“All Our Families” portfolio, as published in a 34-page spread in Diario magazine in Italy. ©2000-12 Isaac Hernandez. (More photos below)

I wanted to be a photographer to make a difference. Thanks to perseverance and luck, I believe I finally did, if only with one photo essay. It was the year 2000. I got a call from USC Religious Studies professor, and writer, Juan Herrero Brasas. He was referred to me by Carlos Fresneda, bureau chief for El Mundo in Spain. Juan needed a photographer to travel with him to San Francisco to document a gathering organized by All Our Families for children of gay families to socialize and have a good time. I rented a Hasselblad, loaded it with black-and-white film, and was ready to go (not quite because I had loaded the film backwards, but a kind Samaritan-photographer showed me the correct way of loading the film, and the rest is history).

Juan spend a few minutes doing interviews before I snapped two or three pictures of the happy families. The result was published in Magazine El Mundo, with a beautiful article by Herrero Brasas with the title “Papa y Papi Me Miman” (Daddy and Poppy Love Me). I was really moved by the love present in these families, and I’m eternally grateful by the generosity of the people who allowed me to photograph them.

The article generated an uproar in all media in Spain, sparking a national debate. From what I heard, the photos were shown on TV, and plastered the walls of bookstores in Lavapies, Madrid’s equivalent of San Francisco’s Castro District. My friend’s hairdresser had it on his wall and was moved to tears by its significance. It started a conversation that a few years later resulted in the legalization of gay marriages and adoptions.

A few years later I would meet Maurizio Garofalo, editor of Diario magazine in Italy, almost by chance at VISA Pour L’Image photography festival in Perpignan, France. A war documentary had left me with a feeling of despair; it seemed as if everybody hated everybody. As I walked out of the theater, I needed to talk to anybody to remind myself that there’s love in the world. I talked to the first person I saw, and that was Maurizio. He asked to see my portfolio of gay families and fell in love with it to the point that he published every single image in a special issue, under the title “Radicci dell’Odio”, or “The Roots of Hate” (seen here). It illustrated the most comprehensive gathering of stories on gay rights ever published in an Italian journal, with stories by renowned Italian thinkers and writers. I’m happy and proud to share the love present in these images. Like my son said wisely when he was just a toddler, “Let’s love all the hate away!”

Yes, there are still some growing pains that we will go through, I’m sure. But no matter who wins the election, this is a giant step for humanity. In honor of this decision, below’s an article that I wrote in collaboration with Nancy Black for Marie Claire in Brazil. It’s based on a shorter version I wrote for El Mundo, after photographing 48 weddings one day in March at the San Francisco City Hall. 32 of the photos were published in the article you can see below. It was the year 2004; It seems so long ago…

"We are very thankful to our Mayor Gavin Newsom for supporting gay marriage!" - Robert Teague and Daniel Ashbrook, educator and mortgage banker. March 3rd, 2004 Photo: © 2012 Isaac Hernandez/IsaacHernandez.com

“The Sweetest Civil Disobedience”

Text: © Nancy Black and Isaac Hernández / Photos: © Isaac Hernández

More than 4,000 couples took the unexpected opportunity presented to them by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who allowed same-sex marriages to be performed at City Hall over 29 days, before State and Federal pressure closed them down.

On the last days before the weddings were stopped, Marie Claire was there, witnessing about fifty homosexual (and three straight) weddings in one day. Love was in the air. They came to City Hall to perform “the sweetest act of civil disobedience”.

Absurd to Hate Your Teacher

Anne Peacock and Suzanne Aldridge, both high school teachers in San Francisco, were pleasantly surprised when more than 30 of their students and some parents came to witness them tie the knot. Anne’s father hesitantly flew in from New York with only one week notice. “When he saw the smiling students at the ceremony,” recalls Anne, “and heard a chorus of congratulations in the school courtyard the next day, and saw me come home with a homemade cake from one student and a beautiful gift from our principal, he told me that he knew he made the right decision in coming. The students’ enthusiasm was infectious.”

“This issue really does need to have a human face,” continues Anne. “It is easy for people to hate ‘the other’ but much more difficult and even absurd to hate your teacher or cousin or neighbor or daughter or nephew.”

Many ceremonies at City Hall were small, but the emotions ran high. “I declare you a couple,” said minister Bill Jones on the high marble steps of City Hall. Somewhere else in the building, Donald Bird, another recently-appointed minister, announced, “I declare you Robert and Dan”. Applause continuously echoed throughout the building. Some couples sought out an intimate corner, others married on the middle of the main steps, surrounded by tourists and visiting school children; seeking official standing to promises usually long ago given.

For children of gay parents, the weddings gave them validation. “Our son Ari has been very interested in the prospect of our getting married for many years now,” explains Carol Lefkowitz, who married Ellen Oppenheimer. “When Mayor Gavin Newsom began this process in February, Ari (Ellen’s son) was immediately questioning if we would participate too.” Ari was thrilled. All day long he continued to smile and recall favorite aspects of the ceremony.

“We discussed the wedding with our oldest son, Dustin (9 years old),” explains Charles Penn, “so that he would know what’s going on, what it means and that he’d be going with us. Afterwards he seemed very quiet and unenthused. We asked, ‘Don’t you want to go?’ and he said ‘No.’ Jerry and I were very surprised, and asked why not. He said, ‘I really don’t want to see one of you guys in a dress.’ After we finished laughing, we explained no one was going to wear a dress, or a tux, or throw rice. He was much happier then.”

The happiness and emotion was contagious. It even spread outside of the City Hall walls. Flowers were sold out daily, as anonymous donors worldwide called to have flowers delivered to the new couples. Even the hotels in the area pitched in to make the occasion special. “When they heard we were there to get married, they moved us to the bridal suite for the same price as our room,” explains Renae Julson, just married to Linda Wheeler. “It was so thrilling to be treated equal. Everyone at the City Hall was so exuberant and supportive. We even got to meet the Mayor and give him our thanks and support.” The Mayor of Seattle signed an executive order recognizing their marriage upon their return home.

Article as it appeared in El Mundo, on March 7, 2004. ©2012 Isaac Hernández/IsaacHernandez.com

The selfless dedication of city workers and volunteers made the occasion more special than many couples expected. Jay Manley puts it best: “I think we were both really stunned by how moved we were by this experience; for us it was deeply personal and spiritual. We have been a couple for over 15 years, had been registered Domestic Partners, but by contrast, that seems like a rather clinical process, sort of like filing your taxes. Marriage has a completely different quality… it’s really a public celebration. We did not expect this opportunity now; we doubted it even in our lifetime. We knew we needed to do it! Even if it lasts legally for only a few days, weeks or months, it is permanent for us.”
Joe Lucinsky, a gay rights activist who was instrumental in starting a “gay tier” at the SF county jail where he worked in the 70’s, also tied the knot. All inmates used to be housed together, regardless of sexual orientation. He had worked with Harvey Milk, a gay activist who had been murdered at City Hall, not far from where Joe married Jeff Beighley. “We couldn’t help but think that Harvey would have been proud of the happenings at City Hall,” said Jeff, “but also felt sad that he never had the chance to publicly and ‘legally’ express his love to someone.”

Susan Darm and Carol Saint Cyr traveled to the City twice in the first week of gay weddings, but couldn’t get married because of the long lines. They finally got an appointment, and Carol’s sister made it in from Sweden. “I have not been much of a proponent of marriage, gay or straight, as the institution is obviously ailing, as evidenced by the statistics on divorce and adultery,” explains Susan. “But over our years together we have committed to each other in every way and vowed to spend our lives together. I cried when the guy that married us started reading the vows. I never thought that I would ever stand up in front of others and make those vows. I don’t know what is going to happen legally in the next days/months, but for me, I am now a married woman forever.”

Steve Muchnick was first married to a woman and then had a happy four-year relationship with another woman before he found his true love, Eric Milliren. “We’ve been together for a very, very wonderful 15-1/2 years,” says Steve, an over-accomplished computer scientist who’s HIV positive. “Neither of us has any doubt that we’ll be together as long as we both live. Getting married was wonderful, but it hasn’t affected how we feel about each other at all. We know that good relationships require hard work, and we are not afraid to do that work.”

“This certificate is for framing,” explains Bill Jones to the newlyweds, “so that when your mother comes you can say, ‘Mother, we’re not living in sin’. And this is to guard under lock and key; you might need to go before a judge to tell them that they can’t take it away.”

“Out of my cold dead hands you’re going to take this from me!” exclaimed Michelle Brodie as she held her new marriage license. “George Bush cannot tell me who I can and I can’t marry.”

Two opposition groups are suing, intending to nullify the marriages that have already occurred. The City is itself taking the issue to California’s Superior Court, claiming that state laws banning gay marriage (Proposition 22) violate the State Constitution, which guarantees equal protection and privileges for all Californians, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

“Love is bigger than government”

It all started in Massachusetts, the first US State to authorize gay marriages, after it decided that to ban gay marriage would violate their state constitution. Local officials are preparing for the weddings, which are scheduled to begin on May 17th.

A hastily-approved bill to amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriages is being voted in Massachusetts, and the issue won’t be completely decided until it goes to the popular vote in as late as 2006.

That’s if President Bush’ proposed National Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriages doesn’t go through before that. President Bush, in full re-election campaign, declared during his last State of the Union address that he would back a Constitutional definition of marriage as “between a man and a woman”. If passed, it would effectively bar any gay marriages in the US, overriding any state laws.

Newly-elected San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (36 years old, married, and Catholic) was present at Bush’s Address. The President’s declarations galvanized him into action, gathering constitutional scholars and lawyers to research their case that California’s new law against gay marriage violates the State Constitution. His own gay advisors told him he was committing “political suicide”. He responded that he didn’t care; that it wasn’t about him, but was a simple issue of human rights.

As Former Minnesota Governor and wrestler Jesse Ventura put it recently, “Love is bigger than government. Think about that.” Addressing the conservative argument that gay marriage is a threat to the institution of marriage itself, Ventura asked, “How is my marriage under attack if two gays or lesbians down the street want to make a lifelong commitment to themselves?”

In a challenge to Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would be “fine” with same-sex marriage if California voters approved it. “I think those issues should be left to the state, so I have no use for a constitutional amendment.”

Unlike Schwarzenegger, Ventura thinks “civil rights issues should not be put on the ballot. We have a representative-style government. Represent your people and vote and stand by what you believe in.”

California Assemblyman Mark Leno (Democrat, San Francisco), reminded the public that in 1967, when the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriages, a New York Times poll showed that 80 percent of the American public opposed the action: “The courts and the people are not always in agreement.”

Spreading like wildfire

In the days since San Francisco, other city officials have intended to follow Newsom’s footsteps, pushing Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to declare that the US Constitution should be amended as soon as possible, because “gay marriage is spreading like wildfire.”

Given the stern Federal opposition, that fire is being stamped out as soon as the coals heat up, wherever it occurs; as in Sandoval, New Mexico, where the Attorney General declared them invalid after only fifteen weddings. Portland, Oregon, also had a short run of marriages.

The Mayor of tiny New Platz, New York, Jason West, began holding gay marriages despite a lawsuit against him for marrying people without licenses. “There’s nothing in New York state law that says that same-sex couples cannot be married,” he told National Public Radio, “and the Department of Health has taken it upon themselves to discriminate in who they issue marriage licenses to. This is in direct violation of the State Constitution, which requires equal protection under the law . . . I think it’s ridiculous to even think that anyone could go to jail for marrying people.” Nevertheless, West stopped performing the weddings after increased legal pressure.

The Constitutional “Non-Issue”

Bush’s move to ban gay marriages has been controversial on many fronts; and it has cost Bush greatly in his standing with gay Republicans -some quite influential. Mary Cheney, the Vice President’s daughter, a self-declared lesbian said back in 2000, “working together, we can expand the Republican Party’s outreach to non-traditional Republicans. We can make sexual orientation a non-issue for the Republican Party, and we can help achieve equality for all gay and lesbian Americans.”

While distancing himself from these Republicans, Bush is courting groups like the Christian Coalition, in whom he may place trust for a win in November.

Constitutional scholars don’t see a future for the idea of a National Constitutional amendment banning gay marriages. The law is very specific on how the US Constitution may be amended, and lawyers will be battling this one for some time. It would be unprecedented for the Constitution to be amended to limit rights. Previous amendments have only added rights, such as giving women the right to vote.

Many see it as a “non-issue”; “what’s the big deal? Let them get married,” while other choose to see it as a threat to “family values and the sanctity of marriage”.
Randy Thomasson, executive director of the Campaign for California Families, one of the leading opponents of the California gay marriage effort, and a key proponent of California’s Proposition 22, banning gay marriage, disagrees. “Four-and-a-half million Californians reaffirmed the unique and important institution of marriage for a man and a woman in 2000, and they haven’t changed their minds about what’s best for the children,” said Thomasson. California had then and estimated population of 34.5 million, 25 million of them old enough to vote.

President Bush says he wants to stop “activist judges” from “changing the definition of the most enduring human institution. After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization,” the president said. “Their action has created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.”

Marriage through the ages

Anthropologists and sociologists agree that throughout human history marriage has principally and fundamentally been an economic institution. Grooms have often been married with or without consent in political or economic unions made by families; brides, with dowry to sweeten the deal, have been commodities to barter. Polygamy has actually been more common throughout the ages than monogamy, which was made popular during Roman times (both Romans and Greeks had gay unions), and with the spread of Christianity. The Bible is full of references to polygamy, like King Solomon’s “seven hundred wives, and princesses, and three hundred concubines”.

The idea of marriage as a commitment for life entered into voluntarily by a man and a woman is actually quite new; only occurring in substantive numbers over the last few hundred years. Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” was controversial stuff; with Juliet, at age 14, defying her father’s choice of her marriage. At the time, it just wasn’t done. Marriages arranged by families were the historical norm in many parts of the world, as they still are in great portions of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Arranged marriages, though said by proponents to promote stable family relationships, are also fraught with abuse, like “bride burnings”, and female infanticide, when families are unwilling or unable to provide dowries. The idea of a marriage entered into by willing and equal partners in romantic love is fairly revolutionary; and even in the last century, has found it’s own difficulties, exemplified by the US divorce rate, in which nearly 60% of marriages end in divorce.

In San Francisco, where gay marriage protestors clashed with supporters, in response to the “sanctity of marriage” argument, one sign said simply, “Protect Marriage: Ban Divorce”. In a country where single-parent families are actually the majority, by asking which would be better: for a child to have one mother, or to have two?

The legal battle in California has only just began. California became the first US State to allow marriages between couples of different races. At that time, if you married in California, you could be arrested when you arrived home in another State. It took the Supreme Court many more years to allow interracial weddings.

These are a few of the questions in a heated and emotional national debate that has come out of the closet. Whatever gets decided here will certainly influence other governments globally; therefore, watch out, world: it could be a bridal revolution.

by Isaac Hernández

As I type this, the Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale is broadcasting live on my screen. Claude Monet’s landscape painting (Lot 35), estimated to be worth between US$1 and $1.5 million dollars is on the block… and it just sold for $2.3 million. It’s pretty exciting to watch people spending so much money on art, even if it seems extravagant. Camille Pisarro’s Lot 36 just sold for $1.3M. Manet is next, then Renoir, Pissarro… The millions are flowing faster than I can type. Constantin Brancusi’s Prométhée (Lot 43) just sold for $11.25M, well over the estimated $6-8M; to think I could have hit the “Bid” button and it could have been mine.

The star of the auction, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, has already sold, well above the starting bid of $50 million and even past the expected $80 million, to reach almost $120 million in just 12 minutes. It now holds the record for the highest price paid for a piece of art at public auction. Before today, Pablo Picasso’s Desnudo, hojas verdes y busto was the most expensive art piece sold at auction. In a private deal, the record goes to one of the five versions of The Card Players, by Paul Cezanne, sold to the country of Qatar for over $250 million, as the prized jewel of a new art museum.

Did Edvard ever suspect that his pastel would sell for $119,922,500? He might have been honored and outraged at the same time; screaming, if I may say. Toward the end of his life, he lived a spartan existence in Norway. Upon his death in 1944, he donated all his works to the City of Oslo, who founded the Munch Museum in 1963.

There are four versions of The Scream, but this is the only one in private hands, and mounted in its original frame was painted by the artist with a poem describing his inspiration. Thomas Olsen, a friend, neighbor and patron of Munch, who helped the artist to hide his paintings away from the Nazis,  bought it in 1937. His son Petter will use the proceeds of the sale to fund a new Munch museum, art center and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway.

People often say that the above oil pastel I painted in 1990 reminds them of Munch’s The Scream. It was one of my first self-portraits. I was not thinking about Munch’s masterpiece when I drew it, but rather about how to draw while having both of my hands in the painting. As I always paint my self-portraits looking at a mirror, I had to switch hands back and forth; the right side of the painting is drawn with my left hand and the left side is done with my right.

Other people say that my paintings remind them of Van Gogh’s. I take it as a compliment, even though it’s also a bit sad, because I don’t intend for my self-portraits to look like those of anyone other than my own.

Incidentally, no art pieces by Van Gogh were offered at this auction, but two of his painting are among the top ten highest priced ever sold at auction: Portrait of Doctor Gachet (1890), sold to Ryoei Saito for $82.5M in 1990 (he was so in love with it that he wanted it to be cremated with him upon his death), and Portrait de l’artiste sans barbe (1889), sold for $71.5M in 1998.

I don’t think my 1990 self-portrait looks like Munch’s painting at all. If anything, it was inspired by the work of artist Bonnie Blau, my teacher at the time. If you want to buy this painting, or any other of my self-portraits, come by Roy!  in Santa Barbara, this coming June, where I’m honored to have a solo exhibit featuring a dozen self-portraits, offered for sale well below $119,922,500. If my paintings are really anything like Munch’s, Van Gogh’s, or anything in between, your grandchildren may have a great return on your investment. There will also be limited edition giclée prints for sale, and an eBook with a collection of self-portraits from the last 30+ years. Or you can just hang out at the opening on June 7 (6 to 8pm) and have some fun.

The last lot of the auction has hit the block. The other top prices have gone to Picasso’s Femme Assise dans un Fauteuil (1941), sold for 29.2 million dollars. Salvador Dali’s Printemps Nécrophilique (1936), sold for 16.3 million, and Joan Miró’s Tête Humaine (1931), sold for 14.9 million. I was distracted typing, and missed my chance to bid.

It’s not a bad day for Spanish art. Hey, I’m immigrant from Spain, just like Picasso and Miró. I wonder if that increases the value of my art, even slightly. Don’t get me wrong, I know I don’t compare to Picasso… and I’m still alive.

The Scream, in Munch’s Own Words

Nice - 22.01.1892.

I was walking along a path with two friends—the sun was setting—suddenly the sky turned blood red—I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence—there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city—my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.      

—Edvard Munch

The Other Screams:

• 1893 (tempera and crayon on board), at the National Gallery of Norway

• ca. 1893, (pastel on board) thought to be a preliminary sketch for the work, at the Munch Museum in Oslo

• ca. 1910 (tempera and oil on board), at the Munch Museum in Oslo

• Munch also created a lithograph of the image in 1895

Salim Ismail, former Executive Director, Singularity University, Mountain View, California. Photo: ©2012 IsaacHernandez.com

According to inventor Ray Kurzweil, computers intelligence will surpass that of humans in 2029. In the meantime, he brings together some of the world’s smartest humans to brainstorm and work together in solutions that will have a positive effect on a billion or more people. This is the Singularity University, founded by Kurzwell, Peter Diamandis and Google’s Larry Page, with the participation of NASA and Microsoft.

Sci-fi writer Vernon Vinge came up with the term Singularity, and Kurzwell adopted it for the title of his book, The Singularity Is Near. “It’s coming, and we must be ready,” said Kurzwell to my colleague Carlos Fresneda, when we worked on an article for El Mundo. When we visited the campus in Mountain View, there were dozens of resumes of applicants pasted on the walls. Only 40 would be selected to participate in the 10-week graduate course, July 2009. We met Salim Ismail and his team, who were abuzz getting ready for the inaugural course.

This year the doubled the classroom size to 80 students, each paying the $25,000 tuition. But the number of applicants has grown exponentially to 2,400 people. The Guardian features a great story on the Singularity University on its cover today. Carol Cadwalladr’s article gives me hope in journalism. And the things that he writes about give me hope in our world. Did you know, for example, that  Craig Venter plans to create microalgae biofuels and that Exxon has already invested $300 million in this project? I didn’t, although it sounds much like the play I wrote earlier this year, The Magical Seaweed, in which [spoiler alert], the villan oil magnate joins forces with the seaweed to make clean energy.

Cadwalladr was fortunate to join the Singularity University Executive Program for three days in March. She describes the learning experience as a combination of lectures by world experts, and getting together around tables with people interested in the confronting the same challenges: Hunger, Water, Poverty, Education… and it makes me think how much our educational system needs to grow, exponentially. My son’s public school, Open Alternative School,is very much focused on learning by doing and working together, but I’m not so sure that other schools are like that.

Luckily, change’s coming, not too soon. For example, my kids are using Khan Academy to learn at their own pace. Sebastian Thrun has launched his own free online academy,  Udacity, after the success of his first Stanford online course open to all. I was one of the 160,000 students that registered. I was very proud to have gotten an A in my first homework. But the following classes got more difficult and, unfortunately, I wasn’t on of the 23,000 who graduated.

What will we create next?

As Diamandis says, “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”

Isaac Hernandez. "Sunburn (self-portrait)". Gouache on paper, 2012. ©2012 IsaacHernandez.com

Last week we celebrated the cast party for The Magical Seaweed with a barbeque that included a beach clean-up. I got a bit sunburn. It was the perfect opportunity to play with my son’s gouache paint set. Who knew gouache could be so much fun? I guess I did, but it had been a long time since the last time I played with gouache.

Sometimes teaching middle school kids is like banging your head against the wall. But the banging must have worked, because the children did an outstanding performance of The Magical Seaweed on Friday, and then they top themselves on Saturday. Everybody had fun. They finally owned the play and ran with it. It wasn’t my play anymore, but theirs, and for that, I declare, I’ve succeeded. Thank you all who supported the children and I through this endeavor, including Jill Cloutier of Art From Scrap, Gary Smith at the La Cumbre Junior High Theater, Gloria and Lissa Ligget, Nancy Black, Marygrace Monteleone, OAS’ David Archer, Hedy Ciani, Jonathan Velasquez, Rose Ortiz, Tony Leon, Shari Hammond, Renee Mata, Josh Morales, and many others. We’re eternally grateful. Thank you kids for the opportunity to play with you. And thank you audience for showing up.

May this play help us believe we can do anything we set ourselves to do, even cleaning the plastic off the ocean. As the magical seaweed says, “We all have magical powers yet to be discovered.”

And may we do a play again.

You can find a selection of 100+ photos from the play in our PhotoShelter gallery, where you can order prints at a friendly price. Your purchase helps me want to do this again.

Isaac Hernandez. "After the play (self-portrait)." Oil pastel on paper, March 20, 2012. ©2012 IsaacHernandez.com

The play is over
Nowhere to hide
Now, I’m low
Before, I was high.

I did the drawing above with a piece of brown oil pastel, but unlike other oil pastels where I build layers upon layers, I traced lightly, treating the pastel as conte crayon or charcoal. I even used a similar pose and composition that in a self-portrait from two years ago (below) done in conte crayon (when I had more hair), which was shown at the Atkinson Gallery back in 2010. Unlike conte crayon, you cannot erase oil pastel, so I ended up tracing very lightly. The result has an ephemeral flair, as if I’m going to disappear, which is the way I’ve felt ever since Carmen’s death.

Isaac Hernandez. "Self-portrait." Conte crayon on paper, 2010. ©2012 IsaacHernandez.com

Bisera Fabrio wrote a very complete interview with Jared Diamond, published in Globus Croatia both online and on print, illustrated with my portraits of Diamond, including the one on the spread above. The story, titled World on Edge: The chance that we will fail is 49%, doesn’t paint a very rosy picture. Jared explains that he would like to see politicians and rich people suffer more in this financial crisis so that they would be motivated to really solve our problems.

Diamond, Pullitzer Prize winning author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies“, “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed“, “Why Sex is Fun: The Evolution of Human Sexuality,” and other books, posed for my camera at his office in UCLA , in front of an aerial view of Los Angeles in the sixties. The photo was used in El Mundo to accompany an interview by Carlos Fresneda. Before the photo shoot, Carlos and I were invited to sit in the classroom during his lecture on the evolution of diabetes, which I found fascinating. I recommend any of Diamond’s books, or the three-part documentary that he did with National Geographic titled like his best-seller, “Guns, Germs, and Steel.”

My words and photos have been published in about 50 different countries in countless languages, but never in Croatia, until now. Thank you Bisera for a great story.

The Magical Seaweed: Mica’s Adventure in the Sea of Plastic, a play by Isaac Hernández and performed by students from Open Alternative Middle School (OAS), opens at La Cumbre Junior High Theatre (2255 Modoc Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93101) on March 16 and 17, at 6:00 pm (Admission $5). The play, inspired in part by a field trip taught by Art From Scrap Green Schools environmental educators, focuses on the impact that plastic litter is having upon the world’s oceans, while providing solutions and inspiration.

Hernández, a parent at OAS, as well as photographer, writer, and painter, says that The Magical Seaweed is a play for adults and children alike. “The kids add a great dose of humor to a very serious issue. In the play, we try to laugh at the problems while providing sustainability solutions.” Students at OAS worked with Hernández to invent their characters and to create the relevant story, learning by playing. The students designed and built their costumes and sets using plastic litter and trash they collected from their homes. Other materials were donated by Art From Scrap, environmental partner for this production.

“I was inspired to write a play about the negative impacts that plastic has on the ocean after going on the Watershed Resource Center field trip. I saw that many of the kids didn’t know about plastic in the ocean and that they seemed really interested. This motivated me to write the play.” Hernández shares. “The Magical Seaweed takes the mission of Art From Scrap, educating about the environment and arts, and makes people think about how their actions affect ocean health.”

Hernández was also inspired by many of the environmental leaders he has photographed and interviewed for the EcoHeroes Project, including oceanologist Sylvia Earle, Andy Lipkis from TreePeople, Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti, artificial leaf inventor Daniel Nocera, and William McDonough, co-author of Cradle to Cradle. The children learn about sustainable solutions while having fun and making their voices heard.

“Many people have worked to make The Magical Seaweed,” says Isaac. “It wouldn’t be possible without the students and their Open Alternative Middle School teacher, David Archer; plus the many parents, grandparents, students, and volunteers. In the same way, it will require the collaboration of many to find and implement solutions for a sustainable Planet Water. As Sylvia Earle told me, ‘the good news is that this is the best chance we’ve got. Never before did we know; and never again will we have such a great opportunity.’ This is part of the message of the play, that we can each contribute our grain of sand, while loving life.”

The evening will include a bake sale and raffle benefiting Art from Scrap and OAS, and a “Trash Art” gallery show of works created by the students. Hernández promises that “The Magical Seaweed will make you laugh and move you. The power of theater has always been to communicate current events. We all learned a lot in the process, like the fact that 70% of the Earth’s oxygen is generated by the oceans.”

The Magical Seaweed is dedicated to three beloved people our community recently lost: OAS teacher and parent Carmen Alexander, filmmaker Mike deGruy, and activist Selma Rubin. They embodied a love for the outdoors, the environment, the arts, and positive education. Carmen was a teacher in the class and contributed to the creation of The Magical Seaweed. Her son, Sasha, is a member of the cast.

March 16 and 17, 6pm
La Cumbre Junior High Theater
2255 Modoc Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Admission $5

Art lovers can invite friends via Facebook for the Friday or the Saturday event.

Isaac Hernández is available for interviews. Members of the press are invited to witness a rehearsal or attend the event with complimentary tickets. Contact isaacarte@gmail.com for more information.

About Art From Scrap:  Art From Scrap is Santa Barbara’s Environmental Education and Art Center.  Art From Scrap provides the community with a Green Schools environmental education program, an Arts Center, and a Reuse retail store. The Watershed Resource Center is managed by the AFS Green Schools environmental education program.

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Isaac Hernández. “Carmen is Gone” (Self-portrait). Oil pastel on paper, 2012. ©2012 IsaacHernandez.com

I woke up this morning with Carmen in my mind, just like every single day, and a sentence in my lips, “We haven’t ask death for an explanation,” except in Spanish: “No hemos pedido explicaciones a la muerte.” And I had to write a poem. I then proceeded to translate it to English (see below), which was easier than I thought, since the emotions are so there. With it I try to fill the void, just like I attempted to do working on the oil pastel above. It started as an orange and blue painting, and soon became very blue, and black.

A la Carmen

No hemos pedido explicaciones a la muerte

No pudimos entender lo cierto

No nos dio tiempo.

No nos acostumbramos al vacío de las horas

El pozo que ayer rebosaba con tu risa

Se traga ahora negro los segundos.

Ya no existen en el mundo lágrimas

Para inundar la emoción a flor de piel

De días sin fin y noches sin sueño.

Tu ausencia llena cada instante

Como el eco de tu voz en la distancia

Que quiere dar consuelo.

Dime por favor que la vida es sueño

Que despertaremos de la eterna soledad

Para reír juntos de nuevo.

To the Carmen

We haven’t asked death for an explanation

We couldn’t understand what’s certain

We had no time.

We can’t get used to the emptiness of hours

The well that yesterday overflowed with your laughter

Now swallows, black, the seconds.

No more tears in the world remain

To inundate our raw emotions on edge

The endless days and sleepless nights.

You absence fills each and every instant

Like the echo of your voice heard in the distance

That wants to comfort us.

Please tell me that life’s a dream

That we’ll wake up from eternal solitude

To laugh again together.

©2012 Isaac Hernández