艾未未 Ai WeiWei

早上好。新的一天。葵花子？

This man's name if you haven't already heard of him is Ai Wei Wei. He is an artist from China and probably one of the most well known public figures there because he believes and practices free speech though his art and community activism. In a country where citizens are too afraid of their government to speak out, WeiWei has become their voice and for that he has been subjected to imprisonment, police beatings, the bull dozing of his studio and more recently arrested for alleged tax evasion, which is most likely political.

In the above picture he holds sunflower seeds made from porcelain, almost indistinguishable from the real seeds. Each seed was hand made and painted by 1,600 Chinese artisans who lost their jobs making traditional pottery. The seeds are made using the same methods that have been used for centuries. Below his feet are the 100+ Million seeds that took nearly 3 years to complete. The work reveals much about Chinese industrialism, culture and tradition and the social economic climate there. It is hard to imagine the number of seeds until you are walking on them; and even harder to imagine, despite the large number, they still only represent 1/16 of the population of China. WeiWei describes in a Frontline interview that, he chose the sunflower seed because it is a symbol of poverty as many Chinese people sustain themselves on it and consider a pocket full to be a joy.

After an earthquake in China that killed many people including many school children, the government, in an effort to down play the event and hide faulty building practices, refused to release the names of the victims. Issuing only a "So Sorry" statement. WeiWei and other community organizers went on a mission to collect the names of the victims which he published on his blog. Following that event, the Government began to follow him, censure his blog, put him on surveillance etc. The piece eventually became the facade of the museum for an art showing he held in Germany. The work was made using school bags, one for each of the "officially" nameless children. The installation spelled out a quote from victim's mother that read, "She lived happily for seven years in this world". It was titled So Sorry.

He was preparing to testify a few month before the opening of the Germany showing, in defense of his friend who was investigating the faulty building practices that led to death of all those people. He was detained and beaten by police and never allowed to speak in court.

His battles with the Chinese authority will only continue because he represents a spirit that is being oppressed in China. Still he continues to blog and create art. And today, he inspired me. Who wrote a blog you clicked on, read through and decided to post a link to share with your friends. Stand up. Speak out. Thanks.

A New Mission

Appleseed.

I may be insane but that doesn't change the truth. Our civilization has developed to a point where all the knowledge of the world is at our fingertips. Now what?

I have been given a mission to feed the hungry. A seemingly impossible task with my 6-8 billion neighbors but over the course of my life, I have learned that nothing is ever truly as it seems and anything is possible.

Anything. Like building an ark in the desert. The mission is the ark. The ark is a garden. The garden is the mission of my life now, to feed the world. The garden is really just a seed. A seed I hope to plant around the world.

This seed is my journey of faith and purpose for being. I was created in much the same way a farmer plants a seed, by human hands and an act of love. I grew through the loving embrace and support of family, until I emerged a young man with an idealistic heart, facing the hard truth of the world.

Work. The truth of scarcity and the need to work the thorns and earth for subsistence but we have come along way in our civilization. We have learned much and developed ways to live and provide for ourselves. That knowledge creatively applied can produce an abundance of food in natural gardens. If that idea and knowledge passes, the garden can take over the world, like a healthy vine that plants its roots deep.

I have learned a way to produce 1 Million lbs of food on 3 acres of land. The research that gets me there and the knowledge I gain, will one day take me to Africa where the world's deepest hunger cries out to be fed. I will feed them fruits, vegetables, fish and the language of truth and of love.

I will be recording this adventure to share with the world to inspire them to create a beautiful new 21st Century.

Capturing Time - Acquainted with the Night

The Art of Joy Frangiosa

“I have been one acquainted with the night.” The camera makes its familiar click as the shutter opens for a moment capturing the light. “I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light.”

She covers herself and stares at the old mausoleum, remembering. “I have looked down the saddest city lane.” Her eyes water from the quiet storm raging inside and out. “I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.”

She strolls out where the sidewalk ends, where the quiet world meets the city. “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet when far away an interrupted cry came over houses from another street, but not to call me back or say good-bye;” The camera clicks to capture an angle in stone, frozen, a weathered moment among the granite over the hallowed ground.
“And further still at an unearthly height, a luminary clock against the sky proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.” Click. “I have been one aquainted with the night.”

When she returns to her desk the magic begins. Photographs, cut, scoured, lines and letters, poetry, paint brush, medium. Medium, because she’s calling out the spirit which touched her in that moment, that memory, lost and nearly forgotten, here now breathing through this canvas, suspended and alive.

This is the story of Joy, a visual artist who uses the world around her to create. Incorporating various media, photography and found objects, she uses her art to tell stories and reveal truth as a self proclaimed “chronicler of time, places and people.”

Born in New Jersey, she spent her childhood in a Catholic Institution and her experiences are reflected in her art, often incorporating shrines and religious symbols. She has spent thousands of hours developing her techniques and says, “each creation frees a part of my inner self lessening my imposing sensitivity towards life.”

She likes to capture forgotten moments, honoring the nameless, dispossessed, castaways of society that often go unnoticed. Her goal, to bring our attention to this neglect and reveal its beauty for the hope it inspires.

“My objectives are to promote awareness of societal issues through exhibits and to remain involved with my community by giving and supporting agencies that bring hope and recognition to our most vulnerable people and places.”
“I want to inspire those I meet to embrace their hardships. As an artist I endeavor to aide in helping others to find their strengths and abilities through the arts.” - Joy Frangiosa.

Acquainted with the Night poem by Robert Frost. Story by James Pierce.