Anger, Art, Divination, and More...
Post-migraine update
I didn’t think I would actually produce a newsletter on Friday (and I didn’t), because I was nursing a rare (for me) migraine. It eased up greatly in the evening, so here is the newsletter, albeit a day later.
The reports of violence against AAPI people recently (which have actually been going on long before that) have been disturbing, depressing, angering. Went for a walk with a friend who, like me, is Filipinx; we shared with each other that, individually, we now tend to steel ourselves psychologically before going out for walks, especially when alone. Reflexively, we both mentally run through how we’d defend ourselves, not take any shit, etc. But you know what? We’re also bummed that we have to go through that. We feel angry. Anger can help you recognize a threat, bring your adrenaline level up, prepare you for conflict, etc. But I don’t like feeling that way. I resent having to feel that way. Especially now, when getting out and going for walks, etc. is so important to my mental and physical health—when it’s something that should calm me.
A lot of people have been posting about where you can get help and support AAPI folks. So I’m not going to present a long list of links, etc. But I will post three:
Nationally: the Stop AAPI Hate site has been collecting stats on these attacks, but they also provide tips on how to defend yourself, how to help others, how to deal with it. You can also volunteer and help out local AAPI organizations.
If you’re local to the Monterey Bay Area, check out the Monterey County Weekly’s report on “Where and how to support Asian and Asian Pacific Islander Hate Locally.“
This rally is happening on Sunday, March 28, locally in Salinas, at Sherwood Gardens. Before Japanese families were incarcerated during WWII, 3,586 of them were temporarily held in horse stalls overnight at the Rodeo Grounds before they were shipped off. The nonprofit I co-chair, Asian Cultural Experience (ACE) will have a table there. We represent the three Asian Communities of Salinas Chinatown: Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. Join us in our quest to buy and renovate two buildings to create the Salinas Chinatown Cultural Center & Museum!
ART & WRITING UPDATES
Corporeal 2: I’m continuing with what I’m starting to think of as the Corporeal 2 project, a rule-based accordion-fold book project using letters/words from my poetry collection to determine what I’ll draw. Here are a couple new pages:
Geomancy: I’m also picking up from an earlier similar project that is unfinished; riffing off the Geomancy series of 18 x 18 in. drawings I’d been making, I am creating similar but smaller drawings (as a test case) in another accordion-fold book. I had stopped in the middle of this, for some reason. But I decided to pick it up again and apply a set of rules based on the sixteen geomantic figures.
If you’re not familiar with geomancy, it’s an old earth-based divination process that developed in North Africa, Egypt, and Syria – where diviners drew in the sand or earth with a finger or stick and interpreted what emerged. Over the centuries, different methods were used to arrive at the figures, including dice, coins or shells. I won’t be doing any divining, but I’ll use the sixteen figures to determine what will go into each drawing.
Pages 1-4 (above) were not generated by geomantic figures. But starting with p. 6 (below right), I am rolling dice to generate the figures, which determine the major lines, shapes, or colors within the drawing.
In p. 6 (above right) the figures that turned up were Cauda Draconis (dragon’s tail), Amissio x 2 (overturned cups), and Rubeus (red/inversion). If I paid attention to the interpretations, I might get caught up in the negative reading (really bad!) of this group of figures (and it’s possible that, subconsciously they may affect the marks on the paper), but my primary aim is to use them to generate the art.
By the way, if anyone out there is familiar with any Philippine-based divination system that uses numbers, please let me know.
ARTISTS WORKING WITH SYSTEMS
I have not attended art school (other than a few community college art classes). So I’m only now learning about artists who create through the use of systems, or in order to explore systems. Here are two such artists:
Charles Gaines: "If a system produces something beautiful, it's not because a mysterious communication between my subjectivity and the subjectivity of the viewer. It's built into the system; if you want to give credit to something that produced [beauty], give credit to the system.”
Charles Gaines uses numbered grids to create his art. See “Charles Gaines’ Beautiful Systems” (KCET).
Charles Gaines: Evidencing Reality - YouTube
Hanne Darboven, whose motto (taken from Carl Andre) was “Never Apologize, Never Explain.”
MARCELINA
I’m thrilled to see a lengthy, in-depth consideration of my chapbook, Marcelina, in “While We Can Sing” published in Poetry Northwest. Valmidiano is the author of the recently published We Are No Longer Babaylan. Her website is Slicing Tomatoes: Poetry & Prose by Elsa Valmidiano with Featured Pinay Artists. It’s always fascinating to read such engagements of my work; in the process, I recall details I’d forgotten and am able to view the work through a fresh perspective.
PRODUCTIVITY!
Actually, I hate that word, since it’s always marketed to artists, writers and freelancers, usually in an effort to get them to subscribe to this or that tracking software, or to buy a book or subscribe to a series of lessons—many tips are given, many promises made. And eventually you end up unsubscribing or sticking the book into the nearest neighborhood “tiny library.” Am I right?
Not being the most disciplined person, and with a tendency to take on multiple projects, I often have trouble keeping myself on task. For several years, I tried out various tracking or to-do list apps both on my phone and on laptop. I even tried gamifying my tasks on Habitica, where I transformed into an old-school pixelated, top-knotted knight riding a cute dragon. Eventually I gave them all up.
But now – I’ve come up with the perfect solution: First thing in the morning (after making tea or coffee), I take a small piece of lined note paper and, using a pencil or pen, I carefully write the name of each task, in a list, and allotting to each the minimum amount of time needed to perform them. I can exceed that time, but can’t do less (unless the job is done). A break of 15 min., preferably MORE, is scheduled between each task. I cross off each task when completed.
When done—and this is the most important part—I crumple up the paper into a ball and toss it into the waste basket or recycling. The first time I did that, I realized what was missing in all those other task apps: physically crumpling up that paper, squeezing it into a ball, and tossing it. So satisfying.
COMMUNITY
Artists, writers, and community activists stepping away from mainstream institutional environments and exploring new paths and paradigms for us all:
Barbara Jane Reyes’ Pinay Lit Community Class. Reyes writes: “I am a poet, not a scholar. I approach literature as a literary practitioner, and as a fangirl reader. Therefore, let’s indulge in the craftsmanship of the work, the attention to form, language, and tone. And let’s read and discuss Pinay Lit, using frames other than those imposed upon us by western literary scholarship and white supremacy. For example, let’s consider the frames of Filipino Core Values and Pinayism.” Session #1 begins in May. Reyes is a fantastic teacher, so reserve your place soon.
Emerging Artists Alliance is a community group based in Monterey County that supports emerging artists of all ages by providing them with opportunities to find community, build and audience, collaborate, and exhibit their work; but they go beyond that to support good causes locally. They are on Instagram @emerging.artists.alliance.
The Filipino/American Artists Directory, founded by Janna Añonuevo Langholz, has been providing some wonderful opportunities for publication, workshops, and collaboration for Filipinx artists since 2015. I’m a member.
I really want there to be a public bank in my town. Check out AB1177 California Public Banking Option Act. If you live in California, you can join the California Public Banking Alliance.
That’s all for this week. Please comment if you have something to say, or share!
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Hi, Jean! So much goodness in one post. Thank you!