The exhibit is five or six rooms of impressive art forms that will awe you and instill pride in the richness of expression, humanity, and creativity. Just so impressive! I am honored to have my photograph included.
CAPTIONS (top, left to right) Participating artists only day! Overall view images of artists enjoying each others work, milling about. A colorful rainbow entry greets all entering The deYoung museum.
Vertical image: Alberto, intake curator gives me a smile and notes that my photograph is officially in his hands and catalogued as part of the 2023 deYoung Museum Open. I smiled right back. My photograph titled What it Says, a Covid19 slice-of-life was taken while walking on Market Street, during a shopping trip for essentials during the shelter-in-place order.
Next series are images viewed through the gallery app. Enter the image number in the search field to obtain the artist name, title, artist statement and description.
Imagine, if you can, unable to walk out of your home because your hard-earned wages will be stolen by people on the street; or you are of an age sought by actors of corruption within the police force or street-gangs, and sometimes you can’t tell the difference. So you walk for two-to-three months with only a dream to keep you going.
Meet Jorge Joyal. He is 29 years old, from Honduras, and a father to a six-year-old daughter. Mr. Joyal said that he walked for two-to-three months with the hope of coming to the United States. The above exercise in imagination is his life story. While his dream to come to the United States has taken a detour, Mr. Joyal has been offered support and assistance by the Mexican government. He has applied for permission to work in Mexico and hopes to have employment at one of the high-tech companies offering employment assistance to refugees and asylum seekers.
The entrance to El Barretal – the newly designated shelter for asylum-seekers, refugees at the US-Mexico southern border at Tijuana, Mexico.
On Tuesday December 4th, 2018, DIF accounted for a total of 2,331 persons residing in the shelter designated for families with children.
On Thursday December 6, 2018 acting New York Attorney General Underwood: “13 AG’s are filing an amicus brief today to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict applications by immigrants seeking asylum. This is a de-facto denial of asylum. It is illegal, it is inhumane, and it must end.”
Attorney General Underwood goes on to write: “More than 6000 Central American immigrants, including over 1000 kids, are stranded outside California’s ports of entry waiting to present their asylum claims. They are living outside in extreme weather, without access to basic services, so that they can have a chance at a better life.”
The faces of mothers.
(front) Julio Alberto unloads the DIF van with personal care items scheduled for the families with children.
Jesús Landeros, of Santa Barbara, California is a volunteer with SBRN or the SantaBarbara Response Network; Landeros is also employed with Montecito Union school . “This was a learning experience for me too,” he said referring to El Barretal and his health, safety, and security responsibilities for students, faculty, and the school building itself during the grip of the Thomas fire and the subsequent mudslides. In this photo Landeros distributes personal health-care items donated by Direct Relief.
The contents of care.
In support of the dream to have a better life, and in efforts to assuage the delay of dreams to a better life, a generous wave of individual community-minded people, in coordination with the Santa Barbara Response Network,DIF-Mexcio and Direct Relief of Santa Barbara, California delivered hygiene products – the basics of everyday life such as shampoo, body soap, antibiotic cream, first-aid, toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss.. Remember how you felt after not brushing or flossing 24-hours? Imagine for months.
In this newly sprouted village at our southern border at Tijuana, amid lives stranded, one can see signs of former life ritual in children and teens playing soccer, in adding color to hopes and dreams in large scale graphics, and in the power of listening in the peer-to-peer conversations.
Overview of El Barretal. (pictured center) are Mariana Caña and Maritza Escobedo.
Mariana Caña and Maritza Escobedo are doing such work – listening. They are listeners, rendering the power of the compassionate ear. Both Caña and Escobedo are students in Psychology at the UABC (The Autonomous University of Baja California ) Both Caña and Escobedo are student volunteers, conducting health questionnaires of the refugees in affiliation with the NYU School of Medicine, under the direction of Dr. Allen Keller. According to his bio: “Dr. Allen Keller is Associate Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, Director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture (PSOT) and Director of the NYU School of Medicine Center for Health and Human Rights.
”Caña writes that she hopes “to start giving psychological attention to those who need it most at the shelter.”
Perched overlooking El Barretal, Caña and Escobedo, listen and conduct their health questionnaires as volunteers for NYU school of medicine.
Molecule Man, is a series of aluminum sculptures, created by American artist Jonathan Borofsky. Installed in time for the summer Olympics, the sculpture is 32-feet high by 20-feet in diameter.
Mr. Borofsky says about the sculpture, “at the time I first conceived of this sculpture, I had been fascinated by the fact that the human body, though appearing quite solid, is mostly made up of water. In fact 97% of our body is made up of a water molecule which is ‘sea’ or salt water based, leading many scientists to hypothesize that the human species originated in the ocean.”
Oh, heart be still. Nostalgia is in the air … It’s a blast from the past.. Is it a surfin’ safari that’s gone awry? No it’s a 1961 Mercury Meteor station wagon an, automobile manufactured in the United Stated and named for the Mercury space race from a mirrored era gone by.
This surfin’ safari machine, on a warm autumn day, parked under still Acacia trees depicts an era, stood still in time, hopefully an era that hasn’t left us?
An era of civility, peace, and goodness among neighbors.
Wild Art is a newspaper term that refers to found images that are unplanned, or unscheduled; a branch of street photography you might say. On this occasion I was on a walk with a friend, and noticed our shadows on the sidewalk.. Et Voilà, there you go, here we are!
A crow nestles in a blooming Century plant. The tall yellow flowers may reach a height of 25-30 feet. The plant native to California is also known as an Agave and Agave Americana.
Aerial view of devastation caused by hurricane Katrina, over Gulfport, Mississippi on Sunday September 11, 2005. The long red/orange object to the right, is a barge that served as a gambling casino. The water and winds from the hurricane relocated the casino to a different neighborhood.
This is what the front page looked like.
Dap Dang, of Biloxi, Mississippi, paddles his skiff to assess the damages done by hurricane Katrina to the family shrimping business,
in Gulfport, Mississippi, on Friday, September 9, 2005.
Throwback Thursday – with all the chatter about the upcoming anniversary of hurricane Katrina, I started going over my photo archive and
rediscovered this photo of me sitting on the tail of a Chinook helicopter, which served as my photography vantage point while on assignment, flying with the Ohio National Guard.
One of the best times in my life ever!
Recorded on September 11, 2005.
Hard to believe ten years have gone by.
The Chinook preparing to land in New Orleans, bearing 14 tons of supplies and yours truly. The stench from above was foul.
Today, members of the Coastal and Valley tribe of the Chumash joined together with members of the Santa Barbara community to re-dedicate the Dolphin fountain at the waterfront.
The fountain which honors the Dolphin relatives of the Chumash people, was enshrined thirty years ago today.
The Dolphins face the northern direction and its placement in the fountain symbolizes harmony in the three worlds. Since we are in severe drought, plants have replaced the flow of water; the Chumash people sang traditional and contemporary songs in their language – to honor and welcome the plants, their Dolphin ancestors and the flow of life; which includes the revitalization of the Chumash language.Ho!
Learn more about Chumash life, culture and song here.
Text and photos copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Photos captured with Apple iPod
Photograph of Anacapa Island which is one of fives islands that make up the Channel Islands located off the coast of southern California, along the Santa Barbara Channel. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes
Published on May 24th 2015: The Mic has quoted NPR “This spill is particularly bad news because it strikes at the Santa Barbara Channel, which NPR calls “one of the most biologically rich places on the planet.”
According to the National Park Service website the Santa Barbara Channel Islands: “Channel Islands National Park has more endangered species that only exist within this park than any other unit of the National Park Service. This means that survival of these plants and animals depends entirely on our ability to protect and restore the habitat of the five park islands.“
AnaElisa 