Falling Out the Sky

Falling Out the Sky is made up of two pieces that face each other. Both artworks are self portraits, as I am turning inwards or facing myself. The first piece is a soft sculptural painting and the second piece is a soft sculpture, yet both still stay within the realm of being low relief 2D works, suspended to create an installation. The audience walks between and around each piece to fully view and read every bit of text. Falling Out the Sky is taken after the Armand Hammer track Falling Out the Sky (feat. Earl Sweatshirt). In the first verse earl says - ​ Five on me like I'm Bob Horry for the tribe slime Mamba mentality, stars fallin' out of the sky, Sly ​ The last line references Koby Bryant as a Black star who fell out the sky in the helicopter crash, as well as the mentality of someone who lived life with an unwavering fortitude. For myself, the soft sculptural painting has a gessoed or stiffened layer of green fabric presents alternating sycamore leafs cascading from the sky. In the same piece, in the bottom half are two more sycamore leaves. One is again a positive space silhouette of the same stiffened fabric, and the second is a negative space cut out, revealing the quilt top knit fabric pinched between the layers of the work. Posed as a tramp stamp is a painted poem I wrote reading - ​ I'm so Mexican, I live with my momma Had to leave Lubbock, and all the white drama Had to leave my home, I couldn't make a dolla' Had to leave my home, 'cause of Joe and Kamala ​ This rhyme is riffed from listening to Heem's album Eat Pray Thug. This title is referenced in the black denim overall's branding. The soft sculpture maintains the same color scheme seen in the soft sculptural painting, but is a direct reference to the Lucy & Yack overalls I wear in the studio, plus the added stylings of a stripped t-shirt. The shirt is indicative of shirts I saw my father wear in the 90s. The shirt pattern is sewn together to create knit fabric pillows which contain the phrase, "it's hard to live in the moment, unless life's hard." Both pieces include the literal word or visual representation of thug. My self portrait was inspired by images of In the painting, a stuffed leaf has the embroidered phrase "I ain't got love handles I got thug handles." Like the poem posed as a tramp stamp, the embroidered pillow-like sycamore leaf is placed low in the work, forcing the audience to bend over and read. For  reward those who investigate and spend time looking at the work. The