Painting about Mexico's Social & Political Situation
In the year 2014 and after two years that the current Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto took office: there was and there has been a general sentiment of discontentment among the mexican population towards the government. Corruption, insecurity, drug cartels, a poor economy growth as well as a growth in the number of low-income population (over 50 million) all, serious problems that afflict the mexican people.
Not much has changed over the last six years, it seems that these problems get exponentially bigger every day; somehow and incredibly, the population have growth to accept this brutal reality. Proximately, in July 1st Mexico's people get to vote again for the next president. In my recent visits to Mexico, I have pick up a general feeling among the people; that of which there is no hope and that basically no one can change the current situation. There is a big chance on this upcoming election that the now three-time presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador finally wins the elections. Somehow, he has managed to survive all this years, and what seemed impossible in past elections now could be viewable. Could he be the beginning of an important positive change to the system? No one can tell for sure, but what it is true, is that the current system is not working properly for the great majority of the mexican population.
The painting that I present next was done in the summer of 2014, it is currently hanging in the living room at my parents house in Mexico. It is a collection of ideas and thoughts painted in a 3' by 6' canvas, I must say, just like everyone else, I still believe that the paintings content is true today. I will not go ahead and describe literally the paintings context, but rather would ask you to study, discovered and/or interpreted it for yourself. Thanks!
About the Black Line
As you all know, most, if not all artist sign their creations in either bottom corner of the painting. It is not just important for recognition and validation of the artist work, but it also gives a sense of completion.
When I started doing geometric style works, I noticed that a group of letters as a signature was not appropriate for my paintings. It did not looked balanced, it did not belong, it felt off. In order to not compromise the composition of the paintings, the only solution that I could come up with was to sing them in the back.
Recently, I had finally solved the signature dilema, when I started noticing something I did in all my paintings. A black line! Yes, a simple black line that would complete the painting and make it look professional.
Art Battle Phoenix
I had the honor to be invited to participate in an Art Battle Phoenix event last February. Art Battle, just like the name mentions it is a painting battle between artist. It took me a while to digest the term battle in the art world, since, I believe, we artist do not compete each other to be the best, but rather, we compete with ourselves to became every day a better artist.
Another interesting thing about the Art Battle event was that we only had 20 minutes to complete a painting. Let's be honest, this does not happen in a day to day basis. I personally take a whole day to complete a painting, therefore, 20 minutes was a real challenge. Similarly, I was limited to the tools I could use during the battle. My creations are very geometric, straight lines and shapes, and for the reason I use rulers and masking tape in order to achieve the desire geometry. I of course, was not allowed to use this tools, so I needed to somehow achieve the same style without those tools.
I practiced at home and was trying to come up with a concept, maybe a portrait, an animal, or a landscape, I was thinking I could do something that everyone could recognize rather that the geometric abstract paintings that I do. Soon, I become aware that I had to stay true to my style even if it was not something that everyone could relate or recognize. I decided that once there, I was going to let myself go and paint whatever the moment would dictate me, and so I did.
And so the 20 minutes came by, I can not believe how fast time moves while you are under pressure and also doing what you like. I came up with an abstract painting, with bright shape colors and lines. I did not moved to the second round, but was very satisfy with the results. I was not worry about the fact that I did not moved forward in the battle, and question myself why I was not disappointed or sad, and soon came up with the answer: when you love what you do and you do it with passion and like the results, then you are already a winner. It was a fun night!
