I got the opportunity to display some artwork and speak at a showcase and fundraising event put on by Heartland Arts KC. I had plans in mind on what I wanted to create and present, but I was nudged by an old idea crossing with a new one, as well as… the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

You see, a while back (late 2020) I was playing with a compass and drawing some circles (as one does). This page had no idea what it was in for when I was just drawing circles and lines… and I didn’t either.

I can’t remember if I went in with the intention of doing an ouroboros or not, but the hourglass was definitely found along the way, as well as the woven ribbons and negative/positive space illusion.

At the time I loved the idea, but never followed through with any applications. I remember multiple occasions where I stumbled back across it in my notebook and danced with the idea again, only to eventually rebury it in the folds of a tracing paper pad.

Fast forward: 2023.

A mutual artist friend gives me his leather jacket to paint on. I teeter between “hmm what should I do on this jacket” and *jacket is out of sight and therefor does not exist* for almost a year. Friend wants the jacket back. I say “wait give me one more month bro trust me”. Painted the jacket. Hip hip hooray we all celebrate and share candy and exchange crisp high fives.

[the jacket in question]

I really enjoyed that project. I have done LOTS of screen printing, and always appreciated clothing as a canvas that walks around. I hadn’t done anything to a garment in a while and it scratched an itch. I dropped the jacket off on a Sunday morning after poorly babysitting it for 11 months, and got a nudge to see if I could find another leather canvas to play with. City Thrift gifted me with a clean, genuine leather jacket that fit me perfectly in exchange for $25 (fuck yea).

I played with the idea of doing a chiefs design on it and doing some kind of raffle for it, along with other ideas. I went through my archive box and pinned a few drawings to my wall. The snake spoke to me once again and I gave it red and blue. It didn’t pick a side, and instead hid in the void between. I taped the transparency paper that held this invigorated symbol to the wall above my desk, and it spoke louder than before.

the red exists within the blue

the blue exists within the red

forever

chained together

I reside between the two

at war

“my team is better than your team”

she said, even though she didn’t care

he disagreed but acted cool

snake bite snake bite

After playing with the design in photoshop, I realized that the red and blue works best on white. The colors of leather paint I had wouldn’t quite be what I wanted on a black jacket, so the snake was still yet to find a fitting home. I showed some friends and family the design, which is always a good way to elicit conversation and discussion on an idea and its potential applications. This iteration resonated with almost everyone I showed, and the snake spoke new ideas to new eyes.

Around this time, a group of artists that I am part of was planning a showcase/fundraiser for the organizer’s non-profit organization. We would each get time to present, whether it was visual or performance art, with the goal of soliciting donations from the audience. I had a plan to present some digital art that I was working on, and to talk about how I was able to use AI to bring motion to an old series of work. AI didn’t generate the art, but instead generated the code that then generated the art.

This was the plan, and what I was working on until the end of the Super Bowl halftime show. Kendrick has always been a favorite of mine. His work changed the way I view music and art in general. He achieves so much depth that you don’t see very often in mainstream music. Since before the ‘beef’, I saw Kendrick as a symbol of the pure Artist, while Drake was a totem of the opposite end of the spectrum. A manufactured character that acts as a business. To me, that is what the performance was really about. Not a beef between two musicians, but two perspectives. The symbolic play with American motifs in combination with the already existing war between Kendrick and Drake made for a mind blowing show.

Even though the Chiefs were half-way through the ass whooping of the decade, I was satisfied after the Halftime performance. My mind was spinning, and I had great conversations about it as the rest of the game went on.

When I got home, I saw the snake again and it danced as though the halftime show was ancient knowledge. I finally knew what to do.

“INFINITE WAR”

“AS ABOVE, SO BELOW”