The Untold Story of the Chamurai

I haven't had an art exhibit in about two years now, since my last solo show titled "Before the Storm, After the Fire" in May of 2010. In December 2011, I hung a small exhibit featuring artwork created by my brother Jack but conceived as part of a project I've been working on for quite a while, but only got a small amount of funding to work on last year. The project is titled "The Untold Story of the Chamurai: How Chamorro and Spanish Warriors Fought Against the Spanish in Guam in 1616."

The exhibit in it's still unfinished glory is meant to tell the previously unknown tale of how Samurai and Chamorro warriors fought against the Spanish who were attempting to wipe out all of the Chamorros on Guam in 1616. I had first imagined this project more than 10 years ago as a way of combining my interest in samurai manga, anime and fiction with my interest in reading and teaching Chamorro history. I wrote up an entire story arc, filled with action, drama, romance and tragedy.

I received a grant from Guam CAHA in 2010 that finally gave me some funding to create some artwork for my vision. I comissioned my brother Jack to make 10 pen and ink drawings, each of a different important moment in the potential story of the Chamurai. The artwork turned out fantastically and so had them matted and was given permission to display them at the Micronesia Area Research Center at UOG. You can find them there now in the main room of the MARC library on the first floor. Name tags appear next to each drawing. If you're in the UOG area and have some time to kill, head over to MARC and you can check out the drawings. Before I finish this post, sa' esta gof matuhok yu', I wanted to acknowledge the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency, the Government of Guam, the Office of the Governor and the National Endowment for the Arts without whom this small exhibit would not have been possible.

The MARC library is open 9:00 - 4:30 every weekday except for Friday.

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