Monday, July 31, 2017

Dogs without a Leash

I viewed something nice the other day coming from Wholefoods: an unleashed dog walking next to its master with its tail up and exhuberant confident energy. How nice! I would not want to be leashed if I was a dog, would you?... It is totally unfair to the dog.

I read that dogs on a leash tend to experience high levels of frustration because "the leash unable them to express normal canine body language and interact with other dogs normally". By nature dogs are "motivated to greet one another", but on a leash they can' t do that (https://www.sfspca.org/sites/default/files/dog_behavior_dog-dog_aggression_on_leash.pdf)

I get it, in the city, with buzzing cars on every direction, the dog's owner will get highly anxious on letting their dogs walking unleashed on the side walk. But occasionally... it might happen.

When I was in Guanajuato, Mexico, last year, during the Cervantino Festival, one of their busier seasons of the year, I saw several unleashed dogs walking next to their owners, jumping to greet everyone that came their way, but always maintaining its course. People responded to the dog with tender words, a smile, and sometimes with a caress. Uhm... would that friendly response happen in USA?... 


Monday, July 24, 2017

Art Brut Exhibit in Chicago New Logan Square Gallery

Outsider art ( or its English synonym as art brut) is usually use for artists that have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. The term art brut was first used by French artist Jean Dubuffet to indicate artwork done outside the main stream culture.

In Chicago, it is a total enjoyment for me to visit Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (http://www.art.org) or Chicago Urban Retreat Art Center (http://www.urbanartretreat.com), galleries where you can find exciting, refreshing, highly creative work by outsider artists.

This past Friday I attended the opening of Patrick Humphreys who is showing at Oliva Gallery (http://www.olivagallery.com) in Logan Square. The gallery's walls are covered with painting of different sizes and a coffee table holds a pile of prints and smalls drawings. My eyes and spirit were dancing as I immersed myself in his world. For me the work outside the main stream art culture maintains a raw and direct connection with creative energy; it is honest, direct, and it does not try to impress anyone but simply express itself from deep down its unconscious source.

The exhibit will be up till September, 2017. If having the time and interest, stop by.


Sunday, July 16, 2017

Memory

"In Thinking about Decisions". Oil on Wood.
B.Ledesma (c). $650
I found myself responding to people's images of trips or happy moments because I believe they are moments of the present. This past week one of my FB friends posted a nice selfie in a cruise. I was very happy for her.
I responded: "Enjoy!". 
She immediately led me know this was a photo from "some years ago we went on a cruise of the Inland Passage to Alaska"... (it was five years ago)
"Just out of curiosity", I asked, " what motivated you to post a photo of something that happened years ago?...
She responded: "Facebook automatically posts memory photos for you. Sometimes these make me so happy I want to share them again..."

I literally do not understand that behavior- not only seems to bring a nostalgia or longing for something past but also creates confusion. Yeah yeah, at  the top of the image there is an indication of how many years ago the photos is from but... but ... my question reminds: why?....

It may be me but I am noticing more and more people talking of times long gone- on the news, on magazines, and in social media. Is that a sign that life in the present is so uncomfortable/unhappy/boring/uneventful that we need to constantly be reminded of how things were in the past?... what did we enjoy doing?...

I like to think of memory as a feather

from Pezibear's on Pixabay
 a fleeing moment of joy, sorrow, pain, whatever. A moment that makes us what we are in the present. Constant looking at the past can places us at the doors of depression or cyclic melancholia or "having the blues".

Don't get me wrong- memory is a terrific tool of the mind for retaining facts, events, impressions, feelings. How to use it is a choice from my perspective. 
To give in to what FB thinks we have to remember or when we have to remember, seems to be a weakening of our capacity to choose, if you ask me. 
But some people may need that ... uhh... .............................................really?...


Monday, July 10, 2017

TODAY IS ABOUT SHOES ...

Shoes fascinate me. I am known for purchasing a pair of shoes just because there is a sensual feeling when looking at them although I may never wear them ... a pure sensual pleasure you may say.

Shoes as a symbol seem to carry a contradictory meaning: it could represent authority and power or humility and servitude; they are about movement with ease.
Shoes keep our feet warm and protected.

In some religions you are required to put off your shoes to enter the temple so showing humbleness and respect for the divine. In older times, and in our current times, not everybody can buy shoes so shoes become associated with freedom, comfort, and also wealth when they also can be associated with vanity and arrogance.

There are so many connotations related to shoes! High heels have erotic and/or sexual connotations; for some stiletto heels appears as a phallic symbol; worn, old shoes may be symbol of hardships and struggles; some sandals may symbolize the moon, and the list can go on and on. But ... old, worn shoes could represent warships and struggles.

Oil Pastels on Paper. BL (c) 2017
I think about shoes very often these days when listening or watching the news and learn about masses of people being displaced from their land to the unknown. I look at their feet. Many of them with a simple flat sandal, or worn ones, others without any shoes at all... Their facial expressions, their body language- the tiring walk of displacement- seem all to be represented in their shoes or no shoes. No safety... no comfort ... no protection of any kind... Their emotional life marked by unwanted dislocation... I wonder...would these masses of people be able to emotionally and psychologically repair themselves?... being able to trust the earth they are walking on?... trust each other?... continue having a sense of inner safety in the face of displacement?...

These and many more questions about the inner life of those that are forced to live their homeland fuels my current series of studies and paintings on shoes...













Monday, July 3, 2017

And talking about "daring greatly"....

Back in 2006 I did a series of oil pastel drawings on paper around the topic of vulnerability

Vulnerability, BL. 2006 (c)
$200
and lately the images of those drawings began to fill my mind...
What means to be vulnerable in times of external and internal stress?... I look up the meaning of the word "vulnerability is the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally""open to moral attack, criticism" "capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt" "a frame within which defensive measures are diminished, compromised or lacking" and quoting Dr. Brene Brown vulnerability "is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/04/21/brene-brown-how-vulnerability-can-make-our-lives-better/#16953a1c36c7)

Vulnerability is a space that all of us have experience with -some more than others.

Dr. Brene Brown has researched the topic of vulnerability and actually wrote a book about it
"Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transform the Way We Live,Love, Parent, and Lead", and has giving TED talks about it(https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability)
which is worth to listen to, in my opinion.

The question for me is how do I maintain myself vulnerable in times of chaos like the times we are currently living in the US and the world at large?... can we have the courage to show up and being seen?... do we have the courage to say "I need help" "I need you"...?

Capitalism imprint in us the importance of individualism "me for me and me against you" type of attitude toward the other. The problem with this stand is that leaves us half empty, isolated, fostering grandiosity and experiencing "narcissistic wounds" when finding out that others do not think we are so great. In my opinion, this is what has been happening in USA since 2001...

So, in a way out of chaos healing can take place as it provides us with the soil to have the courage of ask for help... or ...not?...