Meet Boxxxxx

We had the good fortune of connecting with Boxxxxx and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Boxxxxx, how do you think about risk?
Risk is an important part of my life, i believe strongly in taking risk, if you don’t nothing will happen and what is the worst that can happen? You die right, so if you aren’t god fearing person like myself then that is just the end, so might as well take as many risks as possible and it will get you far or at least it has gotten me far, you risk dying every time you leave the house so if that is true then you might as well make it worth it

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I don’t think I like this Idea of brand though, not for me anyway, it is too capitalistic, I’m not in this for the money, I don’t even really want to be an artist, I just have to be, I don’t know anything else but to make but I don’t suggest this life for anyone who isn’t stuck in the same predicament as me, because it isn’t easy and it isn’t pretty, the life of an artist is soul sucking and lonely and it gets fetishized by the masses, that we lead glamorous lives, and I guess some of us do, a small few, and I only do it because people need to know what we are doing to ourselves, we are all people and we are all complicit and we have set up a system that breeds misery and control and if we don’t stop it, then it is just going to get worse but then again maybe capitalism will get so big that it will just implode on itself one day, so my work aims to bring to light the cerebral and psychological effects of capitalism and how that leads to substance abuse and escapism and how the capitalist machine is built on the need to escape itself and that is how we control us

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well we would be drinking for sure, I’d probably want to bring them to one of the two bars i work at big foot west and the mandrake

We would have to go bowling at highland park bowl

Find a spot with a good pool table

Go to all the great vegan spots in the city, Shojin has the best vegan sushi

Then some galleries Various Small Fires, Murmurs and The Box are some of my favorites

A bunch of late nights drinking at my apartment with riveting conversation is a must

And maybe try to do something new, like I’ve never been snowboarding so a hike out of the city might needed

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
All of my friends and past lovers have been monumental in my growth, you learn something from everyone you meet even if it is just that you don’t want to be like that person, i learn the most i think from the people that i hate. But to be specific my professors have really be monumental in my growth.

I have been to two MFA programs during this pandemic and i flew across the country and gave up everything I knew to start these programs, first in San Francisco at SFAI and when the pandemic hit they closed their doors for good and me and the rest of my cohort had to find new homes, I found mine in LA at Otis and Otis took me in with open arms and made me feel at home again, but it is never the institution, its the professors that are warm and loving where as the institution is cold, administrations never seem to get it right, they never seem to know what the students need, its like I am a bartender also and every bar I have ever worked at seems to be built by people who don’t know how to bartend but at SFAI it was Brett Reichman with his all Buisness take no bs crit class that made me love him, i learned a lot from him and he was the first person who told me to get out of San Francisco and go to LA, now this was supposed to be after my MFA was over but things don’t always work out the way you want, then there were Tony Labat and Jennifer Locke who were like my performance art parents, Tony the everything is cool encouraging dad and Jennifer the stern mother who was hard on my but i always appreciated the honesty, the there was Danielle Lawrence who also was hard on me, her abstract politics class was amazing, she was more like a cool aunt who could always see through your bullshit. And Jeremy Morgan who i never had a class with but always found time to have a conversation with me and still checks up on me from time to time

Then at Otis I’ve got Andrea Bowers like a big sister, always so kind but ready to hit me with the hard questions and would never let me go to the prom with the wrong boy
Kori Newkrik who has this tough guy exterior but underneath it all is warm and kind and actually cares about the students who also care
Renee Petropoulos who is so nice you would never suspect how rebellious she is, always inspiring me to fight the institution and somehow she is always out at openings everywhere, I’ve ran into her at more places than i can count
Judie Bamber who I could talk for hours with over the artists we both don’t like is and also incredibly supportive and will point out all the holes in my work with swift precision
Allison Miller who is always down to Buisness and runs a tight ship when in critique which I appreciate, we have great conversations about work, she has a rep of brutal studio visits but I don’t think its true, she is just honest and direct
Benjamin Wiessman who is the kindest person and got me to love writing which I never though I’d say and is just the most laid back chill professor who I find a kinship with over the way we look at life
And Jennifer Moon who I did not always see eye to eye with but though several long intellectual debates have found to be a great mentor for me especially when it came to getting through some real life issues whilst getting my MFA

I’d also like to take time to mention my best friend Alicia Serling who knows all of my truth and still hangs out with me, I don’t know why but I love her for it, she has been through some tough times with me and some crazy adventures like the time we drove the side roads from San Francisco to LA, it took us 13 hours

Then I don’t want to forget three important professors while going to undergrad at MassArt
Jarrett Davis who became a good friend and I ended up as a TA for three of his classes, freshman year when I had the least talent out of everyone in his class but I worked really hard, he told me to put my nose down and keep working hard and one day you will look up and be a great artist and that made me never want to give up
Kanishka Raja (Rest in Power) was not very nice all the time, but he loved that about himself but he cared and could come into your studio and make you rethink your entire practice
And Colleen Asper who really encouraged me to think differently and really knew how to push me to be a better artist

I could go on and on about all the people who changed my life but we would be here all night but also to all my punk friends back in Boston, I miss you all dearly and miss 8 Pratt st. A living situation that could never be compared to how great it was, those were some of the best times in my life, RIP Ry Frazier I knew you not for very long but you changed my life

Website: Theboxcarter.party

Instagram: Class.less

Image Credits
Alicia Serling just for the photo of me on the floor