.the rest of the world, at the time.

Artwork produced from May - July 2009.





Study for "Eternal Sleep"
media: ballpoint pen on creme buff paper
May 2009




Eternal Sleep in Mexico City
approx. 24" x 18" inches
media: acrylic, pencil
Rives BFK grey






Unrest Cries (for Tehran, Iran) approx. 24" x 18" inches
media: acrylic, pencil
Rives BFK grey
June 2009





Disperse (for Tehran, Iran) approx. 24" x 18" inches
media: acrylic, pencil
Rives BFK grey
June 2009

.movement 02: phase 05-07.

March 2009

____

I also want to note that my art site (art-withoutwords.com) is presently down due to a domain transfer issue. It will be up soon (hopefully).

.thoughts as progressive drawings.

An ongoing series of large loose drawings I have started over the past weekend. There is no real direction. The goal is to try not to be editorial about this. This project resembles the idea of logging into my sketchbook, except all in one large page and in a bigger format. This shall be the playground for ugly and beautiful things coexisting with incoherent to lyrical thoughts .

I thought that I should photo document each progression.

March 2009
Gray BFK Rives paper. Approx. 26 x 36" inches.
Mixed media.

.Making Her Feel Real Again.

Making Her Feel Real Again
drawing: tuscan red pencil, acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
12" x 12" inches

It's one of those bizarre visuals that replays in my mind, or, rather, just sit as stills in my mind waiting to be expelled somehow.

The visual I see is of a man listening to a woman's head (no neck either) speak. She has no body. Nothing horrid or morbid about the scene even if the fact there's a woman's head without a body should I feel otherwise. It didn't feel like a nightmare either. Everything felt normal, yet bizarre. Even melancholic.

I heard the woman ask the man to make her feel real again. Make her whole. Find her a human body like she once had. Give her life as a human being back.

The man never gave up on helping her. I'm not sure if he ever found her a body since I suddenly found myself withdrawing away from the couple, almost like a panning effect. I leave the man kneeling in his living room floor cradling the woman's head. As I continue to gradually pull back from them I found myself lying on a couch in another living room watching them on a monitor. The image of them is only a still on the screen now. A photograph.

The living room I'm in is furnished in soft shades of white. Immediately to the left of the monitor is a glass door left ajar leading out to a patio where the sun softly reflects off of. I can't make out any details to the outside because of the sunlight. I fixate my attention to the patio's floor, which all I can see are hints of the gutter washed over by the bright reflected sunlight.

I felt no pain. The sunlight's reflection does not hurt my eyes at all. I felt hopeful for them.

Making Her Feel Real Again (earlier version)
drawing: ink on buffed paper
approx. 9" x 12" inches

.Feels Like Floating Balloons (2009).

Feels Like Floating Balloons (2009)

Media: Acrylic on Belgian linen.
48" in. x 24" in.

Larger Preview

Finally completed the last of the major paintings I had on my list of re-adaptations, where I repainted some of my digital paintings into... paintings on linen or canvas.

This particular painting was originally to be completed by the end of 2008. That never happened since I had other paintings left over to complete. It is a "re-adaptation" of my original digital painting Feels Like Floating Balloons produced in 2005.

Due to recent times I thought how much more connected this particular piece had become during the process. How it represented every moment, every individual we've impacted in our lives.

The cropping had always been how I envisioned the image in my mind, like a photograph taken. As if I was there to watch someone fall and to even wanting to rescue.

How beautiful, almost therapeutic I thought. A graceful surrender. An almost rebirth from suffering. Learning to fall, learning to rise and overcome. Regaining yourself and your strength. The running against the wind. Learning how to lose and win. Don't stop breathing, I would say to them. Breathe.

And it's rare of me to say how perfectly an image has finally been drawn exactly the way I had envisioned it. This is one of the few pieces that came to be that way.

.their peace - a set.

"His Peace" (2009)

Media: Acrylic on Rives Paper
12" x 12" inches

His Peace is a follow up to Her Peace (2008) completing the duo portrait set that I've been working on (on and off) for almost the last whole month. His Peace was completed today, hence the year difference.


Her Peace (2008), His Peace (2009)
Each measures 12" x 12" inches. Acrylic on Rives Paper.


I had no intentions for the ballpoint pen drawings (made nearly a month ago) but only to paint them on a larger scale with acrylics. Upon completion of Her Peace I realized how the butterflies are her hair... not necessarily covering her hair. I thought of a cancer patient by chance. Or, maybe, because it was something I've been thinking during that time. Of course, that was my temporary interpretation. I rather leave it open.


Almost with all of my work I constantly am engrossed (for lack of better words) with the resulting psychological and physical affection. This particular set are influenced from life's distress of one's battles (whether it be illness, distress, loss, emotional turmoils) and suffering. All the wear and tear one goes through.

Titling the two pieces Her Peace His Peace I feel transcends a surrender to security and safety from harm from his and her own battles.

.Artist Alliances Inc, New York City - Open Studios.

Her Bloom (2008)
Oil pastel on clayboard.
18x24" inches


Artist Alliances' Annual Residential Open Studios will be hosting a one-day show featuring its residential artists' work and including some "guests pieces" in the collection. In such a last minute notice, I have the good opportunity have the piece "Her Bloom" (2008) included in the show.

November 8, 2008, Saturday 12noon - 8PM
Artist Alliances Inc, 13th Annual Open Studios
107 Suffolk Street (at Rivington Street)
4th Floor
New York, NY [map]