Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for May, 2013

Not a Heart but Time

Posted in Drawing, Ink, San Diego, tagged , , , , , , , on May 22, 2013| 2 Comments »

image

Fountain ink pen on Moleskine paper. May 2013

Read Full Post »

Collage [11:20]

Posted in art, Collage, Drawing, Experiments, F R A G M E N T S, school, School Work, Spontaneous Constructs, tagged , , , on May 20, 2013| 2 Comments »

image

The process…

image

image

The story behind the collage base :

When starting a new collage, I find I always need a catalyst, an incipit.
In order to tell the visual narratives of my collage I always like to continue an imaginary dialogue started by another artist, graphic designer etc.
The base of this latest collage is the very sparse cover of current San Diego Museum of Art Magazine. I knew the wooden carving was of a monk of sorts and I was immediately drawn to the work’s piety and devotion. I only found out the identity and the story behind the sculpture once I was ready to post the collage…it held unexpected surprises and even reinforced in my mind some of the creative choices I made while composing the collage ( the heart held in the sculpture’s hands).

Excerpts from the San Diego Museum of Art Membership magazine:

The sculpture depicts San Diego de Alcala’, otherwise known as Saint Didacus, who was born around 1400 near Seville.
He became a lay brother in the Franciscan order and worked at monasteries in the Canary Islands, Spain, and Rome, before finally.settling at the Convento de Santa Maria de Jesus in Alcala’, where he lived until 1463. He worked in the infirmaries of these monasteries and is said to have brought about miraculous cures to those in his care. Accordingly, the earliest depictions of San Diego following his canonization in 1588 show his healing miracles.

The San Diego Museum of Art has acquired this remarkable sculpture by Pedro De Mena (1628-1688). Mena worked in his native Granada and in Malaga, and from there produced works that were sent to.patrons around Spain, including the Royal family in Madrid.
Although relatively little known today outside of spain, Mena was the most prominent sculptor of his day. It has been said that he is unsurpassed both in the beauty of his woodcarving and in his ability to capture the expressions of religious emotions.

Mena’ sculpture depicts a miracle that came to be the standard form of the saint’s iconography. Diego was devoted to the poor and often took them bread from the monastery table. During a shortage of food at the monastery, Diego was forbidden to do so, but continued to take bread to the poor, hiding it in the folds of his monastic habit.

On one occasion, the superior of the monastery caught Diego in the act of taking bread and challenged him to show what he was carrying in the bundled robes. When Diego looked down, the bread was transformed into roses, a miraculous confirmation of his charitable works. As was often the case for sculptures depicting this miracle, the roses are not carved, for the faithful would place real or silk flowers in the lap of the sculpture.

Read Full Post »

Gifts

Posted in Drawing, school, tagged , , on May 15, 2013| 1 Comment »

…from my freehand drawing students.

image

image

Read Full Post »

Set The World on Fire

Posted in art,poetry,writing on May 14, 2013| 2 Comments »

image

image


Soneto XVII

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan eñ fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de sí, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que ascendió de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,

Sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.


Pablo Neruda


I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
I love you so because I know no other way

than this: where I do not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Read Full Post »

Pa’delante!

Posted in art,poetry,writing on May 8, 2013| 3 Comments »

image

Read Full Post »

Angels {Selfsame}

Posted in art,poetry,writing on May 8, 2013| 4 Comments »

image

Read Full Post »

Staying and Leaving

Posted in art,poetry,writing on May 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

image

The landscape is already disappearing

Into a rainy day.

Read Full Post »

Sketches from the Arab Movie Festival

Posted in art,poetry,writing on May 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

image

Read Full Post »

Requiem for a Friend

Posted in art,poetry,writing on May 3, 2013| 6 Comments »

image

Graham Downes, my larger-than-life friend, architect and urban designer extraordinaire, rugby champion, pilot, lover of life, beauty, and friendship, was taken suddenly from us 12 days ago.
San Diego is still reeling.

This is a sketch work of art he made for me last summer, when I ran into him at Bassam Cafe’. Graham saw me painting and I invited him to try out my new watercolor pen and other tools. Less than five seconds, and I witnessed a building parti take form. What a treat to see genius at work. He immediately declared he wanted us to plan Sunday sketch dates (and later informed me that, following our chance encounter, he visited the art store and went a little crazy there).

That was my friend G, enthusiastic, full of life and passion and always wanting to do everything, his schedule and reality notwithstanding.

Here is a beautiful piece of writing he sent me. I love it because it shows a contemplative side that not a lot of people got to see, and yet was always there behind the infectious energy, the million-watt smile, the glint in those blue, blue eyes.

‘… Just flew back from Bako a couple of hours ago – so meditative and surreal cruising over LA at 9k feet – pitch-black sky and all those lights representing so much life and goings-on below…puts everything in perspective every time – and i do that trip every week- mostly not at night.

Tonight we had 14 ghost-busters come over to the hotel with all their fancy machines to record/bust the reported ghosts there! Weird.

From years of studying the physical structure of things, the built environment, I am now also preoccupied by behavior of people, their aspirations, real intent, how they think, etc. This is an excellent avenue to initiate a better approach to design of structures and spaces as a leap back into new projects…especially commercially-driven ones.

Have a great time in my very fave city!
Ciao,
GD ‘

But… I would be remiss if I didn’t also share a more typical Graham message:

’10 IS A PERFECT TIME TO START A DANCE PARTY 🙂 !’

Ciao G.!!!!

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: