Serpentarium

Pencil and acrylics on panel 

12" x 12" 

2012 

For purchase, please contact:
 Tasty Gallery - Seattle

new logo and Tasty show

for ages I have been trying to design myself a logo. it has always sounded to me a bit of a shame that, being a designer myself, i have never been able to build a proper symbol that could identify my own work. i tried different symbols and totems but none of them felt so perfect as an old item of my personal iconography: the butterfly.

butterflies are associated to my Sun sign, Gemini, and to the element Air, which, along with element Water, rules my horoscope. my own name, Ariel, reminds of Shakespeare's character in "The Tempest", a spirit of the air. i have been drawn to butterflies since the formal beginning of my career as a visual artist, not only for its beauty, but mainly for its powerful meaning of transformation and rebirth, things i have experienced very intensely since the big milestone that was my coming to the United States. i also wanted the symbol to have some influence of occult imagery to celebrate my ties with the esoteric. and that's what i got:

it is the first time i feel totally comfortable with a symbol, maybe because it resonates so deeply with my own  energy and character.

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new artworks for sale at Tasty Gallery, in Seattle, as part of the "Girls Gone Wild" show. unfortunately i got sick at the opening day and missed the buzz [and the booze.] here they are, hanging beside artworks by Laurie Kavanaugh McClave, Lea Barozzi, Redd Walitzki, and other talented Washington chicks.

excepting for Bleu and Interior, pieces were not officially released yet, what is going to happen soon. i am always in a hurry preparing shows around here and barely have the time for decent scans and releasing the pieces on the web, but they are already available for purchase here.

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by the way, i am solemnly refusing invites for shows before May. because i have been overwhelmed with shows since i stepped on Seattle (four in only six months,) i have not had the time to mature anything i have been working on lately, and my top goal for this year is to really improve my technique and kick ass. also, i need to rebuild my inventory with some decent pieces. patience.

Progress shots for the new show

Omnia vincit amor (Love conquers all.) There will be another version with two dudes kissing, but not for this show.


Serpentarium


I should be way ahead with these pieces but these have been tumultuous days. my studio contract with Inscape has expired and i decided not to renew it, so this week i've been busy packing up my stuff to bring back home. it has not been easy to let go of a dream to have my own working space where i could display my pieces to the public and teach, but the truth is that i have been producing way more at home, so the rent expenses are rather being painful now. i am now accommodating everything in the basement -- i started calling it "The Dungeon" -- and i feel comfortable enough to keep the creation flame burning. well, someday, i will be back.

so, moving on, because life is a constant flow.

New show, new works

From February through March I will be at Tasty Gallery , in my wonderful Seattle, as part of the Girls Gone Wild show. I will be showing new artworks in pencil on paper and panel, like the one below:

Serpentarium, work in progress. Pencil on panel so far, acrylic and gold coming soon.

Thanks to lovely Sheri Hauser for the exciting opportunity. Super happy here. :)

Happy New Year!

While Christmas is always a somewhat depressing time for me, New Year's is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I love its festive, optimistic character, and all the celebration around hopes of a new cycle of prosperity and happiness. It doesn't matter that is only a change in the calendar. What matters is that people's mindsets are generally focused toward a new beginning, improvement, and change, and all that positivity generates an egregore of optimism that can only attract good things.

My New Year Eve was not what i wanted it to be (I am a party person.) I traveled to Kentucky to spend the Holidays with my daughter's family, and things here are not exactly what a party creature would call "exciting"... But it was a pretty calm evening and I spent it with the things i love the most in this world - my baby and my art, so it couldn't be bad (it would be better if boyfriend was around too, but nothing is perfect...) As the only things I could bring in the plane were a few pieces of illustration board, a few pencils and brushes, and a set of watercolors, had to revisit an old passion of mine: the combination watercolor + pencil.

Think I can consider this for my new show, in February, and add maybe three more pieces in the same style.

I feel like something is opening up for me. The months that followed my divorce and my move to Seattle were quite overwhelming. I have been trying to balance personal life, art, health that gets gradually worse, motherhood, survival and emotional issues, and that big sign that many times blinks inside your mind reading "you are alone, lady, and there's no escape, so, make the best of it!" As I have been registering here, my art has been also gone through a long phase of experimentation (a reflex of my own life?), in each I have been exhaustively trying to reach ways to represent what I see inside, reaping some results that are undoubtedly getting me to a more comprehensive path. On my quest, I have been taking a little distance from who I am in order to find myself again. I went farther, training my hand in Abstractionism (in my opinion maybe the most difficult path that one could take in art,) evolving on canvas work, knowing my limits and challenges. It is liberating to think that you can be and do anything you want when you really want it. As long as the heart and your personal truth takes the lead, everything is valid.

This year, my intention is just one: to improve. I want to do the best I can, and even so, do not get satisfied. I also want to focus more on the business of art and explore other possibilities to my art making.

To all my friends, followers, patrons, buyers, a sincere, tsunamic THANK YOU. Wish you a year of enlightenment, prosperity, and inspiration.

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I still have a bunch of December works to show here. It will be done soon, promise.