John W. Love, Jr. is an interdisciplinary artist traversing literature, performance, installation, video, mysticism, and media. Gritty and fantastical, his myths inspire an enthralling navigation of sex, money, beauty, power, desire, humor, identity, and everything we assume to be true. Crystalline worlds of salt, black earth, blurred lines and Absurdist kisses to the psyche bring forth works such as SYMPH (literature, performance), Petal Boy (installation), Black Lily Billy and the Labia Who Knew Him (performance), FECUND (interdisciplinary), Ooo girl, Anchorage! (video), fecund: Night (video), The Diaries of Neequa or She Who Would Be King (performance), and the pop-up bathroom installation that looks HB2 squarely in the genitals, SALT DADDY (sound). The accession of COVID-19 has inspired an unexpected keen from Love’s present interdisciplinary work, The Cathedral of Messes. Some mystics such as The Perpetually Pregnant Man—Exemplar of the Uncategorizable, and The Gem Collector—Anthropologist of the Ridiculous and Absurd, simply refuse to bite into despair. The virtual initiative, The Buddha Has Teeth, and its sumptuously irreverent CALM YO’ ASS meditation series have poignantly and shamelessly elevated salacious defiance to a divine act. Love is a Guggenheim Fellow, Reemprise Fund recipient, NC Arts Council Fellow, and McColl Award recipient.