyn Lager haze i repeatedly told her that within a year I would have my art work displayed on the Wythe Wall some way, some how.

It took 12 months, and the birth of the Weintrob/Pfohl Pop Rock Posters to make that happen.  I took 3 of Michael's photos from Bowlive 1 and blew them up and painted them...you know how we roll by now.
One of the paintings is now permenatly installed backstage at Brooklyn Bowl, one we auctioned off...and the other is probably rolled up in MWs loft somewhere...

Not only was accomplishing one of my goals a huge ordeal...MW and I were the first artists ever to be showcased on the Wythe Wall.  BITCHIN!  much love goes out to the crew at the Bowl for allowing that :)

pictures can be found under EVENTS>Bowlive

then about 3 weeks later i rode the rails up to Albany, New York to meet up with TRAGEDY, the #1 All-Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees.  This trip was one of those most perfect rock n roll experiences ever...short but insanely sweet.

Oh yea, if you dont know anything about Mass MoCA...its a huge deal.  The place is gynormous and the art is insanely cool.  They specialize in LARGE installations and catalogue all sorts of artists...from dead and super famous to the "hunh? who?"s of the world.  So for me, this was like an insane opportunity.  This great band that I somehow one day made a stage drop for was playing in a museum and were hanging the drop too. 

So, in my head...I had a painting hanging in a major museum!!!! even if it was for one night.  So i made sure my ass was gonna be there.

It was one of those trips you dont even pack for...like I woke up threw my toothbrush in my bag and split...


I first cruised up to New York City then hooked a train to Albany (on which i met two super dope guys Wade and Spencer who had Coronas in their backpacks)  then my lady friend from college (who i hadnt seen in 5 years) picked me up! So rad! She and her boyfriend then drove me the hour and 10 minutes to the Mass MoCA.

We got to North Adams and quickly found a spot with some dope IPAs and some solid meat...im talkin killer steak...i knew i needed to pudge up, because if i have learned ANYTHING while rocking to Tragedy...is that no matter how hard you try, how much you carboload...you leave shitfaced...


And even though i prepared I still left shitfaced.  But the show was bitchin, naturally! And the drop looked great, and it was the first time i had seen the band since we debuted the drop in November.  After the show was over my friends and I split...not far down the road i got probably one of the greatest text messages of my life.  So great I saved it...then lost my phone.

"Mass MoCA wants to keep the drop, so I gave it to them, they are installing it their main room"

me: "haha very funny"

"No, seriously YOU ARE IN A MUSEUM"

me: ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS

"yes."

this is when i pretty much lost it.  I was listerally walking into a bar at this point where I made a total ass of myself and freaked out.  Then I went outside for about 25 minutes to collect myself.  Then I celebrated with a dance party.

Fairly typial Jess! behavior really...

so, the next morning I had to shake off one of the best rock n roll nights of my life (thus far...and probably very high on the list forever).  So naturally, i got my post rock show milkshake on...mmmmmm

then i hightailed it back to Baltimore like a pro...reading Playboy on the train next to a very rude hasidic jew couple and a ridiculously loud baby.  It was awkwardly awesome.

Then like anyone else, i went home, tucked myself in and went to sleep with a smile.

(you can see this stage drop under TRAGEDY on JessMessin.com or AT THE MASS MOCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! booooyowwwwwwwwwwwww)  -thanks TRAGEDY for one of the best memories ever!

HELL YEA, its 5 oclock peace out!

FREAKS BALLXI

as i sit here watching some crappy tv show about a creative-young-fake-red-headed lady trying to make it in new york city, i figured i would write this blog instead of fighting off flashbacks of my post grad years...so here we go...

my latest project that showed at Brooklyn Bowl this past Friday was inspired by two very dedicated music followers and their mongers, the Freaks.  Aaron Stein and JR Hevron have, for 11 consecutive years, put on a night of kickass music that has withstood snowstorms and venues changes while always promising to be a drunken night full of laughter, fun and dancing.

I started attending Freaks Ball a year after I became a permanent NYC resident, and I remember actually flying in from San Fran, just in time to make the Freaks Ball VIII at Southpaw.  I actually was running late, naturally and recall running into rock photog Ted Wong on the subway as i was hauling my luggage to Union Square to store it at my wateringhole at the time...ok the whole point of this story was I get out to Southpaw and the fuckers sold out, the line is around the block to get in...and i finagle my way in by helping the bartender hold a parking spot...i get inside just as the American Babies are leaving the stage and I recall giving Tommy shit about not waiting for me, i told him to replay Swimming At Night...needless to say, that didnt happen...ok...Bustle in your Hedgerow was the headliner that year, and i just remember standing there holding a beer watching these people go nutsballz over this music, and i knew that i immediately was in the company of people who took this shit really seriously.  and i really liked that.

So, I have attended every year since, and every Freaks Ball since has had an amazing memory.  Nine was the first time I saw RANA.  Ten was held in Sullivan Hall and my Freddies were on display and this year, Eleven, proved to be extroidonary..and this is how that happened.

The Freaks List has been very supportive of my art-rock projects since the launch of JessMessin, and i thought it would be really kick-ass to thank them by creating something for this years event.

So after some chitchats I sketched up an idea that I thought would work, and lucked out that the first thing i sent, they were into...and considering i had 2 weeks to complete the 25 foot piece, that was a relief.

so, i sent them this sketch:

and the guys approved it, and SIXPOINT Brewery jumped on board and the deal was done, so i got to work, and purchased the plastic vinyl and built the drop in my studyo!, 9 ft by 25 feet.

then drew out the design on a massive scale and got to painting...

 

i made 2 adjustments to the sketch, adding the Sixpoint brewery to the left side and Brooklyn Bowl to the right, to make the piece event and year specific.

then, once it was painted i thought it looked like a box of crayola crayons and it wasnt badass enough.  so i sgot in touch with RELIX Magazine, and they sent me a bunch of issues, which I then neon spray painted and collaged ontop of the flat paint.

then i printed the Sixpoint Stars and Brooklyn Bowl logo on 3M sticker paper, cut them out and stuck them to the drop.



then i still thought it needed more, so i set out on an adventure to find as many mirrors as i need to make the letters glisten, which ended up to be only at one amazing place called Hobby Lobby, where they happen to be on sale, so i bought 1200 of them.

then i individually placed each one, in a very scientific OCD pattern, which ended up not fucking mattering for shit, this is me going back around and gluing them down...

my manager Jay came the night it was finished with really classy champagne...here we are, laying on the drop, this is the 12th straight day of work, so im totally losing it by this point...

by 3am the drop was finished after loading it up with glitter, extra rhinestones and glitter spray...i very happily rolled it up and put it in my car.

so my pal ray and i hung it on a chain link fense and took photos of it, heres a shot from the shoot...



then he edited it, created one full image, which i sent off to Sixpoint to be made into posters...

so i packed it up, got it on the train thanks to a red cap, and arrived in beautiful manhattan on Friday, February 4th.  Took it to Brooklyn Bowl for load in where my friend Max and I installed it, while Some Cat From Japan soundchecked.

i ran back to my buddies place threw on my dress and made it back to the Bowl in time to snack on some Salmon and sign/number 150 posters. 

after that it was party time! heres some pictures taken by Kathleen Donnelly and Jen Berstein throughout the evening.

JR Hevron, Myself and Aaron Stein

 me taking a bow while Aaron says "for everyone asking this is who did this, talk to her!!"

With headliners, El Ten Eleven

 and friends, Some Cat From Japan

this past weekend was by far one of the most fun i have ever had.  i highly recommend downing some SIXPOINT SWEET ACTION beer, visiting BROOKLYN BOWL, listening to WOLF! (Scott Metzger, John Shaw and Taylor Floreth), SOME CAT FROM JAPAN (on this particular evening: Will Bernard, Ron Johnson, Scott Metzger, Tony Mason, Jason Crosby and Corey Glover), and El Ten Eleven (Kristian Dunn, Tim Fogarty) and asking to join the NYC FREAKS LIST, its a yahoo group...if you can figure out how to do it, you deserve to be there....and if not, FREAKS BALL is always in FEBRUARY in or around NEW YORK CITY, so if you want to become apart of the group...keep an eye out for the party.

Love, Jess!