10/16/2021 #37
Update (at 70), Fowler (asemics con'td.), Tabancay, Escobar, Martin/Villanueva, Oriogun-Williams, Aurora Akhtar.
OUTPOST UPDATE
I returned recently from a trip to northern California, where I celebrated my 70th birthday week by hiking up a fairly steep hill to the top of the Ferndale Cemetery, where Salem’s Lot (from the novel by Stephen King) was filmed. Not that this was exactly my aim in going north, but it was something that happened, along with some forest hiking, window shopping, and eating. So, sure, upon turning 70, I nervously considered my life span (same thing I did at 30, 40, 50, and 60, btw).
Not exactly the vacation photos one might expect, but that would be boring, no?
Cemeteries tell you so much about the history of an area, although much also remains hidden and mysterious. Anyway, think of this as a nod to Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and All Saints’ Day, coming up soon, as well as accepting the fact that all things end, sooner or later.
OK, for the record, here’s a very “Northwest” photo—what appears (to my untutored eye) to be a spruce growing from the stump of an ancient redwood tree. In the Arcata Community Forest, i.e., Wiyot lands:
I’m also taking the liberty of repeating something I wrote earlier:
I figure you keep working, you keep moving forward, until you don’t. Just like any child, teen, or middle-ager, I’m figuring this out as I go. I know that for me, being an artist is about thinking, visualizing, going deep into process—and it’s about community (artists and their art do not exist in a vacuum). Art is FUN, but it also means constantly challenging myself. Yet these processes, and how they materialize, remain a tantalizing mystery.
RABBIT HOLE
Continuing from my previous post on asemics: I like Steven J. Fowler’s take on this form of written art. He begins by briefly explaining asemic [or pansemic] writing, with a thankfully concise view of asemics in relation to theories of writing and mark-making—which, he notes, has been “under the glaring thumb of linguistics” (see my awkward thumb drawing below).
However, Fowler remarks that (as a poet) “I’m not really interested in the theory—I’m interested in the practice.” That said, he offers some suggestions for thoughtfully producing your own asemics and enjoying the process. Fowler’s website is a great resource for poetry and everything asemic.
“Asemic Writing,” by Steven J. Fowler:
LINKS
Great to “meet up” again with childhood friend and artist Ruth Tabancay on Instagram. About her art she says:
The content of my work derives from concepts and constructs from my past: childhood experiences, formal education, and an innate fascination with math and science. With techniques such as hand stitching, embroidery, knitting, rotary knitting machine, arm knitting, crochet, wet felting, cast and burnt sugar, as well as technological tools like the scanning electron microscope and computerized Jacquard loom, I express these ideas visually.
I met Ruth back in the day when my mom took me to the Filipino dances, and she and I learned Filipino folk dancing together under the watchful eye of Auntie Rosita Tabasa. Because I’m a tea freak, I appreciate the tea bag art she did back in 2015: See also “Soft Borders” on her embroidered electron microphotography art.
I also encountered Trinidad Escobar’s cartoon art on IG. She’s been busy: Her collection of comics erotica Arrive In My Hands will be published by Black Josei Press, her YA graphic novel Of Sea And Venom will be published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (Books For Young Readers), and Tryst is forthcoming from Gantala Press in the Philippines. In the video below she discusses and reads from the Crushed: A Graphic Memoir at the Radar Reading series; along with her reading, the images help to widen my understanding of Trinidad’s adoptee experience.
In her article “Money as Medicine” Courtney Martin quotes Edgar Villanueva: “Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth (which came out in a new edition recently), has a way of clearing the storm with sentences like this one: ‘Money is a tool to reflect the obligations people develop to each other as they interact.’” In response to Villanueva, Martin writes: “If we proceed with that definition, we can imagine our way into entirely different ways of relating—to our past, to our present, and to our future. We can loosen our grip on earning and think more about honoring.”
Martin’s newsletter is The Examined Family on Substack. Thanks to Leny Strobel for this.
SOUNDINGS
I learned about Femi Oriogun-Williams through Steven J. Fowler’s connection with the Sunseekers publishers. The video below is “Last Night I walked through London.” Oriogun-Williams is a writer, musician and radio producer. Learn more about him on his website, Femi Scribbles.
And since I was on the Sunseeker’s Youtube page, after hearing her read the line “to all the years I lost making terrible decisions,” I couldn’t resist including “In the Poetry Dollhouse” by Sascha Aurora Akhtar.
I took the time to count the issues I’ve completed so far (not counting the 5/8/2021 break), and can’t believe I’ve written 37 of these! Wow.
If you’d like to know more about my art, do visit my website jeanvengua.com or say hi on my Instagram @jeanvengua (where I recently posted a bedtime drawing I did during my time up North.
More next week . . .