Forrealism

Ofrendas of Love & Loss

2011-10-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Oakland Museum of California's annual Dias de Los Muertos exhibition opened last week, and is showing until December 12th. It is titled "Love & Loss" and is guest curated by Patricia Rodriguez, the renowned Chicana artist and curator (formerly of Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts).

This beautiful and moving exhibit is the heart and soul of the Oakland Museum with its inclusive approach to exhibit creation, the companion Community Celebration, and shares the

traditions of Days of the Dead with the community at large.

This year, Forrealism artist Joaquin Alejandro Newman was invited by Patricia to create an ofrenda (altar), and will be having a gallery talk this Sunday, October 30th at 2pm in the art gallery.

Come on through!

Painting the Starry Skies

2011-07-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Joaquin was commissioned to make a couple of large paintings for a new restaurant in Springfield, MA, called Mama Iguana's. The restaurant owners, Bill & Claudio, had discovered Joaquin's artworks in their search for additions to their vast art collections of mexican movie posters and other original artworks that grace the walls of their restaurants.

After painting the works in the studio for a few weeks, Joaquin & Evelyn travelled to

Springfield to build stretcher panels and install the two paintings, a large scale work based on an ancient Mayan composition, and a play on a mexican movie poster. A feature of the Mayan painting was the appearance of constellations associated with the date of the creation of the artwork.

The installation of of the new works were part of the restaurant's grand opening, and were right at home in the festive environment of this dining destination. Check out the photos of the art, and the grand opening here!

Urban Legends and Art

2011-05-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Evelyn and Joaquin visited the Urban Legend Wine Cellars on 4th Street in Oakland this past weekend and loved the wines! We dug the 2009 Uptown in the refillable container.

Joaquin Newman will be displaying paintings at Urban Legend beginning this Friday. There will be a First Friday Art event from 6pm to 9pm at the winery this coming friday! Come on out for the Jack London Art Walk and a wine tasting at Urban Legend Cellars, 621 4TH ST.

Come on down for a wine tasting and take home some grape!

For more info: http://www.ulcellars.com/events.html

100 Families Community Mural at Highland Hospital

2011-04-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

After about ten months of planning, art workshops,digital painting, and community involvement, Joaquin Newman and Eduardo Pineda have just installed 43 digitally printed murals at Highland Hospital in Oakland. These murals will grace the barrier fence around the Alameda County Medical Center's Acute Care Tower rehabilitation site for the remainder of this major demolition and construction.

The Alameda County Arts Commission awarded Joaquin and Eduardo with this project after the competitive selectionprocess unveiled the duo's talent and experience in working with diverse groups to create imagery around shared beliefs and community visions.

The first phase of the 100 Families Project was in the form of art workshops with neighbors of the hospital where multi-generational families participated in hands-on activities, sharedmeals, and created collaged "homes" from textiles, photos, prints, and found imagery. These homes were intended to represent a families self-image and visions for their community.

After workshop artworks were photographed, participant portraits were captured by amazing photographer Sibila Savage during our movement workshops led by Bay Area performer Rosa Gonzalez. These figurative and artistic images were then combined with lush and verdant scenery, underwater scenes, and space-scapes to create digital murals that were to be printed and installed on site.

Following approval from the Arts Commission, and feedback from various community members, the final artworks were sent to VisionIsle printers in San Leandro who made these great digital images into amazing printed artworks. On April 5th, Eduardo and Joaquindirected a crew of Union Carpenters to install the murals at the Hospital Site. It went off without a hitch!

There will be a small gathering for the participating families on Saturday, April 9 from 10:00 am – 11:00 am to view the mural with the artists. We will meet at the main entrance to the hospital and walk around together to view the

mural. (Please note that we are planning a community celebration around the mural for a later date in May or June. Our get-together on Saturday will be an opportunity to view the mural in a smaller group)

If you'd like to see more of the images, please check out the Picasa photo album, or visit the site!

Hot Art for Teatro Zinzanni!

2011-03-01T21:59:00.000-08:00

Last week Joaquin Newman and Eduardo Pineda finished a slew of custom paintings for Teatro Zinzanni's upcoming show "Caliente!", debuting on March 6th in San Francisco.

The duo were hired to paint characters for the show's publicity artwork, especially the poster and street signs, in the style of famous Mexican movie posters from the 1930's and 40's. The

marketing department for Teatro Zinzanni caught wind of Joaquin's Calavera paintings done in the style of the "Época de oro del cine mexicano" and hired him for this fun gig!

These actors were fun to paint, especially the main characters Roberto "El Vez" Lopez, and Christine Deaver, who star in this show directed

by Ric "Slick-Rick" Salinas of Culture Clash fame. This show promises to be "a bewitching evening of European Cabaret and Cirque...with Live Music and a Gourmet Five-Course Dinner...set in the nightclub of your dreams!"

Look out for these artworks by Joaquin &

Eduardo on bus-stops, in the papers, and come out to the show if you can make it!

If you or anyone you know are interested in custom paintings, illustrations, murals or

other sweet artwork contact Joaquin@forrealism(dot)com to get the party started!

Cacao at the deYoung

2011-02-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who attended our event at the deYoung this past Friday, where Evelyn and Joaquin presented to visitors to the Olmec Exhibition on Cacao in the Art of Meso-America.

Our contribution to the event focused on Cacao in the Art of Meso-America. I created a series of paintings derived from Classic (100AD-900AD) Mayan vase paintings from Guatemala and the Yucatan, Mexico, as well as several fresco-style hieroglyphs of the Mayan word, cacao.
Evelyn created a series of relief carvings of the Mayan cacao glyph out of a stone-like material that we used as a hands on relief rubbing print activity. Using rubber stamps of the cacao glyph, visitors also could create their own versions of vase “roll-out” pictures on paper with vase outlines.
Our presentations focused on the origination of ancient cacao from South America with people using it primarily as a fruit. Ethno-botanists claim that the two original strains of cacao came from South America, and oral histories support this claim. The plant and the fruit made its way by animal, bird, or man to Central America.

Most likely the Olmecs of southern Mexico were the first monumental culture to use cacao by extracting the seed from the fruit pod, fermenting, roasting, then grinding the seed, and then using the resulting paste as the base for a variety of atoles, a type of porridge or beverage.
The Maya of Guatemala, Yucatan, and the region were the subsequent culture to embrace cacao as a sacred food, deeming it important enough to name the seed, cacao, food of the gods. We selected several vase paintings depicting cacao in court recordings as well as mythological scenes.

The magic of this educational art event was the experience of rediscovering the true origins of cacao, a food that many of us take for granted as emerging from our grocery store. Finding through our own research and art practice the importance of cacao to the indigenous cultures of meso-America, we were reminded that all foods are sacred and give their lives for our survival but some have been recognized for centuries as seeding our enlightenment and joy.

Cacao at the deYoung

2011-02-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

Evelyn Orantes and Joaquin Newman are presenting an education program at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco tonight from 6pm-8pm. In conjunction with the opening of the magnificent Olmec exhibition there where several of the colossal heads of this civilization are on display, we've created a series of activities and paintings derived from Classic (100AD-900AD) Mayan vase paintings from Guatemala and Mexico.

Evelyn has created a series of print activities. Using rubber stamps of the cacao glyph, visitors can create their own versions of vase “roll-out” pictures on paper with vase outlines.

Our presentation focuses on the origination of ancient cacao from South America with people using it primarily as a fruit. Ethno-botanists claim that the two original strains of cacao came from South America, and oral histories support this claim. The plant and the fruit made its way by animal, bird, or man to Central America.

Come out and visit the deYoung Museum tonight from 6pm-8pm to experience this activity and see the Olmec exhibition!

Right to Good Health Mural

2010-12-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

Last night Eduardo Pineda and Joaquin Newman attended the student celebration for the Right to Good Health mural they are producing for the Mission Neighborhood Health Center. Anthropology students from SFSU interviewed the patients, staff, and administrators at the Health Center in order to develop the theme of the mural. Joaquin and Eduardo will start painting the mural this weekend at his studio in Alameda. Here's a sketch of the mural design to be painted. It's going to be installed at the center in early January 2011.

100 Families Art Project at Highland Hospital

2010-10-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

Eduardo Pineda and Joaquin Newman recently received a commission from the Alameda County Arts Commission to decorate a temporary construction fence surrounding Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA.

We will generate images for the mural in a series of hands-on workshops with families to launch 100 Families Alameda County: Art and Social Change, now an official arts education program of the Arts Commission. (Here's a link to a video of the previous incarnation of 100 Familes while it was under the direction of California College for the Arts)

After designing the mural on laptops, the mural will be printed on plastic panels and installed on the plywood fence that encloses the hospital renovation project. There will be a community unveiling in January 2011. It’s great to work with the Commission again!

Earth Art

2010-10-06T12:53:00.001-07:00

Evelyn and I have been collecting red iron oxide from volcanic sites around the East Bay to make natural pigment paintings. It's amazing how the earth still gives up the goods when you give thanks.

La Borinqueña Mexi-Tessen Treats

2010-10-06T09:48:00.001-07:00

Since early September, Tina "Tamale" Ramos from Old Oakland's own La Borninqueña Mexi-Tessen has hosted a showing of Joaquin Newman's recent paintings at her renowned family restaurant. Her restaurant is a perfect setting for Joaquin's paintings inspired by the rich meso-American history depicting scenes of deities of maize and cacao, and, of course, the calaveras that emerge this time of year to remind to honor our ancestors.Come by and check it out!

Fox Courts Mural Project by Eduardo Pineda and Joaquin Alejandro Newman

2009-09-25T12:34:00.001-07:00

The Fox Courts mural project is an art education and public art project. Muralists Eduardo Pineda and Joaquin Alejandro Newman were charged with bringing together anchor stakeholders in the newly burgeoning Uptown neighborhood – the Fox Courts affordable living apartment complex, the Oakland School for the Arts, and the Fox Theater. The project produced two murals (one 7 by 18 feet and the other 9 by 29 feet) on two apartment building walls that book end the gated loading dock at the back of the theater between 18th and 19th Streets.

Hovering over the 18th street entrance to the Oakland School for the Arts, a saxophone player dressed in an Oakland Larks jersey pays tribute to the city’s Negro League team and the performing arts, an integral program of the art school as well as the Fox Theater. Next to him, a young woman holds the tree associated with the City in protective hands, reflecting the importance environmental awareness and civic engagement. On the 19th street side, four more figures dance, shop, contemplate, and pause. Their cloths contain ancient motifs, a nod to indigenous roots and newer traditions that compose the East Bay cultural fabric. Look for Mixtec glyphs from Central America, Ohlone arm-bands from Bay Area Native Americans, Móche fish and plants from Peru, and a Hindu deity from India. Together the six figures express the cultural fusion of the Oakland community and the vitality of the Uptown community, with its performing arts legacy, youth culture, and environmental awareness.

To design the murals, Pineda and Newman presented the public art project to advanced visual arts students at the Oakland School for the Arts. The concept was to use body gestures, clothing and adornment to reflect cultural traditions and the vitality of neighborhood life. In a series of six workshops, the young artists embraced the idea, modeling for the figures as well as creating the imaginary fashions they wear. In addition the students created the pounce patterns used by the muralists to transfer the design onto the wall. The result is a creative collaboration between professional artists and emerging young artists.

The two walls were painted with acrylic colors in three weeks by the mural duo. Pineda and Newman used an electric lift in order to reach the areas set aside for the murals almost 30 feet above the sidewalk. The lift provided the muralists with much needed mobility because they painted as the art school and theater opened to the public and contractors moved in and out of the theater building to complete final work. Adding to the bustling environment between the two buildings, were new residents stepping out and daily passers by who called out complements to the artists working high above.

The newly painted walls reinvigorate the mural presence in the neighborhood that include earlier works on the Oakland Ice Center across18th Street, Mitzvah: The Jewish Cultural Experience, by Keith Sklar, Brooke Fancher, and Dan Fontes in 1985 at Franklin near 14th Street and Street Tattoo painted by Daniel Galvez, Dan Fontes, and others underneath at San Pablo and West Grand Ave. Also contributing to the public art environment is the soon to be installed sculpture by Mario Chiodo in Fox Square, across from the mural on 19th Street.

View more images here!

The Power of Chocolate

2009-02-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

It’s early 12th century AD, in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. A ceremony is underway. The Mixtec ruler “8 Deer” and his consort are marrying in a sacred ceremony in the mountain temple Monte Alban. This royal wedding is sealed not with a gold ring, but with the food of the gods…Chocolate.

This past Valentines’s Day, Evelyn Orantes and myself were invited to participate in a education program at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington D.C. called “The Power of Chocolate”. This was the third year that the Smithsonian NMAI’s Cultural Programs Specialist, Hayes Lavis, coordinated this enlightening project in the Potomac Alcove of this newly built museum’s great lobby. It certainly seemed like one of the best.

Our invitation to participate in this program comes on the heels of Evelyn’s November 2008 participation at NMAI’s Dias de Los Muertos (Days of The Dead) program in which she created a contemporary ofrenda (offering) along with Catalina Delgado-Trunk and presentor and cartoneria maestro Ruben Guzman. invited artists and traditional altarmakers. Evelyn created out of paper-mache a boat and a calaca (skeleton) paddler, inspired by the ancient Mayan paddlers who accompany deceased nobility to the underworld in a celestial canoe, for her ofrenda as well as providing hands-on activites for visitors to the museum to learn about the indigenous roots of Dias de Los Muertos.

So enthusiastic about Evelyn’s educational programs was our host, Hayes Lavis, that she was invited back to participate in an event focusing on the indigenous roots of chocolate, intentionally timed to coincide with Valentine’s Day. The program itself looks to educate the public about the origin of chocolate, or cacao. Diverse guests were invited from Panama, Bolivia, and Peru. These folks represented cacao growers, indigenous and contemporary artists, dancers. Also, representatives from the Mars Corporation showcased the transformation from cacao bean to a pre-Columbian chocolate beverage.

Our contribution to the event focused on Cacao in the Art of Meso-America. I created a series of paintings derived from Classic (100AD-900AD) Mayan vase paintings from Guatemala and the Yucatan, Mexico, as well as several fresco-style hieroglyphs of the Mayan word, cacao.

Evelyn created a series of relief carvings of the Mayan cacao glyph out of a stone-like material that we used as a hands on relief rubbing print activity. Using rubber stamps of the cacao glyph, visitors also could create their own versions of vase “roll-out” pictures on paper with vase outlines.

Our presentations focused on the origination of ancient cacao from South America with people using it primarily as a fruit. Ethno-botanists claim that the two original strains of cacao came from South America, and oral histories support this claim. The plant and the fruit made its way by animal, bird, or man to Central America.

Most likely the Olmecs of southern Mexico were the first monumental culture to use cacao by extracting the seed from the fruit pod, fermenting, roasting, then grinding the seed, and then using the resulting paste as the base for a variety of atoles, a type of porridge or beverage.

The Maya of Guatemala, Yucatan, and the region were the subsequent culture to embrace cacao as a sacred food, deeming it important enough to name the seed, cacao, food of the gods. We selected several vase paintings depicting cacao in court recordings as well as mythological scenes.

Cacao later made its way to the Mixtec and Zapotec tribes of the Oaxacan region of Mexico, who recorded its use in the Codex Nuttal, in the ceremonial wedding of 8 Deer, a prominent 14th Century Mixtec ruler.

The significance and power of cacao both a foodstuff and currency did not escape the eyes of the imperial Aztecs who took tribute from dominated tribes in cacao. They also enjoyed this sacred beverage as recorded in many documents, including the Codex Borbonicus.

The magic of this educational art event was the experience of rediscovering the true origins of cacao, a food that many of us take for granted as emerging from our grocery store. Finding through our own research and art practice the importance of cacao to the indigenous cultures of meso-America, we were reminded that all foods are sacred and give their lives for our survival but some have been recognized for centuries as seeding our enlightenment and joy.

Mural Making in Oakland

2008-06-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a great time working on a large scale mural for a good client such as Tom Straus of Straus Carpets in Oakland. The opportunity to have a hand in beautifying the visual landscape of Oakland is a blessing and great help in getting our small mural business off the ground and on its way to being a renowned painting resource.

Felix de La Cruz, The son of Josie de La Cruz, one of the women honored in the mural I finished at Carmen Flores Community Center in Fruitvale, was instrumental in getting us hooked up with Tom Straus as he is a longtime employee of Straus Carpets. Felix very enthusiastically recommended my work to Tom after this mural was created, and I am very grateful for the serendipitous opportunities that arise when one seeks to do one's best in serving the community.

Also key in painting and completing the Straus Carpet Mural (2828 Ford Street) was my partner on this project, long time muralist and arts education professional, Eduardo Pinedawhose experience and advise was invaluable. My other painting compatriots, Steven Chapman, Tony Coleman, and Sean Nash gave many brush strokes to this historic wall mural.

El Corazón de la Comunidad: The Heart of the Community

2007-05-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

“El Corazón de la Comunidad: The Heart of the Community,” the City of Oakland’s newest public art installation, was unveiled on Sunday, March 25, at the Carmen Flores Recreation Center, 1637 Fruitvale Avenue. The new mural artwork was showcased during a public open house from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. with the official dedication beginning at 2:30 p.m. Commissioned by the City of Oakland’s Public Art Program and painted by Joaquin Alejandro Newman, the interior mural incorporates ancient Meso-American and contemporary images to honor two Oakland community activists – Carmen Flores and Josie de la Cruz.

Located in the lobby of the community center, the mural artwork is comprised of four 11-foot panels. Each panel depicts the Meso-American theme for one of the four cardinal directions. The east panel includes images of the Mayan maize god Hun Hunahpu and speaks to Flores’ many treks to deliver food to the needy. The south panel includes images of children dancing as homage to de la Cruz’s founding of Ballet Folklorico. The west panel honors women as healers recalling both women’s community work and activism. The north panel, honoring elders, contains portraits of both women and images of Oakland landmarks.

The four panels are complemented by a fresco-like mural band around the upper walls of the lobby depicting a feathered-serpent motif with symbols from various cultures representing creativity and strength. Together, these images help tell the story of the lives of the two women and their dedication to the Oakland community. As tribute to the accomplishments of these two great Oakland humanitarians, the public unveiling of “El Corazón de la Communidad: The Heart of the Community” was scheduled to coincide with Women’s History Month.

A lifelong Oakland artist, Newman spent six months creating this artwork. Painting assistance was provided by Steven Chapman, Tony Coleman, Sean Nash and Jason Barnes. “El Corazón de la Communidad: The Heart of the Community” is Newman’s first mural installation funded by the City of Oakland.

In addition to light refreshments and art activities for children, the open house will featured live entertainment by Ron San Miguel of La Voz del Viento, Mio Flores and Johnny de La Cruz.

After the dedication, the mural can be viewed by the public during the recreation center’s normal operating hours of 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The Forrealism Movement

2007-05-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Forrealism Movement is composed of a group of mixed Indian and Latino artists who create works collectively, drawing from our own traditions and those of our elders who have shared gifts of their wisdom and experience. We do not purport to be religiously bound to these traditions; rather we strive to deconstruct racial barriers in order to construct cultural bridges toward a greater indigenous consciousness.
As urban Indians working in a city where many cultures come together, the scope of our work spans the Americas. It is not limited to symbolism from our particular cultural background; we serve our community more generally. No one of these traditions defines us, nor do we attempt to expose the complexities and rites of traditions that require specific intention to understand.
We strive instead to relate concepts and ideological systems and natural cycles that all people have in common. Certain of our images have elicited extremely enthusiastic response. The popularity of these images attests to an innate call for people of all cultures to grasp cyclical concepts of place and being. Our intention is to remind, remember, recover, realize:
- Remind us of all our relations,
- Remember our ancestors and the knowledge they hold that supports our collective survival,
-Recover lost wisdom from cultures that have suffered imperial extermination, and
- Realize, to make real, that knowledge through our creative endeavors and collaborations.
European artists throughout the ages have looked to the works of Greek and Roman mythology and theory for inspiration and insight. We pay homage to great civilizations of pre-Columbian Americas and acknowledge the 21st century canon of Native American art. We look to ancient and traditional indigenous source material, including but not limited to painted books, vases, monumental inscriptions and architecture. These many artifacts, along with stories from our ancestors, contextualize our work as honoring the great masters of indigenous art of the Americas. The deliberate destruction of countless original meso-American literature and monumental artifacts by imperialist corporate forces illustrates how powerful this sacred knowledge is. We attempt to convey the importance of respectfully investigating the remaining documents, while consulting wisdom carriers who hold the true knowledge to ancient traditions.
Many of our people are wary of sharing information for a variety of reasons. We understand that with sharing information there is always risk. The many different sources that describe the symbolism of certain images vary in their interpretations, and as in any discipline—such as decipherment theory—conclusions drawn cannot always be consistent. Our intention is to relate these concepts and to educate ourselves and others so that our indigenous cultures can survive the onslaught of cultural genocide that they continually endure.