Five Organs, Now Seven

I am about to finish the Five Organs, but ended up having enough material for seven. Like having too much sauce and little bread. So now I have to go and cut two more organ shapes to add to the initial group. The Group of Five became the Group of Seven, just like the books we read as children. To maintain the cohesion of form I need to remember to follow a similar process: how to flow while standing still on one emotion. I am trying to feel hoe the emotions are related to organs.

For each organ, I have been attentive the way each organ feels like inside my body. Some are easy to track and sense, like the large intestine, as it works in direct relation with eating habits and diet. Other organs I am only aware of when there is something wrong with them, like the kidneys: I feel them when they are working harder. Yet the one organ I have not been able to feel at all is the liver, I wonder if any one has. I will keep working on this elusive one, and I will let you know of my findings.

My main resource is "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom" by Christiane Morthurp, M.D.

Connection During the Process

I find it intriguing how the creative decisions are made. Allowing emotions to guide me, I empower the non logical side of me to steer the creative process. I try to be aware of the one emotion I want to focus on and if I am distracted I remind myself to go back and stand on it, balancing and keeping straight yet mobile, as if standing on a ball. This is how I know when to stop using red and start with gold thread instead, when to burn with the torch, where to place the image on the wooden shape. Emotion is a mysterious driver and it is often deceiving, at times elusive and worst: it camouflages under other emotions which can last a long time.

Today I was trying to remain connected with a place of calm and centre. The flower-like shapes on the photo are an internal representation of lungs.

New Project, Five Organs

This is a new project I am working on, based on transfers from anatomy books, embroidery and torch. I am looking for identity clues in images of the inner body, in texts, and also in images and objects that surround me. I assemble these items with thread through embroidery, which becomes a means of drawing. I then torch them, which becomes a way to transform, draw and shade the fabric. These two photos show where these objects are today, and I will let my emotions lead the way toward a final product. I cut, primed and sanded five wooden objects in the shape of five vital organs, and they will receive these images as part of its surface work. I will write more on the evolution of these five creatures.

Shows in September

I had three shows in September: at The General Fine Craft gallery, Almonte. Also at the Nepean Recreation Facility, and at the Senkman Arts Centre. Lots of openings, lots of positive feedback!

Video about Women's Hands

I have been learning how to edit simple videos. The first one I do is called Manos de Mujeres, or Women's Hands. The song was composed and sung by Marta Gomez and I sent her link through Facebook and she liked it a lot. I decided to show the movie in my blog, to honour the women who enrich my social ecosystem, and who's prolific hands help build a better world.

September, Show Time!

I have scattered the Healing Alphabet in groups. During the months of September and October I will have pieces in three different exhibits. The first show will open on Friday September 9th at The General Fine Craft Gallery located in Almonte (20 minutes from Kanata) as part of Text Me, a collective art show of about 20 local artists. The second exhibit will open on September 26th at the Shenkman Arts Centre as part of the show Selections which will be open for a month. Finally, I have three pieces at the Nepean Visual Arts Centre on Woodroffe Avenue as part of an exhibition organized by the Ottawa Mixed Media Association (OMMA).

Selections at Shenkman Arts Centre

The piece "Healing Q" was chosen for the show Selections at the Shenkman Arts Centre from September 26 to October 22 at the Trinity Gallery. Yeey!  Also, the appointment I had with the gallery owner got postponed to the 5th of August.  I hope she will show some of my work at her gorgeous space.  And I continue to search for a place to show the whole Healing Alphabet.

Thank you friends for your comments on the Spanish alphabet.  Apparently 'ch' and 'll' are no longer considered letters in the alphabet but spelling options since 1999.  Therefore Spanish has 27 official letters.  There was another comment on the term 'mother tongue' which I did research: it means the same as native language or mother language.  However I prefer to leave the tongue, considering I am dealing with parts of the body in relation the cultural construction of Healing.  Thank you for your comments, they are always welcome and carefully read.

Healing Q

Last bits of the Healing Alphabet

Here I am, repeating some letters in my Healing Alphabet, and working on the 'ñ', the 'll' and the 'ch' to honour Spanish, my beautiful mother tongue.  I'm redoing the letter 'F' I donated to the 101 Gallery auction.  Next week I will display the whole collection to a gallery owner, and perhaps I will be able to show it as a group as it was meant to be.  These last pieces were primed (an initial coat of paint) with milk paint, which is sold as a white powder.  It is basically casein to make the surface absorbent for wax to penetrate the surface nicely.  Also the colours will be brighter than painting over wooden colour. This part of the work reminds me of Marisol, the Venezuelan-American artist of the 70's.

Panama in April

I spent a week at Panama in April.  I loved many aspects of Panama: an unexpected sense of pride and promise for a bright future.  They received their country 13 years ago, with tons of useful infrastructure, and with the complete revenue of the Panama Canal working full blast. They have the will and the means to build a great country and this is the start of a good foundation. They are paying attention to the environment, the arts and education.  How they have to pay close attention to corruption... the temptation to go the wrong way is very high.  Here are some photos of the old city, which shows how everything is ready to be rebuilt and beautified.

I met the Argentinian artist Carolina Antoniadis who had a Greek grandfather.  She was painting a mural at the Miraflores lock, the middle of the three locks the Chagres River runs through.  We started talking and she said she was participating in the first Panama Art Biennial.  She had no helpers and she was short of paints.  I offered to lend a hand and I spent two and a half days in bliss, helping her with her project.  The image she designed shows a cargo ship carrying a load of "molas" which are beautiful textiles produced by Embera women. They live in the area between Panama and Colombia, follow no strict geographical divisions, and continue to speak their own language. Here is what the mural looked like, unfinished. I also met Mabel Flores Rojas, a Cuban artist who works with women in prisons of Havana, and who participated in the Biennial (second photo).  And finally, an overlook of a tributary of the Chagres River where the big ships aren't allowed, along the Gamboa Eco-reserve.

New Project, Same Direction

Here I am trying to finish the Healing Alphabet, and struggling.  I have finished letter U which means I am five pieces before the end.  I have no urge or desire to finish this:  I see myself dragging my feet to come back to the studio to get it done.  Instead, I am having all kinds of fun and interesting ideas to start new projects.  So I am going to have to do both.  Let the new ideas spring while having the commitment to resume the unfinished ones.

Here is another piece I am working on.  I want to attach the embroidery onto a large blue canvas I dyed today. The dye label reads 'Arabian Blue' which sounds irresistible.  It ended up being more of a night blue, which will work too.  I want to paste a multitude of images and objects to it, as to integrate the work I do for the Coalition of New Canadians for Arts and Culture onto an art piece.  I would like to translate some of the experiences and ideas on diversity and multiculturalism onto art making.  Some aspects of this work will follow a similar direction as the Healing Alphabet, and some will be unexplored territory.  I photoshopped it a bit, if you are wondering.

Healing Alphabet P

I am working on the letter 'P' of the Healing Alphabet which means I am ten short before I finish the whole collection.  It has been a great process of internal dialogue with each object and I hope to show the whole group of 27 pieces when I am done.  That if I manage to do another F.  The original one I gave away for an auction of Gallery 101 and I don't know the person who bought it.  He signed Black Foot, if you happen to know who he is let me know.  I would like to take a proper photo of my piece.

So this week I bring a three pieces to the new gallery General in Almonte.  I will be proud to show my work among such accomplished artists.  And if all goes well I and I am selected among the Selections 2013,  I will be showing a few pieces at Shenkman Art Centre in September.  I said I would post a few photos of the finished pieces, so here they are.

Healing P

This is the Process

This blog is to give you an idea of how I work these days.  I draw from a live model and I scan the drawings.  I love drawing from live models (specially when they are handsome: however at the end of the drawing session I always find them attractive).  Then I transfer the drawings onto fabric.  Later I bring my torch and burn some parts of the fabric, an alchemic process I enjoy enormously.  After I do the embroidery on the torched surface.  The fabric becomes brittle specially in the darker areas and the process takes patience. Finally I embed the image with wax and I add it to the surface where it will live.

Here you see my books, embroidery, torching supplies, and the image embedded in wax.  The next blog will show the final product, hopefully.

Healing Body and Spririt

As part of the Healing Alphabet, I needed to draw some human bodies to include into the work.  I found a live model studio in Ottawa and have gone twice.  Here are samples of the ink and graphite drawings.  Later I will transfer them to fabric, I will do some embroidery on the images, and then I will add them to the 3D objects.  I will show what they will become in a later blog.

Making Encaustic Paints

Here is my studio, and here I am preparing my encaustic paints... to paint with. I am going to show you the process. I use bees wax, dammar varnish, and powder pigments. I need proper ventilation, so I open the window above, despite the cold (-15 today...)

 I use stainless steel cups to melt the wax on a heating tray, on a muffin tray and on a melting pot for larger amounts of encaustic medium.

Once the wax is liquid I add the dammar varnish, and last I add the dry pigments. I combine all with the end of an old brush, making sure it is dissolved and uniform. Then I let it cool down, and once the paints are cold I can begin working. I will tell you about how I use them in another blog.

The Healing Alphabet

This body of work is a collection of objects assembled from found pieces.  Each object is worked with wax, transfers, drawings, embroidery and metal. Each art object also displays a letter of the alphabet.

Some of the found pieces are shared friends’ treasures. Other found pieces I have collected from recycling sites, antiques, or the side of the road.  While assembling these pieces in my studio they seem to converse with one another, or with the surrounding objects. Listening to their chatter, memories are triggered, as if stirred by their conversations. My work is to connect their conversations to my memories and my emotions, and to make them visible through working new shapes and surface work. I find they always talk about forgiveness, unifying, letting go and surrender.

The Healing Alphabet is the journey of healing myself through working with shapes, images of body parts, drawings, contours and the sounds of letters. Found pieces find life when they become metaphors for memories. The work enables me to heal through each of these art objects.