There is a specific kind of magic that happens when you stop waiting for permission and start doing the work.

While the rest of the world is distracted by the ‘New Year, New You’ narrative, I’ve been in the studio focused on the Bougie Punk series—large-scale oils painted on jumbo playing cards. These pieces are about power, hierarchy, and the ‘difficult’ queens who refuse to play by the court’s rules.

I’m currently preparing this series for representation with Xanadu Gallery, but I decided I wasn’t going to wait for the exhibition to make a move. I decided to lean into the ‘SAMO’—Same Old Shit– strategy of Basquiat.

Before the $100 million auctions, Basquiat was a dropout sleeping on park benches, dismissed by the establishment as “primitive” because he didn’t have the pedigree they demanded. He realized early that the galleries don’t actually want original art; they want proof of demand. So he created the demand himself on the walls of SoHo. He didn’t ask for a seat at the table—he bypassed the table entirely. He made it impossible to be ignored.

Same Old Shit. Different Strategy.

I was sitting in my studio plotting a similar guerrilla move for Valentine’s Day. I was going to create mini Sacred Hearts and put them everywhere. It was a “boots on the ground” strategy—investing my own time and money to seed the landscape and get the art seen. I was thinking about the grit it takes to move the needle yourself instead of waiting for a gatekeeper.

I was choosing the “Real You” over the “New You.” I was deciding to be unavoidable.

Five minutes later, the universe responded.