Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

A Passel Of Sticks: The vision statement for the Lord of the Rings series.

A Passel Of Sticks: The vision statement for the Lord of the Rings series.

[Images: 15 plus walking sticks/wall pieces in a corner nook in my house]

 

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have been very upset about the nature of our politics of late: the slipping away of our democracies; the general meanness and selfishness of American culture; the mendacity from media figures and conservative politicians alike; but I can’t continue to concentrate of the horribleness of the world.

I rely on physical beauty, spiritual mystery, and human goodness to get me through the day. And I can’t make art that’s entirely focuses on our cultural madness.

Add to that, I have Stage 4 Appendix cancer, that I’m getting chemo for.

Yea, I know.

It’s just not good for me to focus on the negative.

So…

What I can do is make objects that show the beauty in nature and in the world. Hence, I’m making wall pieces and walking sticks named after my favorite characters in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series and in Amazon’s new Rings of Power series. Also, other characters from my and other folks’ fictional books and TV shows, and people I admire in real life are honored here as well. Almost all of the pieces will be made of red cedar. All will be sanded, oiled and polished to a lovely shine and feel. All will be beautiful. At least that is my hope.

There’s an old story in photographers’ circles. French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, in the 1940’s, criticized American photographers Ansel Adams and Edward Weston by saying: “The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks.”

I’ve photographed rocks and trees and stars for decades. Now I’m making pretty wooden things, made from red cedar that hang on the wall.

All us creative folks are doing the best we can.

As the Navajos say, I’m trying to walk in beauty. I bet you are too.

Love, light, and luck, Stu.

 

"The Happy Couple" (c) Stu Jenks 2022

"The Happy Couple, Red Cedar, North Carolina" (c) 2022 Stu Jenks. Price upon request. 

Well. looky there. Our democracy has been saved for another two years at least. 

And I've been saying this for months. The young people, the Gen Z and others, will come out and vote, because Repubs have done nothing on climate change, taken away women's rights, and turned a blind eye to gun control. And they did turn out. The young people will save us. Now. let's just watch the Republicans fight amongst themselves, and watch the policies that Biden and the Congress passed begin to make a difference in Americans lives in 2023. In two words, hot damn. 

And this piece makes reference to Alexa and I: two substantial individuals connect by golden hooks to make a happier, move loving whole. That's what I had in mind when I made this. You can just see it as two pieces of pretty red cedar wood, hanging from a wall too. I'm good with that.

Love y'all, Stu

American Democracy (1965-2022)

"The 41 Nights, Red Cedar, North Carolina (part of the American Democracy 1965-2022 series)" (c) 2022 Stu Jenks. Price upon request. 

I dislike long artistic vision statement. In my mind they all should be less than a page long, but this bit of writing is longer than I like. However I have a lot to say. 

Fun fact: This piece is named after a catastrophe that occurred in my Step Zero novels. I love looking at it in my backyard. If you want to buy it, let me know.

Here's my vision statement regarding my American Democracy (1965-2022) series. 

The Vision Statement for the series,
American Democracy (1965-2022)
August 20th, 2022

    Since the rise of Trump, many people have shied away from using words like ‘Fascist’, ‘Autocracy’ and ‘Theocracy’, myself included.
    Not anymore.
    We’ve only had a true democracy since 1965, with the passing of the Civil Right Act.
    We lost our democracy for good, with the overturning of Roe in June of 2022.
    American Democracy (1965-2022).
    Rest in peace, buckaroo.
    We only have two political parties now. The Democrats, made up of liberal and moderate Democrats, Independents and wayward Republicans, and The Republican Party. inhabited by grifters, bullies, racists, fascists, theocrats and wannabe dictators. That’s it. The Republican Party of my father is no more.
    It’s not only because of Trump and his minions. Trump was just the most recent permission slip to behave badly in public. For the entire history of The United States, a good 1/3 of the men have been anti-democratic assholes. They want what they want when they want it. They see women at best as necessary objects in their lives and at worse, property that they can do with as they wish. They don’t care about majority rule and rights and privileges of a working democracy. They just want to make as much money as they can, acquire as much power as they can, and have as few people get in their way as possible. They believe in a God, but it’s an Old Testament God, spiteful, hurtful, down right mean. They are not true Christians who believe God is Love. They are weird cherry-pickers from the Old Testament, to justify their greed, their hurtful righteousness, and their power over others.
    They are assholes, a neglected diagnosis in the DSM-5, if you ask me. Most are men, but there are some women in their ranks.
    So what can I do?
    Not much. Continue to vote Democrat in every election, even for candidates that we barely agree with on policies. Some Democrats are hypocrites, just wanting power and position too, but at least they aren’t fascists. At least they aren’t theocrats. We will hold our noses and vote D.
    And we can talk about what’s happening. Make art about it. Make songs about it. Shake my fists at it.
    But that’s about it.
    Making these sculptures, these fractured pieces of wood, symbolizing the brokenness of my country, helps me a little. Just a little. I enjoy the process of finding, molding, sanding and oiling this wood. I love the smooth feel of their surfaces, as I stroke those that hang from my studio walls. I love sharing them with others, selling some, giving many away.
    But does it change politics, policies and the majorly-fucked-up-country I live in?
    Nope. Nada. No.
    But will all do what we can, don’t we? I try to be kind to all, but frankly, I’ve had enough. If a stranger comes up to me and starts talking some ridiculous mendacious fascist bullshit, he or she is going to get an earful. I’ll be civil in my tone but I done being quiet.
    Sorry I didn’t bring the funny today. My sense of humor is still here. It’s just under a profound fear that the American Dream that I was born into is quickly slipping away, and I’m pissed off and scared about it all.
    But don’t worry. Self-deprecating humor will return. I promise.
    However.
    American Democracy (1965-2022)
    Life in wartime, baby.

Circles and Spirals: Stu Jenks' Newsletter #2: 4/7/22

Hey everyone,

1) Went to SECCA recently (The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem) and saw an amazing show entitled. Black@Intersection: Contemporary Black Voices in Art, curated by Duane Cyrus, a prof at UNC-G. So much great work from all over the world. One of my favorites is "Cupid" by Wolly McNair, out of Charlotte. (A jpeg of this is above) I reached out to Wolly and he is a very sweet and spiritual man. A delight to chat with him on Instagram.

I also went to the Nasher Museum of Art over at Duke a few weeks ago and saw a show about North Carolina Artists Today, many if not most were Black artists.

In three words, It's fucking time.

When I was in art school the big thing was, "Let's promote women artists. The time of white guys only making art and getting it seen should be over." And for the most part it is. It appears in my absence from North Carolina since the early 80's, they have decided it's time to promote artists of color and women artists too, beside just the white guys. I couldn't be happier.

Except for this one little thing. The work by these younger artists is so good and so thoughtful, it makes me want to stop making stuff. That feeling only lasted a day or two, but in the back of my mind, do we really need more me? Perhaps yes, perhaps no, but I'm happy as a clam in cool sand that the art world is including the other 70% of the American population now, not just the white guys.

2) Went to the Dean Dome to watch the NCAA Championship game, but mostly just to see the building from the inside. It is amazing to sit in the stands, for free no less. I left early in the first half of the game, for a number of reasons, a) I really couldn't see the game that well on the four big screens, b) I could hear well either, and c) I had a gut feeling we were going to lose, and I could tell that if UNC lost, it might get ugly here. Not by the students but from the middle aged guys who came that night, who were already angry it appears, I don't know why. I drove home to Greensboro and watched the second half on my TV. Carolina lost to Kansas but it was OK. We beat Duke in the semifinal game and Hubert Davis and all the guys had a great end of their season. Fun fact: I'm now a born again U of A fan. I'm loving me some Tommy Lloyd. Excited about the future of Arizona basketball. And of course I love the Zags. A good year of college basketball. Now onto the NBA. Go Suns.

3) Being poor sucks. Really sucks. I get a small retirement and I'm working part time being a Legal Zoom Monitor but I don't make that much money really. And image and sculpture sales are way down, but I'm still making a little coin from the music online. I'm just poorer than I've been since the 1980's. I have everything I need but I'm not sure where I'm going to get the money to print the new Step Zero book. And I need new glasses. And new shoes. And a tune up for the truck. Heavy sigh. I know as we get older, we live more on fixed incomes and such, but Jeez Louise. I'm not trying to manipulate anyone into giving me money. Just being transparent about what it's like to be a creative person in my late 60s and not having a lot of extra cash and not selling that much. And baby needs a new pair of shoes or rather hiking boots. But if I talk about it, I'll be less depressed about it. I know that. And it reminds me to be grateful for what I have. Unlike the Talking Heads song, this is my beautiful house. This is my beautiful wife.

4) Speaking of beauty, about half of all the houses on our little street have dogwood trees. The street's ablaze with white and pink flowers. It's really nice. I've been more of a Fall and a Winter person in the past, but I think I get Spring now. The trees and flowers and birds are waking up and having sex with each other, so to speak. The robins and bunnies in our backyard certainly are. It's sweet. I've actually named two of the bunnies, who have scars on their bodies so I can identify them. Bruno and Roberta, They are hard to photograph but I'll try and get some pics of them for you in the future.

5) and lastly, I've visited an undisclosed part of the Haw River a couple of times, harvesting some dead Red Cedar wood for my Late Stage Capitalism sculpture series. Don't think I'm on private property, hopeful it's county or state property and I'm just salvaging dead wood and not that much of it, but I do see those no trespassing signs way over there and it doesn't make me happy. I'm positively Native about land ownership. It's good to have a little piece of land to live on and to ranch or farm it, but to individually own large tracts of land for no other purpose then to make money, drives me a little nuts. 42% of the state of Arizona is owned by the federal government, which means I can walk and hike almost all of that. (If you add the AZ Land Trust Land, it's way over 50% I'm sure.) I know I'm on the east coast where white men have owned land, property, women and Africa-Americans for centuries. I know the history. Women? Less ownership for the past 50 years. Blacks? Well, lynching doesn't happen anymore, but we don't get points for that. I digress. No Trespassing signs just piss me off, particularly when I'm in the middle of nowhere, near a river, having walked through spider webs and stickers to get there. I'm a Westerner, a desert rat. I know I'm not in Kansas or the Sonoran Desert anyway. Just trying to find my way in a land that really isn't my home. Gathering four or five cedar sticks, then bringing them home, cutting, sanding and oiling them, and making art from them, helps me get through. Makes me quite happy. And I like giving walking sticks away to people I love too. It does not suck. And boy doesn't my workshop/garage smell great after I"ve been stripping some cedar bark. Lovely.

Life is good, unless I start to think about it too much, but it's good if I feel it. Just feel the feelings and let it go and all that good shit. But that does work. I'm feeling it right now and in the here and now, it's all good.

I have love and life and dogwoods. 

Love you all

Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.

Stu

The Late Stage Capitalism Series by Stu Jenks

 

Elton “Ellie” Swann, Spiral Red Oak, North Carolina” (c) 2022 Stu Jenks, 38 inches tall, $295 (Shipping included in the price.)

 

 

The Vision Statement for the Late Stage Capitalism Series by Stu Jenks.

 

"Late capitalism is a pyramid racket on a global scale...getting the suckers to believe it's all gonna go on forever.” -Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, 2013

Things are falling apart.

I can go through the litany of all the broken things, but you all know what I’m talking about: Greed and avarice are the new religion; The world is heating up, storms worsen, ice melting, CO2 increasing and it’s mostly the fault of old white men, who have money, power and who don’t give a shit about you or me or the future; Racism, sexism and classism had a few years of being on the wane, but now they’re back, shameless and in the forefront of our national and global politics (or perhaps it’s always been there); and the gap between the have and have-nots is greater than during The American Gilded Age, the rich get richer and the sick stay poor.

Botton line? I think it’s all coming apart, slowly, profoundly, fatally.

As an artist, I think it is my responsibility to show the hard things in the world as well as to make pretty things.

So…here is my new series of wall pieces. They started out whole, some as functioning walking sticks, some just as works of art. Now, I’ve cut them into pieces, to be hung like trophies on the wall, wildlife skulls of a dying world.

Each piece is named after a character from one of my four post-apocalyptic Step Zero novels. The world these people live in is only 50 years in the future, but I think it’s quite possible that our world too, could almost come to an end if all the oil goes away in a nuclear flash. And I also think it’s possible, that in that aftermath, we Americans would rebuilt our country, valuing the simple things: love, generosity, justice, humor, music, sobriety, feelings, consideration, and family. At least that is my prayer.

I pray also that I fulfilled the paradox of addressing a heavy subject here, and also making beautiful objects for you to enjoy.

It’s tricky, don’t you know. All of it.

Arthur "Artie" Saum, Desert Agave, Arizona (c) 2022 Stu Jenks, 59 inches tall, $200 (Shipping included in the price)

 

Balthazar "Balth" Stone, Mountain Laurel, North Carolina (c) 2022 Stu Jenks, 54 inches tall, $250 (Shipping included in the price.)

 

 

Tobacco Barn, Caswell County, North Carolina

"Tobacco Barn, Caswell County, North Carolina" (c) 2021 Stu Jenks

As I was taking this image, I could see the final composition in my mind's eye. I love fine elegant composition. I like how easy my eye moves around this photograph: down the roof line, back up to the trees, resting on the upper door and the red wood for a second, then back down the roof line again. I'm also grateful to have really good glass (Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8 IS lens) to make it all happen.

My father used to say, "it's a sad dog that won't wag its own tail" 

Well, Dad, I'm wagging here.

"Sacajawea, Mountain Laurel, North Carolina" [Extended Family Series]

“Sacajawea, Mountain Laurel, North Carolina” © 2021 Stu Jenks, 68 inches long.

Price: $200, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at stujenks@gmail.com 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.

 

We all know that Sacajawea helped Lewis and Clark in the expedition west, but I didn't know that she had been bought by the French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau from another tribe to be his wife/slave. Charbonneau also came along for the ride with Lewis and Clark and the others.

Truly, the reason Sacajawea proved so valuable on that trip was she spoke many of the native languages of the tribes along the way, and because she was a Native American woman among all white people. Many of the tribes would have simply killed the members of the expedition if Sacajawea wasn't there, walking with her infant son in her arms. And reading between the lines, she was a lot more fun to be around than her husband Toussaint. I just find it interesting that Charbonneau is lost to time. Sweet justice if you ask me, that we don't remember at least one white jerk at all.

Note to the U.S. mint: It was nice of you to make the Sacagawea Dollar but y'all messed up, making it roughly the size of a quarter. You can still fix this problem now, making the coin more like the British One Pound coin, roughly the size of a nickel but much much thicker and heavier in weight. Americans I believe would use that dollar, if it didn't feel just like a quarter in our pockets. Yes, yes, passing extensive national voting rights legislation to keep our country from falling into complete autocracy is a number one priority, but making a good dollar coin should be up there too. Just saying.

#sacajawea, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

"Guy Clark, Dogwood, North Carolina" [Extended Family Series]

“Guy Clark, Dogwood, North Carolina” © 2021, 57 inches tall.

Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at stujenks@gmail.com 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.

 

I was fortunate enough to see the singer-songwriter Guy Clark perform at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, in San Francisco, in 2010. I even video taped him with real live gear. I knew who he was from songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train but I really didn't know how remarkable he truly was. Until that day.

An old and ailing man, he still put his back into every song. I am blessed to have experience that performance.

Here is the link to YouTube of Guy Clark performing "Let It Roll" that day.

Dogwood seems like the perfect wood for a country gentleman like Guy.

Rest in peace, Mr. Clark. You touched many.

#guyclark, #extendedfamilyseries, #stujenks.

"The Hole In The Sky Group, Rhododendron Wood, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series}

“The Hole In The Sky Group, Rhododendron Wood, North Carolina” © 2021, 58 inches tall.

Price: $175, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at stujenks@gmail.com 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.

 

A.A members are anonymous to the world, but the A.A. groups are not. Their physical and Zoom meeting addresses are on the internet for all to see and for all to find. Here is the link to the Google Doc of all the Zoom meetings of Hole In The Sky. The physical HITS location will open soon in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

So in A.A. and other 12 Step groups, there are Traditions, bylaws really, on how A.A. groups and members are to behave, in order to not hurt the Fellowship and make 12 groups as welcoming as possible. The 11th Tradition of Alcoholic Anonymous reads as such:

"Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films." (Cocaine Anonymous includes the word 'television' in the grouping of medias)

You may have noticed one huge omission. The Internet.

So in 2021, people are now more public, in big and small ways, regarding their 12 Step recovery on the internet and other places too. I wish it wasn't so sometimes, but the genie is way out of the bottle now. Yes, I worry that some may be turned off to 12 Step fellowships if they don't like someone in the press who mentions they are in AA, but these days, I don't think that matters that much. Hell, people find all kinds of small reasons to be pissed off at people they don't even know. And sometimes, if done respectful, a small violation of the 11th Tradition can actually help save lives, like Marc Maron's extremely obtuse mentionings of "The Secret Society" and "Doing the thing" on his WTF podcast. People really have gone to meetings after hearing Marc talk about the Program. He has the emails to provide it.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm saying all this, maybe just to justify prior posts of this website regarding 12 Step programs and my experiences in A.A. and C.A.. But I do know this. I hope to make the Fellowships as welcoming to the newcomer as possible. We are here and we're free, and we'll help you all as best we can. Your recovery is your recovery, but we who have been around for a while have seen things that work and that don't work.

Work? Doing the 12 Steps, preferably with a sponsor you like and trust; going to meetings often, IRL and/or on Zoom; being a service to others, both in and outside of the Program; and finding and practicing your own specific spirituality, be it cosmic muffin or a higher power.

Don't work too well? Resisting help from others, saying "I've got this"; hanging out with other using and drinking buddies; carrying grudges; continue to be dishonest with people you love and who love you; projecting too much into the future and not staying in the moment; and more.

People make up the Program (damn it), and people can screw things up in the Program with their judgment, their pettiness, their control issues, their impatience and their unresolved issues. It happens.

But at the daily Hole In The Sky's 6:45 a.m. PDT (9:45 a.m. EDT) meeting, you'll find compassionate, kind, smart, caring, spiritual people who give a damn. Yes, there are one or two pains in the asses (You guys have no idea who you are), but having only one or two is a minor miracle. A good 1/4 of all A.A. members are know-it-alls. To have only two pieces-of-work in a meeting of over a 100 people is wondrous.

So check out HITS. They have Zoom meetings throughout the day and this new club house in Woodlands Hills, Los Angeles, will be opening soon.

They are lovely people truly. I'm there a few mornings a week, just to feel the love. And to be of some small service, as I can.

Love you guys.

Stu.

 

#holeinthesky, #extendedfamilyseries, #stujenks

“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 51 inches tall.

Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at stujenks@gmail.com 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.

 

U.S. Grant. Great General, not so great of a President.

You may notice that there is no Robert E. Lee stick on the StuBlog but there is a U.S. Grant stick. Even though I was born in the South, and have, in the past, been moved by the bravery and struggles of combatants on both sides of the American Civil War, I strongly recognized that The South represented slave owners and slavery and The North did not. And General Lee, for all his gentile behaviors, was still a traitor to the Union. Yes, yes, "I can not fight against my country," he stated at the beginning of the War, talking about the State of Virginia as his 'country', but Lee did betray the United States of America. And, in his writings, he stated that blacks were not intelligent to be full citizens.

Sadly, I was taught as a child that Grant was a drunk and a butcher. What I know or think I know is that Grant did drink but probably was not an alcoholic. He didn't enjoy killing Southerns but he did what was need to be done to end the war. Also, it is little known that Grant saved Raleigh, North Carolina from being burned to the ground by his own troops, after Lincoln was assassinated. He ever pointed his own cannons at those troops to keep them from coming into town.

Grant also could have recommended that all Confederate officers be tried and shot for treason at Appomattox Courthouse. That would be within his rights to do so, but he did not do that. He showed mercy instead. He let everyone, officers and regular soldiers alike, simply go home.

In the 1990's, I was a fan of Robert E. Lee, but not anymore. I know more now.

In 2021, I'm now a fan of U.S. Grant, because I learned a thing or two.

As a President, he had a corrupt cabinet and administration, which wasn't entirely his faults. But as a General, he showed compassion and wisdom at the end of the Civil War. What he did or rather didn't do at Appomattox was a very big deal.

I'm a fan now of U.S. Grant.

Sir, you get one of my sticks.

 

#usgrant, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries