The night Ana Roman meets Joe Heaps:

In a December 2011 text message delivered to the writer, Ana Roman, Joe Heaps Nelson mused: “Come Join us. I am with the exotic one.” I was prevented from doing so.

I finally meet Mr. Heaps. A contained, elegant, prostrate on both legs, and perfectly unloaded Heaps appears before me on an anonymous January night. A good friend, we’ll call him Dick Sherbert, warned me about Mr. Heaps. But it was all in good fun. It is happenstance that I have not been left alone with Heaps yet. A girl can only pray.

Heaps, as most whisper scandalously behind their hand know, is portrayed as a mythical character. But the writer is still left waiting for the mythos. There is a lot of story-booking and image making in the art world, so my earth sense tells me that Heaps’ actions are put into his own mythos. Hence his curated and DIY produced Police Brutality Coloring book. In this wonderful, innocent, creation, we will see contributions by Shepard Fairey, PhotoSynth’s own Maya Hayuk, and Whitehot Magazine’s Noah Becker.

Selling the Contraband:

Heaps, in a fit of inspiration, put together the Police Brutality Coloring book in a little under a week—just in time for Art Basel Miami. As many resourceful artists do, Heaps borrowed money for a plane ticket from his sister and started to sell the books around Miami. His treasures were freshly released from the confines of his backpack for as little as $10 smackers a piece. All told, 65 copies were sold. “I gave some away if people didn’t have 10 bucks for one,” he said.

Shepard Fairey

Ryan Ford

Kevin Bourgeois

Chase Winkler

Adam Suerte

Maya Hayuk

The idea to create this gentle weapon of brutality arose during a conversation between Heaps and Anton Newcombe, lead singer of Brian Jonestown Massacre. He also asked Noah Becker, friend and editor of the arts website Whitehot Magazine, to lend a hand. Becker told Wired.com, “and in the midst of me drawing, Shepard Fairey called to say he was really excited about the idea. Then things just took off.”

Anonymous

George Boorujy

Sam Trioli

It is an amazing feat in this day in an age to organize 46 of some of the most influential artists and thinkers walking amongst the living of today. This 48 page DIY publication has been curated as an emotional response to the incidents of violent police action against last year’s Occupy Wall Street activists.

“I wasn’t directly involved with movement, but I had been down there a few times and was sympathetic to the cause,” Heaps told Wired.

All in all, the writer thinks that although Heaps has had a whirlwind of gentle infamy afloat amongst his person, he still remains a blustery Jesus. With or without the brutality.

Posted by Ana Roman for PhotoSynth

(Source: policebrutalitycoloringbook.blogspot.com)