something strange for your Sunday

"The most celebrated body of work by Lam Qua is the impressive collection of portraits, commissioned by Peter Parker in the 1830's, of patients at the Canton Hospital with large tumors or other major deformities. These startling and somewhat gruesome paintings of pathological subject matter are unsettling to the viewer. One of the most noticeable aspects of each portrait is the expressionless look on the subjects' face. The lack of emotion turns the viewer's eye from the subjects' face to their pathology, or illness. Each subject appears to express neither pain nor sadness and serves as a testament to the human spirit in the face of physical adversity."

You can browse the collection here.

A little Francis Bacon-esque, no?

The placid expressions are not so much a "testament to the human spirit" as they are just inadvertently creepy...

Cool Contest--Enter to Win!

Okay, I had another harebrained idea, but I'm going to go with it. So here's how the story goes...

One of the things that I cannot do because of my compromised immune system is get a tattoo. I've been wanting to get a tattoo for a few years now. Every few years, I get a tattoo craving, but this one idea has been persisting for a while. I even had a story published about it in a book called "Chick Ink" (go to your library, check it out, read it. My story is the second one in the collection).

Basically, when I was pregnant with Chloe way back in 2003, and we were trying to figure out names, we were thinking of what would be a good Chinese-Vietnamese middle name. "Dao" is the name for the generation that Chloe and Mylo (and their cousins) belong to in the Yu lineage, and it means "the way." And we thought that "Phuong," which means phoenix, is a pretty name, plus Henry personally felt like Chloe's birth was symbolic of rising from the ashes of the loss of his beloved grandmother, Popo. So we decided that Chloe's Chinese-Vietnamese name would be "Dao-Phuong." We also thought it would make an awesome tattoo. Henry's a tattoo virgin; I, of course, am not. But we agreed that we'd commemorate her birth with a phoenix tattoo, with her name in Chinese and Vietnamese written with it.

When we were blessed soon after with Mylo's conception, we didn't hesitate to call him "Dao-Long," which means "the way of the dragon." In Chinese and Vietnamese cultures, the phoenix and dragon go together to represent good luck, prosperity, intelligence, courage, and just goodness all around.

We've been looking at artwork and sculptures and statues for the perfect phoenix and dragon images, but haven't come up with any so far. We are looking for something less ornate than the traditional depictions of the phoenix and dragon; more minimalist and simple, with clean lines.

Then I got it in my head this weekend that it would be so cool to get our tattoos on the TLC show, "LA Ink." We feel that the tattoos have come to represent more than just the birth of our children. With the death of Henry's brother George and my cancer diagnosis, the tattoos also symbolize overcoming struggles and challenges, and doing it together as a family. The tattoos also symbolize unity and strength.

So here's where the contest part comes in...Do you think you could draw a kick-ass phoenix and/or dragon image for our tats? If so, contact me to submit an image. The contest will go on indefinitely until we come up with a good image. The winner will receive a lifetime subscription to my quarterly poetry collection "podBrandy." And your art will hopefully be on LA Ink! And on our shoulders, as that's where the tats will go, when I'm done with all this cancer bullshit!

Thanks for reading, and let's make some art!

Video Diary: Room

What happens when you put technology, such as a digital camera, iMovie and Garage Band, in the hands of a fool such as myself? This happens:




I don't know why--okay, I do know why: boredom and lack of energy for physical movement and the overwhelming sense of going stir-crazy--but I made this short film giving you a glimpse into my pathetic life. You might not believe me (haha), but I have no formal training in video and music editing! :D BUT I will admit that I, myself, am playing the shakuhachi in the music track, albeit the track was edited and "enhanced" with Garage Band. The poem can be found on Brandy's Poem of the Day.

I had let the shakuhachi rest for a while, but I picked it up a few days ago to see how I was doing with the breathing. I got lightheaded after playing it for a couple minutes, which according to Roshi, is not necessarily a bad thing. But it does take an incredible amount of energy to maintain breath on the thing. I certainly don't have the patience to keep at it for very long during any given period of time (meaning, for more than three minutes). My parents and kids came home while I was playing it today, and when Chloe heard me, she said, "Where's that music coming from?" So I was a little bit proud that my child at least recognized my noise as "music."

By the way, I (re-)discovered another remedy for my muddy cottonmouth (I've been called "potty mouth" before, and am finding it to be so damning and true at the moment): salted dried prunes, which was a childhood favourite of mine. Thanks, Mom!

Foghorn

{Henry wanted me to post a picture of my fauxhawk before I shaved my head entirely, which I plan to do today. I'm sure he'll want to get more shots later. He mentioned something about me donning camo and shitkickers.}


The fog still has not lifted. If you want to know what I'm feeling like, imagine yourself going about your business somewhat stoned, all the time. For some of you, you might think this is a good thing--a bonus! But truth be told, I'm getting pretty sick of the feeling, of moving really slowly, floating, taking forever to think or do things, being disoriented. I'll have a serious thought in my head, and then all of a sudden, I'll say out loud, "What was I thinking?" And then it'll be gone. And then there's the heartburn that never dies. I called to get another prescription to take care of it, but I guess the on-call doctor was too busy to give my pharmacy a ring. So the fire continues unabated. I FEEL OLD!!!! Help!

Yesterday, Henry and I drove down to Seattle so I could hold a poetry workshop at the Wing Luke Museum. I was expecting kids and their families, but two twentysomethings showed up from Tacoma, really nice people. The dude was actually half-Vietnamese, so we chatted a bit about language and "going home"--something neither of us has ever done. I hope that he and his partner contact me so we can keep up the exchange, because they both were nice folks. We didn't actually write any poetry, but made booklets, an act that was nice and meditative. Even Henry made one! And of course, it was good to see Jamie. But it was nice art therapy all around.



{Henry's booklet is the one with the red gate on it. He coined a new term, which I love but won't repeat here because I don't want no one stealing my man's new coinage! You'll just have to be intrigued. But his booklet kinda represents his neologism. My booklet is the one that looks like it has a green hat on the cover. I taught the people at the Seattle workshop, including Henry, how to stitch together a booklet rather than stapling! So that what these suckers are.}


{another shot of the booklets. We all used some paper that I bought in Chinatown. This type of very thin paper is typically used at offerings and New Year's, when you burn things so your ancestors can have them in the spirit world. On the back of my booklet, I used one of those foam rings that come with stacks of DVD-R's and coloured it green so that it looks like a jade pendant.}


{inside my booklet}

Family Art Project

How am I feeling today? At the moment, I'm okay. I went to see my thesis advisor this morning at UBC. He's super supportive and encouraging and kind, which is a huge relief in terms of my decision to take a year off from school. The creative writing department faculty and my cohort have been incredibly generous and wonderful, and it really makes me feel secure about this decision.

After we left school, Henry and I went to buy supplies that might be needed at some point: air filter masks, medical gloves, neck warmer, slippers, Tylenol, and People magazine (a supply I need now). When we came home, I felt so exhausted and pretty much slept or lounged around in bed for the rest of the day until dinner. Fortunately, my nausea has subsided somewhat, and I was able to enjoy dinner with my family and my sister- and brother-in-law, who were so kind enough to order dinner for us.

Now, I'm back to feeling a bit tired. But I did promise pictures of our fun family time last night, so here they are!


{at the chemo ward at the cancer agency: pigtails!}




{the first cut}




{my technicolor mullet}




{henry takes over: photo by chloe yu!}




{chloe's turn!}




{mylo wanting to get in on the action}




{eek! watch the neck!}




{mylo's turn!}




{shiny happy head.}