"The Writing on the Wall (For #Tezos4Tezos May 2022)"
[Ink on paper on butcher paper in a plastic folder, photographed, distorted digitally, with digital drawing and color.] I'm doing this for the May 2022 #Tezos4Tezos event. I found this drawing / collage in my garage, originally drawn in 2009 (before I started mirroring my initials!)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ABGYuE84UQNDJdWtMEhiBi6yhsfTQ7W56/314
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For those who remember the #objkt4objkt events on the old HEN platform, the #Tezos4Tezos party is similar situation. From May 6th thru May 8th, folks who want to participate are being asked to mint 100 editions of a piece and then put them up for sale for between 0.1 and 1 tezos each. The fun is in having people grab your work for cheap (spread the love around) and collecting a ton of work from others without breaking the bank. It's worth taking a look. (So this weekend, hop on Tweeterz and type the hashtag above to see who's playing along!)
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“Declaration of Existence… (Transcribed Excerpt)”
[Recorded live to a Twitter Space on 20 April 2022.]
Richard F. Yates ♦️
Tweeter handle: 
“Greetings, folks. My name is Richard F. Yates, and I am an artist, writer, raconteur, Shaman, and weirdo living in the Pacific Northwest. I was born in 1972 in a place called Longview, Washington, which is right on the Oregon/Washington border, right by the Columbia River, kind of where the Columbia River and the Cowlitz River meet. Not that you care about that, but that's where I was born, and I was born in 1972, I already said above!”
“I will be 50 this summer, and that's a long time to live in one place, and as a youth, I was hit by a car or, actually, I was run over by a car. This happened when I was four years old. I suffered a punctured lung, broken collarbone, and I bit my tongue, and this event messed up my insides pretty good, so I was in the hospital for several months. During that time I like to pretend, or I've told myself, that that was my shamanic initiation. I visited the world of the dead, and now I’m back to share with other people the news: Try not to be dead, and I think that's a good. That's a good premise to run with. And now that I'm old, and I mean I'm OLD-old, as in, you know, both of my parents are dead and I'm a grandpa. I got married and had two daughters, and then one of those daughters had a daughter of her own. So I'm actually a grandpa, a grandpa artist, which is hard to believe, but…old. Almost 50.”
“But in that time, I've kind of come up with this idea that artwork is a declaration of existence. It's me declaring to the universe, which after having read a few books, having taken classes in philosophy, being a former Christian, now primarily a shamanistic, existential, atheist psychonaut, I'm a believer in the fact that people's brains are freaky places and that everyone should visit them from time to time (especially their own.)”
“I've kind of come to the conclusion that artwork is a means of immortality, and I've read a book called Negotiating with the Dead, which is very good. And it's actually by the lady who did. Handmaid's Tale and I should have looked up what her name is. [Margaret Atwood! Jeeze… I looked it up.] I have a really bad memory, so I have to write everything down, but at any rate so the book, Negotiating with the Dead, basically suggests that creative works, like writing and art and self-expression, is people saying to the universe, ‘Don't let me be forgotten! Don't let me disappear…’”
“And I fully believe that. I mean, it seems to me to ring true.”
“After my near-death experience, which traumatized me in any number of ways---I mean, it's bad… I'm a total neurotic, you know, and I know part of that is the genetics, so it's not all the fault of this one incident, but after all the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune, it’s come to the point now to where I have massive high blood pressure and serious anxiety and depression and all these other fun things that make me take a whole bunch of pills---and a lot of people in my family have to take pills, and we've learned to live with it. But we've also learned that self-expression can be a really good way of dealing with that anxiety. And part of that anxiety is the fear that we will be forgotten, so I really believe that creation, the act of creating, which isn't necessarily for everybody, but for people who are doing it for the reasons that I'm doing it, we are basically just saying ‘I'm here! Hey Universe, I'm here and, you know, you can look at me if you want to, but I've done my part. I've put this stuff out here, and we'll see what else happens from that!’”
[This is an excerpt from my first, and so-far ONLY, attempt at hosting a Twitter space. If you are interested in this type of nonsense, feel free to join me when I attempt my NEXT one!] [This transcript has been edited for coherence and because the closed captioning couldn't grasp my accent very well.]
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"Consequences"
[Ballpoint pen on notebook page with digital embellishments and color.] Consequences of human child vs automobile. Consequences of a day spent watching stuff instead of making. Consequences of computer waves projected into deep space...
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"Surprise!"
[Felt pen and sticker collage on reclaimed cardboard with minor digital color tweaking.] Hand made collage on a ripped up chunk of cereal box! There's a message there!
https://rarible.com/token/tezos/KT1R5aP81ytNJDjPhz99t48YCosNfhS7J4Q7:35
[DARN IT! I'm getting that "Content is not available yet" garbage again. (Rarible...) Last time, it took over-night before the image finally showed up! Dang nab it! I'll keep you folks informed...] [Never mind! It went through... Ha!]
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"Figments (For #Tezos4Tezos May 2022)" by RFY (HF) & FEH (TT)
[Crayon and felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color swooshing.] A classic séance style collaboration between an old Fool and his granddaughter! We make the artz!
P.S. - This piece is being minted for the #Tezos4Tezos May 2022 event! Join the fun!!!
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool) & Felicity Echo Hanson (Toddler Terror)
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(Did I show this one to you folks already??? Maybe, but that's okay. I think it's #sadfunny enough to share again...) [I checked! I HAVE shared it before, but so what? I think it's okay to share artwork more than once, from time to time...]
"She's a Star"
[Ink on notebook page with digital embellishments and moshing.] I'm guessing that this actress was popular in the 1930s (but in an alternate reality, of course.) She was probably the victim of a psychopathic killer whose "creative" mutilation would later inspire (that universe's) version of the Black Dahlia killer... Such a sad story...
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"White Eyed Squid (For #Tezos4Tezos May 2022)"
[Ink on paper with digital embellishments and color.] Here's a creepy alien cartoon squid for the May 2022 #Tezos4Tezos event! Have you minted any pieces yet??? We're about to have a great weekend! (As long as this squid doesn't get us first!)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ABGYuE84UQNDJdWtMEhiBi6yhsfTQ7W56/315
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That's all for today! Thanks for visiting!!!
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://linktr.ee/richardfyates
