1000 Words

Does a photo really say 1,000 words? Or is it me?

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t write on Friday. Here it is.

Since I’ve been writing about Jesus, Berkeley, and Keith Haring, I thought I’d share one last story, at least for now. It has to do with life coming full circle. I love it when this happens; it’s a beautiful thing.

At the end of one of my creative writing classes while at Cal, Professor Alfred Arteaga pointed out that I wrote about photographs. If he hadn’t said it out loud, I may not have noticed. Yet my poems (of photographs) were never near 1000 words; they were short and to the point. Even in writing my blog, I write about photographs, except this time around I’m using my own artwork. And still my posts are under 1000 words.

Just over a week ago, I discovered ‘oil’ markers. Where have they been all my life? The other day I spent close to $100 on markers. (Thank you Annatte for the commissioned piece; your money went to good use). These oil markers opened up my imagination and in some ways have taken me back to my early days of drawing while at Cal.

Just a couple of days ago, I found a ‘photo’ of Jerome Caja lying around my apartment. Jerome loved working with religious concepts, often defacing them. Since working on my latest series LITTLE Jesus, I put these markers to use and from out of nowhere, I decided to draw a crucifixion over this photo of Jerome. It came out beautifully; it’s the piece featured here. It reminiscent of my early work when I was doing line doodles a la Keith Haring. In the past couple of days, I’ve finished about 15 of these Jesus pieces; they all include one word on it. I’ve been slightly obsessed and I plan on spending most of my free time this week working with Jesus.

And so after all these years since Professor Arteaga’s comment, I’m not only writing about photographs, I’m drawing over them and even taking my own pictures. I don’t know what it is, but Diane Arbus said it interestingly enough, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” And so maybe it’s the secrets that have captured my imagination? And maybe my imagination has it’s own secrets.

Happy Monday and have a beautiful week.