red eyes

red eyes fly high, like butterflies... sleep is an illusion, I dream restless skies...

Hustle and Bustle

.
People-watching is a talent;
An art to master.

Peering out the thin-filmed window,
your mind dives into two
disparate worlds of thought.

Each one, a link in the chain
that holds the city together.
Some are broken, decrepit, bereft,
laden with neglect;
others are strong, brand-new.

Snapshot glimpses of life at its best and worst…
At its first…
…simultaneously…
each individual is just that…

The cadence in his hobbling gait,
Perhaps his bane,
is an honor of distinction in your eyes.

And you, amazed,
can actually see the medium that colors her existence.
You can hear the timbre of her chuckle
and smell the character of her comfort.
Who knew sharing would feel so rich?
Certainly she didn't.

Each individual, by being unique,
offers a novel pigment with which you may paint your world.
Your palette is expanding,
And like a seasoned artist,
Your work grows with age.

You can’t help but smile.
.

natural beauty.

This place is SO beautiful. I can’t help but gaze into the mountains and think about what must have transpired there years ago when native Mesoamericans inhabited the area. I keep finding myself wanting to tell people of its beauty, but then I realize that I’ve already expressed this to them… numerous times. ☺ I suppose that’s a good thing - being thankful for being here.

I mean, I should be thankful; it’s an amazing opportunity, really. Through this program, we are able to give of our time and effort to really make a difference in other people’s lives, furthering our skill sets with field work, while at the same time, enjoying a cultural and regenerative experience. And not to mention, the hotel we’re staying at is dope!

In all seriousness though, I think one of the greater things I’ve gained from this trip so far is my reflection on this idea that has been recurring in my mind lately, bubbling in my consciousness even before I came to El Salvador. It is the idea that all things in nature, and life, really, revolve in a larger scheme… some sort of grand ecosystem. It is echoed in the flight of the vultures circling overhead as they search for carrion, indicative not of death, but of renewal. It flows through the tiered natural water system implemented in our hotel, and is reflected in the sad eyes of the hungry stray seeking for food to nurse her pups. Each element is constantly moving, affecting some other integral piece in the system, and continuing in its natural ebb and flow.

I feel like what is even more beautiful about our being here in El Salvador is how the school we are working on will serve to educate the children about their environment, the world around them, and how to take care of it. It acts as a facilitator in the ecosystem, promoting sustainability. I’m a huge proponent of education, in all facets really, but this school is truly something special, as its focus on biological systems and environmental sustainability will teach students the importance of caring for their surroundings. This will not only preserve this cycle of environmental awareness within generations to come, but will allow El Salvador to maintain its powerful natural beauty that has so captivated me. In my opinion, this is a most worthy cause.

blackprezident

blackprezident

A phrase/term/concept used to indicate a person's well-being in spite of any setbacks in their life or barriers hindering personal progress.  Derived from the phrase "Black President" and referring to Obama's unprecedented victory in the 2008 Presidential Elections, despite the centuries of oppression and racism Blacks have faced in America, "blackprezident" is a testament to the hope that these recent events have placed in people's hearts everywhere. 

Can be shortened to "blackprez" or used in the phrase, "My president is Black."

Ex. - "Yo, I heard you got laid off this week. I'm sorry, man."

      - "I'll make it. My president is Black."

      - "What's good son?"

      - "Blackprezident...  blackprezident."

It's funny.

It's funny, the things that you learn from living, especially from those seemingly insignificant eccentricities that are so unique that they can only be described as functions of "life." It's funny when you're in the midst of one of these occurrences, and you incredulously think to yourself, Really?  Right now?... weeeeiird...  I mean, you could think of this logically... as a matter of probability.  This has to happen to someone, right?  What are the chances that it would happen to me... is it because I walked this route today?  Would this still have happened to me if I had done something else instead of this?  It's funny because it doesn't seem right that life can just so carelessly fall into place and still be perfectly woven together to make you exactly who you are - but that mess still happens.

Well, I had one of those "weeeeiird" experiences today.  As I rode the bus home from dinner after watching an Iranian film called Three Women at the Museum of Fine Arts, I encountered an [I'll say interesting] woman.  She sat slouched in her chair, as if the plastic bags she held in her left hand were tugging at her, coaxing her to the ground.  She wore a brown face with black eyes that peeked from behind heavy curtains.  I also noticed the tissue she had wadded up in her right ear... how long had that been there?  Lord knows...

So... I'll be frank...  this lady was crazy.  And I ain't playin eitha...

Shortly after I sat down, she began giggling at something unbeknownst to me. She was babbling some stuff about how "she gotta know where to get you that burger."   What is she talking about? 

Anyways, I didn't think she was talking to me, but I did look around to see who else was witnessing this humorous sight.

Then I realized she was looking at me, knocking on my forehead with her beady eight-ball eyes. "What's in your bag?" she demanded.  I'm like... hol' up... is she comin at me? ... Maybe this lady's hungry... Well,  I guess I can spare her my leftovers - even though these days I feel like I'm a homeless and hungry college student.  I stammered, uhh... well there's some foo- 

"NO!! Uh unh..." she interjected.  "The girl's in the bag."

*blink blink*   .................  Whaaaat!?  

"I'm tellin you, yo' girl has to know where to get you that hamburger, if she can't do that... then it ain't worth it.... Haha... look at you.  Yeah, wipe yo' mouth.  Haha... yeah.  What? ... What? haha...."  And she kept comin at me with these aggressive lunacies that put me on edge.  

At this point, I was pretty sure she had "three women" inside of her.  Yo, this lady is straight loca...  Just look to the front, I told myself as I smiled with disbelief.  But the thing is, she didn't stop talking to me, or looking at me, for that matter.  She was trying to pierce me with her dark onyx orbs. 

So I capitulated.  I turned to listen to her, to respond to her ridiculousness and treat her like the human being that she was.  And in doing so, I realized how important it was that I do just this, for how many people have treated her as insignificant, burdensome, annoying, and invisible in her lifetime? Shortly after I began to try and listen to her, she softened up, and was not so hostile.  She had a story to tell, a jumbled up one, but a story nonetheless; one that was spawned from a hard life and adversity.  Before getting off the bus, she repeatedly told me, "What I'm trying to say is you gotta be yourself, that's what it's all about.  You gotta be yourself... gotta be yourself."

As I stepped off the bus, I thought about the realness of her message.  She was trying earnestly to impart some of her worldly wisdom upon me.  And even though her message was clouded by her many layers, I was able to wade through them and connect with her person to person.  Now, I doubt that she'll ever remember me, especially considering her waning mental facilities, but my experience with this looney lady will become one of those didactic anecdotes that will be with me for many years to come. And yeah, it's funny, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

ONE WAY Skre^(2)t

"ONE WAY Skre^(2)t" - spray paint stencil

This piece is entitled "ONE WAY Skre^2t."

Lately I've been thinking about the irreversible nature of life.  In a way, life is a work of art.  It's infallible form, is molded,  fired, and glazed by the Master's master hands.  It is a mass, growing, rolling, and flowing, ...never stopping - until it stops.  These aberrant defects are anything but... they're perfect[s].  They color our essence, and season our sight. We learn and we live...

"Life is a ONE-WAY Skreet."

D

Fatigue

Flippant, you flippin' 

wave things off.  

[And what ticks me off...

... is this happens oft.]

My voice box doesn't seem to function. 

I turn the key,

and suddenly, I'm filling my gas tank

up to E.

PLEASE, Tell me...

Honestly,

What's the use, in feeling emp-ty?

It's like cleaning a grime-stained, 

habit-ingrained 

bathtub

to be defeated.

Beat down

by the dense fist of the muck.

I've tried to use some elbow grease.

But Alas, I'm running low, it seems.

Straining,

strength waning, 

and the filthy waters, draining... 

they're

gurgling, gurgling... straining.

"Je suis fatigue de ceci..."

Oh! Sorry...

Please excuse my French.

Subliminal

"Subliminal" -mixed media

Street Corner Symphony

"Street Corner Symphony" - gesso/charcoal/acrylic

things.

You feel the presence

of things weighing down.

things that constrict

like a py-thon

things that sits 

on your shoulders

and squeezes your neck and you feel 

the warmth of its embrace.

things clings to you

like a grabbing child, reaching, clawing

it sings to you

a somber dirge

nestled in your ear canal.

you never forget it's cadence!

how would you?

how could you?

things.

and all the while you desire

to fling things from you. 

yet things clings

like the too-loud noise 

and shell-shocked,

you fall 

from the too-loud noise 

and shell-shocked,

you fall.

de ja vu it seems... 

yes, we've been here before.

we've seen these things.

things.

...the apotheosis of crimes?:

then why does it linger 

infinity times?

... [pause] ...

things.

Thinking, Man.

  "Thinking, Man."  -acrylic/charcoal

Enfowunua

enfowunua (ehn-foe-woon-yoo-uh)

noun.

Etymology: unknown

A state of unspeakable ambiguity.

*Not to be confused with asdifoavuer, which is rather a state of conflicting feelings.  Enfowunua denotes a strong ambiguity of feelings.

We['ve] Wait[ed] and Pray[ed]

"We['ve] Wait[ed] and Pray[ed]" - acrylic wash/oil pastel

What kind of art is this?

What kind of art is this?

... So hard to kiss.

You'd better not squander this.

Steppin' untrodden paths,

the garden's wrath

Speaks of a love won fast

Grown strokes with a detail brush

breathe as they must

to simply live and let lust. [die]

Who knows what the symbols mean?

Glean what you can, or must, 

from this earthy scene.

-DDargan

Strong Enough?

I wonder...

Am I strong enough?

"For real?"

I often wonder what causes hatred in people.  

Well, the short, obvious answer is that mankind was born with a sin nature, one predicated on evil since the original sin.  But I see the ways in which some people live their lives and just wonder how such hateful actions, words and looks can be produced from within and manifested in a way that can be so egregious towards others.  Sometimes I take a step back from life and ask myself, "For real??"  

These instances of loathing can be subtle.  Sometimes I hear this hatred lucidly in the way that people refer to others... I wonder, as their contempt for another "kind" of people drips from their lips, "Do they know how bigoted and they sound... or are they proud to be of this mindset?"  These sorts of episodes are most apparent when the topics of politics, religion and race arise, but have permeated societies and rear their ugly heads similarly in less predictable settings.   

I've noted that essentially all hateful acts, sentiments and sayings are caused in one form or another by extremism.  If it's not an extremist act, it's an extremist belief.  If it's not his or her own extremist opinion, it's someone else's causing division. Or perchance, these are caused by a person who is as weak as to latch on to the extremist belief of another in true lemming fashion - without having formulated his or her own opinion.  

I believe that many people are plagued by a certain void in their life.  A festering, empty space they can feel, aching, but not grasp with the grubby fingers of their mind, no matter what they do. This is again a result of the sin nature that humans are born into, a manifestation of the human desire to have a relationship with God. They try to fill it with many things; both physical and intangible.  And when they come upon something they sense is steadfast, (for what can seem more stable to the precariously emotional heart than a firm and seemingly unshakeable creed?) they latch on; in a feeble attempt to gain a sense of stability in their lives.  Unknowingly, or consciously even, they surrender a bit of themselves to this creed - a sacrifice for solidarity.

To be honest, I think it is perfectly acceptable to feel adamant on an issue and hold extreme views about it.  Many times, a person holds these views for legitimate reasons; reasons that can be based on informed decisions made by that person, and life experiences he or she has had.  I think where a responsible and considerate citizen with extreme views is separated from the extremist who harbors hatred in his heart, and foolishly decides to share it with everyone is in the considerate citizen's respect for others' beliefs.  Now, this may sound old hat to some, a trite concept that people pass around to aim for an ideal society, one with love and mutual regard for others, but I believe that people should really take heed to this kind of mindset. No matter how naive, outlandish, or vacuous a different take on things may seem to us... we should retain a certain respect for others beliefs or customs.  Because, in this case, the idiom, "variety is the spice of life," really holds true.

La Palabra

"La Palabra"  - acrylic/collage

This piece is a response to my time in Peru.

Asdifoavuer

asdifoavuer (asz-deh-fwah-verr)

noun.

Etymology: unknown

A state of being in which an individual has mixed feelings, or has contradictory ideas about someone or something, to the extent of feeling torn asunder.

pseudo-synonym: ambivalence

Asdifoavuer cannot merely be described as ambivalence, however.

Aergiuper

aergiuper (air-joo-pair)

noun.

Etymology: unknown

A state of jadedness and disillusionment, resulting from another person's repetitively irking actions; esp. when referring to a close friend.

synonyms: none

antonyms: none

Yes We Can, A Montage

Yo check out this link, if you haven't already seen it.  It is a music video montage inspired by Senator Barack Obama's speech after the 2008 New Hampshire primary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

I found it very touching, and I became very proud/emotional for how far Black people have come in this nation, despite racism, bigotry, and discrimination.  Our nation is changing, and we young people are part of a living movement, one that will be talked about in history books to come.  While America is yet to be a true meritocracy or live up to the American ideal, it warms my soul to know that the centuries of suffering, dreams of visionaries and hard work on many people's behalf have not gone to waste.  Yes We Can... progress... and We Have.