Bartees Strange, ILU

Bartees & The Strange Fruit, a project of critically acclaimed musician and producer Bartees Cox, creates music as a conduit to surface stories about people of color and other life experiences. This was the cover for a surprise release on Valentines day 2018, and was the follow up to his acclaimed debut Magic Boy.

I played off the name of the project “Strange Fruit” which is a reference to the poem by Abel Meeropol/Lewis Allan written in 1937 as a protest against racism and lynchings of African Americans, and popularized in the song by Billie Holiday and later Nina Simone. The colors and blueberry imagery is meant to be light and innocent at first, but squished blueberry punctuating the statement and spread below give an eery, almost violent edge to the image. This reflects the subject matter of Bartees work—both being serious and intense at times, while light and exploratory at others.

Noah Aronson, More Love

In 2017, Noah Aronson, a Jewish spiritual composer and performer, asked me to create a live art installation as part of an event that would be used as the cover for his forthcoming album forthcoming More Love. The concept for the piece was to bring together community members on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a harvest holiday to celebrate and appreciate our bounties, and create a literal harvest of messages and symbols of love. With children and elders alike, we had an evening of singing, prayer, food, and art making. I was brought on to plan and lead the visual installation.

I created a design of the heart made with sacred objects and symbols of love and harvest, then used candles to write the words “more love”. Lighting candles is part of Jewish tradition and the holiday, so we used the installation as a ritual itself. I created the base of the piece, then as people participated, they placed their objects and messages of love, as I continued to shape the piece. I chose natural, warm colors that would reflect well with candlelight, representing love, connection, comfort in coming together.

View a behind the scenes video of the making.

BKyard Boogie

BKyard Boogie is a community bringing genuine & like-minded peoples together to connect, experience, & support local artists showcasing their crafts. It takes place as monthly event that gives platform to local performers, a dance party, and fundraiser for Building Beats, a program that empowers youth through music.

I’ve been a consultant for the project since its start in 2018, both giving strategic and design help. I created custom illustrations for event flyers and the main Boogie banner. I based these illustrations and designs off the real people who attend these events—the energy and fun they bring. For the banner I was given a mood board to work off that was heavily influenced by 90s graphic patterns and Keith Herring’s artwork. The art is meant to be dynamic and fun, like you can feel the “boogie” coming out of the visuals themselves.

Ahnest, Down with the ship

Ahnest! is the ongoing solo project of Syracuse based songwriter and front man of several well known upstate bands, Nick Burger. For his album Down With The Ship - Anchors In The Sky, I created a visual play by connecting the front and back covers as one image with flipped perspective. From the front, the ship floats at the top of water and a small figure looks to be swimming downward. From the back, you see the anchor of the ship is in the sky, with parachuters jumping from a plane to the front. I hand painted and illustrated this piece.