Just a little Good Natured post
A blog entry about an art show at the best public gallery in San Diego.
To anyone living in San Diego who is interested in Art with a capital “A” but maybe isn’t exactly sure where to find it in this city whose culture seems to be spread impossibly thin, this blog is for you! In my nearly 4 decades on this planet I’ve spent more than 9/10 of my time living in and around San Diego. After college I bounced around from Rancho Bernardo, to North Park, to the Midway district, to Vista/Oceanside, to Poway, and now I’m happily in Ocean Beach which I am beyond grateful for. I say this not to brag (1) but I say it to share that I’ve lived in many parts of the county and the one thing that is consistent to all this living is that EVERYTHING in San Diego is spread the fuck out and the “Art Scene” if there even is one, is no exception. For years I’ve known that the museums at Balboa Park were a hub. After starting to spend more and more time there I’d begin to prefer the Spanish Artist Village as it had more to offer and IMHO often provided more compelling or at least digestible work than most of the stuffy shows that had been on view at the museums for what felt like forever. (2)
As I started taking my photography more seriously and started becoming an “artist” myself, it became important for me to start finding the places where "good" art is shown in town. And in this city it has been a real struggle. Over the years I’d be reminded of the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, I’d also found the commercial galleries in La Jolla while working in that part of town for a number of years, and I’ve found few more gallery spaces in various parts of town but most of what I found were some version of a commercial gallery. I learned in the last few years about the artist studios and galleries in Liberty Station, through some of my friends I made while beginning to show/sell my work at the annual ArtWalk shows (3) in the same location. However, in my understanding, if you are not actively or passively paying rent on the space (4) I've only found a couple legit public galleries that show great work. The Crème de la crème being the San Diego Public Library Gallery at the San Diego Central Library in downtown which is what this whole meandering blog is all about.
The space itself is nothing short of incredible. It sits on the top floor of the now 10 year old library that I still refer to as “the new library.” (5) The space is everything you’d imagine an art gallery look like. If I had to guess I’d say it was 20’ x 60’ but I’m not a contractor and it’s not easily googleable so “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” At any rate it’s a good size room, great lighting, typical sterile environment, it feels exactly like a room/hall in a museum. The only difference is that this is a free gallery space and it’s open to the public. The first time I walked in I couldn’t believe it was free. Granted it’s a much smaller experience than going to a whole museum, but the quality of the work and the level of excellence of the gallery I just couldn’t believe it was for the people.
As an emerging artist it’s been important for me to start understanding this world that I am attempting to occupy so I’ve been getting out to art events and exhibitions around town as much as I can and every time I’ve come to the library gallery I’ve been absolutely blown away by what was on view and unlike the boring ass San Diego museums (6) there’s a new show what seems like every quarter and this latest show… my god. It’s sensational.
It’s title Good Natured and every piece is in one way or another about the environment. How incredible is that?! Now I’m sure some of you may be thinking, “ok so the show is about the environment, so what?” To be fair, if that’s your takeaway, fine —but also THE ENVIRONMENT IS ONLY THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE WE FACE AS A SPECIES SO ITS KIND OF LIKE ALL WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT ALWAYS!!! But other than that, I could see your point.(7) I guess I’m just tired of seeing meaningless bullshit work and shows and there is SOOOOOO MUCH OF THAT going on these days... So to see a show with incredible work AND purpose that shines lights on different aspects of the environmental crisis and highlights the delicate nature of the environment through a collection of vastly different pieces and perspectives was something that I not only can get behind, but it’s probably the best and most important show in the city that I’ve seen.
As you may have realized this isn’t a formal art critique like one by one of my heroes, Mr. Jerry Saltz, but rather a blog post from an artist who appreciates good work and would like to see more of it in his hometown. I don’t have the vocabulary to adequately describe each piece, or to articulate just how impactful this particular show was to me, but I think there’s enough here where you can get the gist. Also, being a smaller show, I think a better use of my time and skillset is to try and pique the interest of people who might actually make the pilgrimage downtown and dedicate 30 mins to an hour or so to go give the gallery a visit. (9)
Good Natured curated by Bonnie Domingos and featuring work by Trevor Amery, Mariah Armstrong, Stephanie Bedwell, Taylor Chapin, Aaron Glasson, Sofia V. Gonzales, Judit Hersko, Bianca Juarez, Timothy Murdoch, Margaret Noble, Terri Hughes-Oelrich, Catherine Ruane, Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio, and Ruth Wallen will continue its run through the end of the month (7/30/23) and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Every piece in the show is amazing, which speaks to Bonnie's credit as a curator. And if I had to pick just one piece as my favorite it would be the postcard rack, by Margaret Noble located right near the entrance. It features different postcards with a local board of tourism inspired “sometimes…” written in script font on the front over the top of images indicative of environmental decay/catastrophe and inscribed with a cultural norm that devastates the environment on the back. Written in the style of a personal confession “Sometimes I do ________,” which showcases how much power we as individuals, and collectively as a society have to make a positive impact on the environment by simply engaging in small changes in personal behavior. Just an absolute gem. Any who, enough gushing/butchering other’s work. Go check it all out for yourself while you still can through the end of the month, and then go check out some books from the library below.
(1) Because let’s be honest there’s only a couple of neighborhoods/cities that I listed that I’m proud to have lived in. IJS.
(2) To be fair to the museums, most of what’s shown/available at the artist studios is very commercial, and probably wouldn’t be a great fit for a museum show but there’s also some real shit in there too.
(3) It's an art fair.
(4) Passively through a steep commission via a commercial gallery.
(5) Let's be honest, in terms of the skyline and coming from a local boy it still feels quite new.
(6) Shots fired.
(7) I know i'm just speaking for me but one of my biggest pet peeves is artists who are afraid to tackle issues in their work (regardless of the medium they work in) to avoid being viewed as “political” or because the work might not sell, or whatever the fuck justification they have for making the shitty, boring, soulless, or all of the above work that they happen to make. To me art is about communication, and if the only thing your art communicates is "pretty" or "fun!" that ain't going to matter in 30 years when we're all living in Kevin Reynolds'(8) Waterworld, and it ain't going to help wake anyone up from our collective consumerist coma either.
(8) Arguably Kevin Costner's Waterworld.
(9) Free 2 hour parking in the underground parking. Just validate on the first floor on the left, by the counter after you walk through the metal detectors.
Día de los Muertos
A post and video about street photographer Richard Provencio and his experience shooting a Dia de los Muertos celebration in Old Town, San Diego.
Growing up I was not really immersed in the culture of my ancestors. While the adults in my life always called me and my cousins "mijo" and "mija," aside from that most of us weren't really in touch with our heritage. I didn't and still don't speak Spanish (1) and am what's known as "whitewashed." So much so that years ago my cousins, my brother, and I all stated calling each other "mijo" and "mija" as a bit of a goof. Personally I didn't even start eating Mexican food until high school! I know. I know... It's very regrettable but it is what it is.
At a young age my mom moved me and my older brother to one of the whitest, most conservative cities in San Diego County, in search of better schools and hopefully a better life than could have been provided in the neighborhood where we lived up until that point. Not speaking the language or being in touch with my roots made it easy for me to acclimate to the prevailing cultures of the scenes where I spent my time but it also meant that my roots or my connection to them faded just as easily.
I accept that I cannot change the past, and I am thankful to be where I am today, but accepting my lineage has been a long and slow process. One hindered by my inherited self-loathing/identity issues, the non-acceptance in the culture that I grew up in, and the general unconsciousness that I used to call my life. Growing older and seeking a spiritual awakening has allowed me to open up in ways that I never would have dreamed of in the past. I am constantly working to get more connected to the universe and a big part of that for me is to seek out more information about my roots on both my Mexican side and my Filipino side (2).
After hearing about one of my photography instructors' personal project where they interviewed their grandma and went through her photos, I began recreated the project with my Grams who is also my last living grand parent. We looked at her pictures, talked about where she grew up in Mexico, and she'd tell me the stories that shaped her as a person. It not only helped color my understanding of my Grams, but it also helped color my understanding of me. This is just one example of something I've done to start learning more about my people.
Sometimes I'm lucky enough to stumble into links to my culture through a popular band like The Mars Volta, or a TV show like Narcos (3), or in the case of Día de los Muertos through a movie suggestion from my girlfriend. Weirdly, I LOVE animation (4) and have seen most of the Disney and Pixar movies, but I hadn't seen the movie she suggested, Coco. It's actually not that weird at all though when you recall that I mentioned my inherited self-loathing and the reinforcement of those beliefs was fostered throughout my adolescence by the place I called home. That all made me very averse to anything “too Mexican," including even a Pixar movie which I'm essentially guaranteed to love on account of me loving animation and Pixar being the absolute best at that.
After watching the movie, which of course I loved, I was very excited. While I had long since given up on the Catholic Church (5) to eventually arrive at an agnostic/universal oneness approach to God or spirituality, the idea of Día de los Muertos did not really conflict with my new ideology. Regardless of if it did or not, after learning about the holiday (6) I was able to view it for the beautiful tradition that it is. One that comes from MY PEOPLE no less! Having seen Coco/learned about the meaning of Día de los Muertos only THIS YEAR made me very interested to learn more and how it related to my family.
The next chance I got I asked my mom if her side of the family ever celebrated the holiday to which she responded with a very unsatisfying "no" and a "I'm not sure" when I asked if she knew why. Then when I saw my Grams I asked her the same questions (she's my Dad's mother) and she more or less told me "No. Not really," but then elaborated that where she grew up in Mexico (7) it's at a higher elevation and so by November it was already way too cold for any prolonged outdoor celebration. So they made ofrendas and had some small ceremonies but essentially just quickly visited grave sites and then ran back in to the warmth of a fireplace or a stove. Now that was a satisfying "not really like they do in Mexico City."
After learning about this tradition and the virtual nonobservance in my family I became interested in seeing what the observations looked like in my hometown of San Diego, and that's how I found myself in the historic Old Town district on Día de los Muertos proper, November 2nd, which by the way also happens to be my birthday. How about that for a plot twist?! A Mexican-American man (8) born on Día de los Muertos who only learned about the holiday at 36 years old. Ay, DiOs Mío!
So with my camera in tow, and a GoPro fixed to it, I set out to shoot a POV (Point of View) street photography video of the celebration and parade. My interpretation of what was going on was that it was pretty much a normal Old Town scene; plenty of restaurants serving Mexican food; a good amount of live performances of Latin music; a marketplace with with a bunch of trinkets, traditional Mexican items like blankets and ponchos, and also a plethora of dumb bullshit like novelty t-shirts. The biggest differences between this Tuesday and any given Saturday in Old Town was that there were a number of big ofrendas setup throughout the district which takes up a couple of blocks, there was tons of face painting, and there was in fact a parade/ Procesión to the Cemetery performed by Latinx folks in traditional costumes. Additionally, there was a really great mariachi band that followed the Procesión, which was probably my favorite part of the evening.
All in all it was a solid day out and a fun event to shoot for sure. If you haven't been before and you live in San Diego it's worth checking out. One thing it did for me was make me thirsty for my new bucket list item: to see the Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico City.
Welp. That's pretty much it. Thanks for reading and if you haven't already, go watch Coco —after you watch my video and subscribe to my YouTube channel of course!
(1) I do try but I learned in high school and college with a 4 year break during my army years and I have never really been conversational.
(2) I have like ≈10% or something like that in my blood.
(3) Maybe not the most positive example...
(4) I studied animation for all 4 years in high school.
(5) I gave up on the institution of Catholocism, not necessarily the teachings of Jesus. An institution that condones covers up evil and rules through fear is one that I could no longer support but as the Doobie Brothers once said, "Jesus is just alright with me."
(6) In a nutshell Dia De Los Muertos a.k.a. The Day of the Dead is a joyous holiday which originated in Mexico. It is typically celebrated on November 1st and 2nd were family's make ofrendas/offerings to their deceased loved ones and share stories and photos to keep their memories/spirits alive.
(7) I think Chihuahua, but I could be fucking that up.
(8) Humour me (9).
(9) The British spelling of words is my favourite.
Boostive: a fan experience
If you read my post about the start of my music project, you might remember that for this project specifically I’m just kind of letting The Universe guide the experience and to be quite honest, it’s doing a hell of a job. So as we talked about in the first Boostive post I’d found out about the band a year after seeing some of the band and their friends rocking out at a BLM march. #BlackLivesMatter
Now a year later I’d finally had learned their band name so I’d been binging on their catalog on Napster(1)(2) for the past couple weeks and reached out to them to see if I could shoot their show and thankfully they said “yes.” (3) The show was at the Music Box in San Diego which is a newer venue to me. Since I’d never made it out before I was pretty stoked to check it out. Since I was allowed to bring my camera I decided that I would shoot the show from the perspective of a fan, and so that’s what this post is.
My man Samy Wats rockin the whip with his tunes.
I hoped into an Lyft because I wanted to indulge in the devil’s lettuce (4) and I don’t fuck around and drive. In the Lyft the driver was bumping some tunes, we got to talking, and it turned out he’s a producer/performer named Samy Wats(3). We had a good chat, and he checked out Boostive and vibed out on their sound before dropping us off. If you’re into hip-hop, or supporting San Diego artists, check out my man Samy Wats on Spotify or buy an album or some shit so he can get out of that car sooner than later.
Anyway, showing up pretty early (5) there was a small line out front and we got in after just a couple minutes standing in queue(6). The venue was a modern, three story, industrial design (think fancy rave or like midtier venue on Guitar Hero). The stair access, merch area, and bar are all close by the door when you first walk in and there was a small gathering of people around here. Judging by the ages and outfits of the group (a lot of silver foxes and hippie attire) it seemed that these were some of the parents and music scene vets. I chatted one of them up who was friends with one of the parents of a band member and had back in his day written a song that was bought by none other than Neil Young. How about that?!
Further up in front of the stage it was pretty vacant save for all the cool kids glued to the seating along the wall. This made it super easy to get a decent spot a couple people back from the railing. As more and more of the youngsters started filing in it became like a who’s who of OB (7) people and I could feel the energy building. I mean, how could a reggae show not be full of good ass vibes?! Of course this show was gonna be bangin.
The opener Dread Kennedy kicked off the show with a great set that got the audience moving and by the time they had finished their set the place was stuffed to the gills. All three levels of the club were packed and the place nearly exploded as Boostive took the stage. Unfortunately, since there are like A HUNDRED members in the band (8) it took a little time to get everyone sound checked and I could hear some of the fans around me growing a little restless. Seems standard for a crowd that had already been drinking for over an hour at this point. For the record I was chillin (9). Once the band started playing all was forgiven.
They started with a slower jam and then eventually led into some of their bangers. The dancing in the pit was epic. The crowd was vibin’ HARD. It was as awesome as I’d expected it to be.
—Quick side note: the amount of big hats at this show was unthinkably plentiful. Like leaves in a rainforest plentiful. For which I say: what the fuck??? Also, the amount of tall people who show up just before the headliner and slipped in front of the crowd is certainly a detail about shows that I did not miss from my scenester days a decade prior. I understand every body type is different and they all have their advantages and disadvantages and I’m certainly not trying to body shame anyone. I get it, if you’re tall you have a better chance of dunking or getting a girlfriend in high school but when it comes to concerts you either need to show up early or fuck right off. I mean honestly tall people and big hats. At a concert?! What the hell is wrong with people? Ok rant over.
As the dancing to my left grew stronger and every person 6’3” or above conveniently found their place directly in front of me I went upstairs to catch a reprieve and get some different vantage points with my photos. I quickly found out the second floor was for VIPs only which was weird because they wouldn’t let me in (10).
I headed up to the third floor. Real fans are always reppin in the nosebleeds so it was good to check out the scene. It was an interesting vibe and as with any concert people were very protective of their places along the railing even just squeezing in for a second to take a photo was a big todo. Aside from that and a couple drunk dudes that seemingly came to a concert to converse loudly, there were a lot of good vibes up top and the band was connecting with fans even way up on the third floor. I even got a few pictures of band members looking and gesturing up to the fans which got big responses. “Did you see?! He pointed right at me!” exclaimed the woman next to me.
I stayed on the top deck for a while and then finished up the night by weaseling my way back into the pit during the last few songs. The energy was insane and the music was absolutely killer because well it was Boostive (11). I’m not sure if The Music Box had to file an insurance claim for damages or not but I am one thousand percent sure Boostive blew the roof off that fucker. They wrapped with 3rd Ear (12), took a band selfie with the audience, then proceeded to party with the fans as the venue made the slightest of transitions into a dance club.
It was bangin in there but I was wiped from a long day behind me. My night had run it’s coarse so I headed home just day dreaming about the next time I’ll get to see the band rockin it again.
That said, if you love good ass music and you have the chance to see Boostive, DO IT! Check out their LP if you don’t believe me cus that shit is crazy fucking good and they’re just as good if not better live. So that’s pretty much it. Boostive is fucking rad, go check them out.
Well what are you waiting for?! Go listen to Boostive already!
(1) Don’t judge me.
(2) Napster, formerly known as Rhapsody was the first streaming service and I’d been subscribed since like 2008 so if there are any Spotify loyalists squirming over you can save that noise you’re kickin and kindly Bioya*.
(3) The universe.
(4) Helloooooo it’s a reggae show.
(5) I like to watch the openers is that such a crime?! In reality I’ve found so many of my favorite bands by watching all the openers. If you don’t show up for the openers at concerts you’re doing yourself a disservice.
(6) So what I like to spice things in my writing. I’m not hurting anyone.
(7) OB = Ocean Beach. An area in San Diego famous for its hippie community and strong beach vibes. Lots of crystals, dream catchers, tie dye, street performers, that kinda stuff. You smell me?!
(8) Really I think there were like 9 members.
(9) I smoke weed baby!!!
(10) My mom tells me I’m very important but I guess that’s not the same as buying some sort of ticket or something. Who even knows?
(11) Helloooooooo?!?!
(12) My favorite song of theirs and an absolute BANGER
