christian debaun – C-VILLE Weekly

Local artist leads storytelling workshop for LGBTQ youth

For local photographer and illustrator Guillermo Ubilla, making art feels natural. He thinks it sounds cheesy, but he says it’s what he was meant to do.

“My art is a combination of skills and experiences I’ve had,” says Ubilla. “It’s a way of expressing myself. I’m privileged to do art, so I want to do something good with it.”

In celebration of Pride Month, Ubilla joined fellow Charlottesville area photographers Jacob RG Canon, Eze Amos, Christian DeBaun, Sarah Cramer Shields and Jeff Cornejo for a group show at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative. Hosted in collaboration with Cville Pride, the exhibition depicts the experiences of LGBTQ people in Charlottesville using images that challenge traditional stereotypes of who and what historically constituted a family.

With these photos as a backdrop, Ubilla will lead a visual storytelling workshop for LGBTQ youth at the Bridge on June 11. Participants will create a zine by folding pieces of paper to make a booklet, and filling their creation with words, images or collages.

“It’s something they can do with their hands, and do it over and over again. It creates this unique physical storytelling device that they can walk away with,” says Ubilla.

As a McGuffey Art Center resident artist and instructor, the importance of education and activism through art resonates deeply with Ubilla. One of his favorite recent projects is a series of political illustrations he created—using a Twitter-like palette, sans-serif typography and iconography like stars, check marks and boxes, Ubilla breaks down what he calls the “overwhelming” aspects of local and regional government into “bite-sized” pieces.

Cville Pride President Amy Sarah Marshall wants Ubilla’s workshop and the photography show to give LGBTQ youth a sense of community—to provide them with “a sense of home.” She refers to Ubilla and his art as dynamic, engaging and thoughtful. Also joining the workshop will be representatives from Side by Side, a Richmond-based LGBTQ youth group with a strong Charlottesville presence.

“We’re passing the baton down and empowering youth to tell their own stories when they can feel like life is so on the margins,” Marshall says. “They don’t see their lives portrayed in mass media. They don’t hear their situations in podcasts. We’re empowering all youth to live their truth.”

Marshall remembers that while her father was welcoming when she came out, he told her that she couldn’t be a lesbian because “of what [she] looked like.”

“I felt I was diminished by someone who cared about me,” says Marshall. “He thought he was doing me a service.” Marshall tells a story of coming out to her grandparents, too, and confronting the doubt they expressed about her sexuality—how she was so young and too naïve to be sure about her sexuality.

“It’s really important to feel that adults are asking and encouraging youth to own their story,” Marshall says.

With a variety of Pride Month events open to the public throughout June, Marshall wants this month to be about celebrating pride more than ever.

“With it being summer, I feel like people’s anxieties are starting to turn back on,” she says. “I want people to see these pictures and be reminded of how brave they are to be themselves, or to come out and support others. Showing up for each other in visible and concrete ways is a powerful reminder of what good is in people’s hearts and actions.”

‘A Yank in Scotland:’ Local man gets global recognition

When local photographer Christian DeBaun set out on a Scottish vacation with his wife in August, he never imagined he’d return to the United States an international superstar.

“I’ve been getting e-mails and friend requests and phone calls from people all over the world,” DeBaun says. “It’s been phenomenal.”

His claim to fame? A “silly post,” he says, in a 90,000-member travel group on Facebook called “Scotland From The Roadside,” where a list of 23 of DeBaun’s post-trip observations have so far received 832 shares, more than 5,000 likes and over 600 comments from fellow travelers.

”I literally scribbled the thing up in 15 minutes and went to bed,” he says. But by the time he woke up the next morning, it was clear that his droll conclusions about the country he spent two weeks driving through hadn’t slipped under the radar.

DeBaun first had an interview with Scottish newspaper The Daily Record and at least five other European media outlets have since picked up the post.

“From hotel waste buckets that are too small, to being caught short because there aren’t enough public toilets, an American tourist has revealed Scotland’s good, bad and infuriating bits,” writes Sandra Dick, a reporter from The Scotsman. “Chris DeBaun’s fascinating reflections of his holiday to Scotland reveals how others see us—and not all of it is entirely complimentary.”

Some of our favorite observations from the man who calls himself a Yank in Scotland:

There are no bathrooms in Scotland on the roads. I plan to start a page called “Peeing By the Roadside.”
I saw exactly two police cars in Scotland (1,100 miles covered). One cop parked and texting on his cell phone near a roundabout in Glasgow, the other smoking a cigarette by his car in Glencoe. Nothing like the U.S.
Driving in Scotland (especially down the side of Loch Lomond) is a terrifying death sport. Scotland could use some wider roads.
Trash cans in Scottish hotel rooms are always the size of a coffee can (you can fit one Kleenex and an empty bag of crisps inside—and that’s it. The foot pedal (to open the can) is usually dirty.
Americans fret about haggis. It’s f’ing awesome.
Good Cullen skink is almost better than whisky. [That’s a thick soup with smoked haddock, potatoes and onions—editor.]

And DeBaun’s 15 minutes of fame still aren’t over. He received a letter from the British Broadcasting Corporation September 21, asking for permission to turn his observations into a short film segment for its television channel BBC One.

“Most of all,” wrote DeBraun to his new friends, “we were always received with warmth and graciousness all across this beautiful country by everyone. If you are ever in central Virginia (USA), look me up. Dinner and a pint will be on me.”