ARTMOM

My mom gave birth to me illegally. She trusted herself over the hospital so I was born in a small rental in Ventura, my placenta buried under an orange tree in the backyard. When I went to California for college we stopped by the house and the tree had doubled in size.

Mom's (spaghetti) head as served by mom's hands.

I was raised to trust myself, with no limitation on who I might become. My mom has said that the day before I was born she felt a presence and after I was born she realized that presence was me. She has always been a great listener and her psychic ties to my brother and I have only deepened in the absence of umbilical chords.

Aunt Heather on Left, Kiddo mom in center.

I have a lot of reasons to brag about having a cool mom. She was a punk who ran "The Hungry Parasite" cafe and was a budding classic film scholar. My brother and I recently found out that she used to longboard everywhere, adding to her history of cool points.

One of my mom's studies of a rusty pan, on a huge canvas.

When she was younger my mom would cook and clean for her little sister and my grandma who was a working single parent. My mom has always been a nurturing force, taking in many of mine and my brother's friends. Recently, one supremely cool musician kid who is homeless right now has been staying with us. My mom says: "I wish that I had enough energy and money to take in all of the homeless kids, give them beds and dinner, and then breakfast in the morning." She wants to create a program for homeless teens that is partially run by the kids themselves.

Every day around 4:00PM my mom has a guttural instinct to ponder dinner (including a vegan option). In a recent facebook post she mentioned her favorite cooking blog (Thug Kitchen): "This is my favorite blog. I don't need his fucking recipes, because I fucking cook like this every fucking night. I just thought I'd share this shit with you."

 (pic of fam @ my gradu8sion. Dad behind camera)

One of the recent badass things my mom has done is to write "Fuck the Police" in a fancy script over our fireplace.

My mom lives her life as art, and is also an artist by trade. Dropping out of high school and then Jr. College because they were so moronic, my mom later built her business with the fearlessness, and nurturing creativity that define her.

For mother's day my mom made my grandma a mix saying: "Her mind will be blown, if she can stand to listen to it. The title is: ARTMOM. I made it for her to listen to while she works in her dark room. It's her job to swallow quietly, smile sweetly, and tell me how much she enjoyed all the weird shit that I love so much and tried to share with her. But maybe she'll really like it!"  Lucky for me my mom is the ARTMOM.