Another tree falls

My gentle and kind aunt, (my father's sister) Tia Cuca, passed away in her sleep in Miami this morning, and yet another tree falls in the silent forest of the bitter exile of the Cuban Diaspora. 

She was born in the countryside, near the city of Guantanamo, in the Oriente province of Eastern Cuba, the fifth daughter (of six) of Galician immigrants to Cuba.

In the 1960s, Cuca and her family escaped Cuba (via Spain) and settled in Brooklyn, in the six apartment brownstone owned by her sister, my aunt Nica.

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, Tia Cuca lived in the apartment above ours in that house, and no matter when I'd pop into her apartment, she'd always sit me down at the table and would start feeding me - and she was one of the best cooks ever! There's no cook on this Universe who ever made a better black bean soup!

My Campello aunts in the 1950s - Tia Cuca is the second from the left in the top row.

I never saw her angry, and she had the most contagious laugh on the planet! Don't get me wrong, Tia Cuca was also tough as nails, but her toughness came in a brilliant and pliable form - she would bend, but never break, as the saying goes.

We will miss you, Tia.

Why?

Now in its ninth year, the $50,000 Black Swan Prize has attracted a record 375 entries...

 Are you serious? Only 375 entries and that's a record for this Aussie prize? Details here... 

Why am I yapping about an Aussie prize? Because I am always dumbfounded by the low number of entries to most visual art prizes and opportunities - especially the "free" ones, such as the DC Arts Commission's various grants and buying calls...

Artists' Websites: Anne Cherubim

Anne Cherubim is an abstract contemporary landscape painter. She works predominantly in acrylic. Her art is rooted in real life images and textures, with a modern abstraction, often in a limited colour palette.

Her art is a reflection of contemporary art as portrayed by someone who is a product of a myriad of cultures: a Canadian girl, born of Sri Lankan parents, now residing in the US. 

This unique 'lense' through which she sees the world informs her work, undeniably. ‘Tolerance’ is the word we use to talk about being open to, and welcoming of, one another.  

Anne believes ‘embrace’ is a much better word for talking about cultures, and the ways in which we can coexist. Art and music transcend language - among other barriers- and create commonalities, harmony. They are universals that can be appreciated no matter where you come from, or what language you speak. 

This is the type of experience Cherubim hopes that her art allows for.

Though she has been an artist for many years, her professional pursuit of it began more recently.  

Anne has exhibited her work locally around the DMV and internationally. She currently resides with her husband and children in the USA, and is a Resident Artist at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, MD and later this year at the Affordable Art Fair in New York City.

Her work can be seen at: www.cherubim-arts.com

The touch of darkness

Every once in a while, the possible terrifying touch of evil passes by, leaving behind a wake of fear and also (in this case) relief that it just went by.

A few days ago a man approached our five year-old-son while he was playing in our front yard.

My wife had just gotten home about five minutes before, and she was unpacking grocery bags inside while our son was playing soccer on the front lawn.

A man approached in a dark gray 4-door sedan on the opposite side of the street, closest to where my son was playing. He rolled down his window, called my son over and told him about "a boy who lived down the street and who had a tiger in his house" and asked if my son knew him.

My son's inner alarms went off and he ran inside and told my wife, and when she came out, the car was gone.

We called the police and provided the following description based on what my son could see from the yard into the man's car: age 50s, black straight short hair, white skin, brown eyes, and fat (this is a 5yr old's description!).

My son  also mentioned that the license plate had an American flag on it, and then pointed to one of the Maryland plates with the American flag in our neighborhood as an example.

We shared the information with our neighbors via our listserv, and discovered that just down our street, a couple who has a three year old son, has a giant stuffed animal tiger in the boy's play room; a tiger that could easily been seen by someone walking around their house and looking into their windows. 

Disturbing beyond belief.