Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

“Ronn Spencer, Rhododendron, North Carolina” © 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Ronn Spencer, Rhododendron, North Carolina” © 2021 58 inches tall.

 

Price: $175, shipping included in the price. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

Ronn and I have know each other for over 20 years. He is a exceptional photographer, radio personality and graphic designer. I'm not talking out of school when I say he's been fighting Parkinson's for a very long time, and frankly, has lived longer than any of us expected, including himself. But he doesn't get a wall piece because he's the real deal when it comes to being an artist. He gets a stick because Ronn (and Blake too, his girlfriend) are kind, smart and generous people, in more ways than most people know. Or maybe people in Sante Fe do know. I hope so. I love him dearly and I hope he outlives us all.

I truly adore this man.

Fun fact: The top of this stick looks like Ronn's head or at least it does to me. And this stick has breasts. I know. Most, if not all of my wall pieces don't. Since Ronn is an amazing photographer of nudes and natural beauty, I thought he would like that.

Second fun fact: Ronn, 20 years ago, coined a name for the type of artists both of us are.

"The New Beauticians"

It means that artists like us are looking for beauty in many things; music, images, people, words. The phrase never took off, but I wish it had.

#ronnspencer, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

 

Images from the Winter of 2020.

"Shiprock Infrared, New Mexico" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks [Shot with real live Ilford Infrared film, using my medium format Rollei]

"Saguaro At Sunset, Gate's Pass, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. [Taken from high above.]

"Pilot Mountain In Fog, North Carolina" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. [It's not special that Pilot is in fog. Happens all the time. But it's special to me. I'm new to this land.]

"Cottonwood Trees, Near Dudleyville, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. [Something about the whiteness of these trees.]

"South of Solstice Rock, Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. [Taken just after I did my annual solstice prayers.]

"God's Eye Tree (Red Oak), McCorkle Place, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Where we kissed, by an ancient stone wall on the Virginia/North Carolina Line," (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Abajo Mountain Hoop Dance, Utah" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Four Trees, Happy Jack, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Peter the Sexton, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. (Peter led me upstairs, a few years ago, to help me shoot the photograph of the Virgin Mary that he holds in his hands. I brought him a print of Mary as a thank you, a couple of weeks ago. A very sweet man. A true man of God.)

"Christ at Bethesda (Detail), by Jean Restout, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Walk With Light, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. (Brett Deal, what you said was true back in 1979.)

"A Trailer Fire, Winkleman, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. [Shit happens, sometimes in a very quick and awful way.]

"Wasp Nest and Christmas Ball, The Jenks Residence, Greensboro, North Carolina" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks. [Mark, from across the way, convinced me to not knock down this nest. Glad he did. It's a beautiful structure]

"Handmade Christmas Ball, The Jenks Residence, Greensboro, North Carolina" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Stronghold Dream, Cochise's Stronghold, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Lipan Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Elk Tracks In Snow, Coconino County, Arizona" (c) 2020 Stu Jenks.

"Happy To Be Hiking With My Wife, Uwharrie National Forest, North Carolina" (c) 2020 Alexa and Stu Jenks. [I'm typing this on January 22nd, 2020 in Tucson, Arizona. Alexa is in Greensboro, North Carolina. I'm here. I miss her madly. The good news is she misses me terribly too. True love is a wonderful thing, a precious thing, but sometimes it hurts like hell.]

 

Fezziwig Press' 2018 Premium Fine Art 13" x 19" Print Sale

It's Summer and time for a print sale. All images in this post are 13" x 19" premium fine art prints, printed on archival papers using archival inks, signed and printed by me. If left out of direct sunlight, these prints will not fade for at least 100 to 200 years. $125.00, shipping included. (Retail through my art reps would be $250.00 and above per print.) Click on this link to go to my online store to order your prints.

Many more images are for sale than are shown in this post. These are just the ones that are bagged and boarded for immediate sale. Contact me via email if you are interested in other prints from my portfolio.

Thanks for your continued support of my work. Your purchases help keep me alive and well. Thank you.

Stu.

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation at Tohono Chul Park

As part of the Dia De Los Muertos show at Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation is up and ready to go. The opening is Thursday, August 24 at 5:30 p.m.. The show runs until November 8th. Thanks so much to James and Karen for allowing me to be part of this show.

And this post goes out to all those folk who live outside of Southern Arizona, so you all can see and enjoy the piece too. To read the artist's statement for the piece, just click on this link.

Again, thank you everyone for your financial and emotional support this summer. It's been a tough one for me and for many. You all have helped more than you know.

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation (2012-2017)

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation (2102-2017) by Stu Jenks.

This installation will be part of the upcoming Dia de los Muertos show at Tohono Chul Park, in Tucson, Arizona from August 24th, until early November. I am thrilled to bring this installation to the world for the very first time at Tohono Chul. Many thanks to James Schaub and Karen Hayes for making it all possible.

 

        My sister Pamela Jenks has been dead six years now. Died of breast cancer at age 62. I miss her. Not all the time, but from time to time. I certainly don’t miss the selfish, mean, loud drunk she was most of her adult life, but I surely miss the considerate, kind, loving woman she became the last six months before she died. Thanks, Pamela, for being the sister I always wanted to have, those last few weeks.
        From soon after Pamela’s death in 2011 to the present, I’ve been taking my sister’s toddler rocking chair hither and yon. Due to her alcoholism and her general fear of the big bad world, Pamela Jenks was a virtual shut-in the last couple of decades of her life, living in my family’s falling-down old home place in Raleigh, North Carolina. I first took Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair out and about, when I drove it and me to my sister’s grave in rural Virginia in 2012. Since then, with only a few breaks, I’ve photographed the PBRC all over the place, from the streets of New York City, to the hills of San Francisco, from the wilds of Sonora, Mexico to the snows of Utah, from the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina to Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, California. I’ve taken Pamela’s chair to where she was too afraid to go.
        Then last winter, something unexpected happened. My sister’s chair wasn’t so much about her anymore. It became my chair. It represented me as well as my sister, about my journey through life, not so much about my memories of her and of my deceased mother and father. The chair is me, and judging from all the patrons over the years who have bought prints of the PBRC, the chair has become you as well.
        This summer has been financially and emotionally tough for me. Hell, it’s tough all over, but creating this installation has put a number of things in their proper perspective.
        1) Pamela’s dead. I am not.
        2) I’m still making stuff, recording music, typing words. Pamela’s ain’t doing no cross stitch no mo.
        And 3) I have friends and family that I love very much and they care for me too. They can talk to me and hold me and hug me and I can do the same back. Pamela, however, is in the grave, unable to humanly love and touch me, and she can’t be touched or hugged back or listened to.
        But maybe that’s her over there, skipping through the trees, a teenager having her whole life ahead of her, not seeing the future alcoholism, the desperate loneliness, the checkered job history, and the resentful bitterness that made a cold bed for her to lie in every night.
        Maybe her light-filled spirit is right here, right now, right over there, free and happy.
        What did you just say Pamela?
        “I’m fucking proud of you, bro,” says the angel ghost off my left shoulder. “I fucking love ya.”
        “Thanks, Pamela,” I whisper to myself. “I love you too.”

 

 

        To read the Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair book, you can buy the e-book on Amazon and on other sites, or listen to or buy the audio book on iTunes, or Spotify, or if you want to buy the real live paperback book book, contact me at www.stujenks.org. The second Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair book, A Chair In The Wilderness, will be released sometime in 2018.
        Have a blessed day, y’all.

 

Spirals In The Painted Desert...

"Spirals, The Painted Desert, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"Nannie's Mirror, The Painted Desert, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"Nannie's Mirror, Among Petrified Wood, The Painted Desert, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"Side Chapel, Cathedral Of St. Francis, Santa Fe, New Mexico" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"Rain at Navajo Point, The Grand Canyon, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"Full Moon Monsoon, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"...a great adventure story that takes place in a very plausible future."

Below is a very kind review by David Moyer of my first novel "Step Zero." Book four of this series, "Victor Mothershead: U.S. Secret Service" will be coming out in early July of 2016. "Step Zero" is now available at a new low price of $1.99 on the Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks. Book two, "Air & Gravity" is now $2.99. Book three, "Balthazar & Zeeba" is also $1.99.

Start at the beginning is what I say.

 

"I wasn't sure at first if a book heavily influenced by and full of references to the 12 step program would be to my liking, but to my surprise, it added to, rather than detracting from the story. Stu Jenks has written a great adventure story that takes place in a very plausible future, and he has made it very intimate by bringing you all of the characters in the first person. I felt that I knew and empathized with his characters, even those I didn't like. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the sequel." - David Moyer.

7 days left in the "Air & Gravity" campaign at pubslush.com. I truly need your help.

Only seven days left in The Air & Gravity book crowd-sourcing campaign. Just click on this link to take you there.

Please give as you can. I really need your help this time.

The book is done. I just need the money to design it, print it and distribute it.

And there are gifts and rewards with each donation that will be mailed out promptly to you.

Thanks for whatever you can contribute. I know times are tough, but I believe you will enjoy reading book two of my Step Zero series. It's better than the first book, if I do say so myself.

"It better be," says the angel ghost off to my left. "You don't write everyday to get worse at it, do you?"

No. I don't.

Love, light and luck,

Stu.

P.S. Update from 4/26/2014: I've raised over $800 as of this morning. Thanks so much. And since I've past a minimum amount, I will receive all the money given to pubslush.com. Fantastic. And the book will be published even if I have to put it on my credit card. I just don't want to do that obviously. Thanks again for giving and have a great week.

 

Courtney Saum (1922-2013)

Courtney Saum (1922-2013)

Courtney Saum, my most colorful uncle, died last night in Silver City, New Mexico. He was 91. Thanks Cousin Becky, for taking such good care of him.

So all four of the Saum kids are now dead. It's a very odd experience knowing they are all gone.

Above is a photo from my last visit with him in September. He is holding his mother Nannie's mirror.

I may take a small amount of his ashes to sprinkle near his sister Mary's grave in Lively, Virginia. Mom and Courtney would like that.

Rest in peace, good Uncle Courtney.

Old & New Oil...

"Old & New Oil, New Mexico" (c) Stu Jenks 2012