All the time I wonder if snakes or spiders feel pain when they molt. If they dread the change, the slinking out of an old body the same way we do. I wonder if it feels like the time I took acid and God ripped me from my body for six hours so I could be new. Or maybe it’s a bit more seamless and serene. I envy that notion. For me it always hurts to molt. I weep for days and sometimes it really does feel like my skin is ripping itself off. I’m all tender underneath.
If you know me, you know I have had many pseudonyms on my journey into self//as a musician. Animal, Nadi Taradji, 9, Blue Boi, and now Ino. Ino feels the most true. As I’ve gotten older and experienced different things, different pieces of myself have present themselves to me. Ino, is difficult to document simply because he doesn’t like it. He’s much older than the rest of us. Very primal. Doesn’t like talking. That’s why we paint and make music. I will do my best to show him to you. he will do his best to be kind.
Ino’s first single RAINBOWS just released 7/11 , and is available on all streaming platforms. https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/inoinoino/rainbows-psy-fi-edition
RAINBOWS is a psychedelic blues track telling a melancholy tale of grief and hope. The music video gives the song a sinister twist as it combines themes from our dreams and favorite horror movies to give commentary on the different ways we fumble through unhealthy cycles until we find a way to heal. What’s your favorite scary movie?
The following will be what Ino have me permission to share. He started showing up in my artwork first in 2016, he didn’t give me a name. So I gave him one, Pippo. We worked through some memories of from childhood of being/feeling ostracized. We were always strange.
About a year later, he showed up again in what is now an extremely damaged piece of art work, a drawing called “Rebirth” , some kind of womb he lied waiting in. Until it was time to be born, I guess.
Of course at this time I didn’t know Ino was, well, a separate being from me. Even though we do share the flesh we live in. We are one, and he is different. I didn’t know he was anything at all. I think maybe that’s why he went away for away. It was a sinful thing, for me to turn away from myself and him, to chase vices and fantasies; instead of letting my true self unravel. Instead of letting him be born.
I think this piece, originally titled “The Pain of Self Awareness, another year later, was him trying to face some big pain around being abused as a child, so I could finally see myself. So we could finally be ourselves. The house is my fathers. Sometimes I worry that pieces of us are still trapped there. Lost in time, somehow.
After this, Ino did not show himself to me again until 2020, I believe. The following photographs are sketches Ino has asked/allowed me to share with you all. In no particular order. Ino was always asking me “What are you afraid of?” , at the time I was afraid of him. Now, we are unified. Ino protects my heart and I love him. We made a pact with each other and with God too. We can only be love now.
This piece is my most recent work in progress. It features Ino too. It is my attempt to capture the molting, the commune with God and the defeat of my e white supremacist enemies in DreamLand. The title is “Path to Penthos”, and it doubles as album artwork for an album we’re making with the same name. Many mysteries of our mind to unravel with this image. Does it speak to you? If so, what do you hear?
Death really is a chrysalis. Thank you for reading. Ino and Casper will be back soon with more madness, more pieces to the puzzle (music and paintings).
we love you.
be back soon. 🌷
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