Night of 100 Canvases!

I donated a piece of art to the Silver Rooms "We The People:100 Canvases" Exhibition and Fundraiser. The Silver Room has hosted an annual block party in the Wicker Park neighborhood, this will be their 12th year hosting the "Sound System Block Party". This was my first year participating and it was alot of fun.

The piece I donated was from a series I call "Waiting". The work was originally commissioned by Globetrotter Magazine. My bestie Logan was the model for the series, so between Globetrotter Mag (a friend of the Silver Room) Logan and myself all being friends and supporters of whatever The Silver Room does, this image was perfect.

"Waiting #1" printed, framed and bagged ready to for exhibition

New Work Thanks to the HPAC

Happy Summer!! I’m really hoping that today being the Summer Solstice the weather really shows up and shows out! The weather has been sort of crummy here in Chicago, we’ve had some beautiful days but more crummy days. Its okay, because I know that the buck stops here and it will be a fantastic summer!!! I’ mean yesterday it was 60 degrees no bueno!!! Anyway its been pretty busy over here at the Steph Graham empire,I’ve been hanging out at the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) participating in their Bridge Program. The experience with was a fantastic one, and its sort of hard to explain The Bridge Program because for the most part it felt like I was just hanging out, but it was more than that as we shared ideas, critiqued artworks , worked our artist statements and discussed just how we are navigating the art world in Chicago. For the past three months this group of artists along with facilitator Annie Morse and Jen Tremblay has become my little family, and now that the program has concluded and my Tuesday nights are free… well I dont know what to do with myself I’m sort of starting to cry now… hold on let me just send a little hello text to my buddy Michelle, she was one of the artists i the program..hmm maybe I’m just being a little dramatic.

So I walked out of Bridge with some new friends, a reworked artist statement and a new project! SAY WHAT!!!

I started Bridge with the intention on making more guy portraits. However the violence in Chicago has been off the charts with all the shootings here and its been really getting me down and I’ve started to take it personally. The death of Endia Martin over a Facebook fight.. I took to my sick bed on her death and I really got to thinking, what my role as an artist was to help bring awareness and finding actionable solutions to curb the violence. So I created a video piece of found audio and video that I call Salvation Street . 

Tax Day!

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax" -Albert Einstein.

TODAY IS TAX DAY!!! DEADLINE IS HERE!!! UH OH!! Man, let me tell you I do not look forward to this time of year, and Mister Einstein said it right!! Taxes are soo overwhelming and intimidating, I don't care how organized I am when it comes to tax season, I never look forward to it. I sit on the edge of my seat as I turn all my paperwork into my accountant wondering if I'm going to have a refund or am I going to owe. I just cant take it!!

I submitted my taxes the other night but with today being the deadline, and some of yall filing extensions I thought I would share some resources that I found helpful so when next year comes around you and I are on top of our game.

Tax season is the only thing that keeps me on my game when it comes to collecting receipts and such, even if I dont use them for filing its always interesting to see how much I've spent on a single project. I'm still in a trial and error mode searching for a tracking system that is easy for me. Right now I have a simple excel spreadsheet that I'm checking into constantly and recording expenses. Its month 3 though, so Im praying that this is something I will keep consistent with, but so far so good. Let me tell you I will abandon a system in a second if its not working for me. Systems for record keeping really should be as easy as possible because otherwise you simply will not do it Its also smart to know how much money you are spending and what your spending it on. Personal Finance 101 right?!

So keeping along with this whole taxes thing, I simply wanted to share 2 podcasts about taxes I recently listened to. These podcasts are my one of my favorite podcasts on personal finance from Money Girl.

How to Pay Less in Taxes (Part 1)

How to Pay Less in Taxes (Part 2)

Hopefully you find these helpful, and cheers to a new year of consistent proper recordkeeping

If you have any tax tips or resources  I would love to hear about them in the comments