from J. Ivcevich:

Just saw this review for the first time this evening. Thanks for checking out the show. I appreciate your opinion and found it to be an interesting and valid view of the piece and its curatorial juxtapositioning to the other works mentioned (Ron and Sheila's).

I saw a flyer that said my piece addressed,  "the centrality of hip-hop culture in Atlanta." I made it because Bonecrusher used to be the cook at the old Yin Yang Cafe which was the home venue for lots of talented folks who have gone on to bigger things. I was a DJ there as well as the old MJQ which also was a major incubator for some amazing ideas and artists at the time. It's been truly inspiring to see a lot of these friends and aquantences reach international levels of success and keep their vision and ATL ethos in tact. Anyway, 2 years ago at the Music Midtown fest, I was DJing and Bonecrusher was performing the same day. I felt like we had come full circle after close to a decade of hard work. I got the photo for the painting that day. It wasn't all  "Shallow posing" as I was there in those clubs and their various incarnations for a full 10 years. I also thought it showed a lot of pride and courage for a man built like Bonecrusher to take pride in who he is all the way down to the crack of his ass, which he damn well knew, he was showing off and rocking the crowd with. Not necessarily  "cool-am-I", more,  "Damn, Bonecrusher's cool and having a blast."

It was a very busy summer for me and I never did get around to including my artist statement which would have articulated my intentions with regard to my portrait, but then that might have risked tainting it all too much and y'all wouldn't have had good ammo for your article. Thanks for letting me see an observation of the work from a different perspective, J.