Sharing My Voice with You

Merry 2015! I'd like to share my inner voice with you and my inner eye. This is a personal piece I wrote and recorded almost three years ago. It's simply called, "Dear Love of My Life." I just put together a compilation of photos I've taken over the past six years to accompany my raw sounding voice. Anyway, as an artist, I like it with all its imperfections. I only have eight views though, I guess poetry and the title "Dear Love of My Life" isn't a strong selling point.

What do you think?

Also, I'd like to share a poster that my director JJ posted for the short film I worked on in the fall - coming soon!

"A Fragile Dream"

Last weekend, I shot a couple of scenes for a short film called "A Fragile Dream." As I promised in one of my blogs, I'd post some pictures - so here is the post. I only had a couple of lines, but it still took many hours! I played a Chinese teacher who spoke English and then a family friend who spoke Chinese.

Teaching is hard! I know this as I once was one.

It was a good amount of fun as the cast and crew were all amazing. It is hard to shoot with kids, though! I'm glad they were good sports.

My expression sure is charming right here.

As a reward for the hours of hard work, I got to take home some organic oranges and grapefruits fresh from the tree of the nice woman named Vicki who had let us shoot in her backyard. Yay for homegrown fruit!

Again with a charming expression!

I've also met a cool group of fellow actors/directors who hold their own workshop to practice. It has been fun - we didn't end until 2 am yesterday! I'm also going to start taking class at the Joann Barron/D.W. Brown studio next week. It means I'll have to commute to Santa Monica, so we'll see how this all works out!

And lastly, in other news - I recommend all Los Angeles based people to check out the "Art in the Streets" exhibit at the MOCA in Little Tokyo. It reminded me how crazy artists must be - but at the same time, how much detail and genius must be put in to those works of art.

It took a certain level of crazy to achieve this. On that note, I should bring my actual camera with me to capture these works of art...I haven't taken it with me anywhere at all these past few months! Shame on me.

And the Best Acting Award goes to...

...us!

Our ensemble cast took home the prize of Best Acting out of the San Francisco competition in the 48 Go Green competition.

I attended the screening of all sixteen films at the Lumiere Theatre last night. It started about an hour or so late as the man in charge was stuck in traffic on the 101. So, the practically full house proceeded to wait. While waiting, we were treated to an episode of an anime called "Eden of the East," complete with a naked Japanese teenage boy.

I felt nervous at the thought of seeing myself on the screen, with practically a full theater. Our film was third to the last to be screened, so I watched the first twelve films with a feeling of unease in my chest. My heart was beating faster than normal!

While not all the films could be considered absolute masterpieces - I still had to applaud each team for making an effort. To write, shoot, and edit a film in a mere two days certainly is an accomplishment in itself. Certainly there were the confusing films and the ones that probably set out to make absolutely no sense at all - but that's besides the point. I was sitting in a theater of people passionate about making and producing art. Art, just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, is it not? This was a theater of people who sat waiting for over an hour just to see the five minutes they had labored to produce.

When my face finally flashed on the screen, I was a bit aghast at myself - you know the feeling of a clenched jaw and that warm tingly feeling on your back? But, yes, that's me and that's who I am - and there I was! After all the screenings were over, a stranger told me I had done a good job. Why, thank you! Felicia Hom is glad.

What makes an artist... an artist?

I lay in my bed last night with this on my mind.

A classical pianist, like my beautiful friend Chika, cannot become a pianist in a matter of one day. One simply cannot decide to be some great concert pianist without ever touching a piano and then the next day become anything remotely close to legend. The same can be said for dancers, painters, and actors - well, at least maybe.

I formulated some raw formula 'math' formula in my head to describe what made a true artist. Hard Work + Dedication + Passion + Raw Talent + Training =? Artist. (all right, so it's not math at all) Then, I revised the equation. Hard Work + Dedication + Passion + Raw Talent + Training + Emotion + Extra =? Artist. Of course, each artist is different. So let's say each of those components to creating an artist is unequal, and each has a different multiple. Say... (a)(Hard Work) + b(Dedication) + c(Passion) + x(Raw Talent) + y(Training) + z(Emotion) + n(Extra) = (some degree of)Artist.

You may have artists of all walks of life and of all trades. But, I suppose my focus is on actors, since that's something I'd like to do and even have my business card printed saying that I am one.

There are all kinds of actors. There are the amateur actors who perform on small stages and do it just for the love and fun for it, perhaps. Then there are the working actors who actually make a career out of acting - be it on stage or from audition to audition in Hollywood. Then there are the stage legends whom many people may have never heard about, save those who really care and appreciate theater. Most visibly are the movie stars who are in big name films and are seen all over the world - these are the people who end up most closely associated with the word 'actor' by the common populace.

Perhaps the best actor out there is some unknown guy sweating it out on a stage in God knows where in the Midwest. It may have been one of my English teachers in high school who first put this idea in my head, as I now strain to remember who said it. So I suppose, in the equation of what makes a successful (the definition of success also can be argued) actor, you have to add in the 'luck' or 'connection factor.

And unlike the case of the classical pianist, it might very well be possible that someone who hasn't had any training whatsoever can be presented with some great acting opportunities and be considered an actor. One day a nobody, the next day a somebody. Perhaps this person was extremely good looking or just happened to be yelling at her boyfriend in the tube station and had an agent spot her out (true story, apparently).

So then what exactly makes an actor an actor? Does he or she need to have gone to the Yale School of Drama? Obviously not everyone can or has. Or at least have her BFA? Where does one draw the line? Of course, after having completed these programs, these actors will have had proof of rigorous training and that's always respectable and desired. I mean, a doctor is one with a M.D., regardless of where it was obtained - but of course no one can just walk into a hospital and be a doctor. But can you just walk in the door to an open call and be an actor? It seems one can, given this individual has a great amount of raw talent and combination of the correct looks. Sure, it may be rare, but it still happens. But, I mean, maybe this walk-in actor will still have to work up to a level where they can be respected by a community of actors who all have worked much harder than this newbie and undoubtedly will have some natural bitter feeling. It's not a fair industry and everyone knows that.

Is an actor automatically an artist? Not always. I suppose if this actor lacks that emotion, heart, or interpretation, there's no way I could consider him to truly be an artist. If one simply recites lines with acted feeling, is that enough to be art? Probably not.

For me, in the brief time that I've studied acting, I really do realize how difficult it is to actually become the character - be immersed so that the audience will forget that you are actually just an actor and not that character. Can I play a dying hooker who is addicted to drugs and dying of emphysema? Not really. Can I be believable as a man? No, I think not. It's not as if I will be cast for these types of roles in any case, but a truly great actor is one who really can become...just about anything. Right? And it's hard work, unless you are a true genius as Uta Hagen said.

I suppose all I can conclude is that...the artists are the one who create something real - out of abstracts, words, colors, emotions, movement - when there wasn't something there before. Art can be anywhere - maybe in the form of a car or code. In theater or film, it is a collaborative process. The playwright weaves the story, the director crafts it, and the actors bring it to life. It's the same when making music. All I know is that if you've ever waited in the wings behind stage, already as someone who is not just you, you're giving life to art. You have made it.