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!