DREAMS + LIFE + ART

2012-01-15T22:22:00.001-08:00

33 Days in Paradise

2011-05-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

Goddess Alchemy

2011-04-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

Tiger Widow

2010-11-26T18:03:00.002-08:00

Zodiac Rat

2010-11-26T18:03:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Ox

2010-11-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Tiger

2010-11-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Rabbit

2010-11-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Dragon

2010-11-26T17:59:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Snake

2010-11-26T17:57:00.001-08:00

Zodiac Horse

2010-11-26T17:56:00.001-08:00

Zodiac Sheep

2010-11-26T17:55:00.002-08:00

Zodiac Monkey

2010-11-26T17:55:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Rooster

2010-11-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Dog

2010-11-26T17:50:00.000-08:00

Zodiac Pig

2010-07-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

Inconsolable Child

2010-07-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Mean Red

2010-07-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

Fool's Pool

2010-07-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

One Million Year Love Song

While listening to Tekno Love Song by CocoRosie on repeat I made this drawing. There is a tenderness to this song, a nakedness. It's a song about feeling like you're in love with the wrong person. I wanted to counter that and show an unbreakable bond between lovers, past, present and future. Time and love being nonlinear. They can only see who's hands they are holding right now, the individuals do not realize they are part of something bigger. People are looking out in different directions, only aware of the people beside them. If they look inwards they would see they are eternally together, connected through the circle. They form a wormhole to a moment where they forever stay in love, with every person they have ever loved and will love.

2010-07-16T17:36:00.001-07:00

By and Bye

Somebody gave me a collection of Sam Cooke singing traditional gospelsongs. In particular I really liked "By and By" and it was myinspiration for this painting. I wanted to show the union between theearth and spirit world, and the relativity of different guides throughthe winding paths of our lives. I see myself as the young boy facingopposite the path of his destiny, with his guardian mother behind himand a shaman woman to his left. Roots from the Tree of Life reach outto grab one foot while the serpent of Death and Rebirth have a hold ofthe other foot. He is choosing to sit and remember his life some more,and as soon as he is ready he will continue down the path to face hisdestiny. Nothing bounds him but his own idea of life and death. Meanwhile he sits and bides his time in a timeless moment.

By and By

Well children by and by when the morning comes
All the saints of God together at home
We will tell the story of how we overcome
And we'll understand it better by and by

Trials dark on every hand and we cannot understand
All the ways God will lead us
To the blessed promised land
He will guide us with his eye
And we'll follow till we die
And we'll understand it better by and by

Well children by and by when the morning comes
All the saints of God together at home
We will tell the story of how we overcome
And we'll understand it better by and by

Temptation's hidden snares often take us unaware
And our hearts are made to bleed
For some thoughtless word or deed
And we wonder why the test when we try to do our best
But we'll understand it better by and by

Well children by and by when the morning comes
All the saints of God together at home
We will tell the story of how we overcome
And we'll understand it better by and by

And we'll understand it better by and by

2010-07-16T16:59:00.001-07:00

I Could Have Been A Good Surfer

2010-07-16T16:58:00.003-07:00

Cover Your Eyes

2010-07-16T16:58:00.001-07:00

Everyone Has A Guardian Angel

2010-07-16T16:57:00.003-07:00

Panther Milk

2010-07-16T16:57:00.001-07:00

I See You mug

2010-07-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Brave to be Human is a series of ten Native Totem animal drawings. Here they are being shown at thePuffin Gallery in NYC.

2010-07-16T16:39:00.001-07:00

Totem Wolf

Guidance

2010-07-16T16:38:00.001-07:00

Totem Owl

Insight

2010-07-16T16:37:00.001-07:00

Totem Buffalo

Sacrifice

2010-07-16T16:36:00.003-07:00

Totem Snake

Transformation

2010-07-16T16:36:00.001-07:00

Totem Puma

Grace

2010-07-16T16:35:00.003-07:00

Totem Salmon

Inspiration

2010-07-16T16:35:00.001-07:00

Totem Deer

Compassion

2010-07-16T16:34:00.003-07:00

Totem Raccoon

Curiosity

2010-07-16T16:34:00.001-07:00

Totem Beaver

Determination

Totem Bear

G E T P R I N T S H E R E

2010-07-16T16:32:00.001-07:00

Rainbow Bridge

watercolor on paper, sewn on canvas

2010-07-16T16:29:00.003-07:00

I created a series of 48 portraits and stories of my friends andfamily. Each person was numbered and as some of these people areconnected through me or someone else, you can follow the number tocorrelating portraits and stories. Most of the stories describe eitherhow I met the person or a memory I had with them. You Can't Have My Soul But Everything Else Is Free, has been shown in New York and San Francisco. I didn't post them all, but here are a few starting with Colleen...

2010-07-16T16:29:00.001-07:00

Drew

2010-07-16T16:28:00.001-07:00

This is Earth. Earth has eyes like bluegreen glass, dark blue glasssometimes. The first time we met was on the U.C. Davis Campus for theWhole Earth Festival. I traded her special chocolates for a raw springroll. Now she lives in New York. The other night she wanted to goLily snipping. This isn’t code for anything. She wanted to go sniplilies for her house. Earth is a teacher and she works with autisticchildren. She made a t-shirt that says I HEART SWEATY DANCERS.

2010-07-16T16:27:00.005-07:00

Diego

2010-07-16T16:27:00.003-07:00

Tobi

2010-07-16T16:27:00.001-07:00

Kensho is this Japanese emcee Imet at Rockin’ Java in SF. It was this coffee spot at the end ofHaight St. and on Monday nights they had the Hip Hop open mic bringingin shouting rappers from miles around. Kensho has a sick style, it’slike a machine gun shooting blanks in your face. He would rap fullblast and then as soon as he was done, he’d apologize saying, “Sorry. I messed that up”. Big sad Japanese face. He told me once his fantasywas a Korean girl with a black ass.

"Asian kids can’t relate to cinema, videotapes, searching for identity within these mediascapes" --Kensho Kuma

2010-07-16T16:26:00.003-07:00

Tasneem

2010-07-16T16:26:00.001-07:00

I can’t figure out what motivates Phillip yet… Great things are alwayshappening to him but then he just kind of shrugs like, ‘What are yagonna do?’ Like it’s a burden to be rich and talented, shoulders heavyshrug. He’s one huge mystery behind 1950’s Christian Dior frames. Myroommates say he’s fay like most of my guy friiends. I introducedPhillip to takoyaki balls and he eats them up to three times a daysince he lives near Otafuku. He once wrote the owner of Otafukubecause they wouldn’t give him tap water to take his medicine. Theywanted their customers to buy bottled water instead. Otafuku has sinceraised the ban on tap water.

2010-07-16T16:25:00.002-07:00

Nina

2010-07-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

Aishe

2010-07-16T16:24:00.001-07:00

Nellie

2010-07-16T16:23:00.004-07:00

Charlotte

2010-07-16T16:23:00.002-07:00

Paca

2010-07-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

B.C.

2010-07-16T16:22:00.004-07:00

Acyan

2010-07-16T16:22:00.002-07:00

Patience hated wearing clothes. He wore them in public but any chance he got he would go nude. It’s pretty funny to talk to someone who’s naked when you’re fully clothed. It makes for the strangest conversations and intense eye contact. I met him on the road doing the rainbow thing in early 2000’s. We were in Montana and I overheard him asking a group of people, “Hey, can anybody think of a good name for me?” After five minutes of listening to an army of stoners debate, I said, “How about patience?” He liked it. Patience lives in Kauai somewhere over the rainbow.

2010-07-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Glenn Marla’s my other roommate. Glenn eats, drinks, and shits glitter. He tap dances too and jumps around in a spandex sack like a Popple being born. His guru is the late tranny Divine. From his room I hear Bette Midler and smell popcorn. Glenn’s favorite thing is when I make nachos and I go into his room and say, “It’s nacho tiiiime!” Glenn used to be afraid of the dark and then I got him a lava lamp nightlight. Then I weaned him off that and now he sleeps in darkness.

2010-07-16T16:21:00.001-07:00

Trevor

2010-07-16T16:20:00.003-07:00

Bird is my childhood best friend. I’ve known her since we were six. Bird was born in Seoul but an Italian family adopted her when she was a baby. They named her Adrienne. I think she got the name Bird because she picked at her food like a bird? I’m not really sure. Her Korean name is Eun Ae Chun and she only found that out about three years ago when she went back to the orphanage to try and get info on her biological mother. All she found was her birthname. Kwan is her baby boy.

2010-07-16T16:20:00.001-07:00

Heather is one of my roommates and she’s from West Virginia. One of the things that impress me about Heather is her ability to hide her trashiness beneath an almost flawless mask of Bonnie Bell foundation and civility. She is on one hand a teaching artist and NYU grad student, on the other hand… other things. Heather walks through my room to get to her room and for the most part it’s all good minus times when she stomps through my room with her heavy ass boots when I’m trying to sleep, though given it is noon (or 4 pm) so I can’t blame her. Heather and her best friend Science have tattoos of the outline of West Virginia on their arms. It’s like one of those best friend’s heart necklaces little girls have, but for grown crazy people. Her and her boyfriend Silas have matching key tattoos.

2010-07-16T16:19:00.004-07:00

Jacob

2010-07-16T16:19:00.002-07:00

Tessa

2010-07-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

Anh Hai is my oldest brother and also the oldest kid in my family. At home he was normal but when we were in public, he got really shy and every time he spoke up we would make fun of him. I remember once he was trying to have a conversation with my mom’s friend about our move to a new house and he said, “It’s real breezy up here Mr. Keeney” and we made fun of the scared and awkward way he said that for years… it was just the funniest thing for some reason. Anh Hai was also insecure about his height because he was 5’7” and that was below the height of the average man in the U.S. at the time which was 5’8", so he was constantly doing these stretching exercises and hanging on bars to lengthen his vertebrae. He REALLY wanted to hit the national average. He started lifting weights in college.

2010-07-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

Nicole

2010-07-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

You Can't Have My Soul But Everything Else Is Free

shown at Theatre for the New City in NYC

2010-07-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

You Can't Have My Soul But Everything Else Is Free

shown at Theatre for the New City in NYC

2010-07-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

2010-07-16T15:08:00.002-07:00

Under Blue Tulips

2010-07-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

Going to Meet Sebastian

I was in a motorcycle accident on December 11, 2008. The big white cockatiel driving the motorcycle is my friend Asa. That night I broke my collarbone and got nine stitches on my kneecap. I met a very nice paramedic named Sebastian too. Asa volunteered to be my nurse for a month.

2010-07-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hairmonsters in Amstetten

I started drawing Hairmonsters in Amstetten after learning about thestory of Elisabeth Fritzl in Amstetten, Austria. Elisabeth was heldcaptive by her father in a chamber of her family's basement for 24years, spanning from the age of 18-42. In over two decades, she didnot leave the basement or see the light of day. Moved by her story andextraordinary will, I wanted to create something colorful and light, something I could give Elisabeth as a gift even. Well it turned out a lot different than the original vision. This drawing was claustrophobic to look at and the repetition was staggering. I spent hours essentially just building the wall up. Then all the characters started to resemble me. When asked, I could not explain why, but from a distance I think I was trying to take her place. To absorb some of her sorrow, even if it was on a virtual plane. When I was working those long hours into the night, drawing those tiny geometric brick patterns, one after another... I wondered if I was given a choice to spend five years in captivity in exchange for her 24 years, would I have done it? What about just two years? Or even one? Of course, for a family member or friend that is an easy question, but for a complete stranger would any of us sacrifice ourselves? If I couldn't answer yes, was I as heartless as her captor? These theoretical questions haunted me and I found myself feeling guilty and hypocritical for feeling compassion and apathy together. At times, working on this was truly depressing, but then I would stop,live my life, and begin again. Elisabeth's determination inspired my own. It took me two months to finish this piece. For her, 24 years to be free.

2010-07-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

2010-07-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Teeth are a Matter of Time

2010-07-16T14:26:00.001-07:00

Free a State of Mind

You Always Finish Last

Ifirst got into running a couple years ago. I made this when I was inHawaii. They have wild pigs there. So when I would go out in thejungle I'd listen for pigs but I haven't seen one yet.

2010-07-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

Glenn Marla's "Heavy" night in NYC

To Die for Peace

2010-07-16T14:24:00.002-07:00

2010-07-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

2010-07-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

I Need Some Space

Light unexpectedly streams in through a basement window illuminating a boy about to hang himself. At the table, another boy sits sadly with his eyes on the wall. He feels as if this situation is out of his control. A girl has come down the stairs. Her hands are clenched together in fearful prayer. She will be the one to save him if he tries to jump, though it seems nothing will happen now.

2010-07-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

The Golden Ratio

2010-07-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

Catcher in the Rye Guy

I love this book. Somehow I spelled Caulfield wrong...

2010-07-16T14:00:00.001-07:00

My boyfriend's childhood memories include hot air balloons landing around his house. Although I made this for him I put myself in the drawing as a little girl and not him. A few months later I moved into a house in Napa and one morning we woke up to see hot air balloons flying outside... He was brought back to his childhood, and I remembered this drawing.

2010-07-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

Water Birthing Triplets