One of the things I’ve been profoundly struck by since the opening of my art show on February 6 is how easy it has been to relate to folks of all backgrounds and identities over the subject matter.

I’ll let these neat slides the gallery staff made explain what and why that is …

It’s starting to actually feel nothing short of ironic that I’ve been made to feel so “other” my whole life in so many professional, familial, and social circles. Because everything I’m expressing is demonstrating itself to be not just relatable, but fundamental.

Sure, I’m not everybody’s cup of tea and I’m not trying to be. That’s impossible. However, I’m not an insane and stunted half-person either. I am a reasonable and grounded adult.

Yesterday I ran into someone who had publicly demeaned me as if I were a mentally unstable child after I got physically assaulted by one of his friends the last time I saw him. He was five feet away from me by the time we noticed each other.

I looked him in the eye and gave him a nod and the peace sign. His face split into a huge grin that was also a beady-eyed grimace. He said “hi” with a high-pitched self conscious giggle. Strangely (or maybe not strangely), I didn’t feel awkward at all.

What happened to me in that situation was deeply unjust and it could be argued that it never should have happened.

However, another way to look at it is that the relationship was warped by ignorance from the start. I frontloaded my discomfort in that relationship. He deferred his.

That sucked for me for awhile, but it also created a sort of incomplete equation, like a newtonian law of physics, that naturally trends toward eventual resolution.

Ignorant people with more power than is just have been acting out their misunderstandings of reality for a long time.

The fact that they believe the bill will never come due doesn’t make them correct; it makes them sloppy and lax in their vigilance and execution.

In many cases, we don’t even have to explain to them how embarrassingly wrong they are. Because the simple fact that we continue to exist as grounded adults living our lives turns out to be a glitch in logic their warped egos cannot survive.

How they deal with fixing their bad math is their problem; ours is to continue to participate in life. Humanly, unpretentiously, and collaboratively.

Cool.

I painted this piece on St. Patty’s Day when I was living near Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert. Spring hits different there. I feel lucky to have gotten to experience that place the way I did for the five months of my life I spent there.

Continue to be cool. We’re doing great.

—Adrien