O Fortuna - the project

the idea of developing a body of work representing imaginary characters is not new in my mind. as a former theater person, I wanted to give birth to those characters myself, feeling them not only with my imagination and brushes, but also with my body. when the 10th Tarot Arcane, The Wheel of Fortune, popped in my mind, I knew I had a lot to explore on the theme of transitoriety of life and its cyclical character.

O Fortuna is a project I'm developing with the collaboration of some talented friends of mine. My idea is to join photography, performance, music, design, video, text, and of course, fine arts. so far I don't have an action plan totally set up, just the thought of creating a website to integrate all those languages under the same theme. let's see what's going to unfold during the process! the first step was already taken: the creation of a reference photo shoot that would allow me to penetrate into that universe. all photos were made by my friend David Soileau at his house. David is a totally sweet person, and as a fine artist himself, he had the sensitivity to capture the best lines and to create an atmosphere totally suitable to the germination of my ideas. he's very good with little kids too! 

more sneak peak photos here.

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
O Fortune,
just as the moon
Stands constantly changing,
always increasing
or decreasing;
Detestable life
now difficult
and then easy
Deceptive sharp mind;
poverty
power
it melts them like ice.

do it yourself: photo references

most times, figurative artists need good human body references for their paintings and drawings. having a live model is just awesome, but when you cannot afford one, a fair photograph do the trick. and when you don't have photographs available (and you don't want to use that one you found on the web without permission, do you?), what do you do? well, in my case, I just apply some foundation on my face, put on a funny head band that keep my hair off my face, set up my home camera, look for a piece of white wall, take off my clothes... and in less than a couple hours I have a nice batch of my own reference photographs.



it's fun and a good exercise of creativity, as well as a little revival of my stage days. and best of all, I can always have the exact (or almost exact) poses I want for the concept I am developing.



the inconvenient: I have to struggle to make the figures in the drawings not to look like me too much. which sometimes doesn't happen. it sucks to have your own face in every board, when you don't have the intention of building a self-portrait.



this is why I've been in desperate need of models that can "donate" their pictures for my reference album. I've found lots of wonderful pictures of stunning people around the internet, but I don't really feel like emailing them asking for permission without some kind of payment or retribution. and I totally need men pictures!!



the pictures above are from today's photoshoot, some of the ones I liked best. breasts are blurred for obvious reasons (although I don't like this resource, but it's less stupid than those black stripes. I know that this is an art blog, but I really don't feel very confortable without the smudge... :P). on the wall you can see pieces of the tape I use to mark the right position for myself, my daughter's scribbles (she always find a way to do it when we're not watching) and light switches. more homemade, impossible. I'm also coming to the conclusion that I need a better camera. one that do not take blurred pictures when you are not using flash in a poor light (I hate using flash) and that can take several shots in succession. it's very tiring coming and going from behing the camera every time I want a shot!