Second Semester Reflections

The second semester has been a little hard. Painting has become more and more difficult and frustrating for me, because when you progress is more easy to get stuck in something. But that also mean that when you find something (doesn't matter how small it is) it is a big achievement. Painting and I have a love/hate relationship.

It is also hard to be far away form my girlfriend. We don't see each other too much but when it happens we try to make the most of it and we talk and chat everyday.

At least all the hard-work has produces good results: I have become better (but it is not enough), so it has been a decent semester.

I don't have a particular experience to talk about but I will mention all the times I went to Linares and Talca to see my family and my girlfriend. Those are moments in which I can relax with the people I love. We go to eat, I play with my brother, etc. Actually, it doesn't matter what we do, the only important it is to do something together and see each other. I miss them.

I just hope to end this semester in the best way possible and go to my home for vacations. I will paint and draw everyday I could and use the majority time to be with my family and my girlfriend... and of course get drunk with my friends - I miss that too.

Arts and I

My first memory is about me drawning dinosaurs and ancient hominids - I was 3 or 4 years old. If there was something I could imagine, I drew it. So, for me it's "natural" to be here (even when I was on psychology first). At first I thought that the career had an speciality on drawning, but it hasn't, so I choose painting as my central workshop and I try my best on it. Also, I'm in the experimental cinema workshop because I want to make video-art and I'm in the drawning workshop with Iñaki - the hardest workshop in my opinion - in which we are working on different topics: the head, the human body and the urban space (I draw statues dressing the characters on them as japanese samurais... because... I CAN!!!). And we will make a book of our work for the exam.

I don't know what is going to happen in the future because there's nothing for sure related with this career, but I'm totally sure that I will don't stop making art, I can't even if I want to because to be an artist is a lifestyle, a way to be.


By the way: SAMURAI!!!

How green are you?

When I was a child and I came to Santiago it was a shock to smell the air and see the poluted sky. Santiago is the hell of enviroment activits and a big part of that problem is that we are not an enviromentally friendly culture. I don't remember this issue as a big topic when I was on school - it's not part of the program. So a lot of people doesn't take this seriously. The good thing is that we can do something about it: been responsable and raising awareness. I try to be responsable with the waste of the things I use, I always throw them to the trashcan and I encourage others to do the same - I get angry with others if they don't do it. Also, I use public transportation and I walk a lot (a healthy habit).
If you want to help the enviroment you can separate the trash, build a compost, reduce the amount of water you use, etc. We are not only helping the enviroment, we are helping ourselves. This is were we live and little actions can make huges differences on the quality of our lifes and other people lifes too.

A movie that I like and a movie that I hate

I'm a very tolerant person... but not in the artistic world.
"Persona", by Bergman, is a great movie and one of my favorites. It's about a young nurse who has to take care of an actress who, by mysterious reasons, has decided don't talk to anyone. After a few days the nurse starts to talk more and more about her personal life - some terrible choices she takes in the past -. In this environment of total dependency, body and personality start to separate from each other, but I will not tell all the story. It's deep, interesting, it's  awesome.

A movie that I hate... there's a lot and is difficult to chose just one, but I'll pick, the horrendous, "Freddy versus Jason". I love Freddy (I saw all the movies) and Jason... but, separated. This movie is so bad it's offensive. The acting, the plot, the shots, etc. But the saddest part is the lack of respect to two beloved characters by a mediocre cinematic execution. Of course, this remains me "The Phantom Menace", another rubbish. But there's some bad movies that are actualy fun like "The Critters" (just watch them rolling on the floor: terrible special effects).


Anyway, this will probably change in the future. I will  watch more good and bad movies and my mood will change too.

A Song that has a special meaning

Lateralus.
Lateralus is a song by the band Tool - my favorite band. I choose this song because it's so powerful it gives me goosebumps when I listen to it. The song structure rest on the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc), this group of numbers can be use to draw a perfect spiral that can be found in nature and, of course, in the art history. The drums and the vocals are based in this structure and guide the listener on a game with this numbers: they start the sequence, they go backwards or miss some parts in purpose. The vast majority of the lyrics talk about "become" this spiral. Imagine a human being who can transcend its limits and go further and further. You always grow, everything is experienced in new ways. This is the kind of song that makes you realize there's no limits to your potential, to connect with yourself  and overcome your own prejudices, at least, this is the way the song works for me and other people, but Tool's song are always "very" open to interpretations. So listen the song, give it a try - it is a little long for certain people but you will not be disappointed :)
Spiral out; keep going!

My Future Job

This is mere speculation...

I would love to work as an artist. I don't need a lot of money, fame or people licking my shoes (I would not refuse that if it happens). If I can make a living with my art, thats all I need. So, this is my plan: I will have a little house or department that it will be also my workshop, I will have enough money to pay the rent, the internet connection, buy vegan food, materials and wine. I will work all day long, but in the end of the day I will see my work and I will feel terrible because its not enough so I will drink all the wine - in just one shot -, after that I will puke the vegan food and lay on the floor in pure sadness.

Maybe I will become an art teacher... a sinister art teacher who will discharge his frustration on his students. I will be a divorced man with a son who doesn't know him very well and hates him.

All this will end with a solitary suicide but no one will care about it.

So as you see I'm very optimistic about the future, but the present is full of joy and that's the most important now.

An artist that I admire

Francis Bacon.

Francis Bacon it was an Irish-born British figurative painter. It's well known for the deformations he introduced on the people he painted and the use of out-of-context references.
I admire him because he was so dedicated to his work and he made incredible pieces of art. Bacon truly revived painting when a lot of people said it was dead. He represented on the canvas the most deep feelings of the human being (also the aggressiveness of his own sexual life). I also like his technique: how he used the brush-stroke, the relationship between the parts with a lot of oil and the parts with just a few of it, the composition was simple and effective, the synthesis for certain parts it was very effective too. It's also important to consider the relation of Bacon and the art history (Velázquez and his portrait of Inocencio X, the Furies, the references to Rembrandt, etc) and how he used the photographs as reference. He transformed the oil into flesh (suck that Jesus).
I think these and other things could be good reasons to consider him an interesting artist, but I think you have to have the experience of see and analyze his work and judge for yourself, give it a try. 

One of my favorites: Seated figure 1974