#100DaysofTeabagArt | Day-52 | Columbus Kicks | Jeff Abraxas Pen and Ink, watercolors, and gouache on used Giant Eagle Black Tea When I work on art, I try to bring some of my faculties together. I create, talk to people, do deep research digs and find discussions on online story threads to construct a narrative, bring my understanding and stories to tell a cohesive story in the most efficient and easily consumable way possible. But sometimes, like today, I come up empty… …because one had to have been at a place and time to KNOW and experience that narrative. I have been in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood a bunch of times, just drawing away and trying to understand the neighborhood because that’s how I learn of cities and its people. I love understanding places and communities, and what that teaches me about the transient nature of a space and the underlying strength or story of the community there that drives change, what the external drivers are, so and so forth. In that process, I have seen Abraxas’s art next to Lincoln theatre too, and while I was able to appreciate it as an artist, I lacked an understanding of what it meant to the community to have that there. I have only been here for four years, I don’t know about it. The intensity of how much THAT ART IN THAT SPACE meant to the community only revealed itself to me when y’all started posting about it when the demolition happened. That’s when it struck me. YOUR STORIES will be beyond anything I feel or viscerally understand and that is why I have no narrative or story for you here…because I don’t know enough about this to even talk about it. What I do know is that you know…and I’d love it if you could tell me why this space meant so much to you. Why did Jeff mean so much to you? What did this art in this space at this particular time represent? What was the process, what’s the history, how do you feel? Tell me all that I don’t know and if that in any way to could be a salve or a happy reflection or just pure venting about the loss that this has been to the community, it’s a little something that we can all do together. Keep the faith. <3 #Day53 #JeffAbraxas #teabagartwork (at King-Lincoln Bronzeville) https://www.instagram.com/p/By-g-d_jUB3/?igshid=sq4iyx2fuzuy
