TWENTYFIVEYEARS
  • you are invited
  • ym archive
    • BIO >
      • links
    • COVID19
    • MINUS8
    • READ
    • vida
    • 20 ANOS
    • PAST >
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • art + writing >
        • e Publications
        • Photography
        • Writing
        • Resources
        • Galleries >
          • 20 Years of Art set up
          • 20 Years of Art opening
        • projects >
          • The Banana Boy Project
          • The Clothes Line Project
          • The Polly Pocket Project
      • 2012
      • 2011 >
        • ifLAB2011
Picture
Picture
Friday 5th June 2020 marks 25 years since the Image Factory Art Foundation launched as a creative, collaborative and community movement dedicated to the promotion, exhibition, and documentation of art, culture, historical actions, and productions from Belize.

Friday 5th June 2020 features 2 new actions by the Factory:

Book + printed matter + art donation
Yasser Musa, the artistic director of the Factory will formally hand over to the National Library Service a collection of over 5,000 books, printed matter materials and original art works. This collection is to be used for public consumption, and the Factory is committed to collaborate with the Library to see how this can be done going forward.

you are invited digital engagement
Below are the submissions to our  new online exhibit. On 1st May 2020 the Factory put out an open call to our community for submissions to you are invited, a digital engagement. And by May 23, some 65 persons responded with expressions of graphic illustration, poetry, essay, notes, photography, video, audio, painting, drawing, sculpture, memes, printmaking, installation, and messages. 

submissions

Picture
Sahar Vasquez
When I look at this picture I see so much hope. So much resilience. So much joy. I was around 8 or 9 when this pictures was taken by my dad on the island of Caye Caulker. I had a broken wrist but I could care less. I was just so happy to be alive. To be on this earth absorbing all its beauty. I am now 24 years old and my life has changed drastically. That Sahar you see in that picture is gone. Yes I am still here but somewhere along the way I lost that energy. Depression, anxiety, and self doubt sucked me into a magnetic hole. I miss her greatly but when I look at this picture I feel inspired. Inspired to get back that Sahar full of life. 

Picture
Anya Marshalleck

Picture
Montse Casademunt

Picture
Carlos 'lito' Quiroz

De la Pichinga para Mamawel

Melissa Espat

La veo indefensa, desorientada y perdida,
y lo único en que puedo pensar es de la fuerza que una vez tenía--
la fuerza de una mujer fenomenal que me sostuvo la mano,
y el Corazón se me parte y la memoria me lleva en aquellos tiempos 
cuando tomé mis primeros pasos que me motive aún
cuando acuñe el nombre Mamawel
cuando me acompañó a Holy Redeemer el primer día de clases 
cuando íbamos de compras a Brodies caminando por las calles de Orange y Albert
cuando me enfermaba
cuando tenía pesadillas
cuando me peleaba con mi mamá (y fueron muchas las veces)
cuando le avise que me caso
cuando sentí la pérdida de un embarazo, y la raptura de mi familia
cuando se enfermo
cuando tenía dudas de su cirugia
Cuando lloraba yo de frustración
Cuando estaba yo confrentando el comienzo de mis peores dias 
Cuando se confundía con palabras, y me decía como de cansada estaba
… estabamos agarradas de las manos con cariño.
 
Me enseño y formento como poner a Dios y mi familia primero antes de todo; 
A perdonar
A amar
A querer profúndamente
A azotar con la lengua
A como maquillarme y perfumarme cade ves que salga de mi casa
A trabajar
A no conformarme con menos
A como ser una mujer fuerte
Me ha bendecido! Cuando su amor se derramo,
penso de mí, y por eso siempre estaré tan agradecida.
La quiero un millón de por vida infinita!


Picture
Jaylan Craig
CLICK on image below for video
Picture

Picture
Shahera Young

Falco

Picture
Ashanti Hegar
Anthony Vaccario Jr.

Picture
Santiago Cal

99.9% of the time Black womxn are told "i tried, but you're combative/difficult/angry/violent" it is delivered by same folks whom we have not allowed to combat us, make our existence more difficult, anger us or  violate us. Zora Neale Hurston was right that "if you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it." 
 
You have to say your truth, no matter the outcome, it is still miles better than the alternative. 
The first few times, i was told, it hurt and i felt i had failed, when i realised how many more Black womxn were contending with the same, i realised it was the world that failed us. 
 
Seventeen years ago, the names Gilvano Swasey, Micheal Gordon and Yasser Musa popped up on my 17 year old radar. As three people from very different worlds, making really huge waves in the art world from 91 North Front Street, Belize City, Belize, Central America.
 
i realised that as much as i wanted to be an architect, because that would allow me the perks of respectability politics, and the  ease of social mobility, not having taken a physics class ever or garnered a good enough handle of mathematics, i went where i had really wanted to go, to art. 
 
And going to the Image Factory as a sixth form student, showed me possibility. Obviously i learned more names like Mercy Sabal, Lita Krohn, Deborah Usher, Sandra March and Pamela Braun, Richard Holder, Sergio Hoare, Santiago Cal, Papo, Sean Taegar, Daza, Jeannie Shaw, Magnus and Eden Estephan to just name a very few.
 
All different kinds of artists making very different kinds of work, and some were, until recently, sixth form students themselves. 
 
It was amazing! i was convinced enough. After sixth form, i went to Mérida, Yucatán to study art. While i was away i kept seeing and hearing of even more incredible things, like books and shorts, and landings. Watching Edita Pariente's Sweet Naranjas in the darken room was me beaming, in my limited Spanish: She, She's from Belize. That was over fifteen years ago maybe. Since then more has happened. We've sadly lost some greats. Still the factory kept changing gears and chips to operate in new realities and ever changing collective consciousnesses. 
 
It is no small feat, that a small mostly unfunded, not for profit cultural institution, has been at the forefront of Belizean contemporary in literature, visual art and even requests for cultural policy change and protest. 
 
Bigger still that this small space has decided, unlike what the art world can be in most art capitals, actively disrupting gatekeeping and erasure. The IF is not perfect, but the IF has tried. 
 
In my 12 year art practise, the IF has been where i can show and see and learn and collaborate.
 
Some years ago, Yasser told a group of us artists about a school project, he often shares what his students are working on, a fish riding a bicycle. That image has stuck with me for very many reasons, but i think the biggest one is that this, what we do every day. This art. This thing relegated to luxury status, unnecessary until all more relevant needs are met, seems like ridiculousness. But as Winsom Winsom has explained, and shown, in many instances here in Belize, art is the force, maybe the reason of life. We make/consume it because the spirit needs it. 
 
Twenty five years. If this were a wedding anniversary it would be easy. Just give you all a silver thing and done. But is not, this is 25 years of grit, gains, losses, failures and massive successes. And oh my goodness, in the times of covid19. So i mulled it over in my mind. Painted, well tried to, designed various sketches for an embroidery piece, that ebbed more than it flowed. A numerology search online finally took me to it, introspection, inner searching and inner sourcing. And hasn't that been it, almost this entire time of facing a global pandemic. And even before of making art from the periphery of the art world?
​ 

i went back to 2018. Because i can not go to any new material anyway. Borders are temporarily closed, my mind's focusing is dull and sharp alternately during this stint.   So i went into my previous work, previous thoughts and anecdotes i had heard, and i pulled a print of a linocut i started but did not finish in 2018.
 
It is a small token, to the Image Factory Art Foundation's twenty five years of "you are invited."
It has always been a collaboration, an invitation, a join us, a sharing. 
 
Thank you! 
 
To be Black and woman and lower middle class in a world that constantly reminds you of and tries to keep you in your place, the IF has been a powerful ally in my attempting visibility, sharing narrative and for that i will always be grateful.

- Katie Usher 
Picture
Katie Usher
Picture
Belize Central Prison
Picture
Rudy Thompson

Myrtle Palacio

Picture
Michael Gordon

Sean Taegar

Picture

Picture
Irma Briceño

Picture
Santiago Cal

click on image below for video

Picture
Picture
Ubaldimir Guerra

Picture
Claudio Ordonez

Anthony 'Rojo' Vaccario Sr.

Picture

Picture
Felipa Briceño

Picture
Carmen Carillo
Enjoying Them Is Life!
 
Now riches, not money,
During quarantine, lonely?
Not at all!
As long as I have them,
Loving and cherishing our time together,
Who cares about the skulls of the day? 
Who cares about the deaths of society,
The ill thinking of the unworthy,
The blasfemy of the pandemics?
 
If we are together,
Everything we do matters, 
Not even the poison of the serpent leaders
Can ever kill us.
For, when we are together,
Only your crystalline laughter
Brightens my heart.
Your cheerful voices fill 
The voids left by time and life.
Our conversations energize my anima!
Your cheerfulness become my daily mantra
And we sing and we dance and we laugh 
With the wind and the trees.
Our spirits soar freely with the birds
And the butterflies join our dancing.
 
For tomorrow does not matter,
We lived today! 
We loved and cherished our company,
 
Carmen Carrillo
May 28, 2020

Picture
Eean Ayuso

Gwen Nunez Gonzalez

Picture
Damian Perdomo

Uses of Literature

I am not an honest poet
capable of sharing
intimate details
of my life

in quarantine
& why should I
bare all with crayons
of a stark & mundane hue

except that this might enchant,
or shock, or teach, or
cause one to
recognise

themselves or something
they too once saw
or forgot they
knew

if, beyond the words, the
life would move some-
one & celebrate
the truth.
 
Christopher De Shield
A poem written on the 4th April during quarantine


Picture
Picture
Stacy Rodriguez

Calcetines negros
 
los calcetines negros
y viejos
que heredé
de mi padre los tengo todavía guardados--
 
me los pongo a veces
para que me devuelvan
el olor de su dolor
cuando caminaba a su milpa--
 
iba primero en cayuco
sobre las corrientes en calma
del New River
siempre con el calibre 16 en la mano--
 
y después atravesaba una sabana
una vez habitada por cocodrilos
con hambre de venganza
 
se balanceaba sobre troncos de madera dura
y les dejaba un recuerdito a esos cocodrilos
que una vez habitaban esa sabana...
 
y algunos mexicanos
con Pesos poderosos
lucen zapatos de cuero de cocodrilo
sin saber que mi viejo
ya no se puede balancear sobre esos troncos
de madera dura...
 
Amado Chan
Granada, Nicaragua, 2013  

 
Black Socks
 
the black socks
old socks
which I inherited from my father
I still keep in a safe place--
 
sometimes I wear them
so that they may return to me
the aroma of his pain
when he walked to his milpa--
 
first he would travel by canoe
on those calm currents
of the New River
always ready with his paddle in his hands--
 
and then he would cross a savannah
once inhabited by crocodiles
with a desire for vengeance
 
he would struggle to keep his balance
on some hardwood logs
and he would leave his memories on those crocodiles
that once inhabited that savannah...
 
and a few Mexicans
with the almighty Pesos
brag with crocodile skin shoes
without knowing that my old man
can no longer keep his balance
on those hardwood logs...
 
Amado Chan

Belize 

 

Picture
Picture
Stacy Rodriguez

Picture

I Apologize

by Delmer Tzib
​

Dear greatgrandfather I write to apologize,
I feel deep within that I have hurt you;
I forget my roots at times

I apologize greatgrandfather,
For I have disconnected from you,
Like a selfie picture,
I tore an image away from my roots.

I apologize for I have forgotten your language,
I got too scared and ashamed of who I was,
I wanted to fit in,
I disparaged my semantics
I decieved you...
For that I apologize

I apologize for feeling ashamed,
For negating my Mayanness
Its not an excuse,
But these modern times caused me to be depressed,

I apologize greatgrandfather for fearing your spirituality,
My mind was in a blocked state,
I saw your traditions as insane...
I apologize

I apologize for feeling belittled, less or backward,
I lost my self in these times,
Grandfather forgive me..

For these and many other things,
I apologize...
Let me connect with you.
Picture
Delmer Tzib

Picture
Richard Holder

Melissa Bradley

Picture
Santiago Cal

Picture
Richard Holder
Image Factory Art Foundation_ Flashback 2002
When I was younger, I rarely looked back as an artist. I never really found it essential to celebrate my past accomplishments in the arts, but rather to keep focusing towards the future. However, in time, I began to grasp the importance of acknowledging the past and the people with whom I shared in the creative process! So now in 2020, I invite you to take a look back with me to 2002 _ a slight shuffling of the numbers and almost 2 decades ago_to a place and a space that has opened many doors for myself and other #artist in #Belize : The Image Factory Art Foundation, on North Front Street.
In 2002, I became increasingly involved with the Factory and formed a kindred bond with my comrades Yasser Musa, Gilvano Swasey and Michael Gordon. I will always be grateful to my mentor, Norman Smith, for taking me to meet my friends at the Image Factory in 1999. My foot-in-the-door/ Ice-breaker was to print vintage black-and-white images in my darkroom (the old school way) for the historical "Fire" exhibit of that year. Later on in 2002, I held my second solo exhibition in Belize at the Image Factory (entitled Muse)! 
The months and years that followed became progressively fascinating, as we took the movement and the message of Art across the country and overseas. We were ambassadors in the arts, paving new ground for Belize wherever we roamed! It was a time of great optimism, with a progressive PUP government rebuilding the Institue of Creative Arts (formerly The Bliss), and subsequntly gutting and transforming the old prison on Gabouel Lane into the Museum of Belize.
Today, nearing the eve of it's 25th Anniversary, I salute everyone who has been a part of the Image Factory experience in any way_including the people who have attended it's numerous openings over the years_ but especially it's visionary director Yasser Musa! Within the past sits our own unique foundation, which helps us to navigate in the direction of our future. Furthermore, that future is made richer, when there is a peacful link with the past! It is all the sum of our legacy! 
Look out for the Image Factory's online display of new works by 55 contributors to commemorate it's 25th Anniversary_ blasting off into cyberspace next week Friday (June 5th)! 
Amen 
_ #RichardHolder


Rising
 
“Like a lid to a vessel, O Sun! Your golden orb covers the entrance to Truth.Kindly open the same and lead us to Truth."

I pressed my palms together in prayer mudra and recited the above mantra.

The words vibrated and resonated out in all directions, gently touching the sea and forming a force field around me.

I gazed at the sun, it's reflection rose in my eyes; and I felt it's golden orbs become my own.
​
Grateful for the warmth and light, I rose up and dispelled the dark and embraced my own inner rising
sun that never sets.

Picture
Maryam Abdul-Qawiyy

Picture
Gema Rios

Greetings Y,
 
Image Factory Art Foundation 
 
U gwen dah dah ting dah Image Factry?
Which ting?
Soe art ting?
Dat dah noe deh PUP people place?
Chuups (suck mi teeth)
I had that experience in different ways a number of times before I cautiously wandered down North Front Street krass from the Chiney whey sell Fry Chicken, before yo get paaah di taaytah does dey.
 
I did not want to like any Image Factory Art Foundation anyting, wooesah anyting fue du wit any Musa.
 
I reluctantly injoyed the music aah food on di patio by the Haulover Creek, all kindaaah people whey go dah deh Community Art gettogehdah, link ups with community based organizations, book launches, government ministries  peeple, e-book series (Bembe Vision), summer youth partnerships, Y, aah y laata, laata pichaa taking self, poetry readings, solidarity meet ups (Cuba & the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela), whaa nadaaah Belizean artist and their creative work being showcase, aaah di media show up aaah only whaaa interview Yasser Musa again, or when yo watch di news dah Yasser get most aaah di air time. Aaah gat yo back Bembe Sis Phenomenal Belizean Black Woman Artist living with mental illness Katie Usher. Tanks to all di people dey dah Belize aah from faahrin whey teck paat eehna IF productions.
 
Yes, anytime I tink Image Factory mi nephew Gilvano, Katie, aaah Yasser coe to mi mind. Salute to all di people deey whey pass tru di IF alley to di IF Art Gallery, di one deh whey krass over to the Spirit realms, di one deeh whey noe coe round noemoe, di diehaaad IF supporters (Grand Master), di just di pass thru ones, di PUP supporters, all aaah unu, all aah wi, thanks.
 
Thanks Y, for the vision and willingness to heng eeh deh fue 25 years wit Image Factory Art Foundation, (IF). Well yo know, yo noe mi whaaa meck it witout Pam. Dah she handle di money bag, aaah kip it real wit yo. Di rest aaah yo family aaah close friends whey listen to yo, tallahrate yo, aaah support yo eeehnah all di ways whey deh stick wit yo fue 25 years, Belizean people tank unu.
 
Image Factory Art Foundation dah whaa space whey soe Belizeans whaa nevah goe, dah also whaa space whey laaatah Belizeans laaan more bout dehself aaah aaahdaahs true art. IF really meck art feel like art dah paaat aaah wi life instead aaah like whaaa cold museum.
 
Anyways, when aaah staat to write dis, aaah nevah no dah soe y mi whaa ton out.
 
Baaatam line, aaah hope Image Factory Art Foundation deh bout fue whaaa laaangah laaang moe time dah Belize.
 
In Solidarity!
Sistah YaYa
May, 2020
 
Thanks Y, to be able to know and live your purpose for as long as you have is a recognition of your determined Spirit.
 
In Solidarity!
 
NaNa YaYa

Picture
Carlos 'lito' Quiroz

Rio Hondo: Speak to us!
 
I'm Nohoch Ucum!
Yet you call me Rio Hondo. 
My history is longer than 93 miles
and my wounds are too deep. 

I'm Nohoch Ucum,
I embraced your forefathers,
the Maya, the Mestizo,
the English, the Spanish,
the Creole, everyone without prejudice.
 
Ask the chiclero,
ask the logwood cutter,
ask the farmer,
ask the fisherman.
 
For centuries thousands have travelled my waters,
not knowing I'm Nohoch Ucum.
I can still listen to the canoes,
the sharp machetes, the explosives,
the guns, the axes, the falling of trees.

I heard the cry of the Llorona,
the whistle of the Alux.
Yet you don't know I'm Nohoch Ucum. 
 
Many of you remember me as Rio Hondo!
ONLY when you have to be at my river banks and leave. 
Only because I'm included in your history books and treaties.
Only when you have to stand straight
and sing the Belizean National Anthem. 
Yet you forget I'm Nohoch Ucum.
 
My waters and banks has been a source life! 
But many saw them only as a source of economy,
of politics, of migration, of colonialism, of slavery.

A source of war, a source of borders,
a source of nationalism!
Yet you forget I'm Nohoch Ucum!
 
I'm Nohoch Ucum,
my sons and daughters
live along on both river banks of the Rio Hondo. 
I'm Nohoch Ucum, take care of the mighty Rio Hondo!
 

Hugo Carrillo Cocom

Picture
Richard Holder

Picture
Yasser Musa
Margaret Welcome

Picture
Eden Estephan
Picture
Kirkland Smith

Picture
Patrick Castillo

Adlar Coc

Ashanti Hegar
Picture

Harold Young

Picture
Jaye Wagner

Kervin Mitchell

Mary Francis Espat

Karen Ross

Picture
Picture
Robert Buckland

Lita Krohn

Picture
Bill Skinner

GILVANO SWASEY

CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW FOR slide presentation
Picture
Ricardo Moguel
Picture
First publication of the Image Factory Art Foundation, for first show The Young Realists, June 1995
Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • you are invited
  • ym archive
    • BIO >
      • links
    • COVID19
    • MINUS8
    • READ
    • vida
    • 20 ANOS
    • PAST >
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • art + writing >
        • e Publications
        • Photography
        • Writing
        • Resources
        • Galleries >
          • 20 Years of Art set up
          • 20 Years of Art opening
        • projects >
          • The Banana Boy Project
          • The Clothes Line Project
          • The Polly Pocket Project
      • 2012
      • 2011 >
        • ifLAB2011