Michelle Shankwiler's Album

abandoned

5/4/2017

my account of what happened at Frog Island-

I was painting the wall alone.
I was going to paint “SHARE THE WALL” and SHARE was going to sneakily be SHANKY by means of combining the NKY with overlapping to look like a R and E.
 
T.s, B. and N. came to help me. T.s carried my paint and because my car is broke down, B. drove me. N. was only guilty by association because he was hanging out with B.

When someone told me the police were at the park I decided to go up top and talk with them. As I neared the stairs, the first officer came down “Eggerberger” I Believe was his name. I approached him and he immediately told me to stay where I was and not leave, I told him I was actually coming to look for him.

While I stood there exclaiming that I was the only one who was painting the wall and that I ran the community garden and thought it a lovely day to paint a public mural, which I thought was entirely within the scope of “Installing and maintaining public works of art in Frog Island” I also thought it to be entirely within the scope of “Beautifying the Frog Island Community Garden and surrounding areas.” The officer proceeded to harass, search, detain and pat down my three male accomplices, starting with my husband.

Never was I asked to sit down as my three male accomplices were.
Never was my person searched as my three male accomplices were.
I admitted to being the only one painting the wall and showed him exactly what I had painted.

I stood there, literally in the officers face, showing him my adopt a park certificate with my phone via google apps where I keep a constant up to date record of everything FICG related. He told me to show him paperwork that proved I was allowed to install and maintain public works of art in Frog Island and upon doing so, even highlighting and enlarging the words, he told me he couldn’t read it.

The whole shebang ended when they went to go do “Real police work” (Their words and mine). I told them they might as well arrest me then and there because as soon as they left I was going to pick up my can and spray.

I benefit from female privilege

I AM FOR PUBLIC WORKS OF ART IN YPSILANTI.

I AM FOR PUBLIC WORKS OF ART IN YPSILANTI MADE BY LOCAL ARTISTS ON A WHIM TO BEAUTIFY THE SPACE.

I AM FOR PUBLIC WORKS OF ART IN YPSILANTI MADE BY LOCAL ARTISTS WHERE FEAR OF BEING ARRESTED ISN’T A CONSTANT LOOMING FACTOR.

This is not 1990’s gang tied gang tag Ypsilanti. This is 2017 slightly gentrified artist inhabited diverse YPSILANTI. WE WILL MAKE ART. Arrest me if you have to.

Signed,
SHANKY

Thank you google translator voice for your voice over while I have laryngitis ;)

i am for public works of art in Ypsilanti and I benefit from female privilege

im lost inside my soul
beckoning myself, come hither
Come dream a dream of life
Come mare a night of sweats

and where are you now?
resting atop the icy clouds, waiting for the hand of god to come pluck you out and tell you you’re the one?
hiding below a lonely rock, behind a stump, waiting for the claws of lucifer to drag you down and tell you you aren’t enough?

The seven trumpets are blaring in the distance
all is lost to the sound
This drink won’t finish itself
and your wants are all smashed to the ground

I’m hiding inside my mind
calling myself, become onto thee
come live a life of passion
come die a death of seven seas

and where am I now?
holding myself tight as I rock back and forth, unsure of what tomorrow will allow me to be?
Staying out of sight for fear I’ll realize what you’ve done and decide to set myself free?

The seven trumpets are drowning out my own thoughts
all is found in the sound
This fag won’t suck itself down
and your needs are forgotten all around

I’m resting in my state of thug dam
waiting for my life to begin, once again
reset the clocks that vanished
rewind back around the sun

and what to do now?
wait for the go ahead, the green flag waved in front of my face? A black and white checkered flag stabbed into my heart?
I lost the colors of my aura, I lost the liveliness in my soul, I forgot how to lift myself up.

The seven trumpets from every angle not even phasing
the web I cast upon myself
This feline will rest on my hand
and the world is full of holes again

seven trumpets

Can you hear my echoing voice in the trees?
Can you see the ripples from my skipping stones?
I want to never see the daffodils
that spring up along the stream

You were the hunter
So beautiful to see
son of the river god 
rejecting the love from me

Can you hear my echoing voice in the trees?
Can you see the ripples from my skipping stones?
I want to never see the daffodils
that spring up along the stream

I beg you, stalker
to not recognize yourself
to let the river flow free
run with the wind and me thru the trees

Can you hear my echoing voice in the trees?
Can you see the ripples from my skipping stones?
I want to never see the daffodils
that spring up along the stream

He will kill himself, you know
just to show you the way
Lying alone on the doorstep
with the sword you arranged.

Echo

There’s no way out of this alive
I’ve done the math

I’m staying distant
my soul is straying
keeping itself safe
from the feelings
of my very heart
My love for you
will kill me quickly
my love for you
is killing me swiftly


Finding the bright spot becomes increasingly unfathomable. 
Wallowing thru the lies, I'm treading tears, choking in this salty sea of infidelity.
Gears turning, my own mind chained to itself, caught in a web of insecurity. 

Had I been Durga, sprouting from my brow would be a warrior to lap up the demons spawning from my own blood. 
If only.

I’m staying distant
my soul is straying
keeping itself safe
from the feelings
of my very heart
My love for you
will kill me quickly
my love for you
is killing me swiftly

Finding the magic spaces becomes conquestedly unreliable.
ducking steadily above the reality, I’m warding off thoughts, stranded on an endless road of irregularity.
Molecules swirling, my eyes blind to my own ways, buried below my own dead skin dust.

Had I been Athena, I would have been born wearing a chastity belt and planted the olive tree, snake by my side.
If only

I’m staying distant
my soul is straying
keeping itself safe
from the feelings
of my very heart
My love for you
will kill me quickly
my love for you
is killing me swiftly

swiftly

I became the lonely daffodil
I did my ballet in the breeze
But no one wants me around now
they won’t jump my picket fence

I wanted to go to the fete
and just dance dance dance

i only want to have that one moment in the sun to hold onto
I only want to sleep on a beach
feel the wind hurt my ears
hear the sand between my toes
smell the sun on my face
taste the life I could believe
wander to where the breeze blows
I want to hear the waves crashing

I like the way a leap feels
I see a twinkle in the crowd
swaying with the street lights
takes two to frolic right?

it will be a playful gambol
and we’ll prance, prance, prance

i only want to have that one moment in the sun to hold onto
I only want to sleep on a beach
feel the wind hurt my ears
hear the sand between my toes
smell the sun on my face again
taste the life I could believe
wander to where the breeze blows
I want to hear the waves crashing

I bound to the spring mosh
I quivered with my masquerade
frisking jigs and sharp darts
trip the light fantastically

I will bail and hop with beguile
I’ll take my stance, stance, stance

I only want to have that one moment in the sun to hold onto
I only want to sleep on a beach
feel the wind hurt my ears
hear the sand between my toes
smell the sun on my face
taste the life I could believe
wander to where the breeze blows
I want to hear the waves crashing on the beat

Celestial bodies gyrate in the heavens
whirling galaxies eddy away
disco bedlam becomes me
discrete movements to the ditty

sail on a trip in my ship
we’ll build a hance, hance, hance

I became the daffodil

no one tells the birds they cannot fly south for the winter
no one tells the giant shellbacks they cannot lay their eggs
but men, men with wicked minds, find solace in exploiting the freedom in wild creatures.
Taming their souls with various beliefs and schemes.
Leasing out their very existence for their own gain.
I am the turtle, I am the bird, I am the young man on walkabout.
I have my sheath to protect the sword which will preserve me.
But I need a sharpening stone to keep it keen.

Let me drop the deadweights with a grunt in the gym of life.
I picked them up, flexing and grimacing with sweat dripping in my eyes.
And they all watched, sure I couldn’t bear the weight of it all.
Not once did I flinch.

A shadow is cast upon me, so deep and dark that the sun cannot barely  peek thru. I want to be blinded by it’s light.

hopeless

this is a piece based on the feelings I range thru every day. it's played from beginning to end, no overlapping or cuts in and out. you can hear my bird tweeting and me moving around during it. it's my favorite wip atm. Uploading before its finalized so I can share it in the hopes someone loves it as much as me and wants to colab.

piano piece in progress lets colab!

May I have this dance?

Time does not heal all wounds. Whomever said that was a liar. Time takes up a space in and of ourselves that is constantly changing, yet always the same. Time does not heal all wounds but instead, distances us from the pain. We can walk closer to it, pull the pain nearer our hearts, but that wont change it. Love more. Live every moment as if everything happens all at once, because in the grand scheme of things, it does.
~me

"I'm not an artist
I'm not a musician
I'm not a writer
I'm not a human
I SIMPLY AM A STUDENT OF LIFE."
Thanks for teaching me this Jon Onye Lockard <3

SHANKY

Popular tracks