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.

Peace Piece

How to work on a Peace Piece?
The Peace Piece was made with found objects, wax and wire. You would have to peak between the two wooden slices to see the words 'here' and 'now' engraved on the inside of each surface. 

Coming from Colombia, I have a long story to share... but this is not the time.

Having worked on public murals for years, I have photos I could share... but I wanted to create something new.

Having worked on my own inner peace, I see my internal environment as a place where peace can happen. It is a place where I have to pay attention to my inner storms and eruptions. I see this as the only place where real, long lasting, meaningful peace begins.

My Peace Piece is an invitation to STOP the daily routine

For a moment, I become aware of HERE and NOW 

         Here I take a look at my inner state, feel my interior habitat 

Now I realize the changes my secret scene, 

                                 And I see how my inside light flickers 

                                        Understanding what alters my deep source of peace

The Peace Piece is a call to give yourself a moment to STOP and think about your HERE and your NOW.

Painting With Wax

Painting with wax is magic.  I use photos and drawings and I paint with liquid wax over them.  I also use oils, oil sticks, engraving, and transfers of my photos.  Encaustics allow me to work on old paintings which is really fun.  I love the smell of wax, although it does require proper ventilation as it tends to trigger headaches and other harmful effects.  I like making my own paints from wax, dammar resin and dry pigments.  I love to see how the solid bloc melts and hardens in front of your eyes in seconds! 

This painting is part of a group of trees I photographed last winter.  The surface has drawings of trees that mingle and combine with the background photos.  Wax makes the images look alive, like a pulsating cell. Some of these paintings were shown at The New Art Festival, Ottawa, 2012.

Night Cell

Musical Agriculture

Tiller

This sculpture is part of my exhibition this week.  It is one of five objects I made some time ago, built with pieces of a dismantled piano.  When I look at these pieces they seem to make music and move in jerky movements, just like old agricultural mechanisms.  They take me back to Tinguely's toys.  Unlike Tinguely's my sculptures can't make sounds or squirt water but they offer the same kind of playfulness. My pieces honour old agriculture inventions, and they serve the purpose of tilling ideas.  Since they come from pieces of an old piano, they can still make music, which adds power when cultivating in my head.

Time Boxes I

Time Boxes are containers for amounts of time, allowing time to be managed conveniently.  Some Time Boxes are designed to be gently shaken over the the forehead for 'A While' to be dispensed. Other Time Boxes are ment to be rubbed with your middle finger for 'A Minute' to flow initially onto your hand and then softly onto the rest of your body. There are Time Boxes that need to be tipped sideways for 'A Lapse' to pour onto your environment.  They all have clear instructions for the user to follow in each case.  

These Time Boxes were made with white embroidered handkerchiefs, and sculpted with acrylic mediums. They go pinned to the wall. The Time Boxes II were shown at Chinatown Remixed, Ottawa, 2011.

Time Boxes II

Each of these Time Boxes II represent time in a geometric shape, partially covered to allow time waste.  The boxes hold time, as it sips through like wind flowing through open windows.  The scuptures embody my difficulty to understand time with the mind: they make me pretend I understand time with shapes.  Some of the Time Boxes are star-shaped, some have circular patterns, others are polygons.  Every shape represents different perceptions of passing time.

Time Boxes II were built with iron wire, most were soldered and some were bound with epoxic clay.  The fabrics were old patterned handkerchiefs, another form of time gone, a trend that seems to be coming back.  The 12 pieces were shown this year in the Chinatown Remixed 2010 Exhibition, and currently belong to private collections across North America (Seattle, Boston, Gatineau). The cost is U$ 300 each, and can be comissioned directly with the artist.