This Draft Is Part Of The Series Im Working On, Nippo Greco American, Exploring My Relationship With

This draft is part of the series I’m working on, Nippo Greco American, exploring my relationship with the three ethnic groups I in some way identify with.  The images come from a 1970's Greek cookbook we had in the house growing up.

Zachary Trebellas. Summer/Natsu, study. Scanogram. 2015.

This is a study for one of the pieces I have planned focusing on the Japanese habits that have replaced my American ones. With this one I wanted to focus on the Japanese custom of wrapping a damp towel around one’s neck in the summer to keep cool. It is so tricky to get the composition right when scanning yourself, though. I’ve done other shots where I simulate sweat by spritzing the scan bed with water. It works sometimes, but it’s a lot of trial and error. I guess I just have to keep at it. —— This is part of the series I’m working on, Nippo Greco American, exploring my relationship with the three ethnic groups I in some way identify with.

Zachary Trebellas. Ποιος θα μπορούσε να είμαι στη Θεσσαλονίκη; (Who could I be in Thessaloniki?). Text on 35mm photograph. 2015. In August I spent three weeks in Europe with my friend Shareen and my twin brother Miles. Ten of those days we spent traveling around Greece. As Greek-Americans, he and I were very curious to see the country we’d related to in various ways for our entire lives. As I expected, it was full of foreign and new experiences, but some familiar ones as well. I was happy to be able to see so much of the country and finally experience it first hand. At the same time, I knew ten days would be only a taste of Greek life. Like I did with Japan, I long to spend more time in Greece to get to know it as a place and culture, and to build my own Greek experiences and memories. I wonder when, down the road, I’ll be able to make that happen. Thessaloniki, Greece’s artistic capital and second city, is where I’d want to have that experience. I hope in the future I’m able to.

—— This piece is part of the series I’m working on, Nippo Greco American, exploring my relationship with the three ethnic groups I in some way identify with.

Last weekend my housemate and I drove an hour to West Michigan's Silver Lake Dunes. I'd never been to any of Michigan's sand dunes before and had no idea they would look so alien. Our journey to and from the lakefront was challenging. At times we had to climb over steep sand and ice on our hands and knees. Initially, the dunes themselves were tall and vast, like a snowy desert. Pressing on, we encountered barely rooted trees sticking out of the sand, then an intermediary landscape of frozen sand, and then slick, treacherous ridges made of large balls of ice fused together. I'd heard from someone that they were created by waves successively freezing on top of each other. Lake Michigan itself was just as bizarre as the other landscapes. The water had somehow frozen and broken into thousands of huge triangular shards. They looked like broken windows. If we listened quietly in the near silence we could hear the ice cracking.  My camera doesn't do well with low light, so the film didn't come out as clear as I'd hoped, but it's nice to have some kind of evidence of what it looked like before it begins to melt.

I’ve been taking a hiatus from participatory art because I’m tired of the success of a project being in the hands of other people. I have to rely on unreliable people enough in other parts of my life, I’d rather not have to deal with that in my art, at least for now. I’m a social person, so I’m naturally inclined to make social work, but for now I like the control of having a project that I can do all by myself.

I whipped this up the other day to celebrate the fact that I’m back in the etsy game. Check out my shop if you’re curious!

New items all this month.