Luna

"Frozen Moon"

With this solitude
treacherous
peaceful

with this solitude
of sacred leaks
of far away howls
of monstrous silence
of firm memories
of frozen moon
of someone else's night
of eyes wide open

with this solitude
useless
empty

one can sometimes
understand
love

Mario Benedetti

Another moon, another night of contemplation, another painting. I am really enjoying this celestial subject. I was going to add more to the painting, covering part of the face of the moon, but last night I just looked at it and realized it was complete.

This piece is more about contemplation and peace than anything else, to just sit looking out a window, no music, no TV, no noise, no distractions, no one else around to talk about trivial things, just sit down quietly and enjoy what's in front of me and meditate about life. Find my center and find peace in my mind.

Transition

Appropriately enough, after all this time unable to create anything, I start working again and poof! its all about change and starting new periods in life. All the fear the expectation and the excitement associated with the moment we realize the course of our life is changing.

True, transitions can be very hard (they usually are), and we make it harder on ourselves sometimes by resisting them, but on the other hand, how could we ever evolve and grow as a person without constant change?. Most of the time the only one holding us back is our own fear.

I'm stuck

Yep, it's official: I'm stuck, out of fresh ideas, cretivity on summer break.

I haven't been able to come up with anything at all, this last couple of weeks. Nothing, zero, nada. This usually happens to me. I start working and have a very productive period, anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, and then, poof! my mind goes on strike for a couple of weeks!. Its so frustrating. I want to work, to create, I want to have and idea and see it clearly in my mind and watch it transform into an image on paper!. But right now, ideas feel more like noise inside my brain and all those images come out as doodles.

How long will this last? I don't know. Does this happen to other people? I don't know. What can I do about it? Wait, I guess. In the meantime, I think I'll make up my mind and enter a couple of juried shows in this area (would be my first time) and keep taking photographs, to see if inspiration strikes. Wish me luck!

Sunday Pond

Summer is here! the days are so sunny around here, its easy to forget about winter for a while. One of my favorite things is to go bike riding, I love all the fresh air, the view and let's face it, I need the exercise.

We usually ride on a bike path, this painting is based on a photograph I took of the lily pond on the path, the best part of the ride! So enjoy the sun, the beach, the long days, the ice cream and just being outside!

Tales of the lost city

I did this one a few weeks ago, I hadn't posted it because, quite frankly, I wasn't sure I wanted to get political in this setting. I'm not writing this blog out of ideology, but out of love for art. That being said, something happenned yesterday that made it impossible for me not to talk about this particular piece.

I spoke to an old friend from high school yesterday who still lives in Caracas, Venezuela. Sadly, my country is going through a very rough couple of decades and things have gotten worse under the present administration (trying not to get too political, here...), a common practice in the last few years is what they call the "Express Abduction". Where hey pretty much abduct you or a member of your family for a few hours, while they take you to the bank, your house, etc to rob you of everything they can. As it turns out, my friend's baby brother (whom I've known since he was in 3rd grade) was almost abducted the night before last, as he was coming home from University. My friends (his sisters, their mother and their husbands) were upstairs in the apartment, and they heard everything. They didn't take him, but they did kidnap a neighbor, who was released later that night.

This story and many more far worse than this repeat themselves in my country every day, ever night, hundreds of times a day. Kidnappings, robberies, murder...and the sad part is that we've gotten used to it. No one in the government is doing anything, except deny the hundreds of murders that occur each weekend (they've actually forbidden relatives of the victims to give statements to the press). The only response of people when something like this happens is "well, at least they didn't kill you" (unless of course they did, in which case, you become another cautionary tale of what not to do or which places to avoid).

I'm so angry. Nobody should have to live like this!!!. So there you go, that's the story behind this painting. So, next time you area able to come safely home at whatever time of night you like and hug your family, remember to thank God (or the Powers that Be) for that privilege, and if you find it in your heart, say a prayer for the people of Venezuela, living in an undeclared war with no end in sight.

Dreams

"What is life? A frenzy
what is life? An illusion
A shadow a fabrication.
And the biggest good is small.
Your whole life is a dream
and dreams are only dreams."

Excerpt from "The rich man dreams in his wealth", by Pedro Calderon De la Barca.

What can I say about the inspiration for this piece? It is about our belief in things we think impossible when we're awake. What if our dreams were our lives and what we call dreams, our real life?.