Northern Michigan University alumnus Julian Victor LaMarr Gaines is the creator of this New York Magazine cover art for the story “The Karen Next Door.” The art was made from acrylic and house paint on canvas. (Image courtesy of NMU)

MARQUETTE — Northern Michigan University alumnus Julian Victor LaMarr Gaines created the cover art for a recent New York Magazine story titled “The Karen Next Door.”

The article examines the fallout from a viral video of a white woman calling the police on her black neighbors in Montclair, New Jersey. Gaines, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in 2015, previously collaborated with the magazine for its “I Voted” cover project.

According to the magazine description, the Portland, Oregon-based painter began his “Karens” series at the height of the quarantine. Gaines said two quotes motivated him to channel his own negative personal experiences into art: Nina Simone’s “An artist’s duty … is to reflect the times,” and the following by Maya Angelou:

“You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.”

The full description, including the artists who inspired Gaines’ approach to the cover, was written for New York Magazine by Lauren Starke.

Angelou’s words “allowed me to take the upset energy that I had and to put it on canvas and try to tell this story,” Gaines was quoted as saying. “It’s my responsibility to use the anger and energy that I deal with being Black in Portland and put it on canvas, because this is my tool.”

Gaines also said artist Roy Lichtenstein was an inspiration for his “Karens” series, with the pop art aesthetic so “easily digestible” and “haterproof.”

“He wanted to be sure that the message of his work didn’t get lost by people who didn’t like the artistic style: ‘Everybody loves pop art, whether you’re a novice or an art enthusiast,'” Gaines said in the short article.

He cited David Hammons’s painting “How Ya Like Me Now?,” which depicts Jesse Jackson as a white man, as inspiration: “It was so outspoken and got you.”

Starke also wrote: “Montclair, New Jersey, saw itself as a progressive utopia, until a video of a white woman calling the police on her Black neighbors went viral. For the latest issue of New York Magazine, writer Allison P. Davis (@allisonpdavis) looks at the fallout from the incident and what it’s like for the couple, six months later, to still share a property line.

“About the ‘Karen’ next door, Norrinda Brown Hayat tells Davis: ‘I would be happy if she moved. It would not make me happy if she was in jail.'”

Gaines’ work can be viewed on Instagram (@juworkingonprojects).