this is the first photo i upload from my new camera; yesterday i bought a canon powershot G12 and i´m testing it out today. the photo is not centered and i had problems uploading it to flickr as the size was too big, had to resize and do geeky stuff i don't really know how to do. patience...

i tested the hummingbird stencil on this piece, added cantuta flowers as if the birds are holding them and the lace at the bottom. i think i'm going to add a magenta lace texture to the flowers.

i´m always feeling i´m on the verge of ruining the piece as i´m not thinking things through but rather going with my pure gut intuition, but for once, i´m not stressing out over ruining it, i´m practicing what i preach to my students: i´m learning to use failure as a learning experience (also learning this in my life)

i decided to look for new symbols today. as i sat on my little studio table thinking, i looked out my bedroom window and saw a hummingbird in the garden. i see them all the time and am always mesmerized by them, their beauty and fragile power.

i looked up their symbolism and among many other things i found this, which resonated with me: "Hummingbird is the creature that opens the heart. When the hurt that caused us to close our hearts gets a chance to heal, our hearts are free to open again."

it's done at last and it looks better than i expected.

i stayed home all day, i wanted a whole day in/to myself but i was feeling guilty about it. now that i see my stencil it's okay, it was worth it. it's not the only thing i've done today but i would have not finished it if i had not had one whole day to do it in between doing other things (i have a short attention span).

this is how it looks in the coca leaf background. i'm liking... also likiing that i kept the colours of the book where i took the heart from-it comes from one of my grandfather's awesomely old anatomy for doctors books. again i have no idea why i'm doing this or what happens next, maybe another layer of bitumen, i don't know! all i know is that i'm enjoying the process...

...and that makes me incredibly happy. i still have to finalize it so i'll post his name and a link to his work when i do. this also takes some worry off me as i thought it would be really hard to find what i'm looking for so soon.

so yay, i cannot wait to start rehearsals and give more shape to the piece, not sure if i've mentioned it already but the piece is about:

dis·tance  (dstns)

i should be cutting my heart stencil (for the coca leaf piece) but it's stressing me out so i just started playing for a bit. i like this little frame...

i have no idea why i titled this post the way i did, sometimes i just like the way words go together... this is the morrison piece the way it looks today, with the sewn lace. i think this is as far as i'll take it for now; i placed it on my coca leaf mixed media canvas just for the photo, it won't go there (i think).

i really like the way the black lace looks but if someone asks me why i did the piece (not just the lace bit), i have NO idea. for once, i just let myself go and play and did whatever the material was telling me to do. i guess it's more complicated than that but i'm fine with that explanation for now.

on to other pieces and more lace too, i used it as a stencil with spray paint in my little whitney-museum-brochure-transformed-book and i loved it. i guess this is the kind of art-making that turns me on the most, the one that allows me to play and experiment and be a child again.

i feel like a mad scientist experimenting with materials and techniques, this is the only artwork i've done today as i'm too tired to do much more and i still have to finish some school stuff

i tried using metal polish to erase/transform magazine pages and then composed that together with my warhol image from some days ago (which now has something similar to bitumen on it) and a piece of paper with wax resist. i think taking the photo is becoming one more part of the experimentation but i know i should be using a no-effect camera too, this one was taken with my i pod one using the hipstamatic app.

he´s now in a punk rococo phase...

my question is, should i keep the yellow slide frame or not? i bought some black lace to sew it to and it looks pretty intense with it but i'm trying to decide if to sew or not to sew... also, if i add the lace, i think the frame definitely has to go. i'm so bad at these decisions because i fall in love with everything.

this is so much fun!

i've been working on this guy for a bit but i think i need to get some fresh air even though i could keep working the whole day...

the best cure for sadness are layers/texture/experimenting with materials/inviting happy accidents (and not just into your artwork...)

this is the painting i mentioned in yesterday's post. it's giving me so much pleasure to make... there must be about ten different layers on it (i've become a mixed media junky) and i feel it's barely started. this work seems so different from my past work, yet i can see how it's deeply rooted in all i did before.

the leaves are from the coca plant, i bought them in a tourist store (they came in a little bag with the tag 'legal coca'), they symbolize so many things for me i won't even try to explain it yet. i need to think about it some more.

i'm not sure what the next step is but i'm thinking stenciling an image, i'm listening to the voice of the materials following noguchi san's teachings...i also feel there's something about layers and rich textures which mirrors the stage of life i'm in.