Fire

"Yes, but who will heal us of this deaf fire, the fire without color that at dusk on the rue de la Hachette, exiting the corroded thresholds, the minute halls, of the fire without image that licks the rocks and stalks in the doorways, how will we manage to wash off the sweet burn that follows, the one that  lodges itself to last, allied to time and memory, to the sticky substances that keep us on this side and that will burn us, sweetly until we're chared"

Julio Cortazar, excerpt from "Rayuela" ("Hopscotch").

I started reading this book yesterday, and for some reason, this painting reminds me of the feeling I get from the main characters of the book: passionate, contorted, trapped, consumed...mad. She is being consumed by something that changes her turning her almost alien in other people eyes, making her feel incomprhensible things that other people label "madness", but that she calls her life. 

I haven't finished reading the book, so I cannot tell you what the fate of this character will be (and even if I knew, I would still recommend you read the book because it's wicked good). However, I can say that agony, passion, fear, rage... all of these emotions that "consume" us at one time or another (for whatever reason), always end up changing us. We let ourselves be burnt by a particular fire, and instead of becoming the charred remains of who we were, a mount of ashes, we become something else. We are reborn, like the phoenix, not necesarily the same person we were before (which is a good thing, I guess), but still ourselves. That's what this piece is about.

Orchid no 1

This is the first one I've done in my new working table. What a difference! I was able to sit up straight, work comfortably and not hurt my back in the process. For this one I used acrylic inks (I love them, they are so much fun, but permanent, so using them is a good way to learn how to turn mistakes into oportunities). Later, I finished off with some pastel (love Sennelier brand, the colors are so vivid and wonderful!!!). I did it on vellum paper, and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised, it holds the pastel very well.

I love panting flowers in winter, it reminds me that no matter how cold or icy, eventually everything will thaw and the world will wake up from it's icy slumber. I had been thinking about painting orchids for a while, too, their shapes are just mesmerizing to me, I could watch them for hours, the way their petals come out and bend, the way the central petal unflods to reveal the center, their long and elongated lines... I love them!

I'm back! (and look what I found)

I am done. Finished organizing the studio. It looks a lot bigger and I can actually enter without knocking my paintings on the floor (yes, it was that bad). I (finally) bought a very nice and big drawing table (the one I had before was a craft table I couldn't even tilt, it was tiny and very low, so I everytime I used it I ended up doing an impersonation of Cuasimodo). 

You may wonder about the painting I posted at the beginning...well, it isn't new. Actually, it's about a year old, but it was buried under a bunch of stuff. I didn't finish it at the time, because for some reason, the paint began to crack in the middle (you may be able to see it on the man's shirt). I still haven't figured out how to fix it (or if I can), but I really liked painting it, so I decided to post it (just for fun, I guess).