RON EHRLICH

We have one large and one small painting by Ron Ehrlich and we have adored living with them both over the years.  The image below is of the larger painting --

I appreciate this YouTUBE video for showing the paintings' lovely surfaces.

RACHAELA diROSARIA

From a 2015 trip to New Orleans, we were blessed to bring home a work by Rachaela diRosaria.  We got a shadowbox painting by this fabulous tattooed artist and artist of tattoos: 

From our trip,  here also are photos of her (I love the phases of the moon across her face -- phase / face!), her supportive husband, and more of her works at the show where we met:

DENISE DUHAMEL

Denise Duhamel is known for her poetry. I don't know how much she practices visual art but, once, she also made this wonderful watercolor that is a cheerful presence in la casa:

GERMAN SHEPHERDS

When it comes to art, I have no standards as regards German Shepherd tchochkes: our family welcomes GSD in all of its forms. Thus, here are our 2015 Christmas GSD paintings. We tried to evoke Vermeer's light with the top image of Athena and our son on the dog bed. Achilles poses by the second painting for which he  had modeled. We just heart our dogs!

REA LYNN DE GUZMAN

("Pina Ooze," 2016, acrylic and image transfer on panel, 5x7)

I acquired Rea de Guzman's "Pina Ooze" from a fundraiser for the worthy Filipino American Artist Directory. It arrived and looks so much better in person (ignore the ratty dog towel against which I photographed it please; but ratty dog towels are relevant for "living with" art). Do click on the image to see more of its resplendence!

I believe this piece is actually an artist's study for her "Filipinana (After Filipinana)" series. You can see more about the 2014-2015 series HERE, but here's an Artist's Statement about it:

A predominant symbol in this series of work is the pineapple. Originally, Spain introduced the pineapple to the Philippines (from South America). The Philippines is currently the world’s largest pineapple producer. A distinct feature of the pineapple is piña fiber, which can be extracted from leaves and woven with organza to make clothing. Historically, piña fiber became an ingredient, along with organza and muslin, in traditional women’s outfits known colloquially as “Maria Clara” (a metonym referring to a mestiza literary figure from Jose Rizal's Noli me Tangere, first published in 1887). The “Maria Clara” became tied to Philippine ideals of beauty and female social roles, underscoring a great irony: the native notion of beauty took on the dictated perspective of the colonizer and became recognized by clothing made from a foreign fruit. This trend continues today as popular Philippine ideas regarding beauty center on imported products, media perpetuation of westernized images, and the championing of myriad skin-whitening/bleaching products.

 (Postcard for "Filipiniana (After Filipiniana)" series

[N.B. I don't know how to type the tilde over first "n"...]

ARCHIE RAND

I met Archie Rand through the poet John Yau. Both have collaborated several times and one of their collaborations is the etchings-based 100 MORE JOKES FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. A print series of one of the etchings in the book is the charming "Cold Water Flat":

Now that you see the image above, you can chuckle with my placement of it in our wine cellar.

I was blessed that both gentlemen helped me inaugurate my literary and arts press, Meritage Press, and thankful that, as a result, I can also enjoy this charming etching.

I encourage you to check out the art of Archie Rand as well as the poetry of John Yau.

JEAN VENGUA

I met Jean Vengua through poetry but she's also an accomplished visual artist. I was honored that she chose to make two tiny chair paintings for my mini-chair collection -- I did a blog post on her paintings at my mini-chair blog, but here they are on a so-called "Tennessee Yellow Chair":

Thank you, Jean!

And do check out her poetry, too, including her award-winning book, PRAU!

JENNIFER REBECCA ORTUOSTE

I make books. Heart those books. And, usually, I develop a manuscript and then, if there's a publisher, look for an image(s) for its front cover. Well, I just received "Puñeta" by Jennifer Rebecca Ortuoste, and it is the first image for which I plan someday to create a manuscript. I love it so much I want to put it on the front of a book!

I not only love its colors but I love how Jenny subverted the art of embroidery to create such an edgy work! Y'all know what puñeta means!

I first saw  "Puñeta" through its appearance in the "Chromatext II" exhibition in Manila (Dec 2015-Jan. 2016).  I immediately ordered it, with the help of Philippine poet-novelist Krip Yuson (thanks Krip!). Anyway, I'm so happy to welcome it into la casa!  Had I done this work, by the way, I would have leaked blood drops all over it -- but La Doctora obviously is the like the rest of humanity: better than I at the domestic arts...

CHRIS OLIVERA

Chris Olivera. We live with four of his works, including two paintings:

We also have two pages from his notebook/sketchbook which I'm delighted to have -- they deepen the experience of engaging with his more finished paintings. It's like reading a poem, and then reading the poetics underlying such a poem. Except for jokey TMI references, I can't recall ever concluding about anything that knowledge is not a good thing. My son glommed onto those sketchbook pages when he first got to the house -- even a child can discern the liveliness of the work -- and they now hang in his bedroom.

JON D'ORAZIO

I begin this post with a detail from Jon D'Orazio's painting because the detail shows exactly what one sees at eye level. Contrast that with the second image, the painting itself whose photo I had to go to the other side of the room to take. That's why we sometimes joke that Jon must have painted this painting with a very long brush -- it's amazing how he painted the abstraction at close quarters for the image from afar. I believe this says something, not just about D'Orazio's painterly mastery but, also how he's so taken into heart all of his lessons from and training in Buddhism. Kudos, Jon!

We've lived with this painting for decades and it remains fresh.

It's ever so lovely to bear witness to someone else's lucidity and how such generates art.

FERNANDO BOTERO

My "Botero" is an inexpensive tourist tchotchke from the gift store of the Museo Botero in Bogota. But I treasure it because I love its image of plump books. Botero, of course, is known for plumping up his figures -- and while I love the book in all of its forms, I have a special fondness for PLUMP as in THICK books. I make them, too, like the book nicknamed BRICK with its 504 pages in a genre known more for less-than-a-hundred pages. Merely 504 pages? I shall have to work on exceeding that...!

INTRODUCTION with THERESA CHONG

On Sept. 11, 2016, I posted a note on Facebook that came to be the impetus for this blog.  I replicate that post here as my first post for this blog (there are older blog posts than this Introductory post because I moved over older "Living with Art"-type Facebook posts to this blog):

9-1-1: Tom woke me up with a jolt. He had been watching "Good Morning America." He rushed me to the television. We had just left NYC and, from San Francisco, we watched the first tower fall. For over three years, I had worked at the 103rd floor of One World Trade Center. Then the second tower fell. And we watched Charlie Gibson unable to see what was happening. We watched Mr. Gibson unable to process, thus see, the fall of the second tower -- a lesson again in how (1) people fail to see what they do not want to see, and (2) we see only what we want to see. Later, I made a scheduled class visit. I held up a newspaper's front page featuring "The Falling Man". I said that this image revised the image I have of my book BLACK LIGHTNING. I raised the cover of my book, which reproduced a painting by Theresa Chong. I said I could no longer look at my book cover or Theresa's painting (which hangs in my house) without seeing the falling man superimposed against its lines. Theresa had made her painting by standing the canvas on edge, thus, allowing gravity to dictate the fall of the black and white paint stripes. Gravity dictates ... so much. September 11--my Birthday for so many years, and still my *legal* birthday. A few years ago, my mother revealed that, actually, I was born on Sept. 10 but the village recorder the next morning failed to adjust the day since I'd been born at night. The revelation shocked, then brought extreme joy. I no longer shared the same birthday as the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. And I was no longer a 9-1-1 baby.

"Black Lightning" (she renamed her painting after my book title) by Theresa Chong

Here's the cover to my book:

You can see--compare the above images with--the iconic photograph of 9-1-1's "The Falling Man" available at this article on Esquire.

STELLA LAI

We like to live with works by an artist in depth. Here are some of the works by Stella Lai. I admire her works, partly for reflecting how she successfully made up a character, "Puchaa," whose name amuses me for being Mexican slang for "Pussy." Perhaps my favorite is her installation "DON'T TOUCH ME" which is featured below with a detail photo -- I'll always fondly remember how she'd visited the house with two other artists and her dealer and all busily screwed in those little heads on the wall. Afterwards, she signed the wall directly -- a signature I also appreciated for its anti-capitalist element.

PATRICK ROSAL

Patrick Rosal is a talented poet. But he also created a fabulous series of B-Boy sketches -- I interview him about these works HERE. And I'm delighted to have one of his B-Boy sketches grace la casa. Here's a sketch from the interview:

ALLEN BRAMHALL

Mi casa is blessed to house two lovely artworks by Allen Bramhall. Allen is not just a visual artist but someone close to my heart: a poet who has supported poetry as a former publisher (30 books!), critic, supporter of others' poetry presses and books, and author of intelligent and wise poems. He is a "poet who innocently turned to painting," and I'm glad he did!

BEATRICE WOOD

We've long lived with a Beatrice Wood bowl; we've admired her pottery for years. But when we visited her Ojai, CA home, we ended up taking home one of her sketches. It's moving, partly because of its inscription--both the title "Frightened of her dreams" and the fragility of the handwriting. She was 104 years old when she inscribed/made the sketch. If I live that long, I hope not to be fearful and fragile but always be in a celebratory mood for each additional day. But what do I/we know? Life is fragile...

("Frightened of her dreams")

(Detail)

DANIEL DOUKE

We've lived for decades with the works of superrealist artist Daniel Douke and the works remain fresh as ever! His "boxes" are so realistic that you could be nose to that thing on his painting that looks like masking tape, or a fold on the cardboard, and you honestly would say that is the real thing instead of (raised) paint on canvas. Interestingly, he once visited our home to look at these early works and he observed he would find it difficult to do them again as his body (hands) have aged out of the steadiness required to paint several of the superrealist details. So here are 3 of our 4 paintings -- which are always, by the way, endangered by movers as they keep thinking they're boxes for objects instead of the actual objects being packed:

Some links:
http://www.beartmagazine.com/exhibition-los-angeles-daniel-douke-at-peter-mendenhall-gallery/

https://www.nevadaart.org/exhib…/daniel-douke-extraordinary/

BRIAN LUCAS

Brian Lucas is a poet as well as a visual artist. I met him through poetry but have enjoyed living with his works for years!

CRISTINA QUERRER & ROXANNE SWENTZELL

This post features two artists whose works we enjoy in the house: Cristina Querrer and Roxanne Swentzell. I group them together because there is a set-up where Cristina's drawing is always next to one of Roxanne's bronzes -- I like the play between the two. 

We are also blessed with another sculpture by Roxanne--

and lovely small paintings by Cristina--

Cristina Querrer, by the way, is also a poet with a lovely chapbook, The Art of Exporting, from dancing girl press & studio (2011). Here's a review I wrote on it.