One Year Ago Today...

Well, today, we're gonna try something different. My primary focus will not be on one of my works of art, but rather, it will be an exploration of an issue that is currently taking a very bizarre, perilous direction. However, at the same time, there are many signs of hope cropping up in this country. This is about a tragic and all-too-familiar cycle playing out in our society. Now, however, there are things happening now that are subverting that, and now it seems like things actually can change in a meaningful way. I wrote (i.e. actually put pencil to paper) about this last year, and I will copy it closely here. I will make as few edits as I can, because I think that entry contained points that need to be heard here.

Anyway, as you probably know, last January 8, one year ago today (2011), Congressswoman Gabrielle Giffords was holding a saturday-morning rally out front of a Safeway in Tuscon. A crazed gunman fired at Giffords, shooting her in the head and seriously wounding her, and then he sprayed gunfire into the crowd. Six people were killed, and twenty more, including the Congresswoman, were wounded.

Among those killed were a Federal Judge, John Roll, and Christina Taylor Green, a 9-year-old girl born on September 11, 2001, and remembered by those who knew her as a bright and warm girl. That such a wholesome and promising life was cut so short made the tragedy all the more shocking and heartwrenching.

Because this was a Congresswoman that was shot, this had national political implications. When the news media learned of this, the arguing began. The right and the left reacted predictably. The liberals told the conservatives to curb the hateful and violent rhetoric. The conservatives said that it was really the liberals' fault and that they were taking away conservatives' free speech rights.

This photo is truly terrifying, isn't it? It's funny how little things about someone's picture, like his smirk, can really freak you out.

The perpetrator, Jared Lee Loughner, was a student who was not much older than me, interestingly enough. People said he was deranged, and claimed to hear voices. He wsa not overtly associated with any political movement, right or left. Why he chose to target this congresswoman is still largely obscure. His acquaintances claim that he listened to talk radio.

This leads to the central point of this writing. What was the main reason for this horrible event? The lack of civility in our discourse, say the mainstream media and political establishments. We're told that if we only toned down our heated rhetoric, then all our troubles will subside, and episodes like this one, and all the ones that preceded it,will be a bad memory. (I included two other examples of such episodes in the links provided)

My gut feelings collide on this question. While I am a pacifist at heart, and I believe in trying to heal conflicts, I also believe in the power and importance, of truth. This talk of being "civil" sounds to me like repression of the issue, denial, blissful ignorance. These never work as solutions, and often worsen the problem they were set up to solve. How can you "be civil" or "tone down your rhetoric" if something is seriously wrong, and the society you live in is being actively undermined by those who claim to lead it?

What this shooting has done, other than provide yet another instance of a mentally unstable young man venting his rage in a horrifically violent way, is to reveal just how much our national sociopolitical culture has corroded. In America today, there is this sense that those in power are there, not because of our consent, but because they were slated to be there by some invisible entity. It is as if they live in a different universe than the rest of us. They do not have to live by the same laws as us, and they are far removed from the hardships and penalties most of us have to face.

This sense has been mounting for a long time, and there are many reasons, some contradictory, that people cite this growing sentiment. People on both the right and the left feel collectively betrayed by their leaders. There is a growing sense that society will soon collapse and, given this urgency, people are looking for villains to fight and heroes to rally around. But as the situation gets more desperate, the tactics for creating this get more exaggerated and , yes, violent.

In sociology, a few years ago, I learned about the Soviet Union and the reasons it collapsed. The one that stuck with me was the feeling of illegitimacy that pervaded there in its final years. The Russians no longer believed their society was legitimate, since those running it consisted of the same cabal that had always been in charge. No one believed the propaganda they were told. Add to that a chronically weak economy, and a war machine that was bleeding the country dry, and the weakened Soviet Union easily collapsed. Of course, the Nazi Regime in Germany rose to power so quickly for the opposite reason.

But what does all this have to do with our political landscape, or the shooting in Tucson, Arizona? Well, these crises I just mentioned are things that won't be solved simply by "being civil." These feelings highlight a clear distinction between the "anointed ones" and the "others" when it comes to class.

If you're in the "anointed" class, the world is yours, and you get access to all the resources you need. If not, you better work hard, you better play by the rules we set for you. And don't even think of asking for any extra help staying afloat; that would be socialism, that would be class warfare.

Never mind that the government so reviled often works to keep afloat these titans of our economy, in the financial and energy sectors, especially. Look all around you. Look at where this country has gone. A small class of hedge fund managers, financial speculators, and energy barons, as well as military hardware designers, run a revolving-door corridor between the government and the "private sector." (Listen to this report on campaign contributions' effect on the Helath Care Reform campaign of 2009)

Legions of lobbyists nationwide ensure, with increasing frequency, that laws will favor these enterprises. When the economy goes into a nosedive,the first thing the government does is rush to save these structures, not the workers in the lower offices who are in danger of economic drowning. And there will be no real repercussions for them.

Meanwhile, the National Security State ensures, again, with increasing frequency, that the "other" classes, me, and probably you, too, aren't doing anything suspicious, especially that we are not dissenting against this in any way, in speech or action (see here for just one example).

Then, when someone's frustration boils over, the media is all too ready to provide a scapegoat. The Right media is more explicit about this; they blame the lower classes, other political wings, religions, homosexuals, even other races, although this last part is mostly implied blame. The Left is more clear about what is actually going on, but it is incomplete in its view of the solutions. Its ranks have become fractured, more interested in positioning themselves than the truth and the common good. And then there's the neoliberal wing, which calls for "civility" (also think "bipartisanship").

Usually these calls surface when said rage bolis over, and a catastrophic episode like the one in Tucson unfolds. When this division is at risk of being discovered, called into question, this is when the media and politicians call for civility. Do you see how these things work to cover up this reality?

But, as I said before, it is in my nature to see such bitter conflicts healed. Paul Jay of the Real News, a Canadian Independent news channel, covered this episode a few days after the shooting with as much depth and accuracy as anyone in the media. The report he did on it is at the top of this post. That is why the content of this post follows his lead so closely.

Now, the one thing I would like you to take away from it, and the primary reason I put it on the post, is this, the point at the end that he made is one that few other media did. We might create a civility that, rather than papering over this ugly reality, shines a light more effectively, and intensely, on it. This would cunteract the interests of those in the media, who are there to find the diversion, or catastrophe, of the week. They're in entertainment, so it's their job to find a bad guy, sell a fight, and then a happy ending. They give us the points and the "code words" (freedom, liberty, equality, what have you), and then tell us which parts of the issue to think about, and how to think about it.

This new civility could break down the traditional battle lines of political grouping, race, religion,or even class. The new question may be, are you working for the good of the country, or are you only there for your own good? This will harness the people's distress towards the ungodly alliance of "Big Government" and the top industrial and wealthy class. Then we would no longer be calling each other "racists," "bigots" and all the rest, but with truth, realize that we are all in the same boat out here. We're all flawed people. And, with the light of honesty, those prejudices can be seen, and addressed.

We would not simply have to choose the neoconservative wing of the top classes, or the neoliberal one. The world will see which entities are really "of, by, for the people" and which were set up by this state-corporate axis. The shadowy, rich enterprises which seem to have preordained our leaders, much like a WWF wrestling match, could then find theri grip slipping.

Addressing the causes of this episode itself, it is long past time to do something about the easy availability of such dangerous firearms, even sans background check. There need to be better, more efficient ways to detect, and head off, mental disorders that could turn deadly to others and the host.

A few months ago, I was in a restaurant down in Orange County, with my Dad, and a random lady started shouting about nothing in particular. The waitress told us, in what I thought was an oddly cheery and cavalier way, that she was homeless and schizophrenic, and that she often yelled at and hit customers with a cane. The police even knew her well, by name.

I thought, Will this be the new normal? Where homeless drifters yell at, and assault, random passersby? I hope this isn't what we will see more of. Not just so that Christina Taylor Green and the other five didn't die for no reason, but so that there won't have to be a mounting tally of Christina Taylor Greens before we decide to address these systemic issues. Then we can get just oen step closer to that world I, and maybe you, dream of.

Well, what do you think? Is it worth doing these entries that focus on writing and observations, rather than my artworks? Now, this is based on something I wrote down, as an essay to myself, so I consider it part of my artistic repertoire. I will focus on the artistic and creative projects I design in this blog, but these long, essay-type posts will serve to get my thoughts out, and go after tough subjects, large and small, in a way that invites you and I to bond, rather than divide, us. I hope they will get you thinking in a different way.

This is political, but it is different than most political-themed blog posts you are likely to find. This blog will touch on political, religious and societal themes, but it will take a different approach. In my previous political explorations, I sought to solve the problems of the world. I still hope to have a part in doing that, but now I am just offering insights as I believe they should be said.

My aim is not to solve all the problems. Instead, I humbly aim to shift what is possible. When you shift what is possible, you make room for all kinds of uniting of you with me, with people in this world, with the world itself. That is a large plank of what my artistic works are about, and that is what I hope to begin on this blog. What about you? Do you think there's something to what I am saying? Let me know on the comment box below, and don't forget to follow this blog. I cannot say this enough times. See ya soon and keep wondering, folks!

Turning a Bad Morning Around

Snow White Goes Street!

Hi there! Okay, so this isn't really Snow White, but I'll explain it in a moment. The reason for the title is that this morning was not a good one for me. It was just unpleasant, and there were lots of little things that just got on my nerves. First of all, I didn't sleep good at all last night. I guess I was just too jazzed by doing last night's post. That's the problem with doing these deep, creative things, is that they can make you go bonkers. That happens to me sometimes.

Anyway, my circadian rhythms, or whatever, decided "Hey, we're not gonna fall asleep" until about 1:30 in the morning, after an hour and a half of tossing and turning. Then I woke up at 6 this morning, but couldn't get back to sleep, so I was just lying there in bed, with my mind running for another 2 hours. Then I got up, feeling kind of crappy to begin with. Then someone in my family went off on me when I didn't pay enough attention to them. After this, I had that feeling that I sometimes encounter.

This is when I get burned out, overwhelmed by things going on. In the extreme, this can make me feel depressed, really anxious about almost everything, or mad about the world. I often feel some blend of these at the same time. Fortunately, after I got some work done, and then set to work getting this post ready. At that point, what remained of the crappy feeling I had in the morning was receding.

That's the good thing about my mood lately. Even when I get really bent out of shape, I can recognize that things are going wrong, and decide I want to set today on course. I had heard about how having a bad morning can make the whole rest of your day suck. I didn't want that to happen this morning. Thankfully, it didn't happen. The downside is that, still, I feel, simultaneously, like there is very little I can do to change the course of my life in a meaningful way, and that I am not doing enough. Or what I am doing is not good enough, or complete enough, or truthful enough, or, well, you get the idea.

Anyway, this can be hard to really tough to deal with sometimes. Onto the point of this drawing. I came up with this idea as I was working on the Occupy Wall Street-themed illustration. I thought it would be good to illustrate a woman who was an angel, like a Divine Feminine figure, holding a machine gun, in this case, an M16 military-style rifle. The key to the angel figure, is that if you blow it up, and look closely at her face, you see that she has a warm, open expression on her face. I wanted her to show the warmth, love, and compassion in her face, while showing a strong, leveling, uncompromising strength.

So there are two ways you could look at this. Is she a good angel with a bad side, or a bad angel with a good side? Usually, movies, games, or books with really violent overtones freak me out, but I have to admit that when I thought of that subtitle at the top, I got amused when I thought of the toughest street gangs losing firefights to, and living in terror of, this "Snow White" figure. Is that wrong, to be bothered by really violent stuff, yet to enjoy that kind of dark humor?

My two themes here are love and truth. Here, the angel has the aura of absolute love and compassion in the way she looks toward the viewer. Yet, she has the often harsh power of truth and justice. I symbolized it as an M16 here to show how these two can exist in the same entity, in the form of gentleness and strength.

Also, as you have probably seen here, I think female symbolism is a fascinating thing to use in my drawings. I don't know why, but for many years, I have loved to include female subjects in these artistic endeavours. Maybe because women have always been an enigma to me. There is something about them that is interesting and foreign, but also appealing in some ways. So, yes, I do include women in my drawings. Anyway, that's it for now. I will have some more posts up for you soon. See ya guys, and keep wondering!

Occupy Wall Street Marches After Last Float In Rose Parade « CBS Los Angeles

Occupy Wall Street Marches After Last Float In Rose Parade « CBS Los Angeles

Hey everyone! This is KCAL 9 News's coverage of the event I was at on Monday. I couldn't embed this in my post on the subject, so I'm sharing it in a stand-alone post of its own. Watch it now; I will refer back to it it my next post.

This Blog Has Been Occupied!

Hi There!

Well, this one took me longer to do than I thought. I thought I could get it done by yesterday evening, and put this post up last night. However, my family persuaded me to tear myself away from drawing this, and looking back, I think that was probably a good idea. One thing I have to realize, and you probably do, too, is that taking breaks and taking time to do things can be helpful.

When I take time away from doing a task, and then come back to it, I do better and think of ways around that I hadn't thought of before I took the break. So even though I lost some time, I think it was worth paying that small price. I think the challenging thing to do is to find the right balance between getting things done within a small window of time, but not lose your sanity while trying to do so.

Now, as promised, my post on the Occupy the Rose Bowl Parade. My brother and I went up there. We didn't arrived in time to march in the event itself (The parade took off at about 8 in the morning, and the protest followed the tail-end of the parade), but we were there for a rally in front of Pasadena City Hall. There were speeches and songs. Honestly, we were there to take it in. I just wanted to see who was present at the rally. Thankfully, even at the late stage we caught it at, the rally was well-attended (there were at least 200 there when we arrived, then it thinned out). Even KCAL 9 News was doing a story on it.

I published the video in the previous post. Told ya it would come in handy, didn't I? Again, I tried like hell to find a way to embed it in this post, but alas, that was the only way. Anyway, if you watch their coverage, you'll notice that the woman doing the report was the exact same one in this picture taken by me.




So, the key to the meaning of this picture is, why did I include these people? During the concert, the musician, a woman wearing a skimask as she was singing and playing the guitar, as seen below, was asking people to step up to the adjoining mic and sing out their frustrations, troubles, hopes and goals as members of "the 99%," as they call it.




While all this was going on, I could not help but notice that police had been assembling nearby, en masse, using ATV's, heavy trucks, patty wagons, even armored black vehicles that looked like small tanks. Many of the cops were from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Counterterrorism unit, and some of them were wearing what appeared to be bulletproof vests or flak jackets. As I said, some of this was occurring directly adjacent to our rally, making me think the cops might be ready, at a moment's notice, for some rumble to go down. This was because I had heard many reports of police units getting generous with their force on said occupy protestors.

Here is some photographic evidence of the police crackdown on Occupy Wall Street's participants.





Here, you see the cops in full riot gear, ready to stomp ass. The one guy on the left, there, seems to be slapping the nightstick in his hand, as if to say, "you have to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky?" These pictures were provided by photojournalist Zach Roberts, who described in vivid and graphic detail his arrest at the 3-month anniversary rally in Lower Manhattan. Between all of these stories, that was my main concern, going into all this, that the cops would get very brutal. Below is another photo, taken, again by Mr. Roberts, from his holding cell.



Thankfully, nothing of this sort happened, either in the parade itself, or at the susequent rally in the shadow of Pasadena City Hall. However, their presence put this inspiration in my mind. What if the cops had joined us? After all, the police are public employees, who are themselves being squeezed by budget cuts nationwide. In some cities, such as Camden, New Jersey, police forces are being cut altogether. Can you imagine how much it would suck to live in a locale with little or no police protection? Violent crime is a big problem in Camden and other cities where this is happening, and this will spell disaster for those communities.

This economic discontent has been boiling for all of last year, 2011. The catchphrase "We Are the 99%" is similar to an online mobilization, The Other 98%, which began in 2010. In response to all of Washington's dealmaking on tax cuts, a group calling itself US Uncut was formed in early 2011. When "Tea Party" Governors in Wisconsin, and then Ohio, tried to remove public unions' right to collectively bargain with employers, people began marching in the streets last Winter and Spring.

The most interesting thing I found in these protests was this. When the Police and Fire Unions there were put in the deal, firefighters and cops began joining the marches. When I learned of it, I found it very intriguing and heartwarming.






Now, this is Rachel Maddow reporting this, so she's got her very clear point of view on this. What I found most interesting of this is that here, the people usually thought of as the protestors' opponents were actually with the protests here. Why? Because this was not about some divisive political back-and-forth. Now, protesting is about more than just idealism and rabblerousing. This is about all of us in our society.


Here are the realities. You have probably heard some of these stats. The top 1% of earners have had their share of income go up significantly over the last 30 years. Here, I think this graph will help explain.


You see that there is a distinct "u"-shaped curve to this graph. You can also clearly see that it begins climbing sharply in 1980. The two apexes seen on the u-curve are in 1928 and 2007, both years, wait for it, right before, that's right, the economy went into a 500-mile-per-hour nosedive. Coincidence? Now, let's look at this graph.


This graph is a vivid illustration of the statistics I was first introduced to six years ago. Back then, around the end of 2005, beginning of 2006, there were about 38 million people in this country with below-poverty wages. I remember hearing that this meant that about 1 in 8 people here lived in poverty. As of 2009, according to the above graph, the number climbed to over 43 million, and is now over 1 in 7.

These numbers, however, hide the condition of each of these peoples' lives. Behind each of these 43.6 is someone trying to get by. Trying, with less and less success, to build a full, satisfying, meaningful life for themselves. Interestingly, the young are most likely to be poor, now. Millions of children now live in poverty. Shockingly, some barely have enough food just to keep them alive, in the United States. Add to all this the pressure of trying to get or keep one, or two, or three jobs, care for a family, and the pressure, hardship, and often pain, is unimaginable.

The basic needs of people are food, water and shelter. I would add medicine to the list. However, what is scary is that people are having more trouble getting, in some cases, even the most basic of those met. This is a painful reality that those in power, in politics or business, don't seem to get. To them, it seems to exist as an anomaly, that they encounter sometimes, but never confront on a constant basis.

What causes all this hardship and pain, is what I wanted to speak to in this drawing. Here, I recorded my thought of an event of unprecedented unity. Here, the Counterterrorism officer, in full flak-jacket, riot apparel, is sharing some of his hardships, and struggles, being part of the downtrodden. He is coming together with the stigmatized protestors, both parties realizing that for all their differences in their lives, many parts of their lives bond them, as well. One of the speakers was saying "We are 1," and I thought "including all the cops over there."

This speaks to a deep longing of mine. I would love to see the people of this world be more unified with each other. Now, I have grown and matured, I know that this will not come easily. For this to happen, some overhaul of our lives must happen. who knows what form this will take? Might be positive, might be negative. I didn't draw this as an endorsement of Occupy Wall Street. I support them to the extent that I support any political movement these days.

What this speaks to is the surface of what is going on, but also its transcendence. I may generally side with the left, but I also have come to realize that beyond right or left, there is some sense of unity, of connection, people can have with their world, and with each other. Conveying this was my main hope with this drawing.

Well, this entry certainly went longer than I expected it to. I never know when I sit down to blog. Sometimes I do a light, short post, other times, it's a big, landmark piece, like it is here. I mean, I knew this would be a big one, but I didn't know it would be this long and involved. Thanks for bearing with me, and I hope you found this reading worthwhile. I'll have some more good things ahead for you soon.

See ya and, keep wondering, folks!

Testing... Testing...

Hi there,

I'm working on perfecting the embedding technique. So here goes...





There. I think I got it. So, apparently, to successfully embed these videos from youtube, you need to copy and paste the embed code, but make sure "use old embed code" is checked. Let me know if this worked right or not. I need your feedback. The blogspot format is on the old-school side, which may complicate the video-embedding process. Again, I might have to update the blog's format as I go. Just let me know how I'm doing with this.

By the way, the above video was made by my brother a few years ago. He put together the video, using all my materials. How do you like it? I thought I might use this for fun, as I road test some of the things I'll need to do here. I might have to work on embedding videos from other sources as I go. Thanks for bearing with me.

See you guys, and keep wondering!

Let's Delve into Two Thousand Twelve!

Hi there! To everyone who says that there's nothing that rhymes with 12, I say, "Suck it!" Suck my delve! I'm just kidding, but I just realized a few weeks ago that "delve" rhymes with "twelve." I just had to put that into a title of this post.

Now, onto the picture I have illustrated above. Last week, in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, I traveled up to Nor Cal, specifically Santa Cruz, to my Dad's relative's place. Along the way, I spotted these rugged mountainsides just south of Santa Barbara. I took a picture, since I am a compulsive picture taker whenever I travel. Then I got the impulse to draw this.

Unfortunately, it took a while, and then got shelved underneath the other books I was working on at the time. However, I picked it up again today and completed it. That's the unfortunate nature of my drawing. For the last few years, I have had more and more priorities in my life, so even though I still draw, I have less time to devote to it. I love working with my hands, when it comes to this. When I am sketching, for a while, my mind is focused, but I don't feel any stress in this focus. I don't have to force it; it is just there. However, I often have to shelve (hey, something else that rhymes with "twelve") something for a few weeks or months, and then come back to it.

This picture below shows just a sample of the types of hillsides I was describing (just next to the 101 Highway, overlooking the beach).

Just for comparison's sake, here's my drawing again. See if they look alike.

So my point in following this impulse was to make a quick drawing (that didn't quite work), but also in doing a good landscape drawing, which I always love doing. I have always had a thing (a fetish, perhaps?) for sketching hillsides and mountains. I have always been fascinated with mountains, hills, slopes, cliffs, canyons and gulches as artistic subjects. So I have been doing sketches and detailed, color drawings of them for a long time.

Here are a few examples of some of the best ones I did in years past. This is one I did of the San Gabriel Foothills, just north of Arcadia, in 2007.

I spotted these from Santa Anita one late afternoon on a Saturday. I just happened to have my notebook with me, and I really wanted to do the late afternoon glow and brilliant shadows on the hills justice. I apologize for this photo still being turned sideways. I crop and rotate these photos in Picasa as soon as I upload them to this laptop, but that doesn't always show up when I go to put them in the text.

It was, of course, done quickly, so I didn't give it much detail. However, I think I got the texture accurately. Look, and see if you can find the brittle, dry-brush feel to the mountainsides with your eye. Admittedly, I did not go heavy on the shadows when I did this. It has taken me longer to make my shadows darker. My studio art teacher used to get on me about that. Speaking of rough drawings, here is one I decided to do while in up Lone Pine this past July, 2011.

Again, the Picasa edits I made didn't seem to compute here. You can see the tones of light better expressed in this one, though. Even though it was done in all of one evening, I did my darndest to capture that late afternoon, early evening glow that the sun casts. Challenging as that is, I love to draw it. I love that type of challenge. Speaking of this glow, I did one about three or four weeks ago, which was about that same light quality, and the shadows it casts.

There must be some trick I'm missing, here. It's been a while since I've used Blogger on a regular basis, so I am still getting used to using all its tools. As you can see, I have changed the blog's settings and appearance, and I am working on embedding videos properly, so that we don't have any more mishaps. I've got some pretty good ideas, so I'm gonna get all the kinks smoothed out.

Anyway, this one was even more rough than the one above it. I began putting the color down even before I had all the details laid out. That might not make sense to you, but to me, it is a big distinction. You have to understand that I used to be quite anal about putting in details, drawing them out very meticulously. I made a big risk of losing the visual details and texture of it by laying out grass in the field, and shadows on that hill.

I picked this because it was winter. The image in my mind of that time of year, December, winter, and Christmastime, was of this snow-dusted landscape. I have spent a lot of time in my drawings expressing the mental snap-shots that I get when I think of something. These aren't necessarily clear-cut or logical, but this is the image I saw in my minds eye when I thought of that time of year.

It comes from trips I used to take to my grandparents' house in Golden, Colorado, outside of Denver. A few times, we drove the whole way. We would always have to get up early, leaving at dawn. Along the way, we would have to drive past the mountains and valleys in Utah. I remember, when we went on this trip at Christmas three years ago, in 2008, the route was unusually covered with layers of snow.

I was taken by the qualities I saw in the scenery: the ruggedness, the cold air, the orange and yellow glow of the late afternoon, and yet, the warm familiarity to the scene. Even though this was a different time, it brought me in touch with my past and memories. These were the visual qualities I wanted to bring to the viewer in this work here.

My point in this drawing was not to make it look exactly like the photo, as it has been in past works. My point, as I explained above, was to communicate the visual feeling of what is in this image. Sometimes, I just want to show the physical texture to the scene, as I like to do with landscapes. Other times, I like to go deeper with my meaning. Especially with illustrations of people, there is often deeper meaning. Whether it is visual, physical, emotional, spiritual, or romantic depth, this has been a cornerstone of what I like to explore in my creative work.

Well, I feel really inspired, having finished that picture, and typed this post. In spite of the kinks with the photos, and embedding the videos, I feel really excited about the future of this blog. Like I said, I've got some really good ideas for artworks and posts brewing up. For instance, I went to the Occupy the Rose Bowl gathering yesterday, I'm working on a picture regarding that unique development, and I should have a good post for you sometime tomorrow night. I'm excited as to what this year holds for creative work in this blog. I have been excited to develop this blog and its spirit.

So see ya soon, and keep wondering, folks!

2011: The Year of Living Creatively

Hi there,

Well, I know Christmas is past, and it's January now, but I thought I'd show you this anyway. I started this the night of Christmas, and it took me a while to color. I was out of town, and more importantly, away from my laptop, for the past week. I just got back into town yesterday, and I went out to Downtown Long Beach last night, so I haven't have time to blog since then. So here I am to cap off my blogging from 2011.

I started this off as a christmas memory, but it is also a reminder of the feeling of being in church. The feeling is an important theme in my creative work here. I like to create, in the viewer's eyes, the feeling of being somewhere. In this case, it was the feeling of being in a small, cozy church sanctuary on Christmas Eve. In this one, I used more dark tones. I also showed the lights coming down from the ceiling, and from the tree in the corner. The points of light are what give it that cozy feeling.

You know what I mean? Have you ever been in a church, or a house, or anything, at night? It's dark, but the little sources of light or warmth (this goes for cold and warmth, too) make you feel really warm, and secure inside. We all have our little places that we like to go to for this feeling. For some people, this would be a church, for others, it would be a restaurant, or a city, or a club or gathering. People are either given, or find, these places that give them a sense of comfort, constancy, meaning, and well-being. For many people, this is the function of a church, synagogue, mosque or temple. It is social, as well as religious.





The photo above is of the church that I used to go to when I was little, where I went on Christmas Day, as I explained last week. As I grew up, the church and I grew apart. Now, I am largely ambivalent about church, but I still believe that people who are religious can have good motivations. For instance, the ministers at this church run a number of after-school programs, since this is an inner-city church. I did volunteer work for them for four years, as at my high school, 40 hours of community service was a requirement for graduation. The kids who go to this church are often from poor families. They didn't have good educational resources back then (2005 to 2009, a few years ago), so the organization, which my Mom and I worked for, helped them with schoolwork and learning. So this drawing was partially based on this church that I used to attend regularly. I still attend, albeit less often.

I did this from an image I saw in my mind when I thought of going to church. I have been using impulse images more in my work lately than I used to. This year, 2011, I have devoted more attention to my drawing technique. I decided to use my first mental images more in my work. I'd try to think of something, look at what came to my mind, and record that. I used to want to plan out the right way to represent some image. I still do that sometimes, however, now, I am using a much rougher style. The big development of this year is I am branching out.

I said to my friends, It will be sad that 2011 has to be over. This was a good year, overall. In 2010, it seemed like all the news was bad. In 2011, it was about an even split between bad and good news. It was also a big year for my artistic endeavors. I got the idea to do this blog, putting my works up on it. I had to put it on the shelf for a while, then I finally got it up and running on December 16. The end of a landmark year, the beginning of a unique blog.

Well, what I can say is I have many good entries on their way in the year that has just opened, 2012. I will have some more good material up for you soon. Until then , see ya, and keep wondering, folks! I think that will be this new blog's sign-off line.