Male Lovers Progress for Exhibit

After finishing the pencil drawing of the male lovers on watercolor-painted rainbow canvas, I used color pencils. I used a dark red color pencil for the bottom two male lovers and a blue color pencil for the top two male lovers, outlining them. I then shaded them with the same color pencil colors I already chose. I then used a white color pencil and managed to use the white as it was running out. Though the whiteness for highlights turned out dull, I solved the problem by using a white oil pastel pencil, which helped the highlights stand out more.

Although, this work isn't 100% complete, for I need to go back and re-fresh my mind for more touch-ups and so forth. I also need to paint the wood stick that the canvas is glued onto at the top and add a string for hanging.

I will submit this work to ImageArt (jury selection) due by September 3rd. The exhibit is an annual glbt art exhibit under Rochester ImageOut Film Festival (a festival that shows glbt-related films).

Art Project for ImageArt

I am working on a project for the upcoming annual ImageArt exhibition coming up in October. ImageArt is a glbt art exhibit under ImageOut, an annual Rochester glbt film festival.

The drawing of two men kissing each other on rainbow color pencil is only a sketch. This will be my reference. I painted a long rectangle-shaped canvas with watercolor paint in rainbow. I am to leave the paint to dry before I go ahead do the final work. The final process is to draw the gay male lovers on the canvas with color pencils in geometric shapes, similar to Cubism.

Another Poem Accepted for Publication

My poem titled "Brown Liquid" will be published in Forge in their website. This is the 4th publisher that accepted my poems this summer. "Brown Liquid" is about alcoholism and it is very powerful.

Here is the poem for you to read.

“Brown Liquid”

Smell that brown liquid

See it sparkle in a glass.

Come on, let it seep into your blood.

Bad circulations.

Bad breath.

You are a barfly on the run.

See beauty in that brown jewel

Glowing in the sun.

The reflections.

The refractions.

Begs you to give it a taste.

Tastes sweet on your cracked lips.

You want to quit and throw it away

But the whisky devil

Trips you down to the floor.

Gives you a sly grin.

Gives you alluring glassy eyes

And you crave for more.

Kiss the jewel in the glass.

How it softens your mind.

Feels warm in your blood.

The rush.

The sigh.

And you can’t seem to get enough.

Let it drain down through your throat.

Broken-hearted.

broken-winged.

Corroded liver.

Saturated blood.

“Come on, can’t I live?”

There is nothing left at all.

You lay still with a bouquet

Rested on your wet lips.

Flyer of GLBT Deaf and Hard of Hearing Poetry Night

I created this flyer and Rochester Deaf Awareness Week gave feedback on the design/info of the flyer. Now it is officially final.

There will be a GLBT Deaf and Hard of Hearing Poetry Night at Equal Grounds on September 20, 2010. It will start at 7 PM and free to the public.

I am excited to have myself and 5 other performers do their work in ASL (American Sign Language) at Equal Grounds.

Black Mountain North Symposium Poetry Reading at RIT

I will be one of the poets who will perform for RIT's Black Mountain North Symposium this October 2nd. The performance will take place in the Innovation Center on campus.

Black Mountain North Symposium is a celebration upon upstate New York's experimental arts that is partly traceable to the migration of artists and scholars situated in the hills of North Carolina from 1933-1957. The artists from Black Mountain moved on with great influences over

San Francisco and New York City. Close at home, Robert Creely, Charles Olson, and few others transformed the University of Buffalo. Ed Sanders in Woodstock. Albert Glover in St. Lawrence University, Don Byrd and Pierre Joris at SUNY/Albany, and Jack Clarke in Buffalo helped continue the Black Mountain poetry tradition. Along those important poets/scholars, Writers and Books in Rochester, NY encouraged ASL Poetry Renaissance in the 80's, a deaf poetry movement influenced by the Beat and Black Mountain traditions.

This means "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox" film will be shown, which I am in the film as a rookie poet in a short clip back in the 80's plus my "A.S.L." painting as well. Jim Cohn, a well-respected poet, living in Colorado, ignited the whole ASL poetry and the deaf/hard of hearing poets in the 80's and he will be a featured speaker and reader during the Black Mountain North Symposium at RIT and Writers and Books. Miriam Lerner, the director of "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox" will speak about her film along a well-respected deaf actor/poet/educator, Patrick Graybill, during this Symposium event.

To learn more about this in depth, click on http://www.blackmountainnorth.org/.

I am indeed very honored to be part of this big poetry festival event and I am truly moved by this.

Two Poems Will Be Published in Masque Publishing

I am honored by Masque Publishing for accepting my two poems. "Honeymoon" will be published this December and "Fragile Earth" will be published in February next year.

I performed "Honeymoon" in ASL for my friend's wedding when she got married. Later, I composed an original electronic music with my recorded voice of that poem. I perform this poem in ASL while the electronic music plays and my recorded voice speaks the words.

Here is "Honeymoon" poem for you to read.

A snow-white frosting

Hugs the lovers’ lips.

It turns into sugared butterflies,

Glistening under the sun.

Melt their wings,

Rested on their sweetened lips.

Rose-colored tongues taste

The honeyed flavor.

The moon turns gold at dusk,

Bathing the roses and the dews,

Ready for the night of romance.

The enraptured lovers gracefully

Walk out, rice-spilled.

Painted amber-colored by the moon,

They split for the rose-tinted paradise

Out on the outskirts of the town.

In their secret temple,

Honey drips, one by one,

Down to their flesh.

Red roses blossom

Around their ecstasy-filled minds,

high with saturated love.

Vanilla flakes flutter down to their bed,

Snow-like,

Rich enough to scintillate their tender hearts.

Stars shimmer above

And they glisten down to their eyes, starry-eyed.

The vines entwine them.

Dawn arises during their sleep.

Sweet lullabies sing in their slumbering dreams.

Sunlight warms their flesh,

Asking where the roses are.

Soon the roses open their petals

In their eyes, awakened.

A sweet taste still lingers on their lips

With a kiss, the truth of love glows between them.

4 Photos of My Performance at IRT Deaf Festival

I finally received 4 photos of myself performing my ASL poetry in front of my video work along my original composed electronic music from Interbrorough Repertory Theatre (IRT). IRT had a deaf festival during the first week of June 2010. I translated my recorded voice that spoke my poems into ASL. The voice was embedded in the original composed electronic music as it was being played. My original videos were played behind me from my iMac laptop computer, connected through IRT's video projector.

I have been creating this multi-media performances, using videos as new medium besides just electronic music. I will continue to play around this idea. This idea is very much influenced by a well-known experimental avant-garde performing artist, Laurie Anderson.