Start

Hi everyone! This is a story about taking naps. What would you do if you could start your nap over again?

Day by day, she fought to stay awake. At night, facing the wall, she could see her breath come back, stirring her into place. Her gaze could only see an odd, black shadow.

The plague.

Napping feverishly on an ex-boyfriend’s mattress, my breath came to me, rousing my face. There was no odd black shadow, only the installation piece (University of Calgary, Faculty of Art, 2001) I completed about a red cross and red intersecting paint brushes. Over time, the red morphed into a black matte surface, replacing the glowing red symbols with something different…

The sound.

I gasped for air, clutching my heart staring into Kevin’s barren closet. I saw myself as a ‘doctor’, healing the world from every known pain of mankind. In that moment, my heart sung and I cried. I felt adorned, yet I was confused as to how this could have happened. How could this be a reality that I, Chona Fe, changed the world? Healed it, in fact. How could I be the charging force that put everything into place?

The only other time this happened, I was napping, this time at my aunt’s house in one of the empty rooms. (Note: Filipino homes always have empty rooms; they’re probably accommodating ghosts.) All of the 90s furniture, including a stark, reflective black master’s bedroom set, had no meaning or design in that place. That place where I slumbered and was suddenly awoken again. I think I was 13, sitting up abruptly on the right side of the bed, staring at myself. Yelling. Screaming at the top of my lungs.

Stop!

I wasn’t looking at a reflection of ours.

The reflection.

My brother (Alan Abad) and cousins (Ryan and Vanessa Skinner), ran home from the playground in the centre of the crescent (71 Maryvale Cr. N.E., Calgary, AB). They heard me scream. They were horrified to think something horrible had happened. But nothing did. I was alive. I wasn’t attacked or eaten by monsters. Vanessa grabbed my shoulders, shaking vigorously and I blinked slowly three times, “What. The. I…don’t know what just happened, but I think…I died and saw…a different person…in…” I couldn’t even continue. It was that bad.

Scared?

She Saw Him First

Hi everyone! Try to decipher the duality I refer to throughout this story. It will make complete sense…both ways!

In university, I was fervently attached to impermanence and how it spoke to love and the meaning of life. My creative process started with a blank canvas, although it did not have to be canvas, it could have been anything.

Definition: Complete; sheer.

Purpose: To feel everything; to be whole. 

And with that, I commenced. Commenced a process of removing completeness; commenced a process of covering up visibility – to reveal something different. I utilized a very special skill set that I have discovered and use fervently today.

What is this very special skill set you ask?

I’m not sure, you tell me.

Identity?

I am simple. I am me. I am beauty in everything. I am everywhere you need to be.

Pushing down non-artistic capabilities; denying intellectual understandings. It was easier to pretend that I didn’t have drive, than to begin the self-exploration required to achieve bigger and better things. I hated that I lacked moral support. I loathed that I was just an ‘artist’. If only I had been shown empathy and was equipped with real world survival skills, everything could have been so different.

Thus, laziness could be defined as such –

Everything should be unique. The space-time continuum moves forward and does not evaluate past failures, previous motivations or work.

My struggle with identity began as a young woman. I felt completely transparent and to make matters worse, my mom would try to help me by uncovering my supposed weaknesses – piano, French, public speaking, pretty much everything. I just wasn’t at the receiving end. I did not know how to define it or how to get there with her help or by myself. So, where did this laziness come from? Was it genetic? By the time it would have mattered (from high school to university) my mom did not have the energy or input abilities to output my success on top of everything she was dealing with (likely mental health issues and more severe complexities). She struggled with many things, and so I struggled with the same. So is that it? I was lazy to take care of my mom? Growing up was about resisting and playing, if safe.

We both lived in fear.

Fear of being; fear of leaving.

Fear is weakness. Be passionate. Be real. Be able to tackle everyday things with insight, knowledge and strength. Who I am today.

The past can come back to haunt us, but we choose to live in the present. We must.

Who remembers the wallpaper in their baby bedroom? Who recalls the vibrant tones of shag rugs in every ‘box’ throughout the house – intense violet, indiscernible mustard, Oscar the Grouch green, rusty red and so on and so forth. Do these memories matter? Yes and yes!

Definition: He has a green body, no visible nose, and lived in a trash can.

Purpose: To love my body, my style and the way I write. 

Outcome: Writing is code, it is a system we are creating for ourselves and more importantly, for others.

Who recalls bubblegum pink mohair, fresh brand T-shirts from The Body Shop or Le Chateau. Things have changed so much in fashion; things have changed so much in our world.

We are united, we are technological. We are happy and we are digital. 

Really?

Yup, listen to me. I still need to figure out how to convert everything! How do I realistically explain our digital way of being? Not there yet. It will come.

Rewind.

In university, I obsessed over process to the point where I think it became my source of envy. I didn’t understand how he (Bradley Harms, artist, Calgary, AB) could make prints nothingly-ly.

How did he do that?!

I do not know; I am so worried.

Are you sure?

Listen, at the time, my inner artist screamed. It didn’t matter that I was making things with my own hands or that I was taking things that were already whole, erasing them and reconstructing a sort of murder scene using Exs and Ohs. It didn’t matter that I was mapping. Or napping even. What mattered is that I could have turned out. What mattered is that my mom loved my art. But it wasn’t enough. It will never be enough until I succeed!

I was meditating, frowning worries and heartaches away from medicated pens and BIC Wite-Out. In my mind, I was substantiating Gilles Deleuze…and I quote:

“Writing has nothing to do with meaning. It has to do with land surveying and cartography, including the mapping of countries yet to come.” ― Gilles Deleuze

Definition: The technique, profession, and science of determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them.

Purpose: There is already a movie about language saving the world. It’s called Arrival. Can we really still cure cancer with letters? Bubble letters at that (Blocks speaking of Bubble + Blocks, Calgary, AB, 2005)? This was my original thesis, you see.

Outcome: Today, I do not know the answer or I am tired. That is the thing with Global Comprehension. It involves too many things. The only sure thing I’m certain of is, I will be the one to figure it out and communicate it to the masses. Just wait and see! 

Mapping the continuum can spark regret; so better focus on real world debacles.

This is already occurring.

I am something out there.

As per Greenpeace.

My trek is long and arduous.

Bold and filled with assumption.

What matters however, is living continually knowing that I am loved and spectacular.

And must I reiterate. No thanks.

All of this work transmutes the power of love and the power of regression through ignorance.  Still, we get tired of things. Always.

They all say: she is trying to objectify life; she is avoiding subjectivity.

The beauty is in interpretation!

Thanks to you, Chonie (my mom with depths greater than the sea).

5 – The Train Ride

I had a semi heart attack when I realized I left my computer at work. Daisy folded her legs out of bed, throwing her white duvet toward her pillows in an act of defiance or something like that. For some reason, she could feel her forehead wrinkle as she quickly discerned, “Oh, just wonderful. I’m angry again.” She walked towards earth, sashaying in a banana yellow-toned gold.

Comma.

She entered. Now, walking criss-crossed down the tree-lined, brick-rung park pathway, she hated this part. She knew they tried to conceal the portal at the ‘end’ of the line, but you could always see it. The air around it was crinkly and wet. It was also technologically Prussian, giving off data to Whom (a.k.a. Google Analytics). They were still around, you know. In any case, she supposed most disconcerted artists would notice it.

Daisy proclaimed with both arms outstretched toward the new entrant, “Hop right in!” She was stretching really. He didn’t notice it. He was a mediocre-sized weasel carrying ‘today’s’ paper and sporting a rather smart trilby hat appropriately coloured rat. Hmm, I wonder if he’s just come in from the races? Daisy adjusted herself, pulling her navy blue rayon skirt down her legs.

Filburt squinted quintessentially. She has to think I’m coming here from the 50s, otherwise this proposition just won’t work. “Ahem!” Daisy stopped daydreaming of moment memories. She was playing with the ‘quaint daisy design’, imagining days of lorn, when she was just a wee little cartoon.

“Yes?”, “What is your girth? And are you in a state of dominant Manipura?” 

She didn’t even bother to reply. What a stupid statement. Of course she was. She always was. Especially in Free state. Daisy curtly ruffled her shiny snakeskin BCBG and answered him, “I am now going to roll my eyes and you are going to walk that way, in this direction.” Filburt trembled like a dandelion in new spring wind and promptly – disappeared. Goddamnit! Skirt?! Stomach?! For Christ’s sake!

I don’t have time for this patience. The Need paused. This is not something new. The Pause crossed long, lanky arms and turned his eyeballs in reverse. Training never ended, Daisy hated it. She had been through it a million and ten times. She was even beginning to seem like him. The father of all wrongdoing. Addictions created them. Where found them. Elevententeen was their only solace.

Please come, spring.

 

The Homeless Men

Hi everyone! Sometimes you just have to use  an expert’s voice!

I shall embark on this challenge to pull myself out of slumber…yet again, my God I know.

(Seth Godin’s challenge consisted of 100 blog posts a day – this story is a post about x amount of homeless men having one conversation with me the expert. Can you identify them?)

TODAY

My vigor is lost and it must be reinstated. So, here goes two months-ish of creative and technical credit. Perhaps some continuation of Daisy’s adventures in. Or should I say, at Elevententeen? Some free photos, you know. For days when I’m feeling too lazy. And what about samples of graphic art? Is there anything else worth more? I’ve been developing at the rate of a rabbit, gosh darn it!

I’ve been introduced to a multitude of applications, which seem to be more about bunnies reproducing. Interesting? Practice. And concepts (of principles and ideations). It’s effective. This is the glory of creation! Making things to build things; systems to make duties simpler (they do that though). I will also be throwing in my work (templates, sales documents and the sort), which I may add, are becoming more and more succinct every day. La la. So keep working, they’re supposed to evolve and eventually become fit!

2 DAYS PRIOR

I am still testing things out and I’m not really sure insight selling is working. Or maybe it’s eating eggs Benedict and strawberry covered waffles 4 x per week. But maybe it is? I will give it another year or so to see. Theoretically, it should take minutes to develop. Sort of like walking away. If you are telling me you’re in, that’s what I’m saying! And, I’m sorry if I come across negatively, it’s my army suit and optimism. Let’s start one thing, here goes something! It all dissolved as soon as I weighed myself and saw the dreaded number I was ever so in denial about.

MAKE SOMETHING EVERYDAY does not equal to EAT WHATEVER YOU PLEASE. Seriously though, it’s funny but it’s not.

The outcome of this assignment will be –

  • Improved voice in messaging
  • Happier disposition
  • Greater appreciation of my worth

PS – My intention with this post was to work on said skills above, but it is now (August 15, 2019) to express the right in the right should the right come through. What I mean to say is: Universe, you sure throw a lot of coincidences and happy lookin’ faces my way. Is there a proprietary patent pending that I’ve developed, developing? Sunshine and 80s music all the way? Ya expert, that’s the outcome/result of you going on a diet!

It commenced on December 4, 2019. I had crashed. Tired and done with my STEEZ. I just wanted to change absolutely everything about my life. It had felt like everything that could have possibly went wrong did. And everything about myself and my surroundings was suffering. Failing relationships. Wandering marriage. So, on that fateful day I told my husband of said suffering and he booked an appointment with my doctor and specialist. In the specialist appointment I was instructed to start a chart, so he built one for me in Excel and put it on my phone. The next step was the one I had been dreading for the past year – you have to weigh yourself Chon. And that was it. The end of it. The end of my demise. The end of my ignorance and futility. So, since then I am now on a lifelong mission, to actually commit to the most important thing anyone can do – to be happy and healthy.

This is, creative writing. Delving into the unknown, because you know it like the back of your hand. It’s confusing, but works well for developing a screenplay!

Ta-ta for now!