Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

Circles & Spirals: Stu Jenks' Newsletter #10: August 8th, 2022

"Push and Pull" by Hugh McCloud, an image capture from a recent show at Duke University's Nasher Museum of Art in Durham, NC

1) Alexa and I are both on the mend. She's a month out of abdominal surgery and is healing well, even though it will be a long process to full health for her. But she is doing great, and she had a birthday on Sunday. Happy, happy, honey. 

2) This coming Monday, I will have my final radiation treatment. I've had 36 out of 40 Easy Bake Oven sessions as of this afternoon. Frankly, the side effects have been horrendous. I'll spare you the details. Thank f-ing God this will all be over soon. But I'm hopeful that this will have zapped the little bit of cancer that I still had after my radical prostatectomy surgery in 2020.

3) And lastly, I'm pleased and honored to have been accepted into Tohono Chul's show, Elements: Fire. The show will open on August 25th and run through early November. I hope you can get to see it, if you are in the Tucson area. James Schaub, an amazing painter in his own right, is the Director of Exhibitions at Tohono Chul Park. He has quietly championed my work for a good number of years now. Thank you, James, for picking these two pieces for your show. Included below are the vision statements for these pieces and the images themselves. 

That's it for now.

Love you all, and thanks so very much for the prayers and support you have given the Jenks, in this difficult summer for us.

Love, light and luck.

Stu

“Catalina State Park, Arizona (The Ikon)”
11 x 14 inch fiber based gelatin silver print, sepia toned
Edition: 9/25
Taken with a 1954 Rollei medium format camera, using Ilford 400 black and white film.
A time exposure of around 30 minutes, on a full moon night, the light source for the flame spiral, a Zippo lighter.
Printed in the Toole Shed Darkroom in Tucson, by me, in the early 2000’s
Price: $400

    I could tell so many stories about this image: how it was used on a Steve Roach album cover; how it became the logo of the Mythic Journeys conference in Atlanta; how one woman came up to me at an opening and said, “It is so amazing that you were there when THEY came.”; how it’s one of my top five images I’ve sold in my career; and how I’ve enjoyed telling people how I create this flame spiral image, at many open studios and gallery openings.

    Due to limited space, I’ll just tell this one story.

    In 2016, Julie Sasse, the Contemporary Art curator at the Tucson Museum of Art, asked me to show this image as part of her Into the Night: Contemporary Art and the Nocturne Tradition show. I had printed up a three large, 16 x 20 inch fiber based prints of The Ikon over the years, one hanging in the ex-CEO of Krispy Kreme donuts’ home, one stored safely away, and another framed in my studio. The large framed print was given to Julie for her show.

    That summer, a woman I knew only casually, took her godmother to see the Into The Night show. When she came to this image she said to her godmother, “I know that guy.” That started her wheels turning. “I want to get to know him,” she thought. She reached out to me a month later. In December, we will have been married five years. Her name is Alexa McCool Smith Jenks.

 

“DC-10 Spreading Retardant, Dragoon Mountains, Arizona”
4 1/2 x 8 inch archival pigment print
Shot using 70-200 mm IS glass, with Canon 5D Mark II back.
Price: $100

    It’s too bad this image doesn’t come with a soundtrack. I’ll explain.

    A few years ago, a terrible fire exploded near Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona. I drove down, found a low hill to stand atop of, and waiting for the DC-10s to make their passes.

    (Photographer’s Tip: To take a good picture, go out into the world, find a spot, and wait. Then wait some more. Let the image come to you. Try not to chase it. Just be present in the space. Look, wait, and see what happens. Pop the shutter then.)

    The DC-10s seemed to arrive every 20 minutes or so. I think I was there for an hour and a half. I captured two images that I liked. This is one of them.

    Here’s what you don’t see in the photograph.

    After the planes had dropped their loads, they banked hard to the left and headed back north to replenish and refuel. The little hill I was standing on was right below their flight path. I know they were probably over 100 feet above me, but it sure didn’t feel like it, as the sound and force of their accelerating engines shook my body. It was fabulous, almost as loud as a Social Distortion concert at the Rialto Theatre.

    Almost.

Circles & Spirals: Stu Jenks' Newsletter #8: July 8th, 2022

"Annie & Johnny Beeton's Graves, Oak Grove Cemetery, Lexington, VA" (c) 2022 Stu Jenks.

Eleven years ago yesterday, my mother Mary Jenks died. I could write a lot about her. Frankly I already have written a lot about Mom. Click on this link to my Amazon pages and you can buy/read two books about Mom. Dementia Blues and Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair) All I'll say tonight is I miss her. Yes she was a force of nature and she tended to push people away with her narcissistic neediness, but she's wasn't all bad. Actually, I'd say she was at least 1/2 good. Not a ringing endorsement I know, but Mary was a glass half full or half empty, depending on how you looked at her. You might be able to say the same for me too. For all of us perhaps. Anywho, love you Mom. May your spirit roam free. 

"Mary as a newlywed, Rocky Mount, North Carolina (c) Late 1940's. Photograph taken by my father, Stu Jenks. 

Our main story tonight is this. Again, I've already written about this before too, but he's a summery.

Johnny and Annie Beeton were my great-great-grandparents. Their third child Ella, born in 1863, was my great grandmother who married a Jenks, and off we went. But Johnny and Annie, it appears, and I've made some assumptions from viewing the partial record, were not like most Southerners of their time. Or may be they were.

Johnny worked at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia before The Civil War. He and Annie already had two kids. It appears Annie and Johnny were happy. Then war broke out. Then the renowned and quite-crazy teacher at VMI, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, drafted the entire student body of VMI and most of the able bodied men in Lexington, into his new regiment. Johnny knew, much like many at VMI knew, that Stonewall was at best, a reckless crazy man and at worse, an egomaniacal bully. Johnny quickly got transferred out of Stonewall's Brigade and spend The Civil War, making munitions in Richmond. It appears he was quite good at making guns and bullets. After the War, he returned to Lexington, and worked at Washington and Lee College, just down the street from VMI. He and Annie had 11 children in all. Yep, 11, 10 who lived into adulthood. Sadly, Annie died in 1883 at the young age of 45. Given the large grave marker Johnny build for her, and other information I have gleaned, it appears Johnny loved Annie very much, and I think Annie loved him too. Johnny never remarried. Ella Beeton married into the Jenks clan and that history is ripe with controversy and hurtfulness, but prior to that, it appears the Beetons were a large happy family. 

Now, in the art world, particularly back in the 1970's and 80's, there was this thing call Conceptual Art, art that was more about the idea than about the object; art that couldn't be bought and sold that easily; art that was only remembered if you filmed and photographed it or experienced it live, in the moment. Conceptual Art is the mother of what we now call Performance Art. 

Back in art school, I did a bunch of Conceptual Art: burying myself in fire brick at the center of campus; leashing myself to the front porch of 608 Airport Road for 12 hours, not speaking for that time and hoping roommates brought me food and drink; building a brick sculpture from 1152 fire bricks, one a day, everyday, for thirty days, taken one down and then building another; and most famously, painting Fatal Figures on the streets of Chapel Hill where all the fatal traffic accidents had occurred from 1970 to 1978. Yep, I did all that, and I have the slides to prove. 

I made my current artistic career mostly as a nocturnal photographer, selling image rights and prints, making a little coin from my music, and producing a number of books. Conceptual Art was not made by me for decades. 

Until last week. 

During my travels since I moved back to North Carolina, I've visited many cemeteries. Some, during certain times of the year, are decorated with Confederate Flags, mostly the awful battle flag "The Stars and Bars", but of late with the National Confederate Flag, with its circle of stars on a blue field, and with its bands of white and red. They are trying to be politically correct. Good for them, but they fail. Sorry, the Confederates were traitors to the Union, not matter how much you might admire Robert E. Lee and the aforementioned Stonewall Jackson. It was a war to free the slaves and I'm glad as fuck, that the South lost. 

And I believe my great great grandparents, Annie and Johnny Beeton, thought The War Between The States was a stupid and ridiculous idea as well. At the very least, foolhardy. Why else would Johnny transfer away for General Jackson? He knew how crazy he was. He worked around him. But he also felt pressure that he had to serve, whether he wanted to or not. The southern Home Guard, a group of disreputable men who made southern men enlist during the War, made sure that Johnny had to go. Luckily, he found a safe place to serve, in a gun factory in Richmond, Virginia. 

And lets face it. Had he stayed to fight along side Stonewall Jackson, he would have probably been killed or died in the first year. He wouldn't have been able to come home and visit Annie during the Fall of 1862 to conceive my great grandmother Ella. And I won't be here. 

Repeat. I won't be here. 

So last week, I took a National Confederate Flag I had stolen from a cemetery somewhere (guilty as charged), and wrote on it with a black pen 'He Fought Reluctantly'. Then I drove the two hours north to Johnny Beeton's grave and placed in the the ground. 

Hardly anyone was there on that day. I took my pics. I also visited my great great grandparents on the Jenks side and my great great great grandparents on the Beeton side. I also looked at the large grave market for Stonewall Jackson and thought, "What an asshole." I always think that. Jackson was a crazy man who got thousands killed, fighting for the right for white men to own black people. Almost every time I visit Annie and Johnny, strangers pass by to pay their respects to Stonewall. They are almost always loud. They almost always don't notice I'm 30 feet way, staring at the gravestone of Annie and Johnny. On a good day, I just shake my head at their rudeness. On a bad day, I whisper "Would you all shut the fuck up?", hoping the negative vibe carries to their souls. Never does. 

Anyway, Johnny and Annie, I made a piece of Conceptual Art for you all. If you were alive today with your 19th century perspectives, you might think me a little mad, a little crazy. Can't really argue with you there. 

Love, light and luck, 

Stu

Circles and Spirals: Stu Jenks' Newsletter #7: 6/28/2022

"Flame Circle at St. Mary's Whitechapel, Lively, Virginia" (c) 2001, 2022

1) Just horrendous. You know what I'm talking about. The over-turning of Roe v. Wade. So much has been said already, and perhaps the last thing we need is a man bemoaning what I believe is a woman's primary right to her own body. Or maybe more men do need to speak up. I don't know. But I will say this. The steady march to a New American Theocracy, a nation ruled by religious beliefs rather than by laws, worries the fuck out of me. Vote in the Fall for all Democrats, no matter how wimpy or conservative they are, and register others to vote as well, so we can hold onto state houses and perhaps hold the U.S. Senate and U.S. House as well. All this makes me so angry and sad. That being said, I have to remind myself that America has only been a 'true' democracy since 1964, since The Civil Rights act.

So Rest In Peace, American Democracy (1964-2022). Adios muchachos. Hopefully a New Democracy will be reborn in the future.

One outside hope I have is that corporations will be less willing to invest into anti-abortion, anti-women states, not sending new offices and factories to those places. That along with the slim hope that Democrat politicians will eventually grow a pair and learn how to fight. I pray for the former to happen but have little hope for the latter. I just feel awful for all the women and girls in my country right now. Just awful. 

2) My radiation oncology has begun on the salvage/killing of the little bit of cancer that remains in my pelvic floor. Not fun. The feeling of having to pee all the time, not every day, but many days, sucks. But truly, the hardest thing about this daily process is walking from the parking lot to the cancer center on my bad left leg, and then the massive fatigue that hits me an hour after treatment. But I don't want to die before my time. The docs seems hopeful that this will kill the cancer that's still left. I sure hope so. 

"Desert Agave Walking Stick, North Topsail Beach, North Carolina" (c) 2022 Stu Jenks. 

3) I tried to sell some of my walking sticks and photographs at my local farmer's market last Saturday. Had very few sales but I met some very nice people, mostly the other vendors and a few shoppers. And of course, like my other Open Art Studio type events over the years, I had the odd person who said really weird things to me (I'll leave it at that). I may come back in the Fall after my radiation, when I have more energy. The people were quite sweet, but this really isn't my crowd where my art will sell, I'm afraid. People are there for the fruits and vegetables, not the rocking chair photos and high end walking sticks. But they were still very nice people. 

"Grimsley High School Graduation, Greensboro Coliseum, North Carolina" (c) 2022 Stu Jenks. 

4) I went to my nephew Will's high school graduation a few weeks back. It was a hoot. I hadn't been to a high school graduation since I graduated from Sanderson High School in 1973. Got a couple of good shots with the long lens. So much fun. Congrats Will McIntyre, and good luck in the fall as you attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. 

"DC-10 Fighting A Fire, Dragoon Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2016, 2022 Stu Jenks. 

"Stu and Stuart Sleeping, Mothershead Neck, Richmond County, Virginia" (c) 2001, 2022 Stu Jenks. 

"Harriet Tubman by Arron Douglas, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC" (Image capture by Stu Jenks 2022)

5) I've been to some fine local art shows lately, and I'm still trying to get into other art shows, here and in Tucson, but it's been slow going. Both having a bad leg that's not healing very quickly, and this fatiguing oncology radiation and I'm a bit hobbled. I'm not liking it at all. But it is what it is and it ain't what it ain't. Acceptance is the key and all that good shit. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, to heal up from this cancer and this torn leg muscle, and that I sell more art, music and books so I can continue to keep the wolves away from the door. Love you all. Stu. P.S. Alexa says hey. 

"Mothershead Neck Flame Spiral, Virginia" & "My Ghost Likes To Travel Hoop Dance, Arizona" (c) 2022 Stu Jenks. 

Circles and Spirals: Stu Jenks' Newsletter #3: 4/21/22

"PTSD" by Clarence Heyward, acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, 2020. Image capture by Stu Jenks. 

 

Hello everyone,

1) Currently some of Clarence Heyward's work (pictured above) is being shown at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, NC. This show is shunning, presenting the work of 30 emerging artists. Entitled, "Reckoning and Resilience: North Carolina Art Now", it'll be up until July 10, 2022. I've been three times already to visit this show. I can not recommend it highly enough. 

The featured painting is very large, guessing 5 feet tall at least. And yes, that is the Pledge of Allegiance in gold leaf behind the figure. 

2) Maundy Thursday service at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, here in Greensboro, was as good as it gets. Washing of the feet. Reminding the congregation of Jesus's last commandment, "... to love one another...", the stripping of the altar, all very nice. (And to be clear, I'm not a Christian but I was raised in this Church. I do believe in a God of sorts, cosmic muffin or intuitive thought, but I don't believe in the Risen Christ. I'm more Buddhist and Deist than anything else. And yes, I believe in the ghostly presence of my ancestors in my life. Got that belief from a Native American friend years ago.) But what made me cry was a professional singer, a lovely baritone, singing "Where you there...", that old powerful slave song from almost 200 years ago. Just wonderful.

3) Not so wonderful, my prostate cancer has returned, but only a little bit. Probably the size of the head of a pin. It's a long story but the type of radiation that one cancer center planned for me was very destructive to the good surgical work of Dr. Juan Chipollini 2 years ago. Currently, I don't poop nor peed on myself and everything is working great down there, if you know what I mean. The shotgun blast radiation would change all that, possibly making me permanently incontinent, messing up my colon, and destroying my current sexual function, also maybe for good. This depressed me a lot as you can imagine. Until I remember that great medical school at my alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill, just an hour to the east. There, I found a new urologist and radiation oncologist who does a very pinpoint radiation using a machine called the Cyber Knife. Great name. Appointment is in early June for this second opinion consultation but I'm already sold from what I've read. And my new doctor is more patient oriented in her care. I'm much more hopeful. Quality of life, baby. Quality of life.

4) The tenth anniversary edition of my first novel, Step Zero is completed and being converted to e-book-ness and soon to be uploaded to the book printer. I'll be making some book-books, but they are expensive. Soon, you'll be able to buy the e-books for either $1.99 or $.99. Attached here is the new cover art for the book. (Thanks to Michael Joplin, for turning me on the the null set symbol. That was brilliant.) 

and 5) lastly, here are some images from recent print sales of mine. I have a big inventory but I'm always, always interested in what people buy. Perhaps you are too.

Love you guys.

Thinking about y'all, and holding you in white light, as the Woo-Woo man says.

Stu. 

All images (c) Stu Jenks 2022, except for "PTSD," (c) Clarence Heyward 2022.

 

 

Off to the Zoom Room factory...

Off to the Zoom Room factory. It's all about from the waist up. The COVID mullet: Business from the waist up, party below the belt.

Alexa took these images. I did a little post-production fiddling afterwards.

Alexa also mentioned to me yesterday that it's hard to find my store from a Google search. You can easily find my digital stuff like my music and ebooks but not so much the hold-in-your-hands stuff. If you want to buy my real live books, CDs and prints, or want inexpensive epubs and pdfs of my books, or you just want to donate to the cause that is the Jenks, click on this link. For image rights licensing, email me or call me instead. ([email protected]). If you want to give to my Paypal account, use my email address too. For wall pieces and walking sticks sales, contact me via email or phone.

Beside the high humidity of the Southern summers killing us, money being tight, and global warming making storms more violent and prevalent now, Alexa and I are just fine.

Grateful we are, one day at a time, just to be here together on the planet.

Bottom image is a selfie of Alexa, taken a while back. Just so you know what the photographer looks like. I love my wife.

Step Zero: The Special Illustrated Edition for free, right here.

Right here, a free pdf download of my novel Step Zero: The Special Illustrated Edition.

Yep, I'm giving shit away.

Sometimes I have to do that for people to buy my other work, but in this case, I just want people to have this. I worked hard on this, and I think this is a pretty good book. Plus the hardbound book is way too expensive for most people to buy, and the paperback Step Zero edition doesn't have the groovy graphic pen images in it.

So here you are. All 688 pages of images and words. Hope you dig the book.

P.S. This is a hard R-rated book, with drug use, graphic sex and brutal murder. Just so you know. It also has sweet songs, funny lines and touching relationships. It's not all rough, but parts of it are.

Love y'all.

Stu.

Again, here's the free pdf download of the illustrated Step Zero novel.

 

The Extended Family Series wall pieces are now for sale! (Shipping cost included in the prices of all the art work)

“Vollis Simpson, Red Oak, North Carolina”, 63 inches tall. © Stu Jenks 2021

The Extended Family Series wall pieces are now for sale!

Shipping is included in the sale price of all art work. I know they are pricey, but due to the odd shape of the boxes, shipping is expensive.

All pieces are signed, dated and titled. Some can be used as walking sticks but most are wall pieces that can be easily hung from a wall. These art pieces represents people who are important to me: traditional extended family members, close and not-so-close friends, and people I love and admire, both living and dead, fictional and real.

Just scroll through my site to see the work, or go to the Categories listed off to the left. Look for the group entitled 'Extended Family Series.'

I really want this work to find homes. I also hope to show these pieces in galleries and museums in the future, but that's up in the air right now, due to COVID and such. Mostly I want to sell and mail these to good people who will be happy to have them hanging in their homes.

In this post, I've put up a small sampling of the work. I've produced over a 100 of these guys. This is just to give you a taste.

Thanks, y'all, for your love and financial support. I appreciate you more than you know. You help put gas in my truck, food on our table and a roof over our heads. You really do.

And you also put a smile on my face. That ain't nothing either.

Love and light, Stu.

Detail of “Gandalf, Hornbeam Wood, North Carolina” 61 inches tall, (c) Stu Jenks 2018.

 

 

“Frederick Douglass, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” 86 inches tall, © Stu Jenks 2020

 

 

“Stacey Abrams, Hornbeam Wood, Virginia-North Carolina State Line” 57 inches tall, (c) Stu Jenks 2021

 

 

“Legs For Days (Alexa Jenks), Aspen Wood, Arizona” 58 inches tall” © Stu Jenks 2020

 

“Norman Smith, Saguaro Ribs, Arizona” (c) Stu Jenks 2019

 

“Amanda Gorman, Beech Wood, North Carolina” 56 inches tall. (c) Stu Jenks 2021

 

“Gay Smith, Aspen Wood, Arizona” 59 inches tall. © Stu Jenks 2020

 

“Abraham Lincoln, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” 48 inches tall, © Stu Jenks 2020

 

 

“Dennis The Homeless Man, Desert Agave, Arizona” 59 inches tall. © Stu Jenks 2019

 

 

“Malcolm X, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2020, 54 inches tall.

 

 

“Galadriel/Cate Blanchett, Tulip Poplar, Virginia” © Stu Jenks 2021, 66 inches tall.

 

 

“Dean Smith, Ash Wood, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 39 inches tall.

 

“Mark Murphy #2, Hornbeam Wood, North Carolina” © 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Mark Murphy #2, Hornbeam Wood, North Carolina” © 2021 Stu Jenks, 56 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.

 

Mark and I have known each other for over 35 years, both of us members of one or more Secret Societies. You know, those 12 Step-py things we're not suppose to talk about in public. We have both been through a lot over the years, but we're still here, still alive, still pretty healthy, still "reasonably happy", as it says in the long version of the Serenity Prayer.

Mark is a pharmacist and is a big deal in his field in Arizona, even though he would probably not admit it. If you've ever called Arizona Poison Control during a personal emergency, it's a good chance his kind, knowing voice was on the other end of the phone.

We also both love baseball. When I was living in Arizona, Mark would take me, on his dime, to a Diamondback game or two each year, usually when they were playing the San Francisco Giants, in which I'm a fan. Mark, bless his heart, is a long suffering Detroit Tigers fan. I know. It's been a long time since the Tigers have won the Series.

I love and respect Mark a lot. I have three very close male friends in my life. Mark is one of them.

Lastly, we both agree that having the designated hitter in the American League is not a great idea and should be eliminated. Need to keep those pitchers honest, and wasn't it fun to watch Hall Of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson hit and pitch back in the day? It sure was.

Love you brother. Keep you lamp trimmed and burning, and give Vicky a hug for me.

And next time I'm in Tucson, let's get a couple of Sonoran hot dogs at Guero Canelo. It's on me.

 

#markmurphy, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

 

"L.N, M.H., & C.C." (c) 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

"L.N., Red Ash (Virginia) 68 inches tall; M.H., Sweet Gum (North Carolina) 61 inches tall, & C.C., White Oak (Tennessee) 59 inches tall.  (c) 2021 Stu Jenks.

 

Price: $125, per each wall piece, 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.

 

 

This is the internet. I'm only going to say what absolutely needs to be said.

These three pieces are for three of my ex-girlfriends. Only initials. No names. No sordid details. No rehashing about why these relationships didn't work out.

I just need to say this. Only this.

Each of these women were family to me at the time we were dating. Part of my extended family. They mattered deeply to me at the time. They deserve to be remembered with a piece of finely polished wood. Anything more that I say here would be too much. Because it's the freaking internet.

And because all three of these women are still alive, are good people, and, I hope, are happy.

That's it. Love y'all.

"L.N."

 

 

"M.H."

 

 

"C.C."

 

#extendedfamilyseries, #stujenks.

 

 

“Lynn Shelton & Marc Maron #2, Saguaro Ribs, Arizona” © 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Lynn Shelton & Marc Maron #2, Saguaro Ribs, Arizona” © 2021 Stu Jenks, 64 inches tall.

Price: $295, 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. (This piece is no longer for sale.)

 

I've met Marc Maron a couple times at small shows in LA where he was workshopping his next stand-up comedy hour. Much like his persona on his podcast, WTF with Marc Maron, he is anxious, sweet, grouchy, delightful, talented, intense and kind. (A friend's wife had committed suicide the day before I saw him in LA. He was very compassionate to me in the ten seconds that we talked before his gig.) Actually, Marc doesn't have a persona. Marc is Marc wherever he goes. It's why we love him so much.

I've been listening to WTF pretty much since the beginning. His twice-weekly conversations with good folk has gotten me through hard times. His podcast always delights me, uplifts me, makes me laugh. I never fast-forward through his initial 10 minute rant before the show. Sometimes, that's the best part. And Marc is an amazing interviewer. He actually listens to people and you can tell.

Marc has been married twice and has had his share of drama in his romantic relationships. So have I. So have we all.

Then he met Lynn Shelton, the amazing director/writer/actress/filmmaker. After a bit, when they were both single at the same time, they fell in love. I was so happy for Marc that he had found true love with Lynn, someone who fully grokked him. He, like I, are acquired tastes. It takes someone special to find us delightful. Lynn found Marc a delight, as Alexa my wife finds me. I'm a lucky man. Again, Marc and I aren't friends nor acquaintances. I just listen to his show and watch his work on TV. But I was very happy for him. (You really feel like you know the dude if you've listened to him twice a week for a decade.)

Then, last year, in May of 2020, tragedy struck. Lynn died suddenly of an previously undiagnosed leukemia. It happened fast. One day she was here, a few days later, she was gone.

I had recently had my own radical prostatectomy cancer surgery and I was slowly healing up from that, when I read the news on my phone. I literally said out loud, "Oh no! Marc! Oh, no!"

Marc grieved in public on his podcast. He was honest with his feelings with all of us. He stayed sober. He inspired many with his expressions of grief. We all were moved.

So I made Marc one of my walking stick/wall pieces and mailed it to him. Sadly, the stick got snapped in half in the mail. Yeah, I know. Sucked. I thought I had packed it well. Guess not.

I looked around my studio and found these saguaro ribs. This will work nicely, I thought. Two saguaro ribs married together. It even kind of looks like Marc and Lynn, at least to me. I haven't mailed it yet to Marc or maybe I'll sell it instead. Marc doesn't live or die over getting some of my artwork. It's truly the thought, the thinking, the caring, that counts.

We love you, Marc. 

Thanks for all that you have done for me and for many others. Your light shines brightly in this world, even when you yourself doubt its strength.

Stu.

P.S.: End Times Fun is a master work, and Sword Of Trust always makes me cry. I miss Lynn too. JDFD.

Photo of Marc Maron and Lynn Shelton by Greg DeGuire.

#marcmaron, #lynnshelton, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries.