“Fern” published in Cactus Heart Issue 9
To purchase an e-copy click the link below: 
http://cactus-heart.myshopify.com/products/cactus-heart-e-issue-9
Category Archives: Art
Surface & Depth exhibition at The Golden Thread Gallery
Surface & Depth
The Golden Thread Gallery
On Saturday the 13th I drove out to West Hartford, CT to attend the reception for the Surface & Depth gallery. I really like this space and it is cool that it is underneath a monastery/spiritual retreat center. I’m thinking about becoming a member once I have some extra money. I like that their exhibition themes are big/philosophical ideas rather than ‘landscapes’ or ‘still lives’, etc. I actually found it very hard to choose which exhibit to submit my artwork to! Many of their themes for this season can fit my artwork. This is Seaweed’s first group show. 🙂 Being a spiritual retreat center the crowd was a little bit older, so the reception was quieter than normal, and I didn’t really know anyone there which made it hard to reach out and mingle. But I’m glad I went because the energy of the place was really nice and it’s a great gallery.
On the Wall at Boston City Hall
“On the Wall at Boston City Hall”
September 15th through September 30th, 2014
This exhibit features works of various and diverse artists who have disabilities.
Raine says: “We do not call ourselves ‘disabled artists’ but rather artists who happen to have disabilities.”
The exhibiting artists include:
Neri Avraham
Tom Abruzese
Kristi Beisecker
Dew Jareanvai
Sebouh Kandilian
Juan Lucero
Bethany Murray
David Mynott II
Aaron Needle
Roxanne Hope Randle
Kristen Smith
Raine Newman
The public is welcome to visit Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, from Sept. 15th thru Sept. 30th.
We will have a Closing Reception for the artists, guests and visitors on Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 from 4-5pm.
This exhibit has been curated by artist, Mr. Raine Newman of Waltham, MA.
For more information please contact Raine at rainevangogh@hotmail.com.
Exhibition News
Received word today that my pieces Pine Needles and Flowers were accepted into a seasonal exhibition called “Autumn” at the Hive Gallery in Quincy, MA!
Exhibition Dates:
September 26th – November 21st
Reception on September 26th 6:30 -8:30pm.
Exhibition News and Updates
I’ll be picking up my work, Pine Needles at the Institute for Human Centered Design on September 11th. But the artwork can still be viewed online:
http://www.newenglandada.org/art-sale
Bluebells will be at the “On the Wall” exhibit which opens September 15th and ends September 30th. The reception is at 4-5pm on the 30th. Unfortunately, I’ll be in Canada during the reception so I will not be able to attend.
Seaweed was accepted into an exhibition called, “Surface and Depth” at the Golden Thread Gallery in West Hartford, CT! The exhibition opens September 15th and closes November 1st. If you’re in the area, stop by and check them out!
The works Bluebells and Flowers that are touring with the In/Finite Earth program will be at Middle Tennesse State Unversity’s Todd Gallery from September 16th to October 1st.
Institute for Human Centered Design – Reception
July 23rd, I went into Boston to attend the reception for the ADA 24th Celebration at the Institute for Human Centered Design. I really wanted this exhibition, and I’m glad that my artwork was accepted! This was pine needles second exhibition (Gallery Ehva was first). The reception was very nice and it great to meet the people behind the exhibition and event. There was a poetry slam after the reception and then my family and my brother’s girlfriend and I went to Ward 6, a really good restaurant near by. Great evening!
Cactus Heart Press
Yay!! My second publication with my artwork. I was notified this week that my “Flowers” was accepted into their upcoming issue. Below is the cover of their last issue:
About Cactus Heart:
When I was entertaining the idea of starting a literary magazine, the name Cactus Heart got lodged in my brain and refused to move. I’m a lover of all plant-life, but the ones that most grab my attention are those bizarre survivalists of the desert: the cacti. Crack one open (if you dare) and find the juicy pulse of what’s inside – the cactus’s heart.
Cactus Heart is, of course, a metaphor for how I believe literature and art should be. It should shock and wound and delight us; it should fill us with delight and terror and mystery. It should survive.
And so Cactus Heart, an e-literary journal, began. The tagline is spiny exterior, succulent interior, and I take that to heart when I consider the work I publish within. I am devoted to spiny writing & art—sharp, relentless, coursing with energy and able to thrive in the harshest of places, all while maintaining a vulnerable, succulent interior.
“I Like Your Style!”
I have been recently working with a client based out of Universal Studios in California doing an on-going series of posters for club events. It’s good experience, and feeds my creativity – keeps me busy. Recently, said client acknowledged my style and said it was ‘cool’. I thanked him, but it began to have me thinking about what my style is – exactly.
I don’t think I have any particular style… I do my visual and intellectual research and build the design from there. Visual research – as in – paying attention to photographic details or other visual clues. For example, in the poster I recently did for a club called – RAIN – located in Studio City, CA – I noticed that the club was a bit retro-like. Their interiors used geometries and straight edges to provide a modern and contemporary feel – not at all organic and earthy. My client wasn’t feeling the fonts I chose originally, and wanted something a little livelier which I then looked to the photographs for details that I could in corporate into the design. In the end, I chose BOLD, THICK fonts with a neon color to speak to the club atmosphere.
If there is intellectual research needed, I head to google. I research my terms and techniques and see what I can apply to my design.
That’s my style. I don’t necessarily have a ‘visual style’. I think having a specific style as a graphic designer is limiting, and restricting. It’s good to show case a variety of different styles. I enjoy being versatile and consider it being a huge core value to me. I guess being versatile is my style.
Reception at Institute for Human Centered Design
Poetry Slam
June 12, 2014
Join us in celebrating the 24th Anniversary of the ADA with the juried Poetry Slam winners and juried Art Exhibition by artists with disabilities. Colin Killick, Ekiwah Adler Belendez’s by skype, Kythryne Aisling, Eli Wolff and Mani Iyer will read their poems.
July 23, 2014 at the Institute for Human Centered Design 200 Portland St. Boston, MA 02114
6:30-7:00 PM refreshments and art exhibition
7:00-8:00 PM Poetry Slam
RSVP to Stacy Hart shart@IHCdesign.org
Follow us on Twitter: @NewEnglandADA and join the conversation #ADA24
Directions to the New England ADA Center which is located at the Institute for Human Centered Design.
The Featured Poets
Colin Killick is a poet and disability rights activist based in Somerville, MA, where he is the chair of the city’s Commission for Persons With Disabilities. He has appeared as a featured poet at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA, GotPoetry Live in Providence, RI, and the Parlor Cafe in North Adams, MA. Some of his pieces are focused on disability issues, and his experience with dysgraphia. More information at colinkillick.com and @killickwrites
Kythryne Aisling is a full-time artist, part-time poet, and occasional musician. She is a brain tumor survivor living with C-PTSD and chronic Lyme disease. Most Thursday nights she can be found at Slam Free or Die in Manchester NH, usually wearing too much glitter. In her completely non-existent spare time, she lifts weights and usually manages to avoid dropping the barbell on her head. She has been favorably compared to a poison dart frog, owns a geiger counter and a large collection of hammers, and occasionally actually remembers to eat dinner before midnight. She tweets about work, life, poetry, dis/ability, gardening, shiny objects, raising a toddler, and anything else that crosses her mind at @wyrdingstudios.
Eli A. Wolff directs the Inclusive Sports Initiative at the Institute for Human Centered Design. Eli led a global effort to include provisions addressing sport and recreation within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Eli also participated in the process to establish the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. He was a member of the United States Paralympic Soccer Team in the 1996 and 2004 Paralympic Games. Eli is a graduate of Brown University and is currently pursuing his PhD through the German Sport University of Cologne. He has a creative writing and expression blog: Writing Down a Dream. Twitter handle: @eliwolff10
Mani G. Iyer was born and raised in Bombay, India. He has lived in the United States since 1985. He is deaf/blind due to Usher Syndrome, a genetic disorder that is the leading cause of deaf/blindness in the world. Many of his poems have appeared on www.visionthroughwords.com, a blog site dedicated to writing by and for the visually-impaired and the blind. In September 2013, he was awarded a Poetry fellowship by the National Endowment of Arts(NEA) for a one-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont. He is currently enrolled in the MFA program for Poetry at Lesley University.
Ekiwah’s poetry opens surprising windows to personal mystical experience delivered with a playful and at times whimsical and irreverent spirit. Much like Gregory Orr, Ekiwah believes poetry can save a life.
Born September 14, 1987, Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez is from Amatlan, Mexico, a small village an hour from Mexico City. The son of a North American father and a Mexican mother, Ekiwah Adler Belendez is the author of five collections of poetry, Soy (I Am); Palabras Inagotables, (Never-ending Words); Weaver (2003), his first book in English; The Coyotes Trace, which features an introduction by Mary Oliver. His journey with poetry began early. At the age of three he recited spontaneous verses to the mountains and at twelve he published his first collection of poetry. His work has been published in diverse poetry magazines and journals in the U.S.
He has given numerous talks, readings and workshops at colleges, high schools and festivals both in Mexico and the United States. Including The Dodge Poetry Festival, The Poetry Therapy Conference, Mythic Journeys and Writing the Medical Experience He has had the pleasure of reading with the poets Li-young Lee, Coleman Barks, Franz Wright, and Mary Oliver. Some of his work is featured on blueflowerarts.com. and on his website www.ekiwahadler-belendez.net
Ekiwah’s name means warrior in Purepecha, an indigenous languageof Mexico. His name is a fitting one. He has had to embrace the challenges and learn to accept the gifts of being born with Cerebral Palsy and using a wheelchair. His latest work, Love on Wheels, deals with coming to grips with the richness and complexities of life in a wheelchair, taking into account its symbolic connotations as well. Love on wheels also explores the relationship between poetry disability and sexuality – a theme that often is not so nakedly addressed.
Ekiwah also offers poetry workshops for people with and without a physical disability. As well as workshops to parents and teachers who work with people with disability. A graduate of Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Hampshire College, where he studied poetry, theater, and world religions he spends his most of his time Mexico, where he was born and raised, and travels frequently to the U.S.
A Solo Show: Electrolyte!
I had my reception for Electrolyte! yesterday at Groundings! It was a great success and the right amount of time too. I think 2 hours for a reception is good. For Studio19, my reception/party I think was 3 hours, but I guess it depends on the event. It was just enough for me to meet some of the locals and talk about my artwork.
It was fun meeting a woman who happened to work at the photography studio right next to Minuteman Press. She was their photo retoucher and just happened to be there for a massage but enjoyed the artwork as well once she learned more about it.
I want to say there was a small crowd of people at the reception. Which was nice because I did a lot of internet marketing, but I couldn’t get my press release onto any of the media websites because it was membership only. Meh. For refreshments there was snapple, water and soda and we had cookies and a fruit bowl.
Then my parents took me out to tapas food in Northampton, MA. We ate at Ibiza on Strong Ave in Noho. My parents told me that they got married in a park in Noho and wanted to check out the park as well as Main st. At the tapas restaurant we had a lot of delicious food! I even liked some dishes that I normally would turn my nose up at… and that was really refreshing. We had their mussels, crab croquettes, vegetable crepes, meatballs, pork raviolis, short ribs and raw tuna.
£2.2 million Dollar Bed Sold
Tracey Emin is Britain’s most famous living artist. She recently sold her self-portrait for £2.2 million at an art auction in London. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this work… “It’s not art!”, “I can make something like that every morning!”, “That’s disgusting!”, are some of the commentaries of this piece. However, I have a different take on her piece, and I can definitely see it as art – she exposes a hidden side of some people.
Art is supposed to evoke emotion, and this is what makes it different from design – design is specifically arranged elements into a pleasing way. Sometimes painters – depending on the genre – can be seen as designers. The first take I have is that studio artists (“traditional artwork”) inadvertently make art as home decor. That is their goal… for someone to buy it and place it in their home. However, anyone who is truly immersed in the world of art understands a secret of the art world. Emin believes that her work is meant to change people’s perceptions of art. This is exactly what the art world is becoming and it always has been.
As an artist myself, I have seen this with the success of my artwork. Emin’s piece is traditional, but stretches the perceptions of that tradition. I remember taking painting classes in college, arranging objects on a table and painting a still life as a self-portrait for a final project. Emin does the same thing…. except, she doesn’t paint it or arrange it and leaves the objects as they are… it’s an In situ – an artwork that was created on site – a term I learned while studying African art. While, the self-portrait isn’t all that interesting or unique and different, considering that it is from Britain’s famous living artist speaks for itself.
Think about the celebrities in the USA (and all over the world for that matter) – we worship the things that they eat, wear, and own – this self-portrait is not much different – except the purchaser gets to OWN the original items belonging to the celebrity – artist. It’s no different from an estate sale auctioning off items belonging to a famous person that has died.
So, before you start criticizing someone’s work because it doesn’t fit your ‘world view’ try and think differently about it. Think of things that you may have experienced that it could relate to and see how it is different from what you are used to… chances are that the things that are different from what you are used to is exactly what the artwork is supposed to accomplish.
More Press and Scams
My typical ‘work day’ consists of internet crawls to find artist and exposure opportunities. I spend a couple of days a month doing this because you never know what you might miss!
Recently my artwork was accepted into two publications: Brown Rice Magazine and ICA Publishing both of which are based out of New York. They are both print publications.
Brown Rice Magazine is a self-published and ad-free healthy food zine featuring recipes, food lit, personal essays, tutorials, art, and more. The zine will be distributed locally in NYC and sold online for a small fee. http://brownricemagazine.com/
SCAMS:
ICA Publishing also accepted my artwork, but upon further investigation on the company it turns out to be a scam. To be a TRUE opportunity you shouldn’t have to pay-to-play… (In/Finite Earth wasn’t a pay-to-play) unless they state that the fees are for administration purposes, or goes to the prizes of the competition, etc. I shouldn’t have to buy two books of a publication that I was asked to be in! So disappoint. And the pay-to-play isn’t the normal affordable $10-$50 participation fee of most art competitions/exhibitions I submit work to… they were asking $232 upfront.
ICA Publishing kind of reminds me of the exhibition I participated in Marfa, TX. It was with The Biennial Project, which I appreciate what they do as their mission, but at the same time digital exhibitions are a bit of a scam as well. It was $35 for like three images I think. Which wasn’t bad, during the after math of the event, they never posted photos of the big screen which the artwork displayed and only team photos of their trip to Marfa, TX. Hmm… seems like someone is just trying to make money to go traveling while ‘supporting artists’..
For more information on ‘art scams’ the ARTBUISNESS website has some great information.