Blog

Prints available!

3/25/21

Art Prints Available!
I'm excited to announce that I now have prints available for 6 of my paintings. Below they are listed with title, descriptions, text, and available sizes in inches (other sizes are possible). The yard stick on the right side kind of gives you a sense of the relative sizes.

"I Will Learn to Love" (top left, collage with mostly brown, blue and gold) Text reads: I will learn to love, I will learn to hurt, heal, suffer, survive -- prints available: 10x15 and 13.5x20.

"Onset of a Vision" (top middle, collage with mostly blue and a silhouette in ribbon) Text reads: "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures, I am this body, a play Of five elements; a drama Of the spirit dancing With joy and sorrow" ~Kabir --  prints available: 6x9, 10x15, 12x18 and 13.5x20.

"Mirage" (top right, an eagle flying under a blue moon and between a collaged mountain of images, mostly faces) Text reads: Your mom tells you a story before you go to bed and you believe it. --  prints available: 11x14 and 14x18.

"Communion (Reaching)" (bottom left, portrait of a wooden figure model reaching to a leaf) -- prints available: 8x10, 12x15 and 16x20.

"Never Surrender" (bottom middle, portrait of a peregrine with a collage background) Text reads: "Being captured is besides the point... The point is not to surrender" (quote from "It's this way" by Nazim Hikmet) -- prints available: 11x14 and 14x18.

"A Million Tender Blades of Grass" (bottom right, figure of a body collaged with nature images, holding a seedling) Text reads: "They who build concrete against the corners of our hearts need to feel our resistance like a million blades of grass cracking sidewalks apart reminding your runaway child there is no place that love cannot find you there is no place that love cannot find you there is no place that love cannot find you" (quote from "Overcoming" by Naima Penniman of Climbing Poetree) -- prints available: 8x10, 12x15 and 16x20

6x9 and 8x10 sizes are $15-35 sliding scale
11x14 and 12x15 sizes are $25-50 sliding scale
14x18, 135x20 and 16x20 are $35-80 sliding scale

Half of all proceeds will be redistributed to BIPOC-led organizations fighting for justice, landback, and collective liberation. The other half basically pays for the costs of scanning, printing and supplies.

 


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The Way My Heart

5/18/20

This has been a year of "painting over".. I haven't bought a new canvas in over a year, and instead have been layering new life onto old canvases.. here's another before and after.. 

The Way My Heart, 2019
The Way My Heart, 2020
 


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Glacier

5/18/20

I first painted Glacier about 6 or 7 years ago, and then it lived at a friend's house for a couple years. It came back to me, and I started giving it a makeover. Still a work-in progress, but interesting to reflect on the shift. 

Glacier, from 2012
Glacier, May 2020
 


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New works in progress

5/13/19

 


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Mail Art for Prisoners

12/26/15

On second thought, I have actually been making art. It's just that this year has been much more about mail art - due to my involvement with the local SF Bay Area chapter of Black & Pink. Here are some of the cards we decorated this year to send inside. 

 


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Amazing how fast a year can pass..

12/26/15

Looking back, my last blog post was a year ago!! 

And I haven't even finished the work in progress from that blog! I have worked on it, though. And I've gotten into more of a groove with a few other pieces, and even started reworking a few pieces I thought were finished. I guess nothing is ever really finished, especially when your work is all about layers. 

 


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New work in progress..

12/24/14

Very much still a work in progress. The text so far says - "When the darkness comes, how will we remember the light?" Trying to figure out what it's missing to feel complete. It's one of the rare faces I've tried to paint, and wasn't part of the original plan. But the face emerged out of the paint spills dripping across the canvas. 

 


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My newest artwork!

10/25/13

Halloween Action Tag
Check out more at my other site - http://www.conspireforchange.org/?p=1485


Liberate Halloween Action Kit!
They’re ba-ack! (shudder) With Halloween quickly approaching, and costume shops like Spirit Halloween opening their doors, many of us are cringing at the thought of another Halloween full of racism, sexism, heterosexism and the full range of offensive apparel we annually witness.

In response, we offer up a toolkit to those who wish to be a part of resisting the dominant paradigms that plague this season. Let’s make this be a season to reclaim and expand our expressive imaginations from being steered into narrow, tired, offensive and uncreative marketing channels.

Not sure what exactly is so offensive about certain Halloween costumes? 

The Sexy Debate


The “sexy” costume phenomenon is complex. On one hand, women ought to be empowered and have the freedom to dress as they wish without fear of the all-too-common repercussions – slut-shaming, violence and objectification. We ought to be able to dress as we wish without having to fear that we are reproducing tired, binary gender stereotypes. We ought to be able to have a deep, healthy and vibrant sense of our own sexuality without fear of being told we’re asking for trouble by being suggestive. Girls ought to be allowed to explore their sexuality without increased risk of unwanted advances and harassment. On the other hand, these consequences are real. And if you look at any Spirit or costume catalog – sexy costumes are becoming, more and more, the ONLY option, to the point of absurdity. Even for female toddlers. On some level, they are all variations of the same costume.

As Halloween continues to become an increasingly hyper-commercialized event, currently an $8 billion industry, the sexualization of female costumes, the narrowing of conventional beauty standards and the ways this is connected to the oversexualization of women and girls, and the general sexist devaluation of women in society IS a problem. If women and girls are only allowed to exist as no more than sexual objects, who exist for the pleasure of others and should feel best about themselves when dressed suggestively, but who are blamed for the violence perpetrated against them because they dressed suggestively in the only costumes available on the market, while men are held to a different standard, then sexy costumes AS A PHENOMENON are not necessarily empowering. They are something else entirely. On top of this, many sexy costumes on the market today have a heavy amount of racism and cultural appropriation woven in – which is definitely not empowering.

The Issue of Objectifying Other Cultures


“There are many good reasons not to wear a costume that relies on racist stereotypes or caricatures. Costumes like these communicate negative ideas and assumptions about people of that race or ethnicity, and as this year’s posters say, that stigma stays with people of color long after you take the costume off. Wearing racist costumes also creates a hostile environment for people of that race, who may not appreciate seeing their identity, culture or community mocked and distorted while they’re trying to relax and have a good time. Costumes like these demonstrate disrespect and ignorance on behalf of the costume-wearer. Finally, they aren’t funny or creative. Really. This is one widely celebrated holiday where creativity is actively encouraged, and all a racist costume does is prove that the wearer knows how to recycle old, tired bigotry. They’re similar to racist “jokes:” unoriginal and offensive.” (By Sarah Appelbaum)

A few costumes to avoid:

Suicide Bomber, Geisha, Gangster, Redneck, Gypsy, Native American, Indian Princess, Illegal Alien, Sugar Skull, Muslim Terrorist, Hitler, Any Victim or Perpetrator of Sexual, Homophobic or Racist Violence, Any Costume in which you are Dressing as a Stereotyped Person from Another Race or Culture, Anything that Stigmatizes Mental Illness or Poverty, Oversexualized Version of an Otherwise Interesting Costume

 

 


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Other site for my blogs!

10/25/12

Sorry I haven't been writing here much. I have not been as inspired to write about art these days, nor have I been making art as much lately (it doesn't help that my art supplies were boxd and stored in a garage since July as I've been subletting and searching for a new home). Hopefully soon!

But I have been writing on more political themes with a group called the White Noise Collective. Check out some of my blogs about the intersection of racism and sexism at conspireforchange.org.

 

 


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prints available at cost!!

6/7/12

excited that i finally found an amazing art reproduction guy - and now i have and can make amazing prints of my art for the first time!! i think they might be prettier than the originals.. i've scanned 3 pieces so far:

http://www.zhibit.org/beja/figurative-mixed-media/the-onset-of-a-vision
http://www.zhibit.org/beja/figurative-mixed-media/contemplating-the-edge-of-the-world
http://www.zhibit.org/beja/figurative-mixed-media/glacier

but can get any of them scanned and printed..

(the sliding scale (working class) prices are $25-40 for 11x14, $40-60 for 16x20, $60-75 for 20x30, and $85-150 for 24x36)

 


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Previously published: