Espèrance (Hope)

Espèrance (Hope)

Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on board

6 x 6

$60

I spent most of my day preparing this painting. it is a hispaniolan trogon, the national bird of Haiti. CafePress is accepting donations of designs for a store they set up just to help Haiti, and I made the painting with that in mind. painting a sweet symbol like this cute bird helped to fill up my heart with love and send it to the brothers and sisters in Haiti, who are passing through that terrible probation. everywhere people are mobilizing to help in every possible way. the world is becoming more fraternal, in spite of some idiots that still insist in sowing intolerance and hate. thinking about it I wrote the word "hope" in many idioms around the painting to compose the design.

here's the design. I hope they select it for the store.

  the original painting is for sale. money will be sent to one of the organizations that are providing relief to Haiti.

starting the year off

I hope your New Year had started well, folks. although I think that changes must happen everyday, I end up sharing the feeling of fresh start with others and I'm here shining with plans and optimism for 2010. and a lot of energy to work and make things happen.

I began the year with 2 short term plans in mind: losing the Christmas weight (too much cheesecake, eggnog and all those amazing seasonal beers) + organizing my emails and messages and stop procrastinating. the first plan is doing well and in a little more than one week I got back to the pre-Xmas weight (want to drop a few more though.) second one is a bit tougher and i've been miserably failing so far. i have a slow rhythm and i'm always busy with other stuff, and when i finally get to relax to write, at the end of my day (i.e, around 11pm), i am already tired and sleepy. got to try a little bit harder though.

art. i am more and more in love with the acrylics versatility. my only complaints so far is not being able to lift the paint off when I make a mistake -- I have the option to repaint and fix the mess thought, but it's not the same, because the transparency goes away. the second problem -- not really a problem, just an inconvenience -- is having to get everything very well cleaned after each painting session. you can reuse the dry watercolor in your palette in the next day; but not the dry acrylics.

I decided to start the Tree of Life for the 4th time. f-o-u-r-t-h. and bigger too: 20 x 30 inches. I am surprised with my own persistence. it was starting well, but at a certain point... I screwed up very bad. i could go on if I was using watercolors, but this time I had no choice but abort the work. for the 4th time. I need to learn how  to plan my work more carefully and stop being so eager to get to the finals.

some shots of the experience:

my idea is to use those white peacock feathers as a representation for sperm. there's also a big peacock in the center of the painting, and the tip of its tail goes right to the tree "womb" -- the tree is composed of bodies of tree women that represent the tree aspects of the goddess (Virgin, Mother and Crone.) it's been a while since I started to get drawn to the peacock symbolism, and here it evokes renewal, the Great Round of life.

I love the concept for this painting and I'm not going to give up on it. so, let's get the paints ready for the 5th attempt. Happy New Year everyone.

The Mirror

Acrylics,  pastel and pencil on board, 

11 x 14

2010

$280

Illustration for the poetry book "Liquid Dreams", by Ricardo Blancas.

Chasing After Light

 I’d chase after you at the speed of light,

but what’s the point?

You’re already ahead of me.

Instead I’ll pace my self,

continue to move forward,

knowing that at some point in time,

you’ll come across a mirror

and reflect upon it.

 At which point,

I’ll still be traveling towards you.

With open arms and a smile on my face,

I’ll meet you a long the way.

(Published under author's permission.)

in progress: The Mirror

the acrylics odyssey

now that Christmas is over and 4 extra pounds magically showed on the scales this morning, it's time to think about all the work that i planned to finish until the year is over. i am happy that i took a picture of "The Mirror" after almost having the penciling done...

... and having messed it up really bad with the acrylics - which i don't dare to show it here.

I am always doing stuff like that - trying something without a previous study or experimentation. shame on me.

acrylics are a very versatile medium. today i learned that it can reach the same transparency of watercolors, with no need of hundreds of layers to make the colors to pop out. besides, watercolors tend to get muddy when you want to build opaque areas, and acrylics can give you beautiful areas of solid color without struggle. at first, it was a little difficult for me to handle the vigor of my new paints, since i am so used to the delicacy of the watercolors; but with a little bit of patience and caution, i began to feel more at ease.

starting over from scratch:

this time, leaving the penciling for last.  i also loved how the underpainting came out vibrant. will this be the end of the watercolor era in my career?

some of my school mates used to find it funny that i use a white tile as a pallette. white tiles are the best, very easy to clean and work great with the acrylics!