A Burnt Orange 🧡🤎

Origami hearts I folded last week during my job as we took June 10 to show our NY Knick's love As I write this, the Knicks championship parade has just begun winding its way through the streets of Manhattan. Their long-awaited victory in this year's Finals has me feeling all kinds of ways, just like every other New Yorker- and I'm not even an active fan! Sure, I watched the occasional game with friends or family over the years but the truth is, in my household my father- my very New York father, born and raised in the Bronx and a lifelong Yankees fan- was never a Knicks fan. His basketball heart belonged to the Boston Celtics. So instead, I grew up surrounded by Larry Bird posters, T-shirts, Celtics books on shelves and the coffee table. As a boy, he fell in love with the team of the 1950s, dazzled by a player whose brilliance stayed with him for decades. Later, Larry Bird became his favorite. The Celtics Kelly-green uniforms didn't hurt either, as that particular green...

  The thought of attending SerlingFest as a fan is thrilling enough. The idea of displaying some of my artwork there is even more exciting. My sister has kindly offered to come with me so that I’ll have the chance to walk around and explore while she keeps an eye on the table. We can definitely take turns 🤗 I’ve decided to reserve a half table rather than a full one because even though the full one isn’t terribly expensive, I only have a handful of Twilight Zone pieces so far. For now, this is what I’m planning to bring: Librarian on Trial – inspired by The Obsolete Man But a Dream – inspired by Shadow Play And You Better Be Nice to Me – inspired by Living Doll There Was Time – inspired by Time Enough at Last Marsha’s So Like the Others – inspired by After Hours Don’t Paint the Sun Anymore – inspired by The Midnight Sun Little Boy and His Games – inspired by It’s a Good Life I’ll see if I can find the originals but I'll be ordering from Fine Art America ,  where th...

by my aunt Ydalia Diaz, who's been painting ever since I can remember I took a photo of this in 2009 when I visited my grandfather in the Dominican Republic, please excuse all the blurriness.  I’m showing a close-up of the painting first, then the full photograph so that its scale becomes more clear.  Here you can see a family member sitting beside it on his phone, bizarrely perched on a stack of four lawn chairs. Nevermind him. Or actually, do mind him. That strange detail is exactly why I took the picture in the first place.  I have always liked photographing strange moments that catch my eye. During my visit, there were a few: a kitchen sink overflowing with limes under running water, a can of roach spray twice the size of any I'd ever seen, a towering statue of ceramic Jesus standing on a bathroom counter.  So in a way maybe it makes sense that one surreal image ended up next to another. Ydalia's ability to create tender, life-like portraits always impressed me....

  Librarian on Trial, 2021 Whether the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation Facebook page approved this drawing I submitted (submitted for approval? 😉) or discovered it elsewhere, they recently shared it on their page with a black heart emoji, followed by about 100 likes and a handful of kind comments.   I wrote back (DM) simply to say thank you, and from that small exchange came an invitation to potentially participate as an artist vendor at SerlingFest , an annual event held in Rod Serling’s hometown of Binghamton, New York. The idea that some of my work- pieces inspired by The Twilight Zone episodes- could exist within a space that actively celebrates Serling’s legacy is both thrilling and humbling. I’ve since been in conversation with the organizers, and as of now, the possibility of having a table there feels very real. What’s especially meaningful to me is that this opportunity sits right at the heart of two identities I’ve carried for years: -Longtime Twilight Zone f...

The MoonMen Before You , October 18, 2021 One of the Inktober prompts in 2021 was Moon . Instead of drawing a picturesque moon floating over a purple ocean and sky, something I’d done before, pop-culture me barged in and took over- much like when I chose a Pikachu theme for the Ash prompt in 2019. I thought of the little MTV Moon Man instead, the astronaut who would gradually shape my visual aesthetics and train my musical ear growing up, (right after my dad’s old jazz). The Moon Man was originally a bravado announcement: a shiny new cable channel staking claim on unexplored terrain. Here I give it a colonial jab. The original one flag became many. By the time he arrives in my drawing, others have clearly been there before. As if to say: You think you’re first? Cute .  MTV showcased videos full of quick cuts and color jolts, beauty and chaos dancing in the same frame. It debuted in 1981, when I was four years old. Both sets of my grandparents had the channel before we did. My gra...

  For this Burnt Orange blog, it feels especially fitting to share my small experiment with oranges as part of my winter solstice observation. I’d seen dried oranges appear again and again in winter imagery and seasonal traditions, so I wanted to give that a whirl. One suggestion was to make a garland: slicing the oranges, baking them low and slow (200–225℉ for about two to three hours), and letting the house fill with that bright, citrusy scent. At the same time, I’d been reading about Yule and winter solstice traditions - the honoring of the sun at its lowest point, and the use of citrus, evergreen, spice, and fire to call light back in. I intended to make a garland from the baked oranges, but without twine on hand, I placed them temporarily in one of my small orange bowls. Then added a cinnamon stick, a couple of star anises, and ground nutmeg and cloves to the mix. That was when the arrangement took on a different gravity. What began as decoration shifted into something deeper...