Red Pocket Press: Ox Zine

My rendition of the 24-Season Solar Calendar is in this year’s Ox Zine by Red Pocket Press! Printed copies are available on their website:

https://redpocketpress.bigcartel.com

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From the @redpocketpress IG post:

Year of the Ox Poster- design by Leon Tr @asian_slaw // Printed by Helio Press @heliopress

Year of the Ox Poster- design by Leon Tr @asian_slaw // Printed by Helio Press @heliopress

“Our zine features 21 queer Asian contributors locally and internationally. Thank you for your patience and trust. This was the biggest pool of contributors yet and all first-timers too! Seeing the support for RPP's zines and, most of all, the works featured in this zine (and all our previous zines) is what warms my heart 💓

📒 Thank you to our Ox zine contributors 📒:
Kika Man 文詠玲 | Blue (fka Jude) Nguyen | Ryan Shen | Leaf Silver | Hiếu Phùng | anonymous | Sarah Yeung (楊静雯) |Joyce Junxi Cheng | Levin Tan | Victoria X Xu | Misty | Judy Kuo | Frog the Parhelia | Claudia Yang | Coral | Lana Phạm | Janelle Koh | Elizabeth Mathers-Meeks | Rômy McCoy | Michelle Devlin | Rachel Lau | Carmen H
💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫

You can purchase a copy of our Ox zine and other goodies in our online shop. Shipping locally and internationally. Link in bio. 🏓

20% of profits from all RPP sales go to @wuurnofkanak for LANDBACK.

Featured work: 1. '24 terms of the Chinese Solar Calender' by @theparhelia 2. (Left) Stills from the exhibition 'When the Shadows Get Long' by @silver__dot (Right) 'Touching the Earth' by @citrusychris 3. 'The houses are flying' by @afeverdream

Image description:1. Ox zine, featuring a hand-drawn Chinese Solar Calender, sits on a bed of pink and grey fabric, leaves and rope and a little rock. 2. Ox zine, featuring photos and writing, with the same backdrop as above. 3. Ox zine, featuring writing, and backdrop as above.”

Altar from the QLNY party // Photo by @_cathoang

Altar from the QLNY party // Photo by @_cathoang

Culinary Art House / by Simone Johnson

“Love, to the Infinite Power” (2020)

“Love, to the Infinite Power” (2020)

(cross-posted to IG) // This month I was invited by @simone.j.johnson to participate in her ongoing research series: “Culinary Art House is an ever emerging, fluid mixed media project that provides space for Simone (and friends!) to explore personal, ecological, cultural, ancestral, spiritual and political perspectives around land, food, foodways, cooking and gardening.”
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Along with Simone and three other artists- @bri.simpson @artschoolscammer @tattfoo
I will be showing a print of this sketchbook drawing “Mutton for Dinner” (from Mongolia 2016), and these two mixed-media textile pieces from 2020. Opening Reception this Thursday (1/21) 7-8pm (I won’t be there in-person but maybe virtually). If you’re nearby and the coast is clear, check out Simone’s collages and what the other artists have been working on lately 🍵💖
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This iteration of Culinary Art House takes place as an on-site exhibition (Jan 19-30th) at 16 Orchard St, NYC @chinatownsoup

/ For more info and hours of operation, message @simone.j.johnson

"Meditations on Alchemy" by Simone Johnson // Materials: wood block, paper, foam, Black sharpie, magazine cut outs

"Meditations on Alchemy" by Simone Johnson // Materials: wood block, paper, foam, Black sharpie, magazine cut outs

“Mutton for Dinner” (2016) // pop-up sketchbook drawing

“Mutton for Dinner” (2016) // pop-up sketchbook drawing

“This is a drawing of a Lhaghav’s family (and me) cleaning a freshly-killed sheep, preparing parts for dinner. I sketched the scene quickly first, blocking out shapes and colors, then put the crayons down and helped process guts, then finished the drawing weeks later. It is not about seeds or plants as food per se, but it was an important culinary moment for me when I went to Mongolia for the first time in 2016- I was in search of traditional shamans, and also for my own unearthed roots and ancestry. 

On this trip, I learned that dairy and meat products from herd animals are the main staples of most peoples' diets there, because Mongolia is a Northern country of pastoralists, with long cold winters and short growing seasons, not a good climate for agriculture. People guide their herds to green pastures, where the animals graze grass, absorb plants' energy into their own, and then in turn the people eat the animals for sustenance. Herders maintain symbiotic relationships with their herds; Children grow up with calves, foals, and kids, and learn how to care for them from a young age. 

Another reason why Northern herders do not have a suitable lifestyle for agriculture; Moving 2-6 times per year with the herds means not staying in one place long enough to harvest. Some grains and vegetables are eaten there too, flour for bread is popular, but they’re usually bought/ traded, not grown by most. Even Buddhist monks in Mongolia are ‘allowed’ to eat meat- 1) because it is the traditional culture, but also 2) because it’s a sensible and widely-available form of nutrition in that region. 

My father told me that the Mongolian digestive system evolved to adapt to a meat-heavy diet. Google suggests ‘a unique gut microbiome composition.’ 

It reminds me of how my grandmother (non-Mongolian) used to yell at my grandfather (part-Mongolian) about how bad it was that he only ate meat and rice, ignoring the vegetables… Looking back now, I wonder, Was Grandma mistaken though? Maybe, with Grandpa’s genetics, was it actually just fine for him?? (He was almost 6 feet tall, and lived to be 88)

I support vegetarianism! Vegetables are magical and delicious. But I also keep this in mind whenever anyone suggests that ‘everyone should be vegetarian, people should stop eating meat’… How could this apply to a mainly carnivorous region, who considers the practice an ancestral tradition, and has been doing so for millennia? Are herders expected to abandon their herds?”

-Frog

1/ 11/ 2021

The Garden Matrix Zine (Issue 1)

Color and B&W issues now available on Etsy (or order directly); Front Color Calligraphy Text by Jee-shaun Wang (IG: @jeeshaun) ; Illustration by me

Color and B&W issues now available on Etsy (or order directly); Front Color Calligraphy Text by Jee-shaun Wang (IG: @jeeshaun) ; Illustration by me

Issue #1 of The Garden Matrix is finished!

A big Thank You to all the contributors, friends, and supporters who helped make it happen!

I’ll edit this page more later (trying to minimize my tech time these days), but, in the meanwhile, more info can be found at the Etsy (and Patreon) pages below:

Zine can be purchased here: 

ETSY: https://www.etsy.com/listing/927632932/zine-the-garden-matrix-issue-1-saddle?ref=shop_home_active_1


SunDogs’ Patreon page still needs editing, but can be found here: 

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/sundogsstudio

Back Cover of The Garden Matrix Zine (Issue #1) , collage by Simone Johnson (IG: @simone.j.johnson)

Back Cover of The Garden Matrix Zine (Issue #1) , collage by Simone Johnson (IG: @simone.j.johnson)

Garden Zine Update

Starting a garden in the spring (Hentii Province)

Starting a garden in the spring (Hentii Province)

Now starting to collect submissions for the Garden Zine 2020 (writing, art, photo, video, etc)…!

We just did an interview with Muugii in Mongolia yesterday… Here’s a photo he sent us this afternoon, documentation of when he started his vegetable garden in April (a rare thing for Mongolians to do).

I’ll fit what we can fit into the zine layout, but any extra photos/ videos I may upload and temporary host on our zine webpage… so we can learn more about peoples’ stories about their practices from this year, whatever can’t be squeezed in an A4-sized page.

If you’re interested in contributing to this year or next year’s Gardening Zine (2021), contact me via email, please include your geographical location… I’m curating based on mainly based on location, and secondarily across a range of background/ experience levels.

Updates soon!

-Frog

Muugii’s garden by summer

Muugii’s garden by summer

Spliced Connector Fall 2020 Exhibition: Good Bones

My painting “Toroi Bandi: Muugii’s Quote” is in Spliced Connector’s online exhibition “Good Bones” curated by Karen Fitzgerald. This piece is only online and NOT in the in-person show, but that’s worth checking out if you’re in the city: 111 East 29th Street, NY NY (Thursday–Sunday, 12pm–6pm // M-W CLOSED)

Spliced Connector Fall 2020 Exhibition: Good Bones | Organized and Curated by Karen Fitzgerald | Hosted by SHIM Art Network

November 20 – February 18, 2021

SHIM Art Network

Toroi Bandi: Muugii’s Quote (2018)

Toroi Bandi: Muugii’s Quote (2018)

SHIM Art Network is an art exhibition company that fills the gaps in the art world, providing exhibition opportunities to artists, curators, galleries, universities, and other organizations and affiliations with exhibition space for their projects on- and off-line.

[LINK]: https://www.artsy.net/show/shim-art-network-spliced-connector-fall-2020-exhibition-good-bones?sort=partner_show_position

Studio Sale 2020

Packing prints and paintings for sale

Packing prints and paintings for sale

Hi everyone,

I am cleaning out studio and have to move a ton of old and new works to make space... I am listing available drawings and paintings (made between 2006-2020) across three different websites, covering different modes and price ranges. If you are interested in purchasing a piece, please check out the below links, maybe you might find something you like. I am happy to give discounts or barter, too- Message me with your thoughts and I can accommodate to your preferences. Thank you!


-Frog

///

ETSY Shop (mostly prints, sketches, small works): "TROPOPAUSE"

https://www.etsy.com/shop/tropopause

//

ART-IN-RES (offers installment payment options, pieces arrive framed, ready-to-hang):

https://artinres.com/artists/theparhelia

//

ARTSY.NET (mixed-media/ paintings, unframed): "Frog the Parhelia"

https://www.artsy.net/artist/frog-the-parhelia/works-for-sale

Exhibition: Under the Skin

Spliced Connector Summer 2020 Exhibition: Under the Skin

| Curated by Karen Fitzgerald | Hosted by SHIM Art Network

Aug 21st – Nov 19th

Online Exclusive

Self Portrait in Google Hangouts (2020)

Self Portrait in Google Hangouts (2020)

^ I have this piece up in the current Spliced Connector Show; Check out the Press Release and the other artists’ works at the exhibition page here:

[LINK]: https://www.artsy.net/show/shim-art-network-spliced-connector-summer-2020-exhibition-under-the-skin

Root Quarterly Magazine: "Resilience" (Summer 2020)

// “First True Leaves” //

Drawing tomato’s early growth. 🌱🍅
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Root Quarterly Magazine features some of my recent pieces in their current issue (Summer 2020: Resilience) alongside Walter Foley’s article “Killing Moloch,” on anti-fragility, stoicism and overcoming addictions.

RQ is a volunteer-run experimental print publication, and you know I love book arts and offline communications. If you’re in Philly check it out, or anywhere else, find issues online: 


// www.rootquarterly.com 
@rootquarterly 

(cross-posted on IG)

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Painting: Burning Bush

I made this at the same time that I made “BLM Mahakala.” Same size, medium, and sort of similar composition.

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From texts to my friend K:

“I’d work on this one outside, at 4pm, to catch light and shadows at that particular angle. Then work on the other piece at night, indoors, after dinner, around 10-12pm. So I’d be contemplating similar news, social media content, calls from friends… This piece captures the way I meditated with those thoughts in nature, watching plants grow, reminding me the world keeps changing. I started this one when I saw some lilies in the corner that looked so beautiful… but by the time I finished in July, the lilies were totally covered by another overgrown bush. This records the struggle and relinquishing of the desire to define what I think I see and know. The plants and light are growing, moving, animating, so it feels like a spirit-portrait, blurry around the edges.”

“Burning Bush in the Backyard”

18”x24” - oil on canvas paper

(Listed on Artsy.net: https://www.artsy.net/artist/frog-the-parhelia/works-for-sale)

Etsy Shop: Tropopause

Here’s my second attempt at operating an Etsy shop (first time was circa 2013, when I first moved from Baltimore to New York). I haven’t told anyone about it yet, because I don’t really know what I’m doing, haha…!

Visit the shop, link here: TROPOPAUSE

I’ve listed a mixture of works- ranging from quick, 10-minute sketches, to more involved, layered pieces which took multiple sittings over the course of weeks/ months.

Would love to hear your feedback, as always

-Frog (aka Artemis)

ARTSY.NET / SPLICED CONNECTOR SHOW

The Spliced Connector’s first group show, “Mapping” is now up on Artsy.net!

My pieces are listed by “Frog The Parhelia,” as part of the Spliced Connector group, under the umbrella entity of Shim Art Network. I will be uploading new work every three months, so check again seasonally for updates.

Heartfelt thanks to Karen Fitzgerald for curating and inviting us to build this network together! And also thank you to Peter, Wilson, Ellen at SHIM for the support, and Deborah for the helpful documents. Looking forward to meeting everyone in person soon- whenever that might be.

Spliced Connector Inaugural Exhibition: Mapping

Curated by Karen Fitzgerald

Hosted by SHIM Art Network

May 22nd- Aug 20th

Press Release

Our world is a roil of energy. This is reflected as well as embodied in the restless atmosphere, the seashores unending rhythms, a loosed virus. The artists collected here in Spliced Connector represent an intergenerational view of this rile. Each generation finds its voice within the cultural zeitgeist of a particular time. The artworks presented here map these different times in the way they embody what each artist is tuned in to, what possesses their thoughts and inspires their work. 

Mercury’s Altar // Frog The Parhelia (2020)

Mercury’s Altar // Frog The Parhelia (2020)

While a map can be used to find one's way, it is also a tool for documenting something that is known. The spider-web of cross-country highways present on a map, or that of a continents rivers, gives us the ability to see something from a wider perspective. 'Mapping' presents us with touchstones across a period of cultural change and development. We notice interconnections, groupings. The patterning present in Quisgard's work rhymes with the irregular patterning present in Barlow's work, and that of Bourguet, Kerin, Ji, and Rea. How one's field of vision is engulfed with color, how texture touches our eyes: Spindler's, Dahlman's, and Golden's work reach us in this way. Then we realize the content of each, and social/political issues are suddenly present. Light modulation in the work of Sgarlata, Fitzgerald, Goldsmith, and Franceschi lead us to form that rhymes. Wheeler's sculpture, Gonzalez's photograph, Frog's lamp, and Anello's prints interconnect along this route. We travel through the geography of surface texture, materials, and architectural focus, noticing how a skyscraper sits, how it implies a whole skyline, which a lamp mimics, too. And while these visual properties can be mapped, another mapping process is less visible. 

'Mapping' forces on us a need to make sense among the disparities of style and aesthetic. It asks for a slow paced looking, a fear-less associating, and an embracing of the rich visual language present here at Spliced Connector. The restless shifting of light and energy present in this work embodies that which carries us to the delineation, and unification between matter and spirit. Spliced Connector group was founded on the intergenerational idea of connecting young and older artists. These connections lurk amidst the mapping of the riches in our visual language. 

SHIM Art Network is an art exhibition company that fills the gaps in the art world, providing exhibition opportunities to artists, curators, galleries, universities, and other organizations and affiliations with exhibition space for their projects on- and off-line.

puppet show at CLOL

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Our clown-based congregation, the Church of LOL, will be hosting a live cyber-puppet-show, “Inside,” by Puerto Rican puppeteers Poncili Creacion on MAY 8th at 8pm EST.

We have room for 20 audience members in our ZOOM room. Message/ email if you want to attend, and I will send you the log-in link and password. Trailer for the show is posted below. Peace!

(Updates from 5/8: Thanks everyone who attended, great to see your faces! Looking forward to the next!)

April Updates 2020

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1. ART FARM: I received news from Art Farm residency in Nebraska- we scheduled a two-week stay for July. Considering our current situation, I’m not sure if I’ll still be able to go, or what else might change by then, but, I do hope I will be able to make it over and see what they’re are up to out there, exploring the overlap between contemporary arts and farming life. Speaking to my friends Grace and CJ, it sounds like Art Farm has a lot in common with Lijiang Studio, so I’m also curious about the ways in which they differ as well (besides that one is in Nebraska, USA, while the other is in Yunnan, China). Since I’ve started gardening,* while contemplating Jay’s question, “What can art do in times of crisis?” (re: independent media? coping methods? trans-lingual communications?)… I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of things I can learn there.

[Article: Community Supported Agriculture is Surging Amid the Pandemic]

*Food for Thought: What is the difference between the terms “food autonomy” “food sovereignty” “food security” “food justice” “food apartheid”…? Which resonates more with you right now, and why?

2. AOTVU: I signed up to participate in Carla Rae Johnson’s follow-up project, “Arc of the Viral Universe”- to keep a notebook/sketchbook throughout the course of April 2020-April 2021. Link to the public FB page for updates: [here]

3. 150 FIGURINES: Ray and Jon helped me make 175 miniature clay figurines to donate as part of NY artist Chelsea Hrynick Browne’s 150 Care Packages for healthcare workers- to be sent to the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Queens (we made a few extra just in case some models get damaged or rejected along the way). Description attached below, taken from @muscle_park ‘s IG:

“🍎 My friend @chelseahrynickbrowne is organizing a wonderful initiative for healthcare providers at local hospitals in NYC. She is creating "thank you care packages" for hospitals in NYC to give to their healthcare workers during this crisis. We are searching for businesses who will work with us and are seeking donations that will help healthcare workers smile. We are receiving various products - art, tea, hand lotions, etc. and are aiming to make 100-150 boxes for Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Queens.”

Oil painting during an RCS conference call. (March 14)

Oil painting during an RCS conference call. (March 14)

4. E-MEETINGS: In this past month, I’ve had the privilege of enjoying multiple meetings and parties on Zoom (which is new for me): one critique/ artist presentation for Karen Fitzgerald’s MFA class (with LIU-POST), two group discussions with TELEPATHIA (hosted by Jess T.Fang) on the current state of “consciousness communities,” one 24-hour dance party “CLOUD9” (hosted by BUFU/ China Residencies), one workshop on “Legacies of Care: Yellow Peril in the Time of COVID-19” (led by Yellow Jackets Collective), and our inaugural group gathering for the Garden Matrix project (tentative name), with Petra and Boat. Anyways it’s been interesting to see how our social communities and patterns have persisted, only shifted to be facilitated via internet conference-call formats. Which leads me to the next update…

5. MEDITATION: I completed the Deepak Chopra’s 21 Abundance Meditation Challenge (prompted by my friend Shaina), and I found it genuinely helpful during the increasing stages of lockdown and social isolation. It required only about 30-minutes’ commitment per day, which really isn’t too much considering most of the rest of the day is often spent circling in wracking anxiety, or stewing in semi-depression/ confusion, or busying myself on personal projects and community care tasks. It felt reassuring to hear daily positive reminders to steer oneself towards desirable futures, mainly doing inwardly reflective writing tasks, and by accepting your own potential to embody your best self and manifest whatever you can dream.

I missed a Vipassana group meditation (got an email notice), however, have been keeping up daily personal practice now that the program has ended. Ray has been listening to different Buddhist podcasts lately, and it’s funny to hear speakers comment aloud on how weird it is to lecture via group chat/ e-conference calls (instead of in-person). I hope you have your own personal practices that help you stay calm and well during this time of societal upheaval.

6. Tomorrow is my brother Jee-shaun’s 30th birthday! Technically a construction worker, he is still at work, carving stone for Hunt Studios in San Francisco. Happy birthday Shaun! We’re lucky to have you here in the world with us.

[Updated April 27th: Check out his new stonework website here: www.angelstoneatelier.com]

ARTIST PRESENTATION AT LIU POST

I’m back in New York and will be giving a 45-minute presentation on my work at Long Island University on March 18th, 2020. For the “byline” I told them I was a “mixed-media artist and performer,” and I’m supposed to give a talk that reflects that reality. Let me know if you want to be there and need a carpool! Or if there’s any specific thing you think I should cover in my presentation.

-Frog

<< EDIT >> DUE TO COVID-19 SAFETY MEASURES- The presentation will now be made online through a Zoom meeting. 7pm! Be there as a square.