A Joint Project
Bret Roberts
Studio Floor J, painting collaborations with Maestro Painter Janusz Gilewicz, New York City, 2019.
Six years ago my best friend Nick Mystrom left this earth and I was deeply shocked and really too sad to even know where to start. So I called my painting mentor and dear friend, Janusz Gilewicz, and proposed that we string together a tour of art shows and go around the world. We began the journey and lots of smoking ensued. I started photographing any significant J we might share with new friends in new places.
So it became a new tradition to snap a shot before lighting up—and a challenge to remember where each J was smoked and with whom...
As I started collecting the photos I noticed them making a nice mosaic just in my phone. I needed more backgrounds, more colors, more experiences. Finally I reached 189 Js and it made a nice rectangle together with all of them, a few doubled and few other rogue photos which slipped into the file—which I promised never to take out. This project has been nothing but good vibes, and I often receive J photos from people I’ve met along the journey.
Above: To-Do List J, planning out the unplannable, life in Ellay, 2025; Venetian J, listening to stories of growing up in Italia from Stefy in Venice.
Above, from left, clockwise: JFK J, new film script Milk Milk Lemonade by J. Cilio, 2025; Palma J, best friendsmanship agreement J, Aney Petrux, Mallorca, Spain, 2023; Invest in a J, Gaba Staba Polish photographer, Warsaw, 2025; Buttercup Baby J, Walk, Trippy and Peter B. Jamsesh, Savannah GA, 2022; Milano Spino, a re-install on the new terrace of The Nail, 2024.
Above: TayTay Reunion J, Port de Soller, Mallorca, Spain, 2024; Camperdown J, pre-show light up with Janusz Gilewicz and the locals Down Under, Sydney, 2019.
Above: Roland Heartleaf, writing music with fictional Folk Singer-Songwriter I made up, 2019; Lyndon B.J., The J after JFK Nov 1963.
Above: Ellay J, from the Robie Rooma LA Painting studio in South Pasadena, California, 2025; The Veed, from the jam room with The Poors and Dumbo Gets Mad in Milan, Italy, 2024.
Above: Sigaretta Intelligente, Pompei with NP and Ciro the Legend, 2020; The Nail, Milano New Year’s Stall hang on Via Lazzaro Papi, 2019.
Above: Manhattan Spliff, tracking down Rodrigo in The Big City; Barcelona J, quick smoke with Barcelona in Queens before hitting the J train, 2024.
Above: The Obama J, this J was never found in the Oval Office after Obama left DC, 2016; A Regal J, smoked with Janusz G. after kissing a random Spanish girl all over Krakow Poland, 2020.
Above: A Legal J, Tacoma Washington Turkey day twist up, 2019; The Margaret Thatcher, not smoked with the Prime Minister in London, England, 2019.
Above: Tea by the Sahara J, Solo smoke in Casablanca, 2021; The Invisible J, this J has never been seen, Alaska, 2019.
