Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly? ~ Frida Kahlo

http://www.etsy.com/listing/6594821/dragonfly-geisha-painting

Art ~ SORTA-RICAN:

Daniel Bejar, Charles Beronio, 
Leenda Bonilla & Melissa A. Calderon
Curated by Marcos Dimas and Christine Licata 

Opening: Friday, April 8th @ 6-9pm
Exhibition Runs to May 21st
TALLER BORICUA 
@ the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center
1680 Lexington Avenue
(between 105th and 106th Streets)

Taller Boricua is proud to present "Sorta-Rican" a group exhibition featuring artists Daniel Bejar, Charles Beronio, Leenda Bonilla and Melissa A. Calderon. The work in this exhibition examines these New York City artists' experiences in the wake of 20th Century Puerto Rican migration. Influenced by colonial trajectories that began over five centuries ago, issues of language, economics, social structures and identity reverberate through "Sorta-Rican."

The term Sorta-Rican, a hyphenated mix of the slang term "sorta" and Puerto Rican, describes the experience of a person of Puerto Rican descent usually born and raised in the United States with Nuyorican and/or Boricua parents. As second (or first, depending on one's interpretation) and third generation members of the Puerto Rican diaspora, they commonly reside somewhere between at least two cultures, absorbing each one though not fully assimilating either.  Occupying this obscure acculturated space, Sorta-Ricans exist as both members and outsiders, included and excluded--all the while reinterpreting and redefining the culture.   

Employing mixed media and site-specific interventions, Daniel Bejar's practice connects the past to the present, reexamining historical and geo-political narratives. Charles Beronio's allegorical drawings critique the relationship between ideology and socio-political realities through conceptual examinations of language and visual culture. Incorporating multimedia and site-specific installation, Leenda Bonilla explores the concepts of cultural memory and the dualities inherent in transculturation. Melissa A. Calderon explores the gaps of disconnection within gender and culturally based traditional roles through mixed media, video and performance. For additional information about any of the artists, please contact Taller Boricua:contact@tallerboricua.org.

Next event: Graffiti Legends & Me... Art for the Park 2010

Next weekend

Legendary grafitti artists' work will be displayed and auctioned while I have the honor of sharing my poetry 

BombaRose with TatsCru at 106 & Park

Bio

Nicer
BG183How & Nosm

Dmotes

Daze

Crash

Click to visit the Park Performing Arts Center

At Park we believe that access to the arts is an essential component to every child’s well-being.  Consuming and practicing forms creative expression is a means to understanding identity, culture and humanism in a global society.  Through arts education, students acquire the skills and awareness that are necessary for personal success and making contributions to their communities and others.   

Our philosophy is informed by research insights on involvement with the arts.  For example, young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours on three days each week for at least one full year are:

• 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
• 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
• 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
• 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance
• 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem

And, young artists, compared to their non-artist peers, are likely to:

• Attend music, art, and dance classes nearly three times as frequently
• Participate in youth groups nearly four times as frequently
• Read for pleasure nearly twice as often
• Perform community service more than four times as often

We offer a wide range of children and youth programming.  Our community based Folk Arts initiative brings guest artists to our in-school and after-school programs.  And our highly-regarded arts faculty offer a variety of classes at all skill levels for children and adults. Recent offerings include: 

Strategic Revitalization Plan.

• Children's Visual Art
• Ballet
• Hip Hop Jazz
• Theater for Children
• Broadway Voices
• Latin Dance for Children and Adults
• Salsa
• AfroCuban Dance
• Latin Percussion for Children and Adults
• Tango
• Music Theory
• Jazz Jam
• Capoeira - Brazilian Martial Art
• Merengue, Bachata & Palo Dance
• Beginner Music/Learn to play a recorder
• Break Dancing

Located in Union City, NJ, Park Performing Arts Center has the distinction of being recognized as "the only institution in the county solely dedicated to the performing arts" by the Hudson County Urban Complex Strategic Revitalization Plan.

Media contact: Lily Arango 201-238-0025

art4park@hotmail.com

So fly! Local artist: MHeartstar

Crazy ~ Sexy ~ Cool ~ MHeartstar

Some people just are and artist Melissa Arce is someone who's been swirling about in my mind lately because she is. Her intensely cool stickers tickle my fancy. Big time. 

She's pretty "girl next door" with a sharp honest tongue, a warm heart beating behind a low chainlink fence and a bright marker in hand that sends swirling flowers and gritty graff zombies floating before your eyes. When I'm out I find myself wishing I had one in my bag to slap onto a phone booth, a door or 6 train window. 

click here to follow her on twitter ^

Freakin dope detail

my favorite!graffiti you can take with you? YES PLEASE!

i love that i can cover my journals in her art now. THANKS, M!

Buy some for yourself or a loved one for the holidays. Teens or anyone with a passion for graf art will LOVE her. 

Click to go to her blog. Buy some sticker art while you're there!

Glenn Arthur - Amazing Artist who plays fun on Twitter!

Anyone who knows me knows that I live and breathe art. Since I stumbled upon Glenn Arthur several years ago on Myspace and fell heard over heels I've shown atleast 100 people his beautiful paintings. His muses are often an angst ridden beauties with a tarnished innocence or the devious grinning vixen with a playful malevolence that reaches into my gut and twists while making me breathe lustily. His colors are from my mind's palette, I've painted my home and bedrooms in these colors. Some of his themes include  mirrors, hummingbirds, calaveras, stripes, filigree, fluffy flowing hair, glistening beautifully made up eyes, streaky inky mascara tears, gingham patchwork hearts, raw bleeding hearts, anchors, booboos and bandages, needle and thread, chiffon and satin bows, stripes and beautiful damask patterns and lovely blossoms of all kinds, even origami Glenn holding my favorite painting. Click to LIKE his Facebook Art pageones.  

His work has a sweet macabre sensibility that I thoroughly backstroke in. PLUS! We have Alphonse Mucha, The Walking Dead, Amelie, green tea, weddings, steampunk, extra sleep, water colors and Betty White in common.

Yeah, he's for me. 

"Glenn Arthur is a self taught visual artist from Orange County, California. Born in February of 1979, he grew up in a conservative, religious household with little to no influence in art. Although he constantly doodled and sketched as a child, Glenn did not come into painting until later in life when a friend (God bless you, friend!) took him by the hand to a local art store, purchased him a canvas, some paints and a few brushes and told Glenn, “You need to do this!” 

Since then Glenn has been diligently working on creating his own brand of beautifully painted images. Using acrylic paints on wooden panels, he adds in elements and influential symbols of his past and present to each piece. Beyond the aesthetics of his artwork, Glenn brings an overwhelming sense of passion to his paintings. Touching on themes of love, death, conflict and duality, Glenn’s art tells stories of strength and hope through emotion and sentiment with his sensual beauties and signature hummingbirds." 

The other day I came across this Tweet:

@GlennArthurArt

TWITTER CONTEST! I'm giving away my 3 latest drawings! 

"What's this?", my eyes popped open, my jaw went slack, "I'm ALL over it!" Immediately tweeted back 

@BombaRose 

#GlennArthurArt OOooOOoOooooo purple <3

Today I received this Tweet: 

CONGRATS! You won the Purple give away piece! Please DM me your address and I'll send it out tomorrow! Thank you so much for participating!

SHUTTTUPPPPP!!!!!!! Look at her! She's mine! I've been doing cartwheels across his Facebook pages. Blue and Brown went to two other very excited people. 

MINE! @BombaRose: Heeeeeheeeheee! I won, I won, I won, I won the Purple steampunk beauty. I LOVE @GlennArthurArt ! U should too

@erikeddy hasn't replied yet

@dwalk888's @GlennArthurArt HOLY HELL!!! thank you soooooo much!!!! i totally cannot wait to really see and hold this!!! amazingness!!!! thank you! ;)He mails her home tomorrow. Pretty! Ok, it's 2am and my brain stopped working so it's time to clock out. Love ya, babies! 

Featured Artist - Albert Areizaga of TainoImage.com

Digital Photo Collage by Albert Areizaga of TainoImage.com - click to visit the site 

Mural created by Albert Areizaga of Taino Image

in honor of the 

"69 Years Young" -A Birthday Tribute to Miguel Algarín

Date/time: September 11 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Location: The Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Address: 236 East 3rd St. (bet. Avenue B and Avenue C)

Honoree is Algarín is a Puerto Rican poet, and co-founder of the most famous poetry hub in the United States, our home away from home, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. 

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to join us in celebrating the life and legacy of one of our own, Miguel Algarín. 


With performances by

Miguel Algarin

Caridad De La Luz (La Bruja)

Simply Rob

Maria Isa

Jani 'Bomba' Rose

Roberto 'Plena' Irizarry

Hosted by Papo "Swiggity" Santiago of Capicu Poetry & Cultural Showcase

There will be music, surprise performances and two cakes! Bienvenido! 

$12 at the door

Brought to you by Bomba y Plena of MusingsAndScribbles.com

Sponsored by LatinosNYC

Santiago - Digital Painter

Latin house fusion pumps relentlessly, multi-cultural couples fill the dance floor, which in the cozy nether regions of Williamsburg’s Bembe extends wall to wall. Two young Latinas excitedly discuss a young unassuming man in a fedora and lightly tinted a brown glasses, who is speaking with their male friend. “That’s Santiago, the artist on MySpace”, the taller one leans down and breathily yells into her friends hair, clearly believing herself to be in the presence of someone worthy of her exuberance. “Really?!”, her companion squeals, “Oh my God, he’s amazing!” Their excitement is justified. Upon witnessing the passionate, color saturated visual outpourings that are posted internet wide for his global audience; surprise and awe are usually the instant sensations. Known for his extreme exercises in creativity and highly distinctive style of digital painting, very few would recognize him due to the fact his internet profiles bear only one or two photos of him and hundreds of eye-popping, mind bending beautiful images.

Born in the Bronx, as a teen he entered New York City’s High School of Art and Design, where the artsy misfits find themselves amongst a myriad of peers that compliment and neutralize the feeling that they are indeed “different”. He went on to graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts at the world renowned Fashion Institute of Technology.

One of his most noteworthy and concentrated projects involves his creating 30 images in 30 days. It is a grueling exercise in tapping into his creative spirit that seems endlessly accessible. Summer ’08 proved to be the summer of a Latina Pin-up heat wave that he posted daily on MySpace, Behance and Flickr, he called “30 Days of Heat”. Through the advent of social networking, art has reached people by way of friend request. Santiago’s work was noticed and before he knew it, more than 11,000 people knew who he was, with hundreds regularly leaving comments on his pics, which in his case were never of himself but of his recent works or political outcries.

Having learned of Facebook’s global reach and the vast art community networking through the newer site, Santiago’s friend list grew again in a flash and in it were beauties across the world that pumped his always searching mind with the inspiration for the new 30 Days project. A proponent of “cultural mash-ups” he whimsically plays with portraiture that often combines the women with touches that distinctly represent another culture altogether. To give us a blonde blue eyed girl from Sweden would be expected, mundane even, something he could never be. Gorgeous Imane from France, with her light caramel complexion isn’t what most would expect to find as the representative of her country, but there she is, enticing a Chinese dragon to bite into a particularly bitter-sweet lollipop. Sou Sou of Kuwait wears a wrap, her eyes blaze and wait…are those space invaders that make up the hounds tooth pattern?! Just when you think that you know what kind of surprise is going to greet you, you log on and brace yourself to see the next gorgeous face to find the representatives of Antarctica smiling coyly back at you in the form of two lovely penguins, Penny and Gwinny. Pure genius, always fun and visually fulfilling, hopefully, Santiago’s works will soon be spilling out of the interwebs and into a gallery near you.

written during the Muse project for the New York Optimist

'Viajero' Adrian Roman on a Cultural Journey Through Life.

'Viajero' Adrian Roman on a Cultural Journey Through Life.

El “Viajero” takes us on a creative journey, straight to the backbone and heartbeat of the Latin culture.We smile knowingly, smell and taste the tobacco in the air as we lay eyes upon “Las Madrinas”, we can be sure that through their bodies may be wizened their minds are sharp and ready with words of advice or spiritual guidance.Upon viewing his sun baked campesinos, we are reminded of the arduous labor of those upon whose backs the sugar plantations rest. One elderly man sits on a curb lighting a cigarillo in rumpled clothes and a wide brim hat, his only protection from the brutal heat that beats his frame.All around him are bags full of this days take from the field or orchard, perhaps full of quenepas to take back home to the children or sell for a modest profit and some loaves of bread for tomorrow morning’s desayuno. Despite the hard times, there's a deep joy and sense of hope that comes from the earth and rises up into the people.Adrian 'Viajero' Roman illustrates this with a depth and dimension that transports his viewer to the myriad of moments spent with their elders. It is a testament to his talent that though his work may be of specific people, they all feel like someone whom we have known. If his protagonist doesn’t remind you of someone in your family, she’s la vecina, Doña Fulana de Tal or el frutero who even when times were tough made sure that the neighborhood children got their share of sweets regardless of their ability to pay. The term itself, “Viajero” translates as “traveler” and it evolved from one of his caricatures into the philosophy of his work. It is a representation of the journey which we travel throughout our lives. His creative purpose is to carry the consciousness of timeless being, in the midst of a time-bound experience.
Born in New York City during the heat wave of 1977, to parent’s of Puerto Rican heritage he enjoyed many summers and holidays returning with family to the island where he was infused with a great love of the foundational identity and history of the people. Naturally inclined towards art at an early age, he absorbed the creativity around him and began building his repertoire. Simple things like his mother’s doodles on the faces in the newspaper and his grandfather’s painted landscapes of his beloved beaches on whole coconut shells influenced what art is to him. His formal training began at the age of 12, when he earned a grant to study at the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York City. Tireless is his quest to learn more and be more, he took classes at the Art Students League NYC, received a degree in Fine Arts from the New World School of Arts in Miami, Florida and continued on to the New York Institute of Technology to study graphic design. His extensive education and inherent know-how allowed him to be a proficient art director and graphic designer, having garnered him work with Jack Daniels, GMAC, and Heavy Inc. His passion lay in his own personal creations and it didn’t take long for him to launch his career as a freelance artist. Viajeros most recent exhibit, at Camaradas El Barrio in Spanish Harlem brought the music of Yerbabuena and his art together to create a culturally fulfilling experience. His work can be seen in private collections and galleries in Puerto Rico and across the U.S. While his prices reach into the thousands, he participates in art festivals where he brings unique affordable art to the community. Viajero is an eclectic old soul with a love for antiquities. Vintage books, cameras, instruments, suitcases, picture frames, Latin album covers, old newspapers from Puerto Rico, letters, photos and many other little things that he began collecting to use in his art and became enamored with fill his home and studio. “I feel like it’s more than just a collection of old things, it’s a collection of time,” he muses adding, “One of my favorite things to collect is masks. I have masks from Puerto Rico, Africa, Mexico and Thailand.” As with many visual artists he maintains that he can’t live without music. Once again his old soul is evident in the selections he has chosen for the soundtrack of his life; Miles Davis, members of Buena Vista Social Club, Nina Simone, Fela Kuti, members of Fania All-Stars and Bomba y Plena. These are the sounds that infuse each artful stroke with a soulful purpose. Music and art are so lovingly intertwined that an artist will often desire to make music and he is no exception. When asked for a fun fact he proclaims a desire to play the congas and that he is now in the process of learning to play the buleador, a drum used in traditional Bomba music. He becomes enthusiastic when discussing artists whom he admires. One of the great moments in his life was having met and been mentored by legendary artist Antonio Martorell. He shared his gift of storytelling with Roman as his own mentor, recently deceased, "Painter of the People" Rafael Tufiño, taught him many years earlier. When asked of his process Roman says, “I think the most difficult part of the process is selecting a type of wood. I believe the wood has already been selected for me, I just have to find it. The grain is like a fingerprint, unique to each piece of artwork. I also like to use vintage objects to support the stories and reflect the feeling of timelessness in my pieces. I’m currently experimenting with creating visual art documentaries, meeting people through my travels and telling their life stories through my drawings, photography and installations.” Roman’s messages create connections and increases understanding both within and across communities and cultures of the importance of learning about our history. Those who waged the intense battles of survival are still visible in our elders. El Viajero’s work spiritually transcends space and location, moving in time to reveal their tales, which when they surface, translates to those looking for a connection with others around them.“I want my work to represent identity and culture and the impact it has in the reflection of a people" he expIains, "I want my pieces to say, ‘There is a presence here, sit and listen to the story.’”

To see more of his work and contact him visit www.viajeroart.com

copyright Jani Rosado 2009