It was the Winter of 2016.
I was fresh out of the halfway house and hooked up with an old friend. Let's call her Jessi. At the time she was hard into slinging/using meth. She wasn't like that before I got locked up, and I was pretty shocked. Never would have figured.
My wife and I were renting an efficiency in Bismarck at the time. Bedbug-infested. Toilet would always flood. Wife and I slept on a leaking air mattress that had to be re-inflated ever three hours. Cramped, annoying quarters to say the least.
One blizzarding day Jessi stops by, throws her car keys in the distant snowbank and tells me that she needs to stay by my place. This is the same girl I saved from being kidnapped months earlier. That's a story for another day.
Of course I agree, I had the hots for her still.
But with her came all of her problems. My small apartment became an ad-hoc traphouse. Scumbags coming and going unannounced. Crashing on my sofa. Someone even stole my sunglasses. Fucking tweakers...
She was feeding me pot and meth constantly though, so I tolerated it. I'd just stay up and draw for days at a time.
I drew this while sitting on the floor mostly. It took about 200 hours over the course of a couple months.
One evening she brought me some acid and I decided to add color.
I think the end result was worth it-
but I do not miss those times at all. Though these current ones are no better...
Such Vile Processes- A Self-Portrait
Ink and acrylic on bristol board
11x14
2016
