Father Mother Me

New Dehli-based artist and educator Nilanjana Nandy asked me to create a concept for a virtual “potluck” call as part of the upcoming group art show IN BETWEEN. Since I’ve been thinking a lot about the notion of family and heritage lately, I decided to invite fellow IN BETWEEN artists to share their thoughts on the matter.

Personal Best: 05/01/17, 05/08/17, 05/15/17

We’re almost at the halfway mark of 2017 and, wow, I’m behind on posting my “personal best” photos. To be honest, I don’t really see the point. Who’s looking at this or even cares about it? Plus, as I spend more and more time looking at photos out in the world, I am starting to get a sense of what images are “popular” and which are not, and it feels demoralizing to stick to what I think is good rather than post images that I know will be generally liked. I had to take a moment to remind myself that I am not doing this for someone else’s eyes/likes/approval. This is a way for me to mark my progression as a photographer and to remember the things I saw and mulled over while being alive in the world. Of course, if your eyeballs do land on these images and you have thoughts, please do let me know. I would love to hear from you.

24 Hour Project 2017

On Saturday, April 1, I participated in a worldwide photo event called the 24 Hour Project for the fourth year. People from around the world took photographs of their city, one photo for every hour of the entire day. I’ve been thinking a lot about and exploring the nature of personal history and memory, the effects of gentrification and the sublime within the banal, all through the lens of Koreatown. These things have been marinating in my brain as I observe the ways my childhood neighborhood has changed, how “outsiders” relate to it then and now and the castoff things and marginalized people visible on the streets. I decided to do my 24 Hour Project exclusively in Koreatown this year because of all of this, not that I made it a point to capture these exact things on the day. Oh, and to it off, I made the day extra crazy for myself by scheduling a few “experiences” throughout the day that friends could join in on.

Personal Best: 03/27/17

My two favorite images from last week work out as a great thematic duo. Aside from the greenery and the California sun in both images, I’m a sucker for humbling the elevated and elevating the humble.

30 Sentences: Helen

Yes, I’m still talking about this.

I meant to post my sentences along with everyone else’s but of course I had to try to get all fancy (in my own hokey way) and create extra work for myself (see video below), which overwhelmed me, which caused me to drag my feet, which lead me to put it off for two months. So typical.

Back in August when I was writing the sentences along with everyone else, I started and restarted a few times. I just couldn’t find a concept that stuck. About a week in, I finally settled on the idea of writing each sentence inspired by whatever I had on the calendar that day. Additional details could be lifted from anything that stuck with me from the day — food I ate, conversations I had, things I saw. This concept gave me solid source material rather than put the pressure on me to make something up out of thin air everyday.

30 Sentences: Heather

Heather really floored me with her commitment to the 30 sentences project. Her piece was an immersive experience for the eyes and ears through words, images and music. The sentences themselves are a meditation on the theme of masochism (“but not in a 50 Shades sort of way”), a haunting amalgam of fact and fiction. I was honored that Heather shared such an intimate story with the group, and now you. All aspects of the main piece, a zine, were created from beginning to end in real time: as Heather came up with a new sentence, she added found images and built on the existing design and layout.

30 Sentences 2016: Part 1

Back in 2013, a conversation with a friend inspired me to write a sentence a day for a month at a time. Whether or not I had a starting game plan, each sentence led to the next so that I ended up with a cohesive story approximately 30 sentences-long each time. You can check out my first sentence-a-day month (January 2013), as well as a few other examples here and here. Most of them are embarrassing but if I omit or delete things that are embarrassing, I won’t have much of a blog. Anyway, after a few of these sentence-a-day months I decided to open up the experience to others, and the result was beautiful. Regardless of things people insist getting all emo about like talent or skill, when people really care, they create something truly enriching and wonderful.

Now Be Here

These days, I spend most of my time NOT thinking about art. But I’m still on an art mailing list or two. A month ago, I received an email forward originally written by artist Kim Schoenstadt. It said: “Dear Fellow Artist, I’d like to invite you to participate in an event that I’m organizing at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. The idea is simple: a gathering and photograph of LA female and female identifying contemporary artists at an important exhibition featuring women sculptors …

24 Hour Project 2016, Part 2

You can view part 1 of my participating in the world-wide street photography even 24 Hour Project here. Otherwise, read on: