as i started reading a hounded years of solitude the Macondo , and the Cienaga the way it was written by Gabo had made me remember of the magical places Colombia had to offer hence why my trip last summer had made a pivotal part of my creative process. i remember the night skies with the infinity of stars, the vast Atlantic to my feet as i woke up in one of the rancherias wayu. as i love taking inspirations of my dreams i started with the imagery of my travels as i went outside in my backyard in NY. i starred at the sky and i mixed the impossible possibilities between the two cultures that made me who i am as a person and decided to quickly draw what came to my head as a head start to something that daunts me but I'm truly afraid to make. i doubt on my skills and i doubt on my own patience. but i still want to do it.
WHY: i want to represent what I've learned in my trip and i want to to maximize my own cultural understandings of both Colombia and the US. i constantly mix images in my head and i want to start to translate them into physical things rather than just thoughts.
i want to create the landscape of my head into paper or illustration as a way to consolidate the both experiences. western art and aesthetics with Colombian art , culture and aesthetics.
the wayuu women have this beautiful dresses that are complemented with a veil that covers them from the continuous wind and sand in the dessert as it covers them from the sun.
i want to represent them as goddesses and guardians of the entire scape.
although he night sky it's going to be full of stars i want it to be luminous on it's own without moon or sun. the ocean will represent the dessert as the guajira sea it's the calmest ocean I'd ever seen and its extremely quiet.
the ocean is the union of both countries as they share it in different parts.
the Washington square park arch:
as arches were commemorative of great leaders, the one in NY was based on the ones we see with more frequencies in Europe, like France/Spain. this for me was the very first one i've seen in my first trip to the city when i was 14. it marked me because i felt like i was finally in NY. i want to put it in the middle of the ocean because although the scenery is mostly in Colombian territory it represent my strong affiliation to the US, specifically NY. and how it marked me sometimes even more than my own Colombian roots ever did.
Condor: as it represents the official animal of the Andes and more specifically it's the official bird of Colombia, i saw it once when i was in Cundinamarca and it was majestic, it represents freedom ,strength, stamina and i connected a lot with it since i was traveling alone, in exhausting excursions that made me fall in love with the mountains. the condor represents the Andes and the mountains of Colombia further setting the painting in a Colombian landscape.
the crown of roses: instead or thorns its the other side of Christianity that in my opinion its the biggest pollutant of culture in the planet. all organized religion in my opinion. although most of them still practice Christianity they have also managed to keep their costumes when it comes to bearing children, honoring the death, their language and oral tradition. so i want to represent that with nature. mimicking the crown of Jesus made of thrones, to a crown made of live roses, feminine and luminous which will also resemble indeed the virgin Mary again carrying through the theme of female as goddesses in the modern era. i want to represent them but also my own view of what's to highlight beyond of what it is.
I'm still debating on putting myself looking up at the sky and also portraying the crab as a constellation or as an animal in the sand because i think overall the composition can be tremendously complicated and too busy. so i might edit it all out.
besides i don't think me in it makes much sense, the whole point its to materialize this idea not as a representation but much rather as a reality that's believable even thought it's surrealist.