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Humorous Darkness: The Art of George Alexis

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You might know George Alexis from his show on WRIR, The Horsehead Nebula, but he’s also a visual artist whose work mixes a dark sensibility with odd humor. George Wethington spoke to Alexis to get a closer look at the unique mind that produces his intriguing, unusual art.

Context is everything. What does it mean to observe an artist? I’ll forgo the sanctified condescension of asking what an artist is. But I can’t forgo the need to contextualize the person I am speaking with. That thought was beneficial to me as I spoke with George Alexis, a visual artist in Richmond who has a refreshing and comedic style that is realist and often dark. Alexis may also be known around Richmond for a late-night black metal program he did for WRIR called The Horsehead Nebula, named for a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion.

The image of an artist is always removed from the original source of creation and inspiration. In the same way I must reduce an artist into words so you can have at least a fuzzy inclination of what they might be like, a smoothed residual image must be created by astronomers in order to study the vastness of a galaxy. That image is created by placing a two-dimensional window around pixels of light, and then averaging differences into a single pixel. With that in mind, I will put on my space suit to collect the images, provide a two-dimensional framework through which to perceive him, and together, we’ll figure out if these few pixels are enough to understand George Alexis. 

George Wethington: You are a visual artist and there are intrinsic things about your approach. One of those things is the balance between morbidity and humor, darkness and light. With that in mind, what were your formative cartoons?

George Alexis: Wow, that’s a good question.  I watched Ren and Stimpy for sure, plenty others that were relevant for a kid born in the early 90s. As far as formative cartoons go, we talked briefly before about things being residual. So, for me there was never like a one thing where I was like, “Ahh, that’s the one!” Instead, you look at everything years later, and say, “Oh, there’s a little bit of this, and this. There’s that, and that, and this.” And then you go back and look at something and say, “That’s cool.” But I didn’t see anything like that back then. 

GW: Absolutely.

GA: I think when I was younger, I really wanted Ren and Stimpy to be a formative experience for me. Not, like, when I was a kid watching, but when I was in my early 20s and late teens. But it wasn’t. [Laughs] You know, you want to make something like Ren and Stimpy, because for the time it was cutting edge, and edgy. You can’t force that stuff.

GW: Also, keeping in mind that it was hilarious.

GA: Aw, it was so funny dude.

GW: For me, seeing something like Ren and Stimpy when I was a kid, there was an aspect to the scenes that would be particularly grotesque, or just a little bit more over the top: there was this sense that I couldn’t pull away from it. Did you feel the same way as a child?

GA: I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Because when you’re a kid, there’s nobody to tell you that this was wrong or bad.

GW: Oh, your parents didn’t tell you that you couldn’t watch stuff like Ren and Stimpy?

GA: No. I guess that’s something to mention, that I was very uncensored as a kid. My dad gave me Alien and Predator to watch when I was under ten years old. I was always exposed to that stuff. I remember my mom made me watch the scene in Jurassic Park where the guy gets eaten on the toilet. I was old enough to comprehend and be scared by it. 

GW: So your parents were like, “Let the boy watch and understand.”

GA: Not even that. I just don’t think they cared. [Laughs] Both of my parents had to work, I had no one to watch me, other than babysitters and stuff like that. But their vested interest was simply getting bread on the table and making sure I didn’t burn the house down. I was unsupervised a lot. I got to go play outside a lot. I was also a pretty behaved kid. I didn’t do anything that necessarily warranted strict supervision.

GW: You were given this access to what could be somewhat jarring videos, movies, or cartoons and you internalized a little piece of each one that inspired you at the time, that you thought was cool. That’s pretty cool.

GA: I found some stuff scary, but it was tapping into the primal fear that little kids just have. There was an episode of a cartoon where they are afraid of a blanket under the bed because they think it’s a monster, and to me that was really scary. And it genuinely scared me, like I was legitimately afraid to watch it, but you look back on it now and it’s the least scary thing in the world.

GW: But at the time…

GA: Yeah. That’s what every kid feels, you know? Watching something like Ren and Stimpy… oddly enough, there wasn’t any fear there. It also didn’t occur to me that it was supposed to be ironically funny. To me, it was just a funny cartoon.

GW: Oh yeah, as a kid I did not catch the irony at all.

GA: I liked the “Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!” song because I like the crocodile-looking guys who sang it. That stuff appealed to me, but at no point did I look at it and think, “This is disturbing and I must know more.” It just wasn’t disturbing to me. Honestly, what is kind of funny is I still have that now. I don’t think the art I make is that disturbing. I don’t think it is that weird.

GW: The thing that I have noticed about your art, which is good that we are touching on a cartoon like Ren and Stimpy so heavily, is there is a darkness and a silliness there that exists right next to each other. I know there are plenty of cartoons that we would be able to reference that have this exact thing, but it drives me to the question: when did you feel comfortable imbuing darkness into your own art? Or was that always just a natural product, because you did not believe that there was anything wrong with it?

GA: I don’t think I ever had a moment where I was uncomfortable sharing my art, except for when I was in San Diego. I was working with a lot of artists at an art supply store, and I was very nervous to show them the art that I was making, because I wanted to make a good impression. That’s when I made the realization that maybe people didn’t see it the way that I saw it. Before that, I never really felt uncomfortable making weird shit because I didn’t care what people thought of me. I was incredibly self-conscious — you know, wondering if people liked me and all that. But it didn’t click to me that people would think my art was weird. I was like, “Nah, they’ll think I’m cool and edgy.” [Laughs] At no point until then was I worried if someone was going to be disturbed by it.

It was like, “I’m really worried about how unlikable I am. But this drawing of a piece of shit coming out of an asshole and talking and smiling and saying stuff, this is what’s gonna get people to like me!” It never occurred to me that that would be why people wouldn’t like me. It was always like: “This is my saving grace.” Not being a normal, social being, no; it’s going to be this gross weird shit, and people are gonna see it and go, “Oh wow, you make really cool art.”

GW: [Dying laughing] Get the guy who’s drawing poop coming out of a butthole over here now, let’s party! 

That is so interesting and a bit of a surprise to me. I guess when I was looking over the images I started to romanticize this tortured spirit who wanted to work his through adversities. 

GA: There is definitely anxiety there, and dark thoughts there, and all sorts of shit that is really harrowing. And really, just stuff where I’m glad I’m in a different place now. But it’s residual. I’m not necessarily conscious of those things as I create. Those things are there as I formulate ideas, but it is never until I’m more lucid that I harness anything like that in a focused way. 

GW: Right. Like I said, there is a desire to romanticize that process. I guess it is easier from my perspective to say that A+B happens, and C comes along. It is interesting to hear you say and articulate something that is definitively true of life, art, any other thing; it is never just one factor. There is no formula to it, you just make dark art that is also funny. 

GA: I think of my darker pieces kind of like clowns, in a way. I’m not big on clowns. I don’t draw clowns. They are funny, and friendly-seeming, but there is an implied deception. 

GW: That is very interesting, and I see what you are saying. Clowns get a bad rap though. After Stephen King, things got tough.

GA: And let’s not forget John Wayne Gacy.

GW: Ah yes, lest we forget.

GA: A lot of my darker images, the characters are all smiling. They’re maniacs. They are here with malevolent intentions. There is an implied invader aspect to all of them that creates this trepidation to see them. They are planning. They are conniving. 

I showed them to my therapist, and he said, “Well, they are all smiling, so it’s not too bad.” And I understand what he meant. On a primal level, I can’t create when I’m in that place with those characters. I have to have some level of warmth, or levity, or mirth to get going. A lot of people will romanticize the artistic process and say, “Oh, well you make the best work when you’re depressed.” 

GW: I think there is a line out there that says, “If everything was going well, who would want to write a song?” 

GA: Exactly, but at the same time, when everything is going well, that’s when you produce the song. You can write a song whenever you want; you can make an image whenever you want. I think there is a difference between simply expressing, and expressing in a more focused and structured way, and that’s hard to do when you’re depressed. When you get in a depressive episode, and you are that depressed, it’s hard to make shit. It’s hard to do anything. It’s hard to function.

GW: Yeah. If I’m depressed enough, you can call it a fucking day.

GA: Exactly. You don’t use those times to harness those things. Instead, you tend to sit there, or lie there, or not do anything and be completely unproductive. All my art is produced in a time of good mental health. 

GW: It sounds like the ideas are formulated for you at times in a time of darkness, but they are not able to be articulated until you have found your way out and into the light.

GA: Right. We’re always going to carry our baggage with us, so if you think of something dark, and you observe it, allow it to pass, you can harness it for later. There is a weird creature that I draw that kind of manifested as a symbol for this exact thing, my depressive episodes and their modes and stages. It’s this blobby guy that kind of looks like a hammerhead shark, which I think came along because hammerheads look dangerous but are inherently peaceful. I can’t say that’s for sure why they look alike though. 

GW: That is awesome. We talked about darkness and light. We mentioned silliness and the characters that you make. We spoke that some inspiration has come from a negative place, but the characters are produced in a non-threatening place in your mind. Is that from a darkness you feel the need to get a grip on, or was that something you were only made self-conscious of once you had to present it to San Diegans?

GA: Probably the latter. At the time I don’t think anything that I make is weird, because it is just self-expression. It just makes sense to me. And some of it, of course it’s weird, but why would anyone be weirded out by it? We consume all sorts of weird media. People love horror movies. Any of this stuff is common in horror movies.

GW: In terms of weird media, the news.

GA: [Laughs] Yeah, the news is not as smiley, it tends to be a little more doom and gloom. 

GW: To drive the point though, darkness is a part of life. It has been so interesting talking to you. At first, I thought you would be coming from a point of almost working your way out of a jail cell, using humor to do so. Instead, it has been this wellspring of intelligent human comedy that just has this dark aspect to it. It is cool to see how the human spirit can manifest itself in so many different ways and still find itself relatable. Some of the more out-there images you have are still something that can bring a smile to my face. 

GA: When I make these drawings, all I want to do is make a good drawing. I don’t think too much about the unpacking part. That comes much later. I start with forms and shapes, and develop those, and anything else is just the process of making the drawing more interesting from a compositional standpoint, if there is not enough there. You create a scene. If it is particularly dark, you create a character that is afraid, or a protagonist to have someone to relate to. You create contrast, and thus the story is told. 

GW: The smiles are really what makes it all so funny to me. Even if it is scarier, it doesn’t necessarily make you afraid.  

GA: Making it too scary wouldn’t make sense because once again, that’s what gets people to like me. [Laughs] Cognitively, I’m a likable enough guy, I have friends, and a healthy relationship. But deep down, I source some of my self-worth in these drawings. When the art is an extension of yourself, you never set out to make anything in one particular way. You just make something. It’s like speaking. We have our own vocal intonations. 

GW: You just talk.

GA: Exactly! I just talk. How do you pick your nose? I don’t know, I just pick my nose. That’s how it is with this stuff. I just make it. Now that I’m older and more developed, I understand how it can come off, but I just make it at this point. 

GW: You’re not imprisoned by darkness; weird things are cool. I think it’s the folly of anyone with a preconceived notion, to set out with a presupposed idea. It’s interesting to see how far off I was. You can’t put anyone inside of a box. 

GA: For me, it is the constant pursuit of making a drawing visually interesting. 

GW: You kill it when you do it. 

Images courtesy George Alexis

VA law requires mental health training for school counselors

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More than 20 percent of children in the U.S. have or have had depression or other serious mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Soon, school counselors in Virginia will be in a better position to help identify students with such problems. BeginningJuly 1, a new state law will require school counselors to receive more training in the recognition of mental health disorders and behavioral distress.

“Mental health can get better with intervention. Without identifying it, it will only get worse,” said Dr. Donna Dockery,the director of clinical practice in the counseling and special education department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Senate Bill 1117 was sponsored by two Democrats from Northern Virginia – Sen. Jeremy McPike of Prince William County and Del. Vivian Watts of Fairfax County. It states that anyone “seeking initial licensure or renewal of a license with an endorsement as a school counselor shall complete training in the recognition of mental health disorder and behavioral distress, including depression, trauma, violence, youth suicide, and substance abuse.”

The law strengthens the Virginia Department of Education’s existing regulations for school counselors. Dockery said it’s important that counselors be able to recognize the signs of mental illness.

“We treat the physical pain; let’s treat the mental pain,” she said.

Dockery said young people today often have a lot of anxiety and must deal with traumatic events. With the help of counselors and families recognizing these situations, students can get the help they need.

McPike’s legislative assistant, Devin Cabot, said that under the new law, the state will establish guidelines for the mental health training that school counselors must complete.

“We are very focused on the new trends of bullying and teen suicide,” Cabot said.

In the past, Cabot said, school counselors in different school districts might have received different training. McPike’s legislation will provide a more uniform approach, she said.

Local school officials are taking measures to educate themselves about the new law.

Chris Whitley is the public information officer for Hanover County Public Schools. Hanover school officials are waiting on guidance from the Virginia Department of Education before moving forward, Whitley said.

School districts will be affected by more than a dozen bills that were approved by the General Assembly during its 2017 session and signed into law by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

The Virginia Department of Education is working to ensure that school divisions are aware of the new laws.

One Month After Bourdain’s Death, We Still Won’t Talk About Mental Health

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I could just barely reach our countertop when my father started teaching me how to cook. Chef celebrity culture quickly became a thing in the late 90s, and my father used it to his advantage to teach me how to cook what we saw on our television. We started working on proper knife skills after we read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential for the first time in 2000.

Bourdain was forever brutally honest about his struggles with addiction, and never sugar coated his experiences. As a chef who worked with immigrants, he was vocal about their rights, and openly acknowledged that the Latinx community was the physical backbone of the service and hospitality industries. Kitchen Confidential not only made him a household name, but helped tear down what he coined “kitchen bro culture” and reformed kitchen procedures in restaurants.

In his later years he became an extremely vocal ally to the #MeToo movement by refusing to just stand idly by colleagues, such as Mario Batali, who were called out on their despicable behavior. He demanded other men be better allies to women, while simultaneously dissecting his own role and how he himself could be a better ally to women.

He was a man who grew up with privilege and was aware of it, but understood that he could and should use it to others’ advantage. He made it his mission to find the everyman and eat where he ate, while getting to know him better and ask about his life and how he saw the world. He was one of the few people who made it a point to intentionally go to Muslim communities with the purpose of tearing down stereotypes Americans kept. He knew that fear of the unknown was the most dangerous of all.

Bourdain lived to start conversations.

It’s darkly appropriate that as a final goodbye, Bourdain also started one last conversation. Will America ever take mental health seriously? I want to be positive and say maybe one day, but I’m also the pessimist in the room who vehemently and loudly argues otherwise, with a scowl etched across her face.

Like Bourdain, celebrated fashion designer Kate Spade passed the same week and the social media outreach contained the usual platitudes.

“Well, you know you can all talk to me! Just reach out!”

“Make sure you call a hotline!”

“If you only said something!”

It all regurgitates the same very dangerous and unhelpful trend of victim blaming that our culture has become disgustingly comfortable with. The blame is always shifted onto the victim instead of anywhere (not anyone) else. For years and years, it was focused on the rhetoric that demonized these people as selfish instead of clearly in need of help.

Mental health is a complicated, enigmatic concept. We’re told from the start that it’s okay to be vulnerable, to reach out for help or reassurance, but as soon as you do, you’re put down for being “weak” or “needy”.

Human beings need help sometimes. A lot of the time.

We struggle to accept that sometimes, horrible things happen. We’re quicker to cherry pick things that we think we can argue are more in our realm of control, like addictions or depression and anxiety. Any viral Facebook meme will tell you that the key to curing depression is a walk in the park and a baby corgi. Unfortunately it isn’t that simple nor easily wrapped up.

If someone tells you they have cancer, they are quicker to be supported and have people actively reach out to check on their well-being. If someone tells you they have depression, the reach out is a lot more sporadic, if at all, and sometimes met with a, “Well, I’m here if you need something.” We tend to look at things like depression as things we can control, so when people who supposedly “have it all” end their life, it is usually met with anger or confusion, whereas if they had cancer, it would have been nothing but sadness.

Bourdain was also proof that despite what we choose to believe, depression and addiction are not prejudiced. Mental illness doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, male or female, or where you are, it just grabs you. It just holds on like a demon on your back sinking its claws into your flesh. It just holds on.

The phrase that gets listlessly thrown around is, “We need to do better.” We need to stop saying it and just do it, because at this point, the phrase means nothing. We have to stop saying things and actively be better for our friends, family, and peers. And we have to do so much more than just obligatory check ins.

We live in a society where we refuse to allow people to be vulnerable. The gut reaction and answer when someone asks, “Hey, you doing okay?” is,“Yeah, I’m fine.” We’re not fine, though.

The only way to really support each other is by forming actual, meaningful relationships with the people around you. If we form these true connections with each other, we’ll find that we get actual, honest, bloody answers. The next time someone asks how we’re doing, we might actually respond with the phrase we so desperately want to use: “You know, not that great. Can we talk about it?”

It’s not enough anymore to be half-assed allies to each other in order to gain metaphorical gold stars and brownie points with each other. We’re losing each other and we have to make it stop. We have to shut down the stigma around mental illness, and we have to start doing it now.

In 2016, over 45,000 suicides occurred in the United States, was double the number of homicides that year. The number is significantly more staggering in rural states, such as North Dakota, where the number rose to 57 percent. Nevada, however, had record a decline of 1 percent.

Suicide is now the tenth leading cause of death overall in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I think this gets back to what do we need to be teaching people — how to manage breakups, job stresses,” said Christine Moutier, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in an interview with The Washington Post. “What are we doing as a nation to help people to manage these things? Because anybody can experience those stresses. Anybody.”

Moutier maintained that suicide can be addressed, if we can end the stigma around mental health. “If you think of [suicide] as other leading causes of death, like AIDS and cancer, with the public health approach, mortality rates decline,” Moutier said. “We know that same approach can work with suicide.”

With all that said, we may be at least on the right track. This past Sunday, New York and Virginia were the first two states to require mental health education in schools. Virginia’s law will require that mental health education be included in the ninth and tenth grade physical education and health curricula.

Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds is who we have to thank for sponsoring Virginia’s bill. He was inspired by listening to a presentation by Albemarle County high schoolers in 2017, and the death of his son, Gus Deeds. Gus died by suicide in 2013 after he was released by a hospital because there were no open psychiatric beds anywhere in the western part of the state.

“I was impressed by [the high schoolers’] thoughtfulness, because a lot of these young people had seen bullying. They had seen depression. They had seen classmates that had died by suicide,” Deeds said in an interview with CNN. “It’s part of tearing down the stigma and providing some equality with those that struggle with mental health.”

Deeds’ legislation is a good start, but it won’t be enough on its own. Talking about suicide and mental illness is difficult, but we can’t get past the stigma if we don’t. I don’t have all of the answers and I don’t know anyone who does, but what I do know is that we need to start doing better for ourselves, and for each other.

J. Cole’s Song “FRIENDS” is the Soundtrack For Life Right Now

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J. Cole’s newest album KOD, meaning Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed or Kill Our Demons (however you decide to interpret it), touches on depression, anxiety, and addiction in today’s society – all topics we tend to sweep under the rug. Yet with this new album, Cole has introduced a conversation that we must talk about whether we want to or not.

FRIENDS is the standout track on the KOD album, which he performed on the BET Award Show last night. From the very beginning, he spit some real shit; there is something about the first 30 seconds that determines if you really gonna rock with it or not.

“But I’m aggravated without it
My saddest days are without it
My Saturdays are the loudest
I’m blowing strong
Some niggas graduated with powder
I dabble later, I doubt it”

These are the first few bars of the opening verse, one that many people overlook, because they don’t realize how closely related we are to the lyrics he is dropping.

Many people say they would never even think about taking harder drugs, but it becomes common than we think as music listeners become shaped by lyrics. Every day, we watch and listen to rappers brag about the money they have, they women they get, and the drugs they are abusing. We must be careful about what we ingest, literally in our bodies and through music, because although we want to say it doesn’t, these things influences us.

Think about it. No one was really ‘sippin lean’ (a cough syrup cocktail) until it became a trend in our music, and no one was into molly or pills until artists started talking about them in their songs.

College students become exposed to everything. We’ve all wandered around at that college party and accidentally ended up in a private room where the ‘real party’ is–kids hanging in a circle with their drug of choice. There are plenty of people who wake up and have to smoke weed–without it they’re hella moody and unproductive. They can’t go to class, work, or sleep without it.

Often times, society becomes content with its habits toward drugs, thinking they have it under control. It’s just good fun. But in reality, we are just a generation of functional drug addicts, no matter your vice, whether its weed, pills, or lean.

Then here we are watching our ‘friends’ fall into this trap. I think many people forget that college doesn’t last forever, and these habits just don’t disappear after graduation.

“But fuck that now I’m older I love you ’cause you my friend
Without the drugs I want you be comfortable in your skin
I know you so I know you still keep a lot of shit in
You running from yourself and you buying product again
I know you say it helps and no I’m not trying to offend
But I know depression and drug addiction don’t blend”

People on Twitter complain about how depression and mental illness are the major ignored problems in the black community, but those same people sit and watch the people around them suffer, not saying a word. Pointing the finger is useless, because we are all guilty. The topic of addiction and mental illness is something all generations may not know how to approach without offending someone, or being made to feel like we are invading their privacy. 

Real friends know when their friends are suffering whether they decide to speak up or not. Like J Cole says, we watch our friends wallow and move like robots, just going through the motions and as soon as class is dismissed, they smoke or drink their problems away.

We have to stop and speak up, because sooner or later mental health problems are going to catch up with all of us, consciously or not. It could be watching your friends ‘graduate to powder’ (cocaine), or becoming suicidal.

Let me be clear, I’m not blaming anyone, or suggesting that if you ‘spark the jay’ (marijuana), you’re wrong and will become an addict. If you want to smoke, do it, but recognize when the drugs become a problem and dependence is built.

Ask yourself: Is there a deeper problem? Am I running from something?

If you’re going to be a friend, then be a friend. Stop allowing your friends to enter this downward spiral of depression and drug addiction. Call your friends out on their shit before it’s too late.

Love,

An OG J. Cole fan

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Local pop punk band hopes to reach ‘damaged kids’ with new clothing line

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“I really wanted to be that bridge to the idea of hope,” said Oliver Bierman, lead singer of local pop-punk outfit Broadside, who described his own issues with depression and anxiety when he was growing up.

He remembered honing in on bands as a teenager and how their music helped him deal with his own emotional issues. Taking inspiration from these memories, Bierman hopes his work with Damaged Kids, his fledgling clothing line, will allow for more personal and direct communication with his fans.

“I am living proof that you can push through anything that you put your mind to,” said Bierman. Bierman is using Kickstarter to begin his new clothing line, Damaged Kids. The line will bring awareness and raise money for the causes of teen depression and anxiety.

The Kickstarter, which began a few weeks ago, is asking for $1200 to help begin the line. Designs are mocked up on the crowdfunding page and stickers have been ordered. Bierman said he turned to Kickstarter because he couldn’t get the money himself.

“Being someone who just works a daytime pizza job, I couldn’t just pull it out of pocket. I couldn’t make it really come alive,” said Bierman. “But if you stand behind something like Kickstarter, it really gives you the opportunity to reach out to people so that they can have a piece of something so they can build it with you.”

He also said he has looked into other ways of getting the money needed to begin the line if the Kickstarter fails to meet its goal. He also stressed that the line isn’t a front for anything.

“Every penny of the $1200 I ask will be used for the initial costs. This isn’t me being a broke band dude saying ‘give me money’!” Bierman laughed. “I just can’t do it all myself, it’s something I need a crowd to help me out in the best way that they can.”

Bierman is in contact with various charity groups to donate some of the money from the Kickstarer fund raising. But he said Kickstarter’s rules were unclear as to what he could list on the crowdfunding page.

Bierman said the concept behind Damaged Kids comes from the idea that those suffering aren’t totally broken, and can still get help. He believes those he reaches with his music can relate to the message and will hopefully throw some money behind his cause.

“I just really wanted to take the idea of [how] right now it feels like the end, but it’s not. You’re just damaged, not broken,” he said.

Bierman said that even when he is traveling the country on tour, the line won’t be neglected, because he is building a staff here of people he trusts.

He said he would keep up with the line’s social media, and that he balances his many projects because can’t sit still for very long. Bierman said that “if there was a way I could just open up my head and pour coffee in, I would.”

His central motivation here, however, is to give back: “I really wanted to take that word ‘damaged’ and say we are damaged and we are hurt and we are bruised and we are isolated and afraid and anxious but that’s what we as a collective are. I wanted to take that word and shine light on it.”

Check out Bierman’s kickstarter page here.