Peka Kucha Night

I was asked by fellow artist and teacher Nobara Catalina Hayakawa, to participate in a Peka Kucha night here in Bogotá on Feb. 20th at Quinta Galería http://www.quintagaleria.com/QuintaGaleria.htm . This one is a global iniciative to gather funds for Haiti. For those of you who are not familiar with what Peka Kucha is (as I was), here are some links.

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

http://pknbogota.wordpress.com/

For some reason it seems like speed-dating to me, but I'm sure it will be fun. I want to show my work, but I don't really want to make my presentation about my work... I just find it weird when an artist talks about his or her work... We visual artists supposedly create images that speak for us...

Anyways, please support a good cause, it will certainly be fun, and the presenters seem like wonderfully interesting people (as opposed to the guy writing this...)

Trophy

This is a new painting of my sister Luisa. I was urged to further explore what I had done a few years ago where the figure would echo itself throughout the painting. I have to say I enjoy doing these...

Hope you guys enjoy.

Pub

I was a bit hesitant in showing this commissioned piece, mainly because it's somewhat of a departure from my work, but in paintings like these I like to remind myself that I actually am an illustrator (at least it says so in the diploma... truth is I am one at heart). I have always believed that each image sets its own rules in terms of how it should be resolved. I don't want to call it style... I guess thinking of it solely as a manner of formally resolving something can make the act of painting mechanic and eventually superficial.

What I do believe in is having an image establish certain parameters of how it should be painted... but I guess not how it should be solved universally, but how it should be worked depending on the painter...

Now I'm just rambling... Maybe these are all excuses I make up just so I can grant myself the right to paint whatever the hell I want to paint and do it however the hell I want to do it.

Here's one of the things I'm currently working on (because all the others can't be any more different than this one...)

Crazy glare in this bad pic because of all the thick paint, but I hope you guys get the idea...

HollyWeed

This was a painting from my show earlier this year; I'm posting it now because I didn't have a decent picture of it. A couple of students were fine models for this disgrace of an Elvgren. It's about love, about weed... pretty much about art school.

More Sketches

Sketches

Although every day I wish I would sketch a hell lot more (James Jean's fault), I do a fair amount of sketching. I have to admit though, that I have no intentions of my drawings being anything more than personal notes... I guess that's why I've never thought of my sketchbooks of being worthy of reproducing... on that note, here are some scans.

Some Photos

My son Samuel and my niece Cristina. Love taking photos of them...