A Night of NoMi Art and Politics! (Part 1 of 2)

Guest post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

There just aren't enough hours in the day! NoMi poet Bryan Thao Worra had another reading on Saturday and I was already double-booked. I made my famous lychee mint salsa and was off to "The Dinosaur House" to bask in the amazingly fun artwork of our newest resident-artist Ken Farkash...

Ken's art is fun and whimsical and on top of admiring the artistic quality inherent in each piece, it's hard to look at this stuff and be in a worse mood than you were beforehand. The first piece shown above is called "Saturday Afternoon Matinee." Without further ado, here are some pictures of his collection:
This one is actually my SECOND-favorite piece, but it is rather hard to pick. It's called "Moral Rebellion."


I like the "Spring Man" hero thing going on here. While I'm not sure what the hero's actual contributions and powers are, the beacon shining in the sky shows that clearly SOMEONE needs his help...


Maybe "Moral Oblivion" called out to me because I'm currently reading "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters," (side note: I do NOT recommend reading Jane Austen without a co-author. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" turned one of the greatest literary classics of all time into something you'd actually want to read.) The protagonist here is floating around in an oppressive world and still doing his own thing. To me, the oxygen hose leading up to the surface indicates that there is something that sustains him and keeps him going. But what?


"New Life" reminds me of the annual "clean sweep" activities throughout NoMi.


In "The Sky is Falling," the moon is laughing at Chicken Little as he is about to throw a little bit of himself at our hero, thus proving his dire claims to be eerily, yet humorously accurate.


"Jacques' Dream" shows us why dogs are bound to chase after squirrels, and brings to mind an obvious reference for me.


"Unicycling in the Desert" is Ken's personal statement on his art and career. We had interesting discussions about what that means, but I'd rather point this out and then let the reader ponder the meaning of the art and title.


"The Conversation" is my favorite one, although I really enjoy a lot of the quirkiness of other pieces. This work started as a simple exercise in perspective. But once you add the title, it leads one to wonder what the two people just outside the borders of the art itself are discussing. Plus, do I need to point out that it contains coffee and cigarettes? Ah, the stuff of life.


"Boo Boo Gets the Last Laugh" is a lesson Ken learned about how even when it appears that a goat likes you, you can never be too sure...


"Dragon," was a tattoo that Ken made for someone, and it turned into artwork as well. I'm enough of a Marvel comics nerd that to me it looked more like Ghost Rider. (Click here for an idea of the image that came to mind.)


Then it was off to see Don Samuels, but I'd be back.