i am a self-defined Nuyorican creative (that is a Puerto Rican who is from both the isles of Manhattan, NYC and the Caribbean). I share daily in the joy of education and live in a cute port town in New York, in a 'teensy-weensy' apartment with my two dogs and canary named Valentino. Check out my Etsy shop for purchasable pieces. Please do not reproduce imagery off of this site without explicit credit and no derivatives may be made of my original imagery- Thank You.
Here are a series of photographs that I took this summer in my travels to Ensenada, Mexico and Manzanillo, Mexico. They're a study of color that gave my camera a run for its money and hopefully they spark the iris of your eye.
As a writer, I am often reminded that reality is frequently much more bizarre than fiction- but the same goes for the visual arts - since no painting I could ever do could embody such colors without appearing contrived. So I hope you enjoy these and let me know which are your favorites...
"Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality."-Arthur Koestler
This is the perfect quote to surmise my summer thus far. It implies taking a wet rag to the set ingrained dirty lines of dust on your windshield and wiping them clean of routine, it implies an end to the repetitiveness and turning your life inside out and upside down by taking a 6 hour flight and landing into undetermined circumstances...to endure something new, something unadulterated and fresh - never before witnessed by your sensory powers. Hence something original is born.
I was super fortunate this summer to be asked/selected by the my long time prof glass artist friends, the De La Torre Brothers, to assist them with their work for three weeks this summer.
And so after kissing my fam goodbye, flying into San Diego and driving down to Baja California, I am finally here. And I am loving the wine region, fish port land, the people, the spanglish and the creative studio gig! The flora and fauna is absolutely stunning...I'm mesmerized. I feel like the ranch we are stationed on is right out of a Georgia O'Keefe movie. So I thought I'd share some vignettes of my beautiful trip so far- oh n my trailer...I hope you like!!
Once again I'm in half of my home -soul and wanting to share all the beauty of my town Jaguas, Puerto Rico with you. So I hope you enjoy- my island dreams!
Apparently there is an idiom for daydreaming awake of what our heart envisions with disregard for our minds...for having unrealistic desires, or plans that appear so impractical that they will never work, illusory, or a futile flight of fancy, it is what we tend to call Castles in the Air/ Sky. And often it comes to us prefixed with, 'DO NOT...build castles in the air...' but can you imagine what the world would be if anyone had ever refrained from the impossible dream?
So today as a necessary component to being 'a creative' (self-defined noun) I post about the dreaming: big and small of mine...the thinking with my heart and not my head:
sandblasted glass block- Think With Your Head NOT Your Heart Fool..by m.diazphoto by VINCENT THFOIN
Branching out: A spiral staircase leads to a tree house in Rambouillet Forest, France Etsy Seller Book of ArtOur Secret Harbor Digital Art by Aimee Stewart featured in this months Somerset Digital ArtBurning Man Festival SculptureBurning Man Festival Sculpture
Desert festival: For one week out of the year a portion of the desert is transformed into a thriving diverse city known as Black Rock City for the spectacular Burning Man festival in northern Nevada
Cirque De Soleil OPoseidon Under Sea ResortAn unlikely surrogate mom...True Love Among the Mundane Rubbish by Kumi Yamashita and Tim Noble + Sue Webster Trashy Shadow Art
No that's not a recipe for anything, unless you want to call it a recipe of creative sparks being showcased at the Mia...
We're in February and I'm still reporting on all those creative flair ups that I saw in Miami back in January at that oh so sweet Art fair and though I have many more worthy artists in my picture file- I'm ready to wrap it up. But before I do, here are some of the last inspiring pieces I thought you would enjoy...
Remember- click on the pink links to learn/see more about the artists or their representing galleries!
This is the third installment of Miami Art Fair contemporary art and I still have more to share. I'm anxious to show you all some more of what I've been doing lately too, so hopefully you keep coming back for more!
Artist Nick Gentry's work represented by the Art Modern Gallery has gone viral on the blogosphere lately, my students love his work on old floppy disks. Above is one of his pieces entitled Antenna that I saw at the Miami Art Fair.
The next piece that I'm featuring here is this piece entitled Compound 3 by Colombian born artist Juan Raul Hoyos, represented by the Alejandra Von Hartz gallery, made entirely of paper bags. Anyone who is a regular blog follower of mine might recall my post entitled The Potential of a Brown Paper Bag that you can see here which resonates with the same idea of how much complexity you can build with such simple things. In the case of artist Juan, he has built what appears to be a whole congested city developed out of printed bags simply opened and left to evoke a war-torn time and place. For me what was quite powerful was the congested feeling still seemed overcome with abandon and emptiness...like an evacuated space. Too bad it seems Juan does not have his own site and or the Alejandra Von Hartz Contemporary Art Gallery site should have links to more of their artists work so that you could see more.
Ok so get ready! Here is another moment when my students came to mind...turning around in the Galerie Helene LeMarque booth at MIA and seeing all of these stacked yellow phonebooks carved into these portrait busts! A graduate of School of Visual Arts, artist Long-Bin Chen from Taiwan gave a serious sculptural treat...once again showing us the power of the pedestrian object being risen to iconic stature.
detail shot of Long-Bin Chen's work by m.diaz detail shot of Long-Bin Chen's work by m.diaz hereanother sculpture by Long-Bin Chen at Mia photo by m.diazback view of sculpture by Long-Bin Chen at Mia photo by m.diazanother sculpture by Long-Bin Chen at Mia photo by m.diaz
If you have 7 minutes I found an additional treat for you all, this fun you tube video doc of Long-Bin Chen and his work- I think you;ll really enjoy it!
I hope you enjoyed this installment of my MIA art fair experience! I have one biggy left to report on before I start to move on and share some other creativity and art related news- so stay tuned and LET me know what you think! Anybody here who blew you away and why? or was this all just too on the 'what-ever-happened-to-fine-art-supplies?' for you?
In grad school I was told I was a better draftsperson than painter and that I should focus my energy on just drawing... regardless... at graduation I received a certificate of distinction at the Hoffberger school of Painting. I'm glad I didn't outline limitations around myself or be swayed by the big names that guided my path, but when I saw this artist, Christina Pettersson's work @ Mia it reminded how powerful an unadulterated graphite drawing can be. Her work comes across as pure as a piece of 18th century literature and iconic and romantic enough to make William Morris smile in his grave. The large scale of the drawings can be better appreciated in the video I found for you. I am also quite impressed with the artists featured by the Spinello gallery who had more than one of the artists I am featuring and reviewing here my blog.
One of the artists I really enjoyed discovering at the Miami International Art Fair was Euginio Cuttica, who I believe was there represented by the Adriana Budich Arte Contemporàneo Gallery. Eugenio Cuttica is a contemporary artist born in Buenos Aires in the mid 50’s. The opening slideshow on his website is a treat enough to discover so I highly recommend clicking on his name anywhere in this post to go to it and peruse yourself.
Another very intriguing artist was South Korean Artist Sang-Sik Hong who was represented at MIA by the Patrajdas Gallery.
Sang-Sik uses a very pedestrian (everyday) object such as the plastic drinking straw and delivers a fun, yet deliberate and evocative punch of relief imagery!
He makes contemporary, symbolic sculptures & installations. A real special treat is to visit the Patrajdas site by clicking on it here and seeing SangSik Hong's Installation Works which are EXTRAordinary and fantastic feats of genius!
Representations of Power, Sex & Desire executed in a "weak" and basic, yet iconic material.
I am back in the cold Northeast from a visit to Miami International Art Fair this past weekend where the weather was warm, and some of the art was hot.
Fortunately, I met a fellow blogger/artist F.L. Campello from the Mayer Fine Art Gallery whose work I was struck by and who quickly hooked me up with a press kit. The fact that bloggers have gained some respect was new to me, but makes perfect sense since we have the ability to start accessible information chains that can go viral rather quickly. So I am now considered viable press in these situations which is so very cool!
I returned with over 300 photos in tow of contemporary art that I can now break down and parcel out to you in digestible bits and pieces. Overall the fair seem to have an overabundance of Latino artists represented. I'll begin this feast for your eyes and intellect with a few appetizers, click on pink links to see, read or learn more.
NOTE: a quick reminder (especially if you're new to following my blog), I don't prescribe to antiquated definitions of fine art vs. craft or that one is a higher art form over another- I can be free to do that since I am not confined to markets, or to inciting market value.
Regardless of being involved in education and the value of certain pieces to the art to the student, I am not driven by academic high-art-speak babble, which can unfortunately just be a guise for a lack of conviction and a way to bs around the human need for personal expression. So some of my top picks may be due to a variety of different reasons which can vary from the gallery's attitude, content, a specific appreciation for a technique or skill that is manifested in a particular element of art, or simply my personal taste.
My top picks may not be your cup of tea and will range from blue chip to University of Miami students, but hopefully you'll see some value in what I chose to highlight here since I certainly won't be posting all 300 photos.
This visit was incredibly educational for me not only in what is happening with some of 'the up and coming' and inspiring creative thinkers out there, but also in regards to some of the behind the art scene of gallery etiquette, conventions, loyalty, and their time, energy and economic investments, so once in a while I'll post a nugget of info in that regard as well.
Like a good blogger on Artful and creative living I am on my way to Miami tomorrow for the Miami International Art Fair!
I promise to come back chuck full of photos of more inspiring artists and hopefully some more inspiration to share!
MIA features the Projects Gallery of Philadelphia Which represents this piece By artist Alex Queral, acrylic on carved telephone book
So stay tuned in with me while I blog about my trip and share what is sure to be some phenomenal artistic feats since I will spare you those that aren't! LOl!- ciao Amarettogirl
Here is a creative glimpse of my time in San Diego which was like a scene out of the Fast and the Furious, but I packed a whallup out of the short time there.
Love the time difference, the weather and the people. In fact, I actually miss it! So here goes:
restaurant across the street from Scott White Gallery Little Italy San Diegome in front of Scott White GalleryFurniture Shop Gallery Shotgallery shotArt & Design Bldggallery shotPublic Artdetail shotart piece for window display @ the Contemporary Museum of Art San Diego