MY WEB PAGE IS DONE!!!!!

Yep, its official: my web page is fully operational, ready for people to see (and I'm officially terrified). Ari (my wonderful soul mate) finished it last night... I couldn't believe it!, I must confess, though, this feels a bit like the dream where you walk naked on a stage in front of strangers. Art is very personal to me, and it makes me feel very, very vulnerable when people see and judge it (which is why I have so much trouble applying for juried shows and galleries, I'm such a coward!!!). On the other hand, I couldn't be happier! MY WEB PAGE IS DONE!!!!!!

Into the Sea

"You leave, Alfonsina
with your solitude
what new poems
did you go looking for?
An ancient voice
made of wind and salt
shatters your soul
it is taking her away
and you are going over there
as if in a dream
asleep, Alfonsina
dressed as the sea"

From a song by Mercedes Sosa, Alphonsine and the Sea (Alfonsina y el mar)

This piece started as a monoprint which I later planned to stamp and play around with. But the more I looked at it, the more it resembled an ocean and it got me thinking about this particular song. It's a very old song , beautiful and sad, it's about a woman who loses herself in the ocean and nobody knows why. That's why I decided to add the woman's torso walking into this particular sea...nostalgic, sad, mystical, unknown. She walks into the uncharted waters for reasons no one understands, only her heart knows why.

Dancers in the dark

I started experimenting with lino cuts a while ago,however, I always used them for prints and nothing else (with less than satisfactory results), so they ended up in the back of the closet, unused, until a couple of days ago, when I had one of those "what if...?" moments and decided to use them as a complement of something else, instead of alone in a composition.

This is the result of my first experiment. I embellished the dancers a little with conte crayons, just to give them a more tridimensional feel (they were very flat), and also to introduce more contrast and make it easier to distinguish the shapes better, apart from that this is the result of (my very messy process of) monoprinting and one of my linocuts.

I must say this is the most fun I've had in a while, and it feels so good to let go and start creating something light and colorful, without thinking, judging or analyzing it. So, this is probably the first of several to come (I do have a stash of unused linoleum somewhere, waiting to be carved...).

Waiting for Peace

Well...what can I say? This was going to be a completely different painting, until...I started watching the news one morning before painting. Need I say more? Thousands of people dying in diferent parts of the world, waiting for politicians to sign an agreement, or a cease fire, or for a side to win. Meetings and meetings of international relations committees weighing the political (and of course economical) consequences of their actions...I think of Rwanda, and even worse, Darfur, Georgia, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan (these are just the most famous conflicts right now)...we read about them in the papers and watch our 10 daily minutes of international news in CNN (before they move on to more pressing matters, like Paris Hilton's fake campain ad or which politician cheated on his wife this time). In the end, all these human beings , living in anguish and fear in a war zone become nothing more than statistics. The soldiers who give their lives are just another number to be manipulated in an election year and the dead civilians, just a number to deny. How often do we think about the suffering of those still alive?.

I don't even know if this painting is what could be considered "good", (I had my doubts about posting it) but I just had to say something. Will it make a difference? to me, it did... will it, for someone else? I don't know. But when I saw the news on CNN that morning...I just had to say something, because even if no one listens, a least I know I raised my voice.

Wanted: Inspiration

Wanted: Inspiration, new idea, or great images not afraid to live in my head. Mediocre thoughts and pessimism may not apply. Must not me afraid of over-analytical mind, paint, paper, scissors or glue. Interested? you can reach me at: artistsmind@mybrain.me.

No, I'm not stuck gain, but I do want to try a new technique, and don't know what image to try it with...I'll start tonight, with or without a specific idea of what I want., if anything, just to see what I'm capable of making up this time. What's the worst that could happen? Worst case scenario I can always repaint over it... or collage over it...or stamp it...or... Hold it!, I think I hear an idea coming. Gotta go!

Donating my art

I am really excited about this. I received a letter today from a friend who has a Gallery/ Frame shop. It was from an organization called "Whole Children", they have educational, sports and art related programs dedicated to children of all ages and all backgrounds. They want to have a fundraiser (an art raffle) and are looking for artists to donate their art. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and when I got the email today I realized this is the charity I've been waiting for!. So, I will give them a call tomorrow and find out more about the event and what their requirements are. In the meantime, I already know which piece I want to give them (if they'll take it).

The painting above is called "Possibilities", it's an Oil Pastel, I finished it last year. I picked the image of an opening sunflower because I wanted to express an idea that had been lurking in my mind for a while.

We live in a society that's obsessed with "results", "perfection", "conventional", "normal", "expected"... So often we let opportunities go by, because they don't fit this crazy idea of adequacy in our heads!. When we walk past a flower before it opens, we usually think about how pretty the flower will be, we wonder when will it open?, how big?, but how many times do we stop to appreciate the beauty already before our eyes?. Potential can be as beautiful (or more) as the result and finding blessings in improbable places is an ability we should practice everyday. So, I chose to paint this promise of a flower, just to remind myself to look at what I have in front of me, not what I think I should or will have, and to appreciate the blessings I have received this instant, not the ones I think will or should come my way.

To live in the now and enjoy my life as it happens...sounds easy enough, but how I need to keep reminding myself everyday!

About nice pictures, bad ideas and flowers...

Beautiful flower, isn't it?. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers, usually the bigger the more I like them and these red ones just took my breath away!. I've been waiting all year to see them bloom again and paint a couple of them, like I did last year. So, a couple of days ago, I decided for this image, took out the pastels and got started. The problem? its not going well...I don't know if its because the paper is too small (I usually work larger pieces than this one, 10"X10") or that I haven't been able to find the "soul" of the image... probably a mixture of both. Whatever it is, its not working. So, I'm stuck in the studio layering and removing pastels for a couple of hours until my hands are all black and wrinkled and nothing comes out! That's the problem with pretty pictures: it's very easy to get lost in the beauty of the image in front of us and forget to look for what's behind the obvious... I guess I'll keep trying until something happens...