you wanna say this is art? fine with me. i have no problem with you calling this, art. I love this. I love seeing this every time i work out the colors for a painting. this is my palette, this is how i tryout colors and decide about them.
I love this image. there was a lot of glare though. shining spots. I could even see the carrizo reflected in the transparent barnizeta. the sun, shining all the way to my eyes through a series of surfaces and colors, some reflecting some absorbing the sun like they are supposed to.
Chemistry, the knowledge of our ancestors, is right there in that ceramic tile that i use for mixing colors. a tile i picked up from the street! i love when i can do that.
cuando en una exposición de arte, un artista presenta esto en una tela o una madera o cualquier superficie en realidad, para mí, se trata de la química, los materiales. los humanos, y su alquimia. los materiales y sus posibilidades son aquí lo que son y nada más. y entiendo que un artista quiera decir "esto es lo que hay".
como cuando se pintaba el atelier, lugar tan importante, una habitación propia, right? el laboratorio en el cual hay que vivir para producir algo que realmente nos sorprenda y conecte, alcance en lo más bonito.
so, beauty in the ugly. how can you possibly separate them? artists that present work that points to the chronicle of the trade, can hope for a metaphor on life. They might be counting on associations in our mind that can't be stopped, as neuro-aesthetics show in brilliant silent colors.
Art happens between two or more: una ecuación de uno con todos donde todos no incluye a uno. your art is complete when there is the other looking at what you did. the object of art, material or abstract, is the tool to touch others, to show to others ideas. that much we know for sure. and that touching happens with figurative and abstract art, equally. abstract is not more about the essence of things than figurative art is. and yet, some people insist that abstract art is more about the essence of things than figurative is.
Pero, ¿se le puede llamar a esto, arte abstracto? como que le faltaría un poco más de intensión, no? así simplemente, es una crónica del pintor, una foto de una paleta. un recuento del quehacer.
we will never agree on a definition of art cause subjectivity is unavoidable.
Sometimes, she takes the opposite position, this woman in my head. She attacks me. she says that i paint figurative art because i have to control everything and i can't let loose and that i don't understand that figurative art is out, for ever, muerta la figuración. she has this lineal understanding of art that goes from some very humane but pathetic, i guess, moment of portraits, landscapes, symbols, alegorías, personal or not, all that fantasy figurative narratives... all of that, ends in puro color, pure presence. the history of art that finishes with abstract art. the story that there is nothing else to do, that it's all done, nothing new under the sun negative mentality. another argument against creativity. creativity as in the process of discovering thru trial and error subjective, personal images that serve some kind of psycho-magical purpose, has nothing to do with art these days. art should be about art, is the new thing.
I was taught something like that, or at least i misunderstood it like that. thinking that abstract is purer, more international, universal, impersonal, truer and all that nonsense. I have talked about this in my analysis of El cálculo pictórico, de Pancho Méndez. The result is that i was embarrassed by my taste for the figurative. my illustrative tendencies, my love for narratives dismissed. I had to fight so much in me to be able to start painting after that stupid idea that figurative art is less. Less what? it makes no sense now. I can see now that it was my responsibility to say fuck to that. Or not: when you are growing up and learning, isn't it the teacher's responsibility to open up roads instead of narrowing down everything to just one truth?
Sometimes I think contemporary art, videos, installations and performances abide in this realm of the assumption of superiority. Cause self righteousness just needs to present itself in different forms, renewed, disguised. again and again. how to give value to something? present it as the best new thing, sell it as unique, believe that it is some kind of evolutionary thing. oh yes, just like new age religions. just like the latest tech gadget that you have to have.
There has been an imposition, but as always happens, it takes two to tango, no?
I am not angry anymore. I know I can't blame others for my late coming into art. I needed to be older I guess, to say fuck to all. not so much rage now. not feeling frustrated anymore. i think learning about the history of art until now helps me understand what I'm doing. obviously I am not outside of art. And I think we women, do not have to throw the baby with the bathwater. I will take the classics and do whatever I like with those codes.
Once I did that, understand that there is no right or wrong, I could clearly see that all that has happened to art, is good. there is nothing that wasn't a movement towards something more inclusive, more domestic, more industrial, or whatever, and therefore more accessible. yes. because everybody can do art now. it was made clear that it is not about talent, not about beauty and not about reality, even though there always be examples of that art, and people that would do that art. but art is also process. and being a crackass. and an asshole, or a thief.
anything can be called art, and with that we enter in the sphere of subjectivity like never before. so, if art is about subjectivity then what could possibly be better to make sure nothing is left out due to normatism, romanticism or whatever cursi idea you have about art... then finally we have reached the point where anybody can access the experience of doing something creatively.
why is this important? why is it important to create, to think on something totally new for others, or maybe more importantly, new for you by you. why is it important to be able to have the time to create? why is it important to live the process of inventing something that was not there before. that was reserved to the Gods and goddesses by the way.
can we really create something new? what is our role in this world? aren't we supposed to create a life for us? are we here only to exploit the planet and create pain, or are we here for something else?
this question cannot be answered. but we can try some answers, right? or are we so lazy that we don't care? or too afraid to be rejected, spelled, bullied by those internal voices?
