A Race

I was dreaming that I was on a foot race. A total of 38 people participated. I was determined to be first. I was racing against this woman whom I haven't seen before but there is something significant about her. It is still a mystery. As I was running, it felt as though I was running underwater. The resistance against my body was STRONG! I got lost during the last third of the race. Feeling angry and frustrated I continue to find my way out! I climbed through railings after railings trying to get back into the race. I saw that same woman I saw in the beginning of the race who was ahead of me at this point.

I finally caught up and took First Place.

Crossfire

Standing in the middle of a crossfire,
Feeling bullets after bullets nearly piercing me,
Feeling betrayed, neglected, unsure which side I am on,
Finally the shells hit me and I was down,
They started to hit me rapidly one after another like standing under pouring rain,
It was a painless death.

2006 UMKC Talent Show

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Codajazz Memorial Garden Sketches

My current commission is to design a memorial stone for the new and coming Codajazz Memorial Stone. The theme of Angels will be carried through their 2007 Benefit concert. The event poster will be designed shortly. Here are the sketches originally for a smaller stone. Number one was the winner. However the stone was upgraded to a 4ft by 6ft granite. So here is my progress for the new dimensions.

Dance Magazine

Magazine layout is probably one of my fav. things to do in the Design field. I enjoy the thrill of exhibiting stories with images creatively.

Preview Covers

These are some of my proudest projects at the Star. The cover with the Film guy was a fun paint splattering project inspired by Egon S. It was done on cardboard and other mixed media. The other of Mice and Men was done digitally. I strive for simplicity and I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Coda shirt

2006 Codajazz Campaign

This year I tried creating all the artwork digitally using Freehand and Photoshop as opposed to an original oil painting.

Inspiration

An art campaign that i completed last year in May for the codajazz fund concert.

Commission

Summer Filled Sky was my most recently creation. It was a 4 foot by 6foot in size. By far the biggest oil painting I have done yet. I am definitely looking forward to more opportunities that allows me to paint that big.

Tallgrass at the Crossroad-Post Private Opening

Well, first of all the H&R Block Grand Opening was incredible. I had the privilege to meet some of the artists that had a piece or two in the collection. The view from the eighteenth floor was quite remarkable. I felt like I was in John Hancock's building in Chicago. They went all out giving the building an impressive and motivating place to work. I felt like I was in Epcot Center in Orlando minus the rides and the mascots. I even ran into a friend of mine who was with his African group providing some African music to all.

Anyway, my piece of Big Muddy III I finished this year was up in the 18th floor, supposedly the executive level. What a treat. I was just happy that they were impressed with the painting and was proud to own it.

Okay it was 6.30pm, time to head over to the last event of the night, the Tallgrass of the Crossroads' private opening. Students and parents were there. You should've seen how proud both the students and parents were. I ran into most of the students I had during the field trip. We shoke hands, shared a few laughs and I made them tell me all about their creative process. It was great! Their parents were so greatful and had only good things to say about their child's experience.

Needless say, the night was an incredible success!!!!! Half of the students' work were sold. Red 'SOLD' stickers were infestiing the sparkless white walls. I was so happy and proud of everyone who contributed. At the end of the night I learned that one of my pieces sold. It was the one that almost never made it to the show. Thanks Beth for the phone call and demanding me to have a Flint Hills related piece in the show. It was all good.

Ended the night at Blue Koi, sharing stories with a friend over some dumplings and bubble tea. YUMMM!!!

Time to veg out.... PEACE!!!

Flint Hills' piece

After looking through the images I have collected on the day when I was at the Flint Hills, This one stuck out at me. In the image I captured, the things that were intriguing to me were the almost vanishing hills in the background and the path in the foreground that led my eye to the very back of the greenery. I was moved by the depth I was seeing in the image.

Well, the exhibition is TONIGHT! I can't wait. I cannot wait to see what the students I had during the field trip had came up with. Most of all, it will be great to see them and quite the honor to share an exhibition with all of them. It'll be a great show!!!!!!

But first I am off to H&R Block Grand Opening in KC downtown. I am excited to see the artwork they purchased from my show.......

Unity Village 2006

Me at Unity Village Aug.2006

Earlier this summer, Paul Dorrell met up with me at Unity Village in Lee Summit, MO to share some light with me and inspire me. This was a month before my big opening. I found a place of peace and much inspiration. The campus was filled with amazing architectural designs and positive energy.

I will always remember to visit the Village to find peace, comfort and a prayer if needed. There I also saw a labyrinth in one of their parking lots. Its a meditative maze, simple, painted with white paint on asphalt. They come in different shapes and sizes.

Lastly, they have beautiful gardens especially the rose garden.

Kelli's Wedding

What a beautiful Dress and Bride!!!!!!!






Kelli's wedding was held on Sept. 23rd. It was an intimate reception. The ceremony was held outdoors under perfect weather. It was during a sunset which made everything shimmered like they were made out of Gold. Kelli and Ian was happy. We were proud and happy for Kelli.

Heres Latin Rhythm, her second family coming out showing her support and wishing her all the best and all the happiness that she deserves.

During the reception, I also ran into my college buddy Jason Simonds whom I haven't seen in almost two years. He was the photographer. It was good to see him, doing what he does best. The food was great. It was a buffet of salad, rolls, fried chicken, briskets, potatoes, and the best in my opinion, the veggie lasagna.

We danced the night away to a live band. It was fun. It wasn't salsa all night but towards the end we were jammin to all the Salsa music that Kelli played during that evening.

All the guys crowded around Kelli to give her a special dance. She was beautiful that night. It couldn't have been any better. Congratulations Kelli!!!!!!!!!!
With us, we have our lovely ladies. From left: Rachel, Katie, Leah, Donna, Lindsey and Kristina.

Cruises | Exotic excursions illustration

An illustration that was published on Sunday Oct 1st, 2006

I don't get many opportunities to Design the Travel cover with my illustration as the lead art so here it is and it turned out great. Not too bad for two days of work.

It started out traditionally with line work that was redrawn with Photoshop over my pencils.

I intended this piece to be digital to kill some drying time. Normally it would be painted. I am still exploring possibilities in the digital world even though I dislike spending my creative time looking at something knowing for a long period of time that would deterioriate my eyes.

Enjoy!

For more pages that I have designed, check out:-

http://www.newspagedesigner.com/portfolios/portfolio1.php?UserID=6384

Looking Ahead (Nov. workshop)

Another edition of Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Here is my next promo card design project for www.kcsalsa.com

I was a little tired of designing another flyer with two people dancing so I wanted challenge and intrigue the readers with a more conceptual piece. Hope you like!!!!!!!

For more samples of my work, checkout www.allanchow.com

Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Flyer design by Lindsey Bridges and Allan Chow.

KcSalsa.com celebrating their 4th year of inspiring people to dance in Kansas City this weekend with them were four renowned instructors such as Psyon D. Scott from D.C, Maricza Valentin from Chitown, Marquita Bianca from Virgina Beach and Jorge Alvarez from Puerto Rico originally but lives in Chicago.

We had over 60 students attending from Lincoln Nebraska and Columbia Missouri. The party after the first day of the worshop was off the hook. Great FOOD, DRINKS, MUSIC by our very own DJ Rumbero (Johnny), the best Salsa DJ in Kansas City and some amazing dancing. It was held at Josue's house. He refinished his deck just a day before the party and managed to host this great Salsa party. The night was almost still. A gentle breeze kept all the sizzling hot dancers cool while they danced the night away.

The last day of the workshop was taught by my dearest friends Maricza and Jorge for Chicago. They were great. It was organized, fun for beginners and challenging in a great way for more seasoned dancers like myself. They were great role models. Students gathered around and shared a few words with the instructors and ended the workshop with a group picture, hugs and goodbyes. ( I am there....just holding the camera and taking the picture)

I think Kansas City just had an informal Salsa Congresso. Until the next time.....

UMKC 12th Annual Talent Show

What an exciting night it was yesterday. Lindsey and I performed on stage for the first time together. The performance went smoothly. We practiced hard. We put in the time and it all paid off. UMKC definitely had talent that night. WE had fun. I had a blast.

Anyway, here is the video:

CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1225493442

Sept.9th, 2006 Opening Reception at Leopold Gallery

Well my summer long anticipated solo exhibition was this past Saturday. It was the same night of my dance team's performance at Dance in the Park which I regrefully missed due to the conflicting schedules. However, I had the privilege to see it on video and it was off the hook, needless say. www.kcsalsa.com

Anyway, I pulled up to the gallery in the crestwood area at around 6.45pm. I recognized some people in there whom I was really excited to see. It was the most rewarding feeling an Artist could experience knowing how far you have came and knowing all I had to do this evening was to relax and enjoy the work on the wall and enjoy the company of fans, friends and clients. I remember when I started on my first painting for the show in July this year. In the middle of the painting, occasionally a glimpse of 20 blank canvasses and a thousand dollars worth of frames that crowded my tiny studio in my one bedroom apartment haunted me.

Everyday I questioned myself if I will ever finish this show. I DID IT! I even took six days off to visit Puerto Rico. That trip inspired me. It was worth the money and risk. So here I am sitting in my car reflecting on my journey this summer struggling to finish this show. All the energy and pressure built up was going to be released this very moment, the opening reception. I was speechless.

The show was a great success!!!!! We managed to sell more paintings at the opening this year than last year. Thats exciting news. It just gets better and better every year.

Flint Hills - Field Trip

Here I am on the Prairie Hills of Kansas, on Saturday morning Sept. 9th.

Months ago, I was presented an opportunity to donate a painting of the Flint Hills to help support my friend Beth Carolan and her Pembroke School environmental art project. Soon the gallery that I exhibit in was involved and the project grew which involved this field trip out to the Flint Hills with a bunch of high school art kids/aspiring young artists along with some professional artist from the gallery including myself. In October 21st, the students and the artists will have a joint exhibition down by the Crossroad district. Even though it was during the day of my exhibition, it was an opportunity I couldn't refuse.

I started my journey at 8.30am Saturday morning. The overcast sky and the cool breeze made the trip quite pleasant. Along the shoulder, wild sunflowers were in bloom. I arrived at the Zbar Ranch around 10.30am. There were around 40 kids, half from Pembroke Hill and half from Paseo Art Academy. We all split up into groups and I had the honor and privilege to be in charge of the drawing class that had six amazingly talented, outgoing, funny, humble and bright students.

We wasted no time but to hike up the hill and started drawing the hills and land that stretched for hundreds and hundreds of miles ahead. We spent the rest of the time chatting about life, Art, school and etc.... Needless say, we had a blast. My goal for the day was to inspire them, encourage them and made sure they had enough references to produce an original artwork for the exhibition held next month. I am so excited to see their work.

Got home at 5.30pm and rushed to get ready for my opening reception at 6pm.

think tank: Morning sun and orchids#links#links#links

Some orchids to please the eye. Thanks for sharing Cheryl. Check out the rest of her blog and phat! images.

think tank: Morning sun and orchids#links#links#links

EL YUNQUE : HIKING AND THE SECOND WATERFALL

We had no idea when this road was going to end before we had to turn around so we decided to hike in the rainforest. There happened to be an entrance to this hiking trail not too far from our last pit stop. I couldn't recall how long the trail was but it was enough for us to realize that we weren't gonna be able to start and finish hiking the trail in the remainder time we had left before heading back towards Loiza for the parade at 4pm.

While in the rainforest, we hiked through a narrow stoned walkway that was 3 feet wide. The road was barely wide enough for us to walk side by side. We didn't notice many hikers around us on the way in. It was hard to get lost since the path was the only possible way we couldn't have gone. It was either a huge drop on the left side or hills and slopes on the other. Once again we were surrounded by sounds of the Coguis (tree frogs). We didn't run into many animals nor any exotic birds during our hike. Although it rained the entire hike but we stayed dried thanks to the thickness of the forest that provided us cover.

After about 10minutes which seemed like forever since we were anxious to get to the waterfall, we started to wonder if we will even see the waterfall before we had to turn around. It was then, some hikers on the way back informed us of the waterfall being 15 minutes more ahead of us. It was a rather relief and exciting.

Suddenly we started hearing noises like monkies calling and I told Jessica that those noises must be people ahead of us because we knew we would've seen monkies by now if there were any. As we got closer to the noises, we heard gushing water falling and there it was. I personally preferred the second waterfall. There was a bridge that parted the path of the fall mainly due to the dangerous rocks and 59 foot drop on the other side of the bridge. The other side of bridge was accessible, we could swim in the fall. Some were just wetting their feet and some were swimming near the fall. As for me, I decided to just test the water out with my hands. It was rather chilly.

We exited the rainforest after visiting the waterfall. By the time we hiked back out of the rainforest, we were hungry. On the way down the mountain, we stopped by a food stand. Next to the food stand of course stood a souvenior store that kept me interested. It was like bait for most tourists. Well it worked! Anyway the food was great even though they were all deep fried. Below you see me with a bbq chicken on stick along with stuffed mash potatoes with beef in the center (its the round looking thing on the plate.) Well, the image you see with a platter and a drink had a cheese stick looking thing (it was actually corn and cheese), the stuffed fried potatoe ball I was telling you about and lastly the fried fish with batter. I was thinking about a side salad by the time I was done with that meal. Oh not to forget the passion fruit refreshment. It was Jessica's fav. drink during the trip because she had another during our next meal. It was good though. I don't blame her.

After the meal our trip back to Loiza begun. But first we decided we had to take a nap. So we found a parking lot near a bakery and a chinese restaurant not to far off the highway. That nap was needed after all that driving and hiking. I think it was the greasy food that was settling. HA!

NEXT: BACK TO LOIZA FOR THE PARADE.