Tag Archive | work

And Another Gallery Crawl…

Oct5

So my wonderful co-workers and I explored the Lower East Side recently…

A closer look at his works:
https://www.krausegallery.com/rodolfo-loaiza

Some of the works we saw there…
http://vanderplasgallery.com/artists/

Hope you found something to like also? And if you’re in the area (Lower East Side NYC, I recommend the galleries shown here). WE had a ball…

Yes.

Sep9

I love Word Press, I just love it. I’m a big reader of — EVERYTHING.

It’s one way I satisfy my insatiable curiosity, by crawling into the minds of others via their discoveries. And I am not discriminatory, I will read whatever folks post. Even if they are writing, ‘My realizations about bunions (haha). ‘

I could sit on here clicking blog to blog, all day.

 

Anyway, I stumbled onto this post about leadership just now and read something I wanted to share.

“Ask people to do hard things.”

Sit with that one for a minute.

Now think about your most treasured friendship, greatest love, favorite parent, best teacher, all interactions with others where the exchange really left you with something magnificent. Did you find it to be with people who challenged you to expand yourself in some way?  ‘Asking you…. to do something HARD?’

If you ask my brothers, they will tell you my mother was this. Always stretching and challenging you in some way. And of course she wanted us to love her, but she didn’t care if we “liked” her. She just never wanted any of her children to be settling for their version of status quo when she knew we could do better (even if we didn’t know we could). So she would ask the deep, hard, challenging stuff you might not have been ready for.

All the time.

And ultimately you would find yourself figuring out how to up the ante she was upping on you, and would end up expanding. She wasn’t easy on your spirit, but I believe these kind of people call out the best in you.

And honestly we all want to be our best.

We feel the best about ourselves when we are and end up deeply respecting the people who may have acted as impetuous to that.

Right?

Honestly these days, if my relationships ask nothing of me? I become a little disappointed. Even in jobs if they fail to ask the proverbial hard question: “Where do you want to go in our organization?” Making you stretch beyond your comfort.

 

Sparks

Sep8

I don’t log onto Facebook very often, I kind of don’t like it anymore.

It feels like ‘everyday-man-as-celebrity’ Olympics.

Everyone seems like they are trying to create a show of how “great” their life is, instead of using it to connect in a deeper way (which social media can be used for). Instead of using it to peer into the moments of others we may not be able to keep up with in life, and engage about their progress?

We gaze upon ourselves and invite the gaze of others over to our universe of fabulosity.

Is it me?

Anyway feels alienating and doesn’t seem to create the bridges, the way Facebook intended.  Least not for me. It is a thin connective tissue linking us to one another, giving the illusion, you’re connected. Leaves me a bit empty personally.

However, every once in a while, the page produces a spark. Something that stirs up something else in you.

This was that today:

 

“The things that we run from…we’re running from the truth… we’re running from the truth man…so the only way I became successful…was going toward the truth… as painful and brutal as it is… it changed me… “

How did it make you feel?

From The Margins

Oct21

I saw this video on Youtube today. It expresses a few points that run through my mind when submitting my work to festivals. Just the concept of people of color, indigenous, gay, or folks of age not being “relevant” in society therefore the film industry (we see this with the commonality of tokenism or the production of works which present narratives full of the typical perspectives people are comfortable with – over and over – instead of new presentations which present life on the spectrum as it is).

I’ve wondered when people read my works and see the multi ethnic ensemble inherent, if it turns them off a little (if they’re a judge from a community where they weren’t exposed to POC and prefer to keep things monochrome – buying into the societal imprint about that).

I do wonder if this impacts how the works are embraced during the submission process, about my ability to “place.”

Especially since I was asked by a producer once, if I’d consider making my black transgender character CISgender. And white. So it would be… “more accessible.”

I was troubled to say the least. This was one of my only interactions with the industry in my still hidden-away-land-of-obscurity, and to hear that come from her mouth was troubling indeed. I addressed it trying to communicate openly without reacting.

But it’s offensive and weird.

It’s like asking a slender person: can you plump up (cuz more people will like you), telling a punk or goth to dress more mainstream because people, telling a jovial person to kill it citing how people want to know you’ve suffered. It just crosses a line. And quite honestly I already consider how to make works digestible. I’ve taken out the fat, must I take out the meat too?

The point of the video was empowering for me as a creator of color. It was nice to know some people don’t think I need to go anywhere with it, other than where I am.

It REALLY is EVERYTHING.

Mar14

One of my besties sent me this in an email last night…

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our Attitudes.” ~Charles R. Swindoll

 

There are no ac…

Oct3

There are no accidents in life, we attract the shadow and light of who we are internally. People who light us up and people who piss us off are who we are somewhere in life. Who needs this knowledge? The most enlightened ones among us, because without knowledge of our connection to our world, we’re not very enlightened at all. ~Godtisx

Somewhere I am, this client I just had (who I *really* didn’t like). I am her and she is me. Now it’s my responsibility to look and see where this trait I didn’t like plays out in me. Joy. Lol.