Today was a productive day. Yay! Even with the remnants of a migraine, I still managed to work on my website and finally upload some images of a few paintings. It took me longer than usual since I was working a bit more slowly today but I'm glad I finally spent some time navigating through FineArtAmerica and iWeb.
Yesterday, I was completely out of commission with a full-on light-sensitivity, queasiness, could-not-function migraine. I ran one quick errand in the city and got back home in time to lock myself up in a cold dark room.
But today I managed to connect to a few people who I've lost contact with. Yay! Life sometimes gets busy and we move forward with our lives and sometimes our friendships go by the wayside. Today I took a pause and reached out to a few people who I haven't spoken to in quite some time, that made a world of difference.
Let's see, I'm still moving on with my one act play Prodigal. It's still in the writing and revising stage. After seeing the movie Cairo Time last week I realized there is something missing from my play. The movie revealed itself layer by layer in these small quiet moments and my play seems to be speeding it's way through. So I have to look at the whole story arc and devise a way to slow it down a bit and allow the connection between the characters to happen more organically. Do I try to re-write huge chunks or do I write up new material altogether? That is the questions that I'm currently mulling over. I'm also having a hard time writing the monologue for the character Astrid. You see, I like her the least in this whole piece. My writing group suggested that I try not to vilify her so I'm trying a different approach with her BUT...the words for her monologue aren't coming through.
Yes, well that's where I'm at on this hot, humid night. There is plenty of work to be done and I'm just taking each moment as calmly as I can manage.
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2010 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Joan Mitchell
I went to Grand Army Plaza library to go work on my play for a couple of hours. I'm not going to complain. To be quite honest, I'm a little sick and tired of whinging about the creative process.
Instead, I want to tell you about how I started to skim the shelves in the Art Section. I pulled out some books on Joan Mitchell. She's this Abstract Expressionist artist from the early 60's and 70's. A couple of postings ago, I mentioned that I'm interested in learning more about women artists. It was pure chance that I found her books but when I opened up them up and took a look at the art plates, her work took me by surprise.
I love abstract art. I mean I get goosebumps when I come across someone's work that I've never seen before. And I know looking at art plates are NOT the same as looking at the actual piece in life BUT...
She has one named Salut Sally from 1970 oil on canvas. She has this beautiful hue of dark blue in the upper top of the canvas and then the colors blossom around it. The brush strokes are thick impasto but her use of white helps lighten the piece. It adds an effervescence to the middle field. She uses this dark green and brick red paint but these colors seem to stabilize the overall look of the piece.
Then there is a piece called Mooring from 1971. A soft pink empty field, a place to rest the eyes, in the upper portion of the canvas. Then the purple lavender and oranges intertwine in the middle field. I don't usually like that specific color pallet but she managed to make it playful. I may play with that color scheme just to see where it goes. I think her use of greys and whites helped tamp down the brightness of the overlook of the piece and gave it a moodier feel to it. It's lovely.
In La Ligne de la Rupture from 1970-1971, she uses a black square and on top of this field a gorgeous yellow hue explodes off. The black square helps the yellow dance on the canvas. The rest of the background is done in a neutral soft white pallet.
In all of these pieces she has paint dripping/flowing down the canvas which gives it a raw quality. It gives them a sense of paint melting off the canvas which is quite stunning. Seeing her work has given me a bit of license to play with paint again. I think I've gotten into a certain frame of mind with the work that I've been doing and I've been so RESTLESS that I wonder if it's my inner artist wanting to stretch beyond the routine way I approach the canvas. Sorry I'm not sure if that last sentence makes sense...I re-read it and can't make heads or tails of it. Let's try that one again. I wonder if my restlessness has more to do with a part of me wanting to TRY SOMETHING NEW. Hmmm. I wonder if this will help me with my stink attitude. Hehehe.
Peace~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2010 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Instead, I want to tell you about how I started to skim the shelves in the Art Section. I pulled out some books on Joan Mitchell. She's this Abstract Expressionist artist from the early 60's and 70's. A couple of postings ago, I mentioned that I'm interested in learning more about women artists. It was pure chance that I found her books but when I opened up them up and took a look at the art plates, her work took me by surprise.
I love abstract art. I mean I get goosebumps when I come across someone's work that I've never seen before. And I know looking at art plates are NOT the same as looking at the actual piece in life BUT...
She has one named Salut Sally from 1970 oil on canvas. She has this beautiful hue of dark blue in the upper top of the canvas and then the colors blossom around it. The brush strokes are thick impasto but her use of white helps lighten the piece. It adds an effervescence to the middle field. She uses this dark green and brick red paint but these colors seem to stabilize the overall look of the piece.
Then there is a piece called Mooring from 1971. A soft pink empty field, a place to rest the eyes, in the upper portion of the canvas. Then the purple lavender and oranges intertwine in the middle field. I don't usually like that specific color pallet but she managed to make it playful. I may play with that color scheme just to see where it goes. I think her use of greys and whites helped tamp down the brightness of the overlook of the piece and gave it a moodier feel to it. It's lovely.
In La Ligne de la Rupture from 1970-1971, she uses a black square and on top of this field a gorgeous yellow hue explodes off. The black square helps the yellow dance on the canvas. The rest of the background is done in a neutral soft white pallet.
In all of these pieces she has paint dripping/flowing down the canvas which gives it a raw quality. It gives them a sense of paint melting off the canvas which is quite stunning. Seeing her work has given me a bit of license to play with paint again. I think I've gotten into a certain frame of mind with the work that I've been doing and I've been so RESTLESS that I wonder if it's my inner artist wanting to stretch beyond the routine way I approach the canvas. Sorry I'm not sure if that last sentence makes sense...I re-read it and can't make heads or tails of it. Let's try that one again. I wonder if my restlessness has more to do with a part of me wanting to TRY SOMETHING NEW. Hmmm. I wonder if this will help me with my stink attitude. Hehehe.
Peace~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2010 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
It's August 1st, 12:45 am and I can't sleep yet again. I am physically tired but my brain won't shut off. Before I get loads of folks telling me to meditate...I get it, I need to quiet the chattering monkeys in my head. But here's the thing no matter how much I observe these thoughts I get caught up in the whirlwind of emotions. I am easily swayed by a memory or a thought these days. The ebb and flow of the moment takes over and then I'm kicking at my sheets, trying to find another comfortable position, turning round and round, chasing after them (the thoughts not the sheets).
Despite a pretty crappy week, today was a good day. I spent the day cleaning my room. Yes, I am one of these people who actually gets satisfaction from cleaning every nook and cranny. It's Pine-Sol clean and it smells yummy. Then my sister Vick came over and we walked down to JackRabbit where I picked up a pair of running sneakers. Let's see how many miles I can put onto these bad puppies. We went and had some serious sushi, then hung out with Bleu who always manages to put his big foot in his mouth which is hilarious. Lots of good loud laughing. It's been ages since I've laughed this hard.
My sister Ces came over to the house with my three nieces and we hung out in a big old group and just talked and laughed. My sisters really crack me up and I absolutely LOVE them for it. It's amazing how we can go on for hours. We shared some pizza and then her motley crew went home. Vick left soon after to her place in the Bronx. I went back to my room and finished folding and putting away laundry then fixing/dusting/organizing my shelves of painting materials which I've really needed to do for quite some time.
So I feel like I've gotten some much needed household chores done and managed to have one or two laughs with my sisters. So why oh why am I still tossing and turning? Hmmm, I did not write today. That was the one thing that I managed not to do. No wonder I am sitting here cross-legged on my bed with my laptop perching on a thigh in the middle of the night wide awake. *sigh*
I'm looking around my room and the loads of photographs of Spain and Maui tacked onto my wall. Water fountains and waterfalls, and Gaudi architecture and I've got to say that I really miss traveling. I want to look into some traveling grants to get out of nyc, just for a week or even a weekend. Perhaps a yoga retreat. I feel so scattered and so not myself lately...and I want to escape that feeling. Or at least find myself again. That's such a New Age bullshit statement ...but I guess I just to reconnect and breathe again. Now if someone can tell me how to shut off my brain that would help matters a great deal as well.
Jumping topics because this is how my brain is working these days: I managed to see the movie INCEPTION on Friday night and I thought it was a fantastic film by Christopher Nolan. My brain really went to the esoteric element of levels of awareness in dream state. I'm not really sure if that was the intention of Nolan but it left my brain buzzing for hours afterwards. Do you ever get the feeling that information that is being imparted is coming from a deeper universal source? Something almost mystical. There is a definite paradigm shift happening in our cultural collective and seeing a movie like this one really resonated for me. Goodness I've been complaining for weeks about all the crappy movies I've been seeing and then I saw CAIRO TIME and INCEPTION in the same week.
I'll write more about CAIRO TIME after it opens. I'm not allowed to review this film based on my agreement with my screening group but I can't wait to open up that can of worms on August 6th. All I'm saying about it is, if you want to see a quiet indie flick about Love, then go see this one. I'll also write about how it's been affecting/influencing the play Prodigal that I'm currently working on.
It's now 1:27 am and I think this little writing stint did the trick. My apologies for any spelling errors, run-on sentences and goofy phrasing...it's late, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have to be up at 7 am for my weekly creative meeting with Tony.
Peace~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2010 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
Despite a pretty crappy week, today was a good day. I spent the day cleaning my room. Yes, I am one of these people who actually gets satisfaction from cleaning every nook and cranny. It's Pine-Sol clean and it smells yummy. Then my sister Vick came over and we walked down to JackRabbit where I picked up a pair of running sneakers. Let's see how many miles I can put onto these bad puppies. We went and had some serious sushi, then hung out with Bleu who always manages to put his big foot in his mouth which is hilarious. Lots of good loud laughing. It's been ages since I've laughed this hard.
My sister Ces came over to the house with my three nieces and we hung out in a big old group and just talked and laughed. My sisters really crack me up and I absolutely LOVE them for it. It's amazing how we can go on for hours. We shared some pizza and then her motley crew went home. Vick left soon after to her place in the Bronx. I went back to my room and finished folding and putting away laundry then fixing/dusting/organizing my shelves of painting materials which I've really needed to do for quite some time.
So I feel like I've gotten some much needed household chores done and managed to have one or two laughs with my sisters. So why oh why am I still tossing and turning? Hmmm, I did not write today. That was the one thing that I managed not to do. No wonder I am sitting here cross-legged on my bed with my laptop perching on a thigh in the middle of the night wide awake. *sigh*
I'm looking around my room and the loads of photographs of Spain and Maui tacked onto my wall. Water fountains and waterfalls, and Gaudi architecture and I've got to say that I really miss traveling. I want to look into some traveling grants to get out of nyc, just for a week or even a weekend. Perhaps a yoga retreat. I feel so scattered and so not myself lately...and I want to escape that feeling. Or at least find myself again. That's such a New Age bullshit statement ...but I guess I just to reconnect and breathe again. Now if someone can tell me how to shut off my brain that would help matters a great deal as well.
Jumping topics because this is how my brain is working these days: I managed to see the movie INCEPTION on Friday night and I thought it was a fantastic film by Christopher Nolan. My brain really went to the esoteric element of levels of awareness in dream state. I'm not really sure if that was the intention of Nolan but it left my brain buzzing for hours afterwards. Do you ever get the feeling that information that is being imparted is coming from a deeper universal source? Something almost mystical. There is a definite paradigm shift happening in our cultural collective and seeing a movie like this one really resonated for me. Goodness I've been complaining for weeks about all the crappy movies I've been seeing and then I saw CAIRO TIME and INCEPTION in the same week.
I'll write more about CAIRO TIME after it opens. I'm not allowed to review this film based on my agreement with my screening group but I can't wait to open up that can of worms on August 6th. All I'm saying about it is, if you want to see a quiet indie flick about Love, then go see this one. I'll also write about how it's been affecting/influencing the play Prodigal that I'm currently working on.
It's now 1:27 am and I think this little writing stint did the trick. My apologies for any spelling errors, run-on sentences and goofy phrasing...it's late, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have to be up at 7 am for my weekly creative meeting with Tony.
Peace~
All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2010 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.
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