Foundation for Art Resources Bazaar, art fair and art collective festival, took place at Cerritos College presented by FAR.
There were many art displays brought from many different artists which included paintings, drawing, music, and crafts.
Blue Lips was a durational performance by Lara Salmon who portrayed a Ladyboy, walking around the room imprinting her blue lips into random spot.
“Blue Lips was inspired from an encounter I had with a Thai Ladyboy in Bangkok in December. She wore this incredible blue lipstick and left me with a blue kiss mark on a piece of paper”
“I was inspired to perpetuate her blue kiss mark,” Salmon said.
Salmon uses her body as a form of art, “bodies fascinate me, and my art is often inspired by thinking about what they can do that is out the ordinary.”.
She continued, “I consider my practice a biological investigation into how I can use body in new ways. I like performance because it is intimate, immediate and vulnerable. These things are becoming rare in a time that we all become more dependent on digital communications”.
‘Who Wants Bacon?’, painted by Dakota Noot, is a purple demon figure with pigs and writing that was imprinted by Salmon blue lips.
Noots’ work is inspired by his background in North Dakota.
“I write funny one liners and use animal imagery to play with my identity as a queer, rural man. I make my body into cartoon-like character for viewers to watch, laugh at and learn from.
“I like to make it over exaggerated, make it part animal” Noot said.
‘I Like It Like That’ was painted by Chelsea Boxwell who said it was a “piece that started on the floor in my studio catching mistakes like a drop cloth.”
“My work is process based, it’s about layers of mistakes and accepting the unpredictability of the paint, and the time it takes to build up this process”
“Acknowledging and glamorizing the mistakes and accidents in my work complimented the Cerritos space very well, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to work in a space like this”, Boxwell stated.
Boxwell likes collaborating with others allowing them to add to her painting(s) without her having control.
She liked having Salmon collaborate because she did not know where she was going to leave her blue lips on the paintings.
Alex Soneriu, FAR Bazaar attendant, thought ‘Who Wants Bacon?’ was a little scary but was confused by Salmon’s performance.
“Not sure how I feel about it. It’s something I don’t really understand, it’s not like uncomfortable, it’s just I don’t know why,” Soneriu said.
Chantal Defelice, who attended FAR Bazaar due to a friend’s recommendations thought ‘Blue Lips’ was something very intimate.
Defelice said, “I didn’t know what to expect though, this is amazing. It really feels like something historic, it’s only going to happen once.
“So much amazing energy and so many voices, it’s very hopeful for the sake of art and creative people being able to express themselves.”
