Arte Al Día

Dear Readers:

The MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts Houston) will launch in January the Project Documents of 20th-Century Latin America and Latino Art. To read more click on:
Arte Al Día / International / Contents / Artists / News / The MFAH will launch in January the Project Documents of 20th-Century Latin America and Latino Art.

Best,
Sylvia Morin

Rise & Root

Dear Readers:

A short time ago, I posted about taking the Simple Living Challenge posted in Kanelstrand,a blog about "simple living for human beings." At about the same time, I found another posting from one of my other favorite blogs, The Hermitage, by the very talented Rima Staines. You will find the creativity behind her blog quite extraordinary, and I do hope that you will take the time to visit the blog!

Rima's message made me think about the very artificial and processed life that most of us live. I know it is difficult to be mindful of our surroundings, of nature, and that which is authentic when our daily lives are experienced as if in a bubble, especially if you consider going through the day in a city like Houston.  Although I must admit that I do not exemplify the virtues of simplicity and true beauty, I do think that Rima's call for truth and imagination is of utmost importance in world that becomes more commercialized by the minute.  I also want to call attention to her design functioning like "a waymarker for the Zapatistas of suburbia" to represent this revolution of sorts.  I have some ideas on how I will creatively incorporate this design in order to give voice to the Other existing in a liminal space. If I complete some of these projects I have in mind, I definitely will share them with all of you. I hope you too will be motivated to do the same.

Best,
Sylvia


Reposted from The Hermitage, January 1, 2012:

Rise & Root:

I HAD A DREAM a few weeks ago in which several symbols appeared before me. They had no context, just were there. One of them remained with me upon waking, and I became determined to discover its meaning. It was a rune-like sign, made of straight sections, and looked like this:

I’ve been paying more attention to my dreams recently, and this sign seemed to need deciphering. I went first to the runes for a meaning, but though my symbol was very like a rune, I found none like mine. Then I searched amongst the Ogham alphabet. At first I thought it must be the Ogham cipher for birch which is made up of a vertical straight line, a shorter horizontal heading out to the right from the centre and at the base (as begins or ends all Ogham letters when written alone) an inverted V, making two legs. This was the symbol most like mine I could find, though it wasn’t quite satisfactory - my symbol had three legs and a diagonal stroke to the right.

For a while I sat with birch trees and wondered, until one day I found the answer in my sketchbook. I was drawing ideas for an image I’ve had sitting on my shoulder for a while; as the imagery came out of my pencil in rough scribbles of ideas, I spotted the symbol hiding in amongst the sketching, and it gave me impetus to carry the idea through to a finished design.

For some time I have wanted to make an image with which to start a quiet revolution on the backs of service station toilet doors, on the billboards behind carparks, over the screens of insidious train-journey advertising. In deep hatred for the feeling I get when I am forced to enter motorway service station cafes, shopping malls or toilets, I wanted to rail against all that is bland and homogeneous and commercial and life-suckingly chrome-and-concrete and spreading un-refuted like a disease across our land. I imagined planting little seeds of hope and solidarity in the form of a beautiful and rousing image which I would stick between the scrawlings of desperation and ugliness in the perfumed, disinfected cubicles made for us to shit in whilst we are not at home. The backs of public toilet doors are a fascinating melting pot of honest expression, dissent and advertising; it feels like there’s a communication between strangers played out there in this, the most private of rooms, and this is the way I wanted to communicate: liminally.

I suppose I wanted to plant my revolution-seed in the dirt in the cracks of the pavements, in the dirt between the formica and polyester, in the dirt pushed to the edges of millions of touchscreens, in the dirt underneath escalator rails and hygienic hand-dryers. Like the gargoyles and marginal grotesques of the middle ages, I wanted to coax beauty in once more like a stranger to the citadels of public ugliness we all have become so used to. I wanted to surprise and unnerve and delight and disedge all the lovely human beings who have grown so unseeing in the unbeautiful subway of their daily rush through these places. I wanted ivy to grow over all the chrome and adverts, its clinging rootlets ruining the L'Oréal shine with their ancient, living patination, and its roots grinding escalators to a twisted halt. I wanted green silence to toll through the noisy claustrophobia of shopping malls and for the shoppers to break their ankles on huge ancient roots, which had crept in past the security guards (notwithstanding hoodies and ASBOs) to smash up the shops. I wanted to grab them by the hand, and run with them (limping) to the dark woods and remind them that they are powerful.

And so I made this drawing for you - Rise & Root - a symbol perhaps, a waymarker for the Zapatistas of suburbia. As I drew the rooted tree-people raising their fists, I realised that they were the embodiment and representation of my dream-rune: raised fists to the fight, and roots in the earth. I give you this image to do with what you wish: download it, reblog it, print it, photocopy it, make it into stickers and take them with you in your bag to stick on the backs of public toilet doors, on supermarket conveyor belts or over underground advertising screens; make it into a poster, a projection, print it on bags and T-shirts, paint it large on the sides of petrol stations, pavements, parliaments.

Or take the rune as a symbol we’ll all recognise when it’s chalked on our doorsteps, and tattooed on our foreheads.

I want this image not to be for sale - take it freely and use it, let’s make it spread unrelenting from the edges, appearing everywhere, but not obviously authored. I will not make a website about it. It is rough, and black-and-white as a badly photocopied pamphlet. It is yours. A gift to our revolution for Two Thousand And Twelve. Take it and run.

Entre la claridad - Post 2

Dear Readers:

Just one more reminder to read Tercets. Elisa may be doing another drawing if there is sufficient interest.

Best,
Sylvia

January Giveaway Winner:

The winner of this drawing is my friend, Jen V., who has been reading the blog since the beginning. Thank you, Jen for reading the blog and for participating in the drawing! You win an autographed copy of Entre la claridad.

The next drawing, later this month, will be a second chance drawing for those who did not win this or any of the previous drawings. Here are the entrants who have not previously won a drawing.

Vee Xhonané Lauran Martha Michelle Erika Mento Moisés Heather Maria V. Sylvia Elena Alicia W. Yolanda

Each of you will receive one entry in the second chance drawing! If you wanted to participate in a previous drawing, but don’t see your name, you may have forgotten to tell me that you wanted to participate after completing the entry task. It is a second chance for you too, if you have recently started following or subscribing, have liked the Entre la claridad page on Facebook, or have promoted the book on social media. Let me know that you want to enter!

If you want to buy Entre la claridad, it is available for $7.00 from Mouthfeel Press. Take a look at the other books from the press while you are there; you’ll see a selection of books by innovative and talented poets.

If you have already read Entre la claridad, send me a short review or some reactions; I would like to post a round-up of comments in the future.

Also, my poem “Bat Bridge” is included in the new collection of poems about the sacred by Mutabilis Press, Improbable Worlds. Reading an anthology is a good way to familiarize yourself with poetry. You can read about and buy that book here.

Entre La Claridad - Post 1

Dear Readers:

Again, I am providing reading material from another blog.  This one you should be familiar with, Tercets, a lovely blog written by my friend and colleague Elisa A. Garza.  The only thing is that this information is just a bit outdated, since the giveaway already took place. However, I encourage you to read about her new poetry chapbook, "Entre la claridad."


January Giveaway:

Yes, it is time for another giveaway of my new book, Entre la claridad. For those of you who missed the announcements last month, this a chapbook (a small book) of poems mostly about the women in my family and their experiences in two cultures, across several generations. The poems are written in English, with some Spanish words and phrases.

The link highlighted above includes an excerpt, and there you will find links to two additional excerpts. Also, you can listen to recordings of some poems from the book at the Audio Page above, by clicking on the links to radio broadcasts I recorded last year. Be sure to let me know what you think of the poem excerpts or the radio programs!

I know several of you missed the opportunity to enter the last drawing during the busy Advent and Christmas seasons, so the entry requirements will be the same. There are multiple ways to enter, which means you can have multiple entries. Someone in my family will draw the winning name on the evening of Sunday, January 15^th.

The key to each entry requirement is to let me know after you have completed the action(s) requested below that you wish to enter the drawing. Just leave a comment, or send an e-mail.

• Follow this blog using the blue button in the left sidebar, or by subscribing via e-mail at the top of the right sidebar. New followers or subscribers get two entries!


• Announce the book on the social media platform of your choice. The easiest way to do this is to use the Facebook, twitter, or Google Plus One buttons at the bottom of this post or in the right sidebar. Or, get creative. My publisher quoted from the end of this blog post when she posted a link to the blog with a picture of the book on Facebook.


• Like the Entre la claridad page on Facebook.

If you already follow or subscribe to this blog, have announced the book on social media, or have liked the FB page, all you have to do to enter is tell me you want to participate in the drawing! If you wish to announce the book on social media a second time, that can get you another entry also.

The next drawing, later this month, will be a second chance drawing for those who did not win this or any of the previous drawings, so you either win this time, or you get another chance to win.

If you want to buy Entre la claridad, it is available for $7.00 from Mouthfeel Press. Take a look at the other books from the press while you are there; you’ll see a selection of books by innovative and talented poets.

Also, my poem “Bat Bridge” is included in the new collection of poems about the sacred by Mutabilis Press, Improbable Worlds. Reading an anthology is a good way to familiarize yourself with poetry. You can read about and buy that book here.

Join the Simple Living Challenge!

Dear Readers,

I know that I have not provided any original content in quite some time. I sincerely apologize for that. I have been working as diligently as possible to finish my dissertation, and that really takes up a lot of my creative energy. However, I saw this posting that I really think is interesting, as well as wonderful! Living simply and mindfully should be a lifelong resolution that goes beyond the beginning of January. I invite you to join the Simple Living Challenge and visit Kanelstrand, a blog about "simple living for human beings."

Reposted from Kanelstrand on January 3, 2012:

Join the Simple Living Challenge!:

Welcome to a very new year! The holidays are somehow over now and the traces of the cozy hours we were spending just a few days ago are slowly vanishing. Now life is preparing to get hectic again, even for those who spend it mindfully and slowly.

Modern life will not leave us alone, it will do its best to suck us in the whirlwind of must and should, and deadlines past. And even if it doesn't we will set them, we will build our walls and raise our borders and then, unwittingly we will get tired of trying to break our own walls and borders down.

And life will pass in pointless battles.

But there is another scenario worth thinking about right now:

How about, worn out of struggles as we are, we decide to stop winding in the circle of our own prejudices and pre-set behavioral models?

What if we attempt to live our lives mindfully, slowly and simply?

What if trying to slow down we find new inspiration and unimaginable sides of our characters that will let us get closer to our own dream of ourselves?

Join me in a 3 week Simple Living challenge!

3 weeks

3 weeks is enough time to get used to a change. Once the initial 3 weeks pass we will be comfortable enough to start enjoying our new habit.

3 reasons to join the challenge

1. Simple life means deliberate life and leads to realization of your strengths, passions and abilities. Simple life means noticing details, living sensibly and enjoying each step of the way.


2. Simplifying your life is easy, unlike what most experts tell you. The only tool you need is willingness and determination.


3. Trying to reduce stress and increase joy of life is a promising start to a new year. It is a great start to any period of the year actually, and you can do it any time.

Simple living is just that. Getting rid of anything unnecessary. Be it objects, emotions, wants, prejudices or fears; being happy with what you have and finding joy in everything you do. We are aiming for the essence of life stripped of all things false.

For 3 weeks we will challenge ourselves to:

• Find happiness in simple everyday routines


• Increase self-sufficiency


• Live with less


• Reconsider technology


• Simplify our virtual life


• And much more.

Let's do this together!

Together we can make a difference in a fast-paced, thick-skinned world. We can walk the path of conscious living by being the human beings we are, by embracing our weaknesses and turning them into strengths. We can live a simple sustainable life without going to extremes.

Come February 1st, 2012 I will start posting ideas for simplifying different aspects of life and we will discuss and share our experiences in trying to implement them. These will be all things I have changed in my life or that I am striving to change. The challenge will be as much for you as it is for me!

As you know, I am always open to your input and I will be adding your suggestions to the posts, so that they can become a living and ever-growing resource for anyone attempting to simplify. If you are interested in writing a guest post about simple living during the 3 weeks of the challenge, I would love to have you! Contact me to discuss the details.

How to take part in the Simple Living challenge

• Take the Simple Living pledge.


• Spread the word, tell your friends.


• Post the Simple Living Pledge button on your blog.


• Participate in the discussions under each post in the challenge.


• Write a guest post about your experiences in simplifying.


• Dedicate your efforts to simplifying!

You can implement as many or as little of the simple ideas you read - simplicity is not exigent as it is at the core of true happiness. Even if you join the challenge for a day, or just consider doing it, show support and sign the pledge!

Click on the image below to take the pledge (or click on the same image in the right sidebar):

Together we can make this happen!

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