ART enables us to find ourselves
and lose ourselves at the same time.

--Thomas Merton

Photography by Denise Blasor 

Consuming ART

In times like ours, of war, uncertainty, and economic blight,

the arts offer refuge and respite, a safe place from which to look
at the world anew.

Art is food and feeling and thought. And the life force at its core
is such that it can even rekindle a sense of hope and optimism.
Which is why supporting the arts is a way to promote creative
endeavors that can sustain and motivate society towards change
and progress.

Here are a few artists worth supporting:  

Isabel Batteria writes short stories and essays. For several
years, she and her husband Áxel Alfaro ran the literary magazine
Derivas as a forum for Puerto Rican writers and a venue for new
work, including translations (www.derivas.net).

Batteria's most recent effort is two handmade, brown-paper covered
books slightly larger than the palm of your hand (2" by 3 1/2")
and bound together with a piece of white string. "Taft 58" and "Villa
Mimoso" contain short essays with evocative descriptions of the
feelings and thoughts elicited by different buildings in which Batteria
has lived.

The writing, in Spanish, is crisp, clear, reflective.

"Esta semana cumplo un año desde que me mudé. Todavía
descubro y documento nuevos ruidos. Los ruidos son, para mí, una
característica importantísima de donde uno vive, una parte de su
esencia." ("This week marks a year since I moved. I am still
discovering and documenting new sounds. Sounds are, to me, a
very important characteristic of where one lives, a part of its
essence.")

Occasionally, a wild conceit breaks through.

"Una casa es un pedazo de piedra gigante. Pero por muchos años
guardé piedras en una canasta." (A house is a gigantic piece of
stone. But for many years I kept stones in a basket.")

These little books, so pleasurable to hold between your hands
and yet almost fragile, are a perfect metaphor for the evanescence
of experience captured in Batteria's cool, spare prose punctuated
with touches of humor. They invite you to reflect on your own
experiences living in a certain place and a certain neighborhood.

Soon, they will be joined by another two companion miniatures,
"Hebe" and "De la Vega," to make up the edition titled
"Santurce, PR 00911."

Available through Etsy ($10 plus shipping). Go to:
www.etsy.com/listing/162228336/ Author's Edition:
"Santurce P.R. 00911" or look up isabatt in the
search box.

Mural detail

Paula del Toro
is an earnest 25-year old
graphic artist who creates
figures at once cartoonish,        
wildly imaginative, and
amusing.

 "I was always drawn to
drawing and caricature, and the
friendships I cultivated at
the university (of Puerto Rico)
strengthened my interest towards the arts as an activity
for interchange and self-empowerment," says del Toro, who
works full-time at a hospital, a job that cuts down on her
creative time but allows her to support herself.

"Fantastic, congenial, fun," is how del
Toro describes her art. "It is simple and delicate."

She likes the power of a straight line
done with a ballpoint pen and sees a
connection between her work and that
of the late Keith Haring.

 "Like him, I have an assured and
brisk stroke and to a certain extent,
innocence. He, however, also
worked social, political, religious
and other themes. I don't do that
yet, though it interests me," says
del Toro, adding that she still has
a lot of learning to do.

Del Toro's commercial work
includes commissions to decorate
tote bags sold at Concalma in Old
San Juan and creating her own line
of t-shirts with felt appliquées,
which she sold on her own. She also
draws figures with color markers to
create stickers using adhesive
papers which she then sells at
musical or art events.


She does have one preference: "I
like to do murals in gardens, and to add a certain mysticism to
neglected spaces...I could do murals forever, if that were the
only thing to do."

To view del Toro's artwork, go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naricesabajo/8196527134/
For a mural commission to enhance your garden or your home,
contact the artist at pdeltoro@outlook.com/

Bill Santiago
is smart and funny. He used to be a reporter but when the
muse of comedy came calling, he bid adieux to editors and
colleagues in Puerto Rico and set off across the sea in fast
pursuit of laughter. Since then he has crisscrossed the United
States more times than you can count to appear in venues high
and low, at comedy clubs, university and commercial theaters,
on Comedy Central and even CNN as, what else, but a comic
commentator.

His brand of comedy relies on smarts rather than smut and his
word plays can often be so nimble that you really have to be on
your toes to keep up with him. Besides being very funny and an
astute appraiser of the political landscape through occasional
columns on Huffington Post,  Santiago is also the author of
"Pardon My Spanglish."

To catch him in action this week in New York, head to La Casa
Azul Bookstore on Thursday, Sept. 12, where he will be performing
beginning at 7:30 p.m. For a complete list of performing venues,
go to billsantiago.com and look up his tour schedule.

La Casa Azul Bookstore 
143 East 103rd St., New York city
between Lexington & Park Ave.
close to # 6 train - 103rd St. stop
212.426.2626

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIETTE BLASOR

Death is forever, irreversible and final.
Once it happens, nothing can change it.
Forever is the end of all possibilities,
where no wrongs can be righted and
no regrets can be pardoned.

DIANE WEI LANG
"THE EYE OF JADE"

 ☛ EYE ON PRODUCTS: KISHU

If you are concerned about heavy metals in your water, you might
want to try out a product called Kishu, an activated charcoal from
kiln-burned branches of sustainably harvested white oak trees. It 
comes in stick form and absorbs toxins in tap water such as lead, 
mercury, cadmium, copper and chlorine. 

All you have to do is drop a Kishu stick in a large pitcher and add
tap water. Kishu begins absorbing impurities right away but for 
optimal absorption it is recommended that you wait several hours
before drinking the water.  The stick, which lasts 6 months and is
compostable, also imparts healthy minerals to water such as calcium,
phosphates and magnesium.  Retails for $13 and  $18;  sticks 
for water bottles sell for $9.

Available online at kishucharcoal.com or call 303.810.8206. 
Also at Amazon.

Photography by Denise Blasor

Something in this world
man must trust.
Not everything - but something
One cannot live and doubt
everybody and everything.
Somewhere in this world, and not beyond it,
there is trust, and somehow trust
leads to joy.

W.E.B.DuBois

A SIMPLE TIP
If you have some leftover soup, don't discard it. Instead, use it
either as the base for a new soup (all you need to do is add
more water and vegetables to the mix) or to add flavor to one
you start from scratch.

Photography by Denise Blasor

 © 2013 Lorraine Blasor All Rights Reserved