Diane and Ibrahim
by erica
snowlake
ibrahim and diane blow my
mind. they are out there. everyday. creating art out of life, a village begins
by folks taking a stand, holding ground, raising up the torch. people offering
the totality of their energy for the belief that we can overcome the odds in our
struggle for equality and freedom. outspoken fiery hearts. for fiery times,
venice beach is literally and symbolically the edge of all freedom being
challenged, being lost or won, the nexus of the crisis being pushed to the sea.
they set up their paintings, signs of the times, daily at dudley and the
boardwalk. they’ve formed a band called the Venice Beach Drum Orchestra,
playing from noon to four on the weekends. the band’s divine, at times
comprising up to twenty musicians jamming drums, horns, flutes, guitars, in
cosmic bliss, every color, faith, walk of life representing, a healing godsend
to the passersby.......
beachhead: when did you first set foot on
venicebeach?
ibrahim: got here in
67.
beachhead: what’s the biggest
differences between now and
then?
ibrahim: i don’t recall so
many parking lots. there was alot more beach, trees. it was one big party from
san diego to san francisco, no separation. the cops then weren’t all
involved in this negative force, they were way more community friendly folks.
katrina- they sent cops who’s first reaction was the gun, not a helping
hand. we’ve lost that, greater america. the desire for material things
creates separation, the only way we can go is a spiritual
way...
beachhead: you are part of the
creation of a global and cultural
revival.
ibrahim: resistance against
the material way of life is growing all over the world. children are resisting
because life for children has changed drastically. as kids we grew up without
fear, we had the strength of a whole community behind us. now they’ve
created people to hate, homeless, blacks, immigrants, gays, creating separation
to increase their control. that’s not the california i was brought
to.
beachhead: how
so?
ibrahim: the military drafted me
here for nam. i am probably the only person ever got an undesirable discharge!
every chance i had i’d go awol - up big sur, monterrey, hippie hill in
s.f., joining the black muslims, the black panthers. over in nam i went awol,
believe me i didn’t volunteer. once you become a govt. slave, they come
after you with 38s and 45s. venice was one great party in those days, until you
stopped partying and remembered the street scene. still, nobody parties like
that anymore.
beachhead: a friend of
ibrahim’s sitting silently on the wall listening pipes in: that was before
the 60 hour workweek, the $3000 a month mortgage, the $1000 a month car
payments!
ibrahim: i never had the
desire to have those things. i grew up with land, horses, the countryside.
it’s a blessing - the extreme- i never knew people had to live in
projects. we were taught to love, be free thinkers. at 16 i marched with dr.
king, our farm was close to d.c., the underground railroad runs through our farm
to detroit.
beachhead: i heard you are
related to harriet tubman. where’s our underground railroad gonna go in
venice?
ibrahim: venice is alive, the
spirit of venice is connected to the whole world. this beach is a mecca - all
diversities come together here to worship. whoever tries to stop this, he
pauses, will find themselves....not in the right
spirit.
beachhead: the native people of
many tribes seeded the energy by gathering here to drum, dance and
feast.
ibrahim: all of it! the birds
come here to pick their mates! here you can see the moon touch the water. you
can feel the labor and love the people have left behind - in a funky way- not in
a sterile way. now venice is being squeezed, you can feel it, the construction
of destruction, things are disappearing, things of value, people and trees and
homes. it’s getting hot, even by the ocean now, it’s too
hot.....
beachhead: your paintings
often say affirmations of respect and honor. you paint under the name I M
LOVE.
ibrahim: when somebody sees it,
they have to say it, too. when people change themselves, everything else will
change. the music we play is instant healing, gives them enough in their soul to
last for weeks. this music is not taking them down, it’s bringing them up.
the music we play is the music of king solomon, king david - you get to taste a
bit of paradise before you die - we create totally in the moment and we manage
to come together as One...
beachhead: i
am a believer! the joy i see on children’s faces, the fun it is to dance
on the street with incredible strangers, the way people gather around the band
to hold the music in their
hearts.......
ibrahim: for the city of
l.a. to target me and this music - it’s the same as putting our ancestors
in shackles or making children criminals - persecuting what’s holy - and
the proof of the pudding is that people pay us, and show us their appreciation
in many different ways. this boardwalk is a walkway where ambassadors of culture
create and educate.....yet we also got people thinking about not letting people
eat. it’s only insanity to take that position, to criminalize us. if you
don’t want the mercy, won’t accept the divine, hell, i know
there’s more powerful forces than me, what are you calling for then but
the wrath?
beachhead: ibrahim shows me
a receipt for property taken into custody by the l.a.p.d., including nine
paintings, three drums, a guitar, a mask, banners, signs, all seized for the
dubious crime of “displaying an item”, some archaic lawyerly snazzle
written into the boardwalk ordinance. as well lately cops tend to break up the
band before it even begins by threatening confiscation of all instruments.
still, if anyone knows how to hang in there and bide the storm, it’s
ibrahim and diane, but it all makes one wonder........
why?......
murmurings in the
wind......sitting in the dreamy sand.....why? what’s going on? shit, i
think it’s almost gone.....diane’s smoking cigs in a blue dress with
rainbow tulips. sun-kissed lines cross her face, a gracefully light gypsy beauty
with stories like treasures to share, for the sea, sky, and birds, a weathered
patience she holds. paints her visions on giant 4’ by 5’ canvases,
expressing the beach community in a loving way, in which everybody’s
smiling, looking benevolently out at us, getting along, a way to see through the
random pain to a higher spirit ground, if only we would let it all live, let it
be this way..........we’re rambling........on art.......
diane: when i was a kid, i got
encouraged by my teachers.....paint something besides
dots.....
beachhead: a natural
pontillist, eh? emanations of pure
light!
diane: so i went for realism
from photos, me and my best friend spent our time drawing. we grew up just
inside the gates in belair. 1970 i’m eighteen hanging out in venice. gave
birth to my daughter lani in
1977...
beachhead: we’ll be
mysterious and say she’s an amazing underwater artist!
(laniware.com)
diane: i had a great
teacher at smc in the eighties, taught me how to look, to let go of our stylized
mind. taught me how to stretch a canvas, its a ritual that really makes it your
own painting. i use oils, ditched the turpentine, and linseed over the years.
squeeze straight from the
tubes.....
beachhead: great textures!
hey, where did you meet ibrahim?
diane:
right in that pagoda over there! pauses. laughs. oh, he might have cussed me out
on the boardwalk years
earlier.
beachhead: (note:
ibrahim’s known to break-out prophetic in-depth epic rants at
times)
diane: we’ve pretty much
been hanging at this spot (dudley and the boardwalk), for over twenty years now.
i painted live, like i do now, except then it was illegal to sell stuff on this
end of the boardwalk, undercover cops set me up, i got arrested for, like,
getting donated a dollar for a
painting.
beachhead: criminalizing
artists and musicians has a long strange tradition here.... expressing too much
freedom for and from the system, almost like being naked or making love in
public!
diane: i painted clothing live,
too. animals mostly, ras lions, monkees, tigers, tropical scenes. i crocheted
hats.
beachhead: true venice tribal
ware, like ibrahim’s painter pants, (rainbow pollock
coat-of-many-colors).
diane:
we’ve always drummed here, too. me and jane and her shaggy dog, we’d
drum on sundays to radio reggae shows. when i think of venice, to me, the drums
are what made venice, and why people come
here.
beachhead: and what gives us the
inspiration to dance! when i first met you, you were spirit dancing to the
Venice Beach Drum Orchestra, and swaying so much with the palm trees i felt
inspired to join you. tell me about some of the characters immortalized in your
paintings.
diane: well i sure know
stories about them all...lots of travelling musicians who have laid bare their
souls on the boardwalk. i paint bobbi in most of them, the homeless woman who
helps the homeless, ibrahim drumming, of course, lani, dee, playing shaker every
weekend with the band, tourists who commission paintings to include themselves
in, the woman cop peggy’s in that one, michael who passed away’s
flashing a peace sign, lots of animals, birds, the swingset that use to be on
dudley....
beachhead: speaking of our
furry and feathered friends, you sure are one kind crusader for them. (just then
a white and brown speckled pigeon begins circling us, flashing peacock
iridescence and a ruby redeye)
diane:
(tossing her a peanut from her bag) yeah, she’s the one lost her foot.
people bring me alot of crippled birds, ones that can’t fly well, we heal
them in our motorhomes, give them extra special care. two i’m looking
after right now have turned into
lovebirds.
beachhead: you give them
great names!
diane: my Miracle, my
Blessing, Magic. i’ve known them in the egg, seen them peck through the
egg. this year’s been bad luck, two that were poisoned died, lani’s
spent 500 bucks at the vet, bless her. some people around here actually try to
do them in, don’t like them on their roofs for real estate
purposes.
beachhead: horrible. i remember the
one we were dancing with while you cradled
her.
diane: we’ve taken care of
so many and set them free. sometimes we’d be out walking the boardwalk and
they’d fly by overhead, sight us and land on our heads or shoulders to say
hi.
beachhead: there’s always
birds in both of your paintings. (the inside vista of one of their mobile homes
is swirling sky blue, pink, and purple pastel clouds with soaring birds). one of
your paintings totally sent me for a spell and gave me the shudders in this
amazing lucid/eerie timeportal way. the one of the woman about to be
stoned.......
diane: that’s one
of the many mystical mary’s in the bible. i feel a connection to mary
magdelene, the cast-out seven demons, alot of herstory is written inside me. the
mary in the painting is accused of adultery, she’s dodging the rocks, when
people see it they go into denial and imagine she’s only
dancing....
beachhead: yeah,
she’s dancing like the women in the stadiums in iran under the
mullah’s regime....
diane: it’s
about judgment - take the splinter, no, take the log out of your own eye before
you get all righteous about the speck in the eye of your brother’s or
sister’s. if you’ve been forgiving all along you are going to feel
alot better. when the teachings of jesus are precious to you, you don’t
take lightly to using Him as a reason to have a war and to kill
people.
beachhead: brandishing a
military and police force has become a religion for an elite few. so
what’s your experience on the boardwalk this
summer?
diane: well, i got arrested for
protesting confiscation of ibrahim’s drums a little while ago. it was my
birthday and i was jumping up and down....over the fourth of july it looked like
we were under occupation.... we’ve seen an elderly woman arrested for,
basically, just sitting on a bench protesting, seen Food Not Bombs volunteers
arrested and carted away, lots more people we know kicked out of low income
housing by greedy developers, perpetuation of an illegal lottery system, and an
ordinance that doesn’t allow us to play music
anymore.
beachhead: a few beachfront
residents complaining against the greater good of thousands of visitors and
locals rights to enjoy, visually and orally, what only a dose of spiritual
healing a band like the venice beach drum orchestra can provide in the open air
temple under the sun.
diane: well, it
is our church, our nature, this beach our communion, drumming, dancing, and
singing, our raptures and our
freedom.
beachhead: our ecstasy gone
wild! .....we giggle...let’s hope we’re not
doomed......
look for diane and
ibrahim’s publication Spirit of Venice Speaks, as well as guerilla
revivals of the band, and an ongoing infinite outpouring of conscious Love in
their paintings and presence. give them your support by calling for an end to
the persecution and prosecution of artists and musicians on the
boardwalk.
Posted: Fri - September 1, 2006 at 06:00 PM