Here's the story...

LOVE HARD began in 2012, when a small-minded person - a stranger - called me trash. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. So, I channelled my disappointment in the human condition— I drew a teddy bear. I took a ballpoint pen and drew a teddy bear, with a massive smile on its face and covered in tattoos.

I started LH as a project to promote normalizing body modification and alternative lifestyles. BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH!

This is about FREEDOM— freedom to choose your own way to happiness, freedom to choose comfort and love, body freedom, sex freedom, freedom to express yourself, and freedom to exist. As an artist, my goal has always been to make my work affective. Whether you find it cool, cute, inspiring, or even a bit too much, the point is to react. Art is instigative, evocative. It’s supposed to be. It’s meant to be poignant, provocative, even incendiary. Toni Morrison said all art is political. “It’s suggesting a solution, or just acknowledging that [the situation] exists. Art does that.”

LOVE HARD is art with a bullet.

Hate-free and loud about it, LH is about shaking perceptions; involving the human body to help cement the connection between the physical work with its metaphysical impact, and to connect the art to its audience. the greater the number of people connected through art - mine, or any - the louder their voices become. you can’t control the voices of others, so CONTROL THE VOLUME OF YOUR OWN! Don’t hate, live proud, love hard, and PASS IT ON!

—jj*

((supporting LGBTQIA+, BLM, women’s rights, body positivity, and sex positivity))