ROY G BIV Art Show

I recently had a show in Columbus, Ohio and it was a great chance for me to make a few new pieces and try to get back into making some new work. I am happy to say I made two new pieces that I think haven't fully been explored but have a lot of potential. I took a bunch of pictures of the pieces which need some editing but I wanted to be sure to share them. Any feedback would be helpful! I ended up tinting some of the windows with a teal window tint to recreate the color in the warehouse. I thought that since the front of the gallery space has these huge windows that generate a lot of light that I might as well take advantage of it in a purposeful way. It casted a beautiful tint over many parts of the space. I loved it. Just like I imagined.

Back to Rio

It has been awhile since I have posted so I thought I better start again since I finally have a little bit of free time for the next week. Since I've last wrote on this blog things have been pretty busy and good. I worked on an artist site for my mentor and friend Ledelle Moe and I recently just had a show in Columbus, Ohio at ROY G BIV Gallery and will be giving an artist talk THIS Saturday followed by the de-installation process, which is always fun. I am in fact heading to Brazil very soon. In a few weeks in fact and wanted to be sure that I started writing again so I would continue on my trip as well.

So awhile back, my good friend Rachel introduced me to a search engine called StumbleUpon and in the last few days I decided for fun to search images and websites related to Rio. I found a few good sites with some photographs I love. Here are a small bit of the many I found. Needless to say, lots of images to come!

The first set of images I found are all older photographs of Rio from the 60s and 70s. I picked these images because each one of them have somethings to do with my last trip there. They spark a memories from different occasions and encounters I had. What is it about black and white photography that I am always intrigued by? I loved to see the progression and change that happens over years of time as well as the minute changes sometimes overlook.

Brasileros

I like this picture a lot. My friends and I the last night I was in Rio! I showed it to my tutor. She laughed and said I really stood out...I beg to differ

April?

I've been meaning to post. Once things took off in Baltimore, I lost track of time. It goes by so fast when you are busy. The Science Center is coming to an end. I think tomorrow is my official last day? and I have an interview tomorrow for another job. Waitress. Hmm.

Here are a few pictures I have been meaning to share. These are from when May, Sara and I went to VIVA Brasil at the Creative Alliance, in Baltimore.




Funny thing. I have been meeting with a tutor once a week and this past week we were sitting in our usual spot, at the Inner Harbor and overheard this woman on her phone talking in Portuguese. Crazy right? What are the chances?! Patricia called her over and they ended up talking for awhile. I sat in the middle, zoned in...trying to pick up anything I understood and surprisingly I knew a lot! It was a nice feeling. It's paid off!

This weekend I am buying my ticket to head back to Brasil. The plan is to be there for a month. Visit with friends and family and kind of pick up where I left off. Come back for school. Take a course at Johns Hopkins while at MICA and finish. (apply for a Fulrbight). Whew. Can I do it? Of course I can!!! It will happen if I really care that much and I truly believe that.

7 Reasons Why You Should Visit Brazil

Brazil is no doubt one of the most beautiful countries in the world thanks to its wonderful beaches, rainforests as well as the famous Rio de Janeiro carnival. But what else makes this country a top priority for millions of tourists every year? This article will show you only 7 reasons why you should plan your next vacation here.

1. Beaches – Brazil has to offer no more than 2,000 beaches that are stretch along the Brazilian shoreline. Although many of these beaches are very populated, a large part of them are preserved ecological sanctuaries;

2. Culture – in Brazil you will find a fabulous mix of totally different and exciting cultures that you won’t find anywhere else on this planet. Strong cultural resilience sustains, for example, the efforts of indigenous people and African-Brazilians as they reaffirm their sense of identity through strife. And it's safe to affirm that the people who have created Brazil are, as a rule, friendly to foreign tourists, despite nationally, race, culture or social status.

3. Cuisine – ever heard of Brasil Sabor? Well, it is the largest culinary festival in Brazil and you can imagine what you will find there. Besides this, in Brazil you will also get acquainted to the Comida di Buteco, which is the annual Belo Horizonte Bar Food Contest. In Brazil you will find, from open fire pits tended in the open fields of Rio Grande do Sul by gauchos, the South American cowboys, to upscale restaurants abroad;

4. Cities & Towns – almost all of the Brazilian inhabitants live in cities and towns. Strolling through the streets of Brazil you will find colonial towns like Ouro Preto or the daringly designed capital – Barsilia. Let’s not forget about the famous Rio de Janeiro where the biggest carnival on Earth can be found every year or the lovely city of Sao Paulo;

5. Friendly Weather – the northeastern coastal cities like Fortaleza for example, boast approximately 300 days of sunshine per year. The fall and winter travel in a great part of Brazil is exquisite thanks to the cool sunrises, a general shedding of sweaters during unbelievably bright sparkling sunny days and crystal clear, chilly nights that are perfect for cuddling by the relaxing fireplace;

6. Tourism As A Priority – Brazil has its own Ministry Of Tourism not to mention that both state and city administrations are putting in serious money, just like the private sector. With other words, they offer better road infrastructure, jobs, significant improvement of community life and other benefits;

7. Celebrations & Events – the list is very long and for that reason we will point out only the major events: the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, Festas Juninas, St. Vito Festival, Festa Nacional do Indio, Festa do Divino and last but not least, the celebration of the new year – the Reveillon;

All things considered, if you haven’t been to Brazil yet you don’t know how fabulous this country is and the numerous possibilities for fun you have here. As far as the accommodations are concerned, they offer hotels for all budgets so surely you will find a nice play to stay.

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

I met with my tutor for the first time last week. Things were a lot more difficult than I had imagined them to be. For some reason I felt extremely tense and stressed out about the whole situation. I just have to take it slow and know that it is going to take time. I am a very forgetful person sometimes so having to learn all these verbs isn't the easiest thing for me to do but I bought some flash cards and am hoping everything will work out. I was trying to find some worksheets online to use as as practice and stumbled upon this website that was talking about the 100 most beautiful words in the ENGLISH Language. I was happily surprised and eager to see the list because I had a few conversations with people about how ugly the English language was...hopefully they can be persuaded by this list.

1 adroit Dexterous, agile.
2 adumbrate To very gently suggest.
3 aestivate To summer, to spend the summer.
4 ailurophile A cat-lover.
5 beatific Befitting an angel or saint.
6 beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
7 blandiloquent Beautiful and flattering.
8 caliginous Dark and misty.
9 champagne An effervescent wine.
10 chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
11 chiaroscuro The arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture.
12 cockle A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower.
13 colporteur A book peddler.
14 conflate To blend together, to combine different things.
15 cynosure A focal point of admiration.
16 desuetude Disuse.
17 diaphanous Filmy.
18 diffuse Spread out, not focused or concentrated.
19 dulcet Sweet, sugary.
20 ebullient Bubbling with enthusiasm.
21 effervescent Bubbly.
22 efflorescence Flowering, the opening of buds or a bloom.
23 elixir A good potion.
24 emollient A softener.
25 encomium A spoken or written work in praise of someone.
26 ephemeral Short-lived.
27 epicure A person who enjoys fine living, especially food and drink.
28 epiphany A sudden revelation.
29 erstwhile At one time, for a time.
30 eschew To reject or avoid.
31 esculent Edible.
32 esoteric Understood only by a small group of specialists.
33 ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
34 etiolate White from no contact with light.
35 evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
36 exuberant Enthusiastic, excited.
37 felicitous Pleasing.
38 fescue A variety of grass favored for pastures.
39 foudroyant Dazzling.
40 fragile Very, very delicate.
41 fugacioius Running, escaping.
42 gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
43 glamour Beauty.
44 gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
45 halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
46 hymeneal Having to do with a wedding.
47 imbricate To overlap to form a regular pattern.
48 imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
49 imbue To infuse, instill.
50 incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
51 ingenue A naive young woman.
52 inglenook The place beside the fireplace.
53 inspissate To thicken.
54 inure To jade.
55 jejune Dull; childish.
56 lagniappe A gift given to a customer for their patronage.
57 lagoon A small gulf or inlet in the sea.
58 languor Listlessness, inactivity.
59 lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
60 laughter The response to something funny.
61 lilt To move musically or lively, to have a lively sound.
62 lithe Slender and flexible.
63 loquacious Talkative.
64 luxuriant Thick, lavish.
65 mellifluous Sweet-sounding.
66 missive A message or letter.
67 moiety One of two equal parts, a half.
68 mondegreen A misanalyzed phrase.
69 nebulous Foggy.
70 niveous Snowy, snow-like.
71 obsequious Fawning, subservience.
72 odalisque A concubine in a harem.
73 oeuvre A work.
74 offing That part of the sea between the horizon and the offshore.
75 onomatopoeia The creation of words by imitating sound.
76 paean A formal expression of praise.
77 palimpsest A manuscript written over one or more earlier ones.
78 panacea A complete solution for all problems.
79 panoply A complete set.
80 pastiche A mixture of art work (art or music) from various sources.
81 peccadillo A peculiarity.
82 pelagic Related to the sea or ocean.
83 penumbra A half-shadow, the edge of a shadow.
84 peregrination Wandering, travels.
85 petrichor The smell of earth after a rain.
86 plethora A great excess, overabundance.
87 porcelain A fine white clay pottery.
88 potamophilous Loving rivers.
89 propinquity An inclination or preference.
90 Pyrrhic Victorious despite heavy losses.
91 quintessential The ultimate, the essence of the essence.
92 redolent Sweet-smelling.
93 rhapsody A beautiful musical piece.
94 riparian Having to do with the bank of a river or other body of water.
95 ripple A small, circular wave emanating from a central point.
96 scintillate To sparkle with brilliant light.
97 sempiternal Forever and ever.
98 seraglio Housing for a harem.
99 serendipity Finding something while looking for something else.
100 surreptitious Sneaky.

JR Art

I recently received an email from my friend Steph and was happy that she shared an artist, a French Photographer, she found who created some work in Rio. The project was apart of a series of photographs he took in Favela da Providencia-the first favela in Rio de Janeiro. The project consisted images in which the photographer captured the facial expressions of women whose lives are infested with crime, a violent loss of loved ones and arbitary repression as apart of everyday life.

I am most impressed with the artist's intent to create work that engages the community and becomes apart of the space rather than exploiting the community which I think sometimes happens with photography. Why simply just take a photograph when you could use it in such a way those around you are involved? It makes so much more sense. The amazing thing is these structures his photographs are placed on become small components included in the "grand picture" which is inevitably the homes inside this community ad things going on around them. The colors and textures just add to it making it cohesive and creating a face to the favela.

His website has lots of great photos from the project as well as an impressive list of other pieces he worked on, all of which were not funded by anyone but created simply for his own desire.

When I was visiting Rio, I had really wanted to visit one of the favelas and actually didn't live too far from Rochina which is one of the largest in Rio. I drove by it every time I took the bus or a cab from Barra into the city and every time it was mesmorizing to just drive by this hill side that was just full of all these bright colors and seemed almost impossible that people lived in these stacked shacks and at night they like stars in the night sky, any many ways I found it beautiful. I just loved it and in some ways feel the same way about buildings throughout Baltimore. I was at a discussion group about Baltimore vacant lots a few months ago and someone brought up the fact that these spaces are often times bitter sweet because we are drawn to these decaying structures and how there is something about them that is asthetically pleasing but at the same times they aren't always benifiting the community. I guess this applies more to spaces in Baltimore more so than the favelas in Rio but either way, when he said that I had an "AH HA" moment because that was exactly my own thoughts. I think there are solutions to these vacant spaces that could prevent them from being demolished but instead refurbished into something new. That seems like the solution to me.

But back to the favelas...

They offer these tours where you can ride in jeeps like your on a safari in this "other place" and unfortunately people do it. I had wanted to visit a favela with a walking tour group where you meet people from the community and they have markets where they sell hand made things so you are actually supporting the community but unfortunately wasn't able to. My cousin Nalita was so confused as to why I would want to go visit the place and I didn't really know how to explain it because in some ways you are exploiting these people's community and lives. I think some of it was for asthetic reasons such as those I mentioned earlier. I think I was more fascinated by the means in which people are able to live and survive in relation to our culture which to some is considered decadent. I guess it all comes back to our consumption and how much less we could consume if we were just more concious of our actions.


On a separate note I had a wonderful time at the Carnaval party hosted by the Creative Alliance. Pictures and a post soon to come!!