Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press (I'm just a simple man...)

“Dean Smith, Ash Wood, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Dean Smith, Ash Wood, North Carolina” © 2021 40 inches.

Price: $250, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

For those of you who are not from North Carolina, Dean Smith was the Men's Basketball coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1961 to 1997. His record was 879-254. He led UNC to national championships twice in 1982 and in 1993. Under his leadership, Carolina went to the Final Four 11 times, won the ACC regular season 17 times and won the ACC tournament 13 times.

Dean and Carolina won a lot of basketball games, but that's not really why he gets a wall piece.

Here's why.

In 1967, Dean recruited Charlie Scott, an African-American man, to play on the UNC men's basketball team. He was the first black player to play at Chapel Hill. It was a very big deal. 

Also, Dean created what was known as the Sneaker Fund. Dean put the money he made from his coaching sneaker contracts into a fund in which former Carolina players could assess those funds if they had an emergency or they were just financial strapped. He thought it was unfair that he got paid by Converse or Nike, but his players got none of that money. So once they left school, players could have some of that money if they needed it. It has been used for medical emergencies, family tragedies, and drug rehab bills. Years after its inception, the Sneaker Fund still helps ex-players from Carolina.

Dean was also a liberal Democrat.

And he and Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke were good friends. Some North Carolinians hate Coach K. Dean did not. Nor do I.

By all accounts, he was a wonderful man. And he won a lot of basketball games.

In North Carolina, Jesus Christ sitteth on the right side of the Father, and Dean Smith sitteth on the left.

In Heaven, may you Dean teach God Almighty how to run the Four Corners Offense properly. It's a offense, God, not a slow down. You just need the right point guard to run it.

 

#deansmith, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Stu Jenks (Portrait Of The Artist As A Middle Aged Man), Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2019 [Extended Family Series]

“Stu Jenks (Portrait Of The Artist As A Middle Aged Man), Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2019, 53 inches tall.

Price: $250, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

I made this stick in 2019 when I was 64 years old, technically middle aged. I'm 66 now, technically old.

I've learned not to joke about being old with Alexa. Took me a year to figure this out. She's 50. When I make jokes about being old, she’s immediately transported to me being dead. And that makes her sad, not laugh.

I don't buy that 60 is the new 40. 66 is 66. But I don't feel that old really. I'm still pretty spry. Then again, you never use the word 'spry' to describe someone young.

And there I go with the jokes again.

#portraitoftheartistasamiddleagedman, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

 

“The Prodigal Son Returns, Beech Wood, North Carolina © Stu Jenks 2019-2020 [Extended Family Series]

“The Prodigal Son Returns, Beech Wood, North Carolina © Stu Jenks, 2019-2020, 51 inches tall.

Price: $250, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

The wood was cut in 2019, the piece finished in 2020, after my diagnosis of severe prostate cancer, before my radical prostatectomy surgery. A tough time for me. I was in Tucson then, away from Alexa, working part time at an out patient clinic, making a little money from photography, waiting for my Social Security to kick in so I could move back to North Carolina to be with my wife. I knew I would return but I didn't know when. Ended up being August of 2020 before I was well enough to move. Longer than any of us expected.

My dad used to say, "The Prodigal Son returns!" when I would walk into the Raleigh house on Sundays during my college days, when I would hitchhike home from Chapel Hill to get a hot meal, pick up a $40 check, and maybe do my laundry too. I think Dad was trying to be funny but it didn't feel funny. After dinner, Dad would drop me off on I-40 west of town to hitch back to UNC (It was a different time in the 70's. Everybody hitchhiked.), As I would get out of his car he would say, "I love you, son." "Love you too, Dad," I would halfheartedly say back to him.

No one ever in my family told me they loved me. Ever. Until Dad started when I was in college.

So the Prodigal Son has returned again. This time to the loving arms of my wife. But this morning, I'm thinking fondly of my father, Stuart Jenks Sr., who didn't really want to have kids, and really didn't like being married to my mother, but at some point in the mid 1970's decided, on his own, to start telling his son that he loved him.

And Dad continued to say 'I love you' until a couple days before he died in September of 2001.

And I told him I love him too. This time, not halfheartedly.

#prodigalsonreturns, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Levi Neill, Red Cedar, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Levi Neill, Red Cedar, North Carolina” © 2021 59 inches tall.

Price: $495, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

 

"A 180 degrees from sick is still sick."

"I know the middle path is where I want to be, but I tend to fly by it at 60 mph, as I'm bouncing off the walls."

"If you're pissed off at someone and you want to be spiritual about it, you can say fuck thou instead of fuck you."

"I had a professor in graduate school who told me that I had the best self awareness of any of his students. I puffed out my chest. Then he said that with all this awareness, I had the less amount of willingness to change of anyone he knew. That deflated me."

”As a therapist, I’m willing to work with someone who has no money but has willingness. I’m willing to work with someone who has money but no willingness. But I’m not willing to work with someone who has no money and no willingness”

 

Levi Neill was important to me beyond words, in my first few years of sobriety in the late 1980's. He was my friend and my mentor. Many a Saturday night, after I got off work at Sierra Tucson, we would sit in his hot tub in Catalina, Arizona, under the moonlight, and I would just listen to all that he said, be him talking about shame theory and shame reduction therapeutic practices, or what his favorite films were, or what Holotropic Breathwork meant to him.

He was a very large man with a very large personality. He was far from perfect and eventually a disagreement over something small broke our friendship, but for those two or three years he was the most important man in my life. More important than my two sponsors. More important than my therapist. More important than my father. He was that big a deal.

Sadly, the last years of his life didn't go well. He moved back to Kansas to take care of his mother, but he didn't do very well there by some accounts. Levi became more and more isolated from others, and his health declined. When he died at home alone, no one found him for many days. He was sober when he died but I don't believe he was very happy at all. It's sad.

But from 1985 to 1988, he had a profound impact on my life, and many of the things he taught me I still believe today. Not all of them but many.

 

"There is a little bit of black and a little bit of white and a shit load of gray." Yep. I believe that.

"That's either a profoundly honest truth he just said, or the best rationalization I've ever heard." Levi said that about a priest we knew. Was funny then. Is funny now.

And lastly, when he would say he was willing to spend a little bit of money for just about any new experience: "I'd spend 50 bucks to watch a monkey fuck a football." Not something I would ever say, but it still makes me smile.

 

Rest in peace, Levi, and thank you for all that you did for me and for others. Wherever your soul resides, I hope you're happy there. I really do.

#levineill, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Juniper Rose-Jackson, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Juniper Rose-Jackson, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © 2021 Stu Jenks, 49 inches tall.

Price: $195, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

Not for sale. Soon to be shipped to the Rose-Jackson household in Utah.

 

Lauren and Hamish had a little baby girl recently. How about that? I made a stick a few months ago for the little one, and I was just waiting to put a name on it. Well, her name is Juniper. I've seen pictures. She's a beautiful baby girl.

Soon, I'll mail this piece to them, but no rush, Hamish said. They have a lot on their plate. No hurry for a walking stick just yet.

Their first child. So happy for them.

#juniperrosejackson, #stujenks. #extendedfamilyseries.

“Bertie Jenks Lester, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © 2020 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Bertie Jenks Lester, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © 2020 Stu Jenks, 61 inches tall.

Price: $395, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

 

The story of great aunt Bertie's murder can be found at the link provided here. I strongly suggest you read that. It's a terrible Jenks family tragedy and the story of a shameful family secret. Again, the story as I know it is at a prior post of this website.

I considered writing a fictionalized short novel about Aunt Bertie in 1913-14 Richmond, Virginia, but frankly, it's hard enough just occasionally thinking about what happened to her and the kids. I don't want to live 6 months to a year with this horror as I write the book. I don't think I could emotionally weather it. I'm tough but I'm not that tough.

Honestly, the truth is story enough.

Bertie, wherever you are, I hope your soul rests in peace. I'm so sorry what our family did and didn't do for you, and for Jimmy and Gracie. Shameful  

1)

#bertiejenkslester, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Annie Gordon, Two Saguaro Walking Sticks, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2019 [Extended Family Series]

“Annie Gordon, Two Saguaro Walking Sticks, Arizona” © 2019 Stu Jenks 43 & 49 inches tall.

Price: $295, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

Not for sale. In possession of Annie Gordon. Photos taken by Annie Gordon at her home in Tucson.

 

Annie and I have know each other since forever. We were initially lovers and now we are life long friends. Beside being a renowned massage therapist in Tucson, she is also an accomplished and celebrated fiber artist, pushing the quilt format past its humble beginnings, pressing the form to new contemporary heights. If I were you, I would buy her stuff. The link to her Etsy store is right here.

I own three of her pieces myself.

And Annie owns two of my sticks.

Fly high, Annie. Pet the cats for me, and tell Duncan and Fergus to let you sleep in from time to time.

#anniegordon, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Tom Hanks, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Tom Hanks, Spiral Prayer Stick, Red Oak, Haw River, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 29 inches tall.

Price: $295, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

Who doesn't love Tom Hanks. Nobody.

I could go through his whole filmography but you know the films of his you like. My top five are Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, The Green Mile, Apollo 13 and especially Castaway.

Note: This is not a walking stick, but more of a prayer stick, that can be hung from the wall or held in your hands. And yes, it feels very good to the touch.

#tomhanks, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Mackenzie Scott, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Mackenzie Scott, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 55 inches tall.

Price: $250, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

Mackenzie Scott is the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, aka Lex Luthor. When she divorced that selfish prick in 2019, she got $35 billion. As of the first of 2021, she is worth an estimated $62 billion.

But in 2020, she did a wonderful thing. She gave over $4 billion to 384 charitable organizations, such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, native american and people of color charities, and historically blacks colleges and universities that have been hit hardest by COVID-19. Basically, she gave them all a year's budget and is willing to give them more. She has stated that she wishes to give away her money as quickly as possible.

"We are identifying organizations with strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital," she stated.

Sure, many super wealthy people are profound assholes living in the land of sociopathy, but not all. Not Mackenzie Scott.

God bless you, Ms. Scott.

#mackenziescott, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Malcolm X, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2020 [Extended Family Series]

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

Price: $395, shipping not included. All pieces hang off the wall. All work is signed, dated, with its title. I will hand deliver the work to anywhere in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I'll just need some gas money. Outside of the area, I will ship USPS, FedEx or UPS but it'll be pricey. We'll figure it out.

 

Most of y'all know who Malcolm X was. Spokesman for The Nation Of Islam for a time until he became disillusioned with the organization. A powerful civil right activist who I believe is often misunderstood. The 1992 Spike Lee-Denzel Washington film is actually quite good. I highly recommend it.

Malcolm X was assassinated at age 39. Tragic.

Malcolm X was the yin to Martin Luther King Jr.'s yang. Or perhaps it is the other way around.

Rest in peace, Malcolm. We are still fighting the good fight for racial equality and social justice 55 years after your death, and we don't intend to stop fighting anytime soon.

 

#malcolmx, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries