La Lupe....

aka............La Yiyiyi!

A CRAZY-GOOD Afro-Cuban singer who was somewhat controversial for Cuban television because of her unmistakeable style and I would suspect she would have raised eyebrows everywhere else as well, specially during the late 1950's when this performance was transmitted). The trajectory of her career was cut short because of the Revolution although she enjoyed moderate success in exile. Anyone who knows her work would agree....definitely a LEGEND!

Ahi na' ma!

The Infinite Space of the Possible

The Artist Studios Building (ASB) at the Boston Center for the Arts houses over forty artists working in a broad range of media and subject matter. Commonly shared is the value of workspace and a creative community within which to stimulate and exchange ideas.

The Infinite Space of the Possible, curated by Lynne Cooney, features seven artists with studios in the ASB. In this exhibition, through collaborative dialogue, the participating artists push the boundaries of their artmaking – either by materializing a previously unrealized project, forging current work into new territory or considering their work in an expanded context.

The Infinite Space of the Possible features work by Leika Akiyama, Jon Amburg, Aileen O. Erickson, Rebecca Rose Greene, Kathleen A. Kneeland, Lazaro Montano and Victor Ortale.

As an added bonus, a detail of my work was used for the invitations and PR for the show.

65 Degrees of Encaustic Art

I was lucky enough to be included in this exhibit on encaustic art. The title 65degrees refers to the temperature in which wax melts in Celsius degrees thereby allowing for encaustic work to be done. The curator for the show is my good friend Leika Akiyama, who trusted me enough to include me in the show despite me not having done much of encaustic work before. I was quite enjoyable to do, as it is when you are learning a new medium.

Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are

The review below was originally written 4/2011.

Slight disclaimer. I had no idea what this movie was about before I started watching it. I knew it was based on a children's book and contained a fantastical storyline but I never read nor grew up with the book therefore I have no nostalgic pining for its story.

What was that? Granted, I never read the book nor knew of its plot but this movie left me thoroughly confused. That could be a good thing for a movie to do sometimes especially if you are left to ponder on it for days only to discover its subtle meaning and redeeming quality, but alas, this was not the case with Where The Wild Things Are.

The acting was good and the costumes, setting and effects were well done. You can tell that this was a movie the director (Spike Jonz) cared very much about by the detail that is employed onto it. Plus Catherine Keener is always a pleasure to watch deliver believability with her understated acting. However the only thing I walked away from with this movie was praying I never have to confront another precocious child again lest I take out my wild beast frustrations on him. Those monsters should have eaten that kid from the get-go.

The Queen of Versailles

This is a must-see documentary by Lauren Greenfield, a documentary photography who tends to focus on girl culture. Here she documents the real life accounts of the Siegels and their attempt at building the largest single family home in America.

I originally wrote this review on November 2013.

All that glitters is not gold. 

You can now add the addendum to the age old adage, "Money can't buy happiness" to also include "it can't buy taste...nor self-respect....nor even a clue". The fact that someone would model a home after Versailles should have been foreshadowing enough. Yes, the real Versailles is a beautiful architectural masterpiece but its opulence eventually led to the demise of the French monarchy and quite ironically is almost lead to this family's as well. This documentary should be a must watch for people struggling with money, you will simultaneously be infuriated by and feel pity for these people. Anger because they don't realize what they have nor need (they have lots of crap, they need substance) and pity because despite all the money and wealth they probably live a poorer life than yourself. The fact that you would step on dog shit inside your million-dollar mansion's bedroom because you have no clue what to do with a dog is mind-boggling. Didn't anyone think of hiring a dog-trainer to train the dogs? Or perhaps they just rely on their indentured servants to tell them what to do. If it wasn't for the help, these people would be eating the crap on the floor. You can take the people out of the trailer part, but not the trailer park out of the people.

Book review: Porn from Andy Warhol to Xtube

The other day I did something that I hope other people do as well; I googled myself to see what comes up. To my surprise, up there in the search results was a review I wrote in Amazon.com in April, 2011. It turns out the review is one of the most read reviews for that book in particular and one who most customers found helpful. I decided to include it here for posterity's sake with a few edits.

A vintage image from the early years of modern day porn,
unfortunately the book doesn't contain that many more.

Great on Style, Weak on Substance (2 out of 5 stars)

If it wasn't for the title denoting something more than a vanity project for studio-produced porn stars I would not be as 

This book is filled with beautifully printed full-page photographs depicting some of the better-known porn stars of the past 30-odd years, however if you are interested in a book whose title suggests to be ABOUT porn rather than a book OF porn, you will be left disappointed. This is far from a pictorial investigation or a truly historical account of male erotica, it relies too much on the obvious and popular porn stars of the 90s and hardly illustrates more important images from the earlier period as the book's cover suggests. The book is divided categorically with certain eras of the genre, but it is far from being developed analytically. Case in point is how the anemic amount of text (which is really half of what it appears to be since the other half is simply its German translation) is saved for interviews of distinguished directors in the field, yet the questions directed to them are equivalent to "Who is your favorite porn star?" causing it to read more as a superfluous magazine interview than anything else.

From the book's front flap and throughout, the author and his sources repeatedly cite porn as being reflective of society it was produced, yet no one bothers to extrapolate how or why this may be the case. Yes, we know that the mustachioed hairy-chested macho man of the seventies gave way to the smooth athletic jock of the eighties, but was this a reflection of the cultural shift of the decade or a reaction to the rise of AIDS? It would have been interesting to note for example, the first film to incorporate safe sex (considering how the gay  porn industry led the way in promoting it more than any government agency) or maybe investigating whether porn's mimetic use of popular Hollywood movies (i.e. Saving Ryan's Privates) is an act of subversion or an attempt at inclusion (porn movie plot lines and fantasy is never addressed by the way)? Instead the author glazes over interesting observations and concentrates too much on his biased interpretation. For example, he includes Tom Bianchi's work in the mix. Everyone can agree that Bianchi's photographs are beautifully executed manifestations of male desire, but would one call it pornographic? And if we are to use that broad description wouldn't we also need to look at his equally important and successful contemporaries such as Christopher Makos, Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber. Isn't Weber's image of the Olympic athlete just wearing a pair of white Calvin Klein briefs towering over Times Square an important breakthrough of male erotic objectification into mainstream culture, certainly more so than Bianchi. Or even Robert Mapplethorpe, whose controversial work was important in contributing to the discourse between art and porn.

Of course, I am the first to admit that while perusing through this book and its images, the furthest thing from my mind was wondering what lies behind the popularity and demand of certain porn stars (is it aggressive marketing or synchronistic desire?). However, considering there is a unified voice in this book in depicting the subject as culturally relevant, one is simply left to wonder whether porn is imitating life or is life imitating porn? Perhaps pornography may forever be relegated to its intended goal but considering how it has been the only true narrative for gay men, it would be nice to see someone attempt to treat it as a source of collective self-reflection rather than a glorified skin mag.

One HOT Pepper!

Pepper, #30, 1930 by Edward Weston, Gelatin Silver Print

This image is one of a series of peppers made by Edward Weston. It is considered to be one of the early 20th century photographic masterpieces by one of the most innovative photographers. It also happens to be one of the most expensive images ever sold.

Regardless of this, it is one of my favorite images for several reasons, all of which make a strong argument as to why photography is such a great art-making medium. 

First, it proves that you don't need a special event or happening to make a compelling image, through photographic means this ordinary object is transformed into something extra-ordinary thereby affirming that anything can be seen as art. 

Weston used light and composition to convert a recognizable object into one that is abstract and suggestive. His use of a tight crop and low vantage point not only isolates the object but allows the scale of the object to be brought into question despite our better understanding of it. This makes this iconic image to become not just one of a pepper but one that allows the mind to wander. Similar to our natural tendency to see recognizable shapes in amorphous clouds, the soft tonal rendering of the organic shape takes on a sensual identity and transforms the vegetable into a seemingly human form. 

In doing so, Weston underscores the transcending power of photography and helped establish the medium's relationship to Modernism and art.