SJ Fleck

A modern renaissance queer punk male from Detroit, Michigan, with a genius level IQ.

Sorry if I don't feel like capitalizing everything...

I love to create and that's pretty much all i do nowadays. I apologize that most of my pics of physical art aren't the best. I had my digital SLR stolen a few years ago, and haven't been able to save enough to buy a new one. And some I just overedited. So yeah, definitely need to redo most of my photos if i can ever buy a new camera and some photo lights.

I kinda spent the better part of the last decade living in pain, being tired all the time, and not knowing what was wrong with me because i had very few symptoms for HIV, then I got pneumonia for a month about a year and a half ago and could barely walk when i went to the hospital and got out. I also just went thru sleep apnea diagnosis that was part of the reason i was tired for at least 5 years before i got hiv, so that didn't really help. I also have minor depression and minor ocd and asthma if you wanna go into my whole history.

I was born in Detroit and grew up about 3 miles from the border of 8 mile. I went to christian and catholic school most of my life until my last two years of high school. I am also an eagle scout and was an assistant scoutmaster for 3 years before i left scouting. Also during scouting i worked at a boy scout summer camp for 5 years.

I attended Central Michigan University then Eastern Michigan University and graduated with a film / media / broadcasting degree in 2003 with a minor in art photo. I then attended Oakland University from 2005 to 2006 where I really learned to paint studying under Dick Goody, the head of the former meadowbrook art gallery, now known as the oakland university art gallery. At Oakland, I studied studio art and business. After that I went back to Eastern Michigan University, where I almost got my second bachelors in graphic design, which personally i still kinda count, because I only needed 3 classes, one of which was the second time I took it because the first professor i didn't really like and the second time i sprained my ankle walking home from a friend's after my car got illegally towed. I eventually won the case, but was unable to attend the class because i couldn't walk with all the weight of the supplies i was required to bring. Then I ran out of federal funding, got fired from my job and was unable to get another one. My story is one of ups and downs. of life and death, more death than anyone should have to witness.

I have literally crossed paths with thousands of individuals and know Detroit better than 99% of the people around it. I have had about 100 friends die in one way or another. I am also writing a memoir of my life, and the people in it, as well as a book on philosophy. I am remodeling my house to become a place for me to make art 24/7. If it weren't for my parents i would be homeless or dead. All of the money I make now after years of being poor i put back into my house and other businesses i have. Altho there is never enough money. Especially because i have been doing uber and lyft for the past 4 years, and it just keeps getting worse. I can't really work a regular job, and am trying to get everything off the ground. I started an art collective and non-profit here where i work with other artists and art organizations to try to provide cheap or free services. I am many other things. DJ, producer, event promoter, marijuana, queer, and human rights advocate.

I literally have a thousand of projects going on at any given time, and i have made hundreds if not thousands of works of art. I get a lot less acknowledgment than i proly deserve and people are constantly trying to undermine my accomplishments and intelligence.

I've lived the lives of a hundred men & women. There's actually a lot more about me i could keep going for a while, so we will just leave it at that.

-+>stevo