A new direction

At last I get a chance to write on my recently created blog page. As my first entry, I consider relevant to talk a little about my work and current situation. Little more than a month ago I came from the United States to El Salvador with a scheduled exhibition in one of the capital's finest art galleries. Unfortunately, the show was canceled due to censorship by the gallery owner and an art historian who did not find it appropriate to show my work dealing with the relationship between consumerism and religion. Apparently according to them there is no relation between these two and my work should just play it safe by depicting angels, saints and virgins without saying anything else beyond the well known religious narratives that pervade Latin American culture. Of course I had a decision to make. Either become a "crown pleaser" or be loyal to my own convictions, for which I chose the latter and feel quite good about it. Besides, now I have plenty of time also to work for my next show scheduled for 2010 in Puerto Rico.

Now, I find myself working at my wife's family house, who kindly allowed me to paint here for the time being here. I've spent a nice time here studying, painting and reflecting on my next moves and of course sharing time my and work with my wife and her family.  I recently started developing a body of work that I intend to present next year in Puerto Rico. I am very excited about this because the work is dealing with so many issues that I really enjoy talking about. It has been a time for reflection and some introspection. I have concluded a chapter in my life and now beginning a new one. It is still the same book though, which means that the themes that I am working with are very similar and closely related to the previous ones I had worked in  the Iconsumer series. While working on my M.F.A. thesis show Iconsumer, in Savannah, Georgia, I felt, thought and painted in a different way. I was obviously affected by different circumstances and surrounded by different influences. I felt homesick, in fine tune with social and economic concerns of Latin America and political issues in general. I was single and a rebel and very much interested in religious imagery and how this could influence our perception on art and other commodity objects.

Life has changed for me a bit now. Now I'm married and do not consider myself a rebel as much as I used to. I just do things differently and think differently. I do not see any problems with this and do not fight against a system in order to be accepted. I just am what I am and feel pure satisfaction in painting. As much as I identify myself as an artist with Latin American Culture and specially with Puertorrican Culture, I do not become too attached to it as to limit my freedom of expression. I find beauty in all cultures and specially in classical culture. After teaching a painting on the techniques of the Old Masters at the Maitland Art Center in Florida, and after visiting some magnificent art museums in Washington DC and Philadelphia, my painting skills have improved very quick. I adopt the work Old masters of European Painting as my inspiration  and not the work of Colonial Latin American artists. I feel more interested in Myth and ancient narratives and really got tired ruining my painting with Wallmarts and Mcdonalds for the sake of the statement. After a While these ideas start to loose their edge and one finds little sense in repeating oneself. My work is now taking a new direction and Im quite happy about it the way it is developing to this point. I shall explain more as I continue painting and refining these fresh ideas. This is all I can say for now. I shall cover more on it on my next entry.