SEL SARKIN @ SYNERGY CAFE
May 21, 2006
Art Reception & Performance by Sangoma

Art Exhibition, a collection of new paintings using a style he calls Zen Painting, not to be confused with Tibetan or Eastern paintings.

Also there was a group performace by Sangoma, a family of drumming, singing, dancing, happy folk. After the show I had a talk with Sel's wife, who studied in Germany by African instructors and now teaches dancing and drumming herself here in L.A. www.pashyo.com Pashyo said something very true yet unfortunate about the American culture, "Americans are silly, if you give them an open floor and invititation to dance if they'd like to, they sit quietly still. But instruct them to stand up and form a circle, step this way and clap your hands, they all follow." The cafe was a nice surprise, at first I thought there wasn't any who going on, until I found the back room [slash] hookah lounge with a small group of the artist's family and friends gathered around a delectable feast that I of course couldn't turn my hands away from. It was a great day for my body and soul, waking up to a Chinese bakery with some warm bread, egg custard, lotus seed jam, and jasmine milk tea. But now as the sun set outside, I nibbled on rice and herbs wrapped in grape leaves, spinach and black olives and feta cheese, apples and grapes and flat bread, washing it all down with a tasty selection of juices ranging from French lemonade, sparkling blueberry, gingertea, red wine and champagne. The group took the floor and we all joined in for a little dancing, a very wholesome and serene environment.



Sel's art dawned the walls of the lounge and the cafe, his style bold and vivid, yet graceful.

It was the Art Show Domino Effect that led me to this reception, I call it that when I meet an artist at another show, who tells me about their own upcoming exhibit.. Then at this show, I meet someone to advise me of another, and so on. Like the Hollywood Snowball Effect, you'll learn thru my writing that the nomadic life I lead as an urban gyspy keeps me wandering and hopping from one show to the next. But with so much happening simultaneously here in Los Angeles, it's exhileratingly exhausting to try and keep up with it all.

my new favorite chair in west L.A.:

words/flicks/coverage: shikatoi

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