welcome: I am so glad you're here...
travel in time with me for a moment.
~ THIS IS A PROTOTYPE ~
002-002
Copyright, Diego Rigales, all rights reserved.
_______
(...but have been provided here thanks to the contribution of CS, T-01204623403)
An idea stolen from Shaun Tan to be taken to 5 x 6 foot linens.
T - 10152024043402
Discourse within the LA district is being explored...
STATEMENT: "EAT OR BE EATEN."
or...
STATEMENT: "FEED AND BE FED."
~ TINAP ~
STATEMENT: "Art" is an way to teach artificial intelligence our morals, values, feelings, perceptions, experiences, of what is...within [us/the 'human' experience], (beyond 'machine learning' inputs).
THOUGHTS: _____________?
T-1118202374602
DECEMBER...12.17.23-13:39
If I live in the moment...truly in the time + space provided...
The pieces will continue to communicate with past future versions of themselves. Each a capsule to be seen not in one moment but the entirety of its existence. The work is part of a whole.
We are part of a whole.
We exist here in certain circumstance, exactly where we need to be: part of a greater journey.
10 NOVEMBER 2023: SIGNIFICANTLY COLDER : 10:28 PM
...been working on this for a while now. It's almost time...
06 NOVEMBER 2023: MONDAY 10:28 AM
...life is change?
Life is change.
05 OCTOBER 2023: FALL: 4:44AM
SAME SAME:
What is it, these labels we call, we attach to, we notify, we enforce…for what?
So we can just be constant, but where is the comfortability in change, in accepting that running back around might just be the key.
To survival.
Survival = peace, contentment
There is one thing we all have in common.
We all exist in time.
We are all just somewhere in time.
We are change.
Change is time.
18 AUGUST 2023: SUMMER: 2:54PM
Out of the nature of my job, my own documentation efforts, and of course the polite notion of offering transparency, I will reiterate some of the many challenges faced by "artists."
Things have not been well, but well enough?
I stare at my hands. These hands have the power to create or the power to destroy.
16 AUGUST 2023: SUMMER: 11:07PM
Clouds + Giant canvas + [couple poquitos] = Therapy?
Blair arrived to help me built these large ladders for the next show. We weren't 15 minutes before both deciding we needed to collaborate on a large painting together in the meantime...
Landscape, clouds, and...ladders ?
We got right to work.
It started with a first layer that ended up looking like a nice big cloud:
We then added "Hacienda Blue" to match an existing pallet found in other pieces - the sky. After this it sat for a weekend while we prepped some other pieces.
Yesterday was a tough day. You know, those days where all your demons decided to follow you around without consent. So rude. I invited a stranger to come over and hang in the studio [ there's now a couch in here ˜ gracias a papa dios ]. Our conversation started with, "so...what are your insecurities?" and a dollop of yellow paint left from my thumb.
Below is the result of our conversation that took place over about 2.5hrs or so. It kind of felt like what I'd imagine it would feel like to be featured in a "Midnight Gospel" episode. This portion of the piece [ which will eventually be entirely painted over --> we're still adding background layers of paint for the base ( layers = time stamps = juju] also released those bad thoughts. I'm rooting for you bebes :-)
We're stayin' positive. Life's too short babes... ------>
Blair is so brilliant; she used Rhino to map out a viewpoint for us and then added the clouds and horizon outline...using helpful geographies provided by therapy session the night before. This is the largest painting either of us have ever tried and we are so excited.
___________________________
Alas, we are here. Spun out of nothing into something — into a world governed by laws of physics and psychics.
Imagine this world as your know it now. Then forget everything about it.
Who are you? Who am I? What are we … supposed to do?
Not to worry! We as rational being carry a prize of immense capacity.
You my friend, yes you, brought from the cosmos and yet to return, are here in a time and space where you can redefine your world. Share your feelings, explore your observations, protest what makes you mad.
Art is science, art is literary, art is … an entity of immaterial energy represented through tiny objects around us, screaming for our attention. Become of hope, reminders that we can conjure — ideas …
But remember now, even though you have the capacity to cure and corrupt, nothing you create is about you, your ancestors, or anything at all.
Art is a moving encryption. I dare you to solve it then let it manifest your reality once again — shoved into a home somewhere in the universe locked only in your heart.
Why settle for nothing when we have the capacity to create … something?
Luis Diego Rigales didn’t write this.
A WORLD WITHOUT ART?, 2019
besidesthepoint- explorations in zine writings - writings 002
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond. Below. Beneath…
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
Beyond. Beyond.
A moment in thought about:
Fantasies of Love and Other Visions
Artist: Martín Núñez
Showing at Smoke the Moon Gallery
February 24 - April 2, 2023
616 1/2 Canyon Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Smoke the Moon, originally debuting on West Marcy Street, is now comfortably nested amongst the bundle of Canyon Road galleries. The gallery space is quite stunning; once home to the Catenary Gallery, then the charming author Jeffrey Schweitzer’s Bindle Stick Studio, Smoke the Moon now proposes a platform for the future of the Santa Fe contemporary art scene.
Fantasies of Love and Other Visions presents the dream-like narratives of Martín Núñez, a Mexico City based artist who has shown work before at The Landing in LA,* Museo Experimental UNAM, and at Zona Maco. Also a professional skateboarder, Núñez founded, LÚDICA, a skateboard company that has featured his work in Thrasher Magazine.
The show consists of 29 gold-toned, framed paintings. Possibly categorized as 'contemporary surrealism,’ each piece portrays the energy of a dream-like narrative executed through hazy, texturized brush strokes and scenes involving anthropomorphic, etherial entities. Some are cheeky, some more sinister, but all request the viewer to inquire about the situation - almost similar to that morning feeling of trying to logically identify that dream you had last night. This idea is also enforced through the pieces’ average 12 x 6 inch dimensions. They are brief, framed portals into another consciousness.
Personally they remind me of what I imagine a modern-day Dante’s Inferno would look like existing in a world glued together by style, texture, and compositional storytelling through the eyes of Núñez. Just like dreams exist in the fabric of each persons, special mind, I am not going to attempt at describing these 29 entities in particular, but rather, invite you to experience this fantastical world for yourself.
Fantasies of Love and Other Visions is currently paired with Soft: a group presentation featuring work by artists Emma Bagley, Daniella Ben-Bassat, Erina Davidson, Maren Jensen, Jieun Reiner, Corey Ruecker, Margaret Thompson and Paige Turner-Uribe running February 24th - April 2nd 2023.
- Diego Rigales, 2023, Offside Santa Fe
*Lost Paradise, Martín Nuñez, curated by Michale Slenski, The Landing, 5118 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, July 22 — September 5, 2020.
A Curatorial Review of:
Technicolor Glasses
Artist: BLAIR
Showing at Iconik Coffee Roasters Lena
Feb 17 - April 2
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday February 24th, 2023 4 - 6 PM
It was an important discussion.
The title for this debut show was a thoughtful endeavor, various approaches were entertained before a route was seriously explored. We setup all the pieces around the room, creating a circle of portraitures. Each piece conjured a portal into a plethora of emotion; we had to take turns standing in the center of the arena.
Each piece brought its own articulated sentiment to the collection. Distinct in flavor and concept. Technique, color, composition proved cohesion, yes, but there was something more that brought them together. An idea proving them all sisters, cousins?
Eldest Daughter, (seen above, first image) caught eye not because of its beautiful composition but rather the sight of a distant memory - almost similar to that sensation of catching an unexpected sniff that throws you back to a specific moment in time. Interestingly, Eldest Daughter, I later learned, was one of the first pieces created. It would inform the rest of the series in technique and concept.
Good portraiture, arguably, summons the soul to either identify feelings of comfort or discomfort. The viewer is challenged, acknowledging style, time, posture, to either relate in some facet or refute any similarity. BLAIR’s portraits satisfy both. I’ve never felt such comfortable intimidation not from fear or refute but from…elegance?
Artist BLAIR has a way of presenting dense themes in literally a vivid, elegant manner. The idea of using novel hues and values throw out expectations of what should be or enforces a certain viewpoint but rather offers a different way of seeing the situations presented - offering a different lens…
- Diego Rigales, 2023, Offside Santa Fe
An [ongoing] (personal) list of influential art writings: