Elba Aguilera-Barnes
Influences
I will be turning 53 next year in February, and perhaps my most cherished childhood memory is, aside from a point in time when my back did not hurt, that of seeing Monet’s painting of Lilies- Seerosen in German- featured in an old Art text book when I was 14. Monet’s blurry interpretation (probably due to cataracts) of Purple, Lilac, Burgundy shaded lilies in a Blue pond at dusk that caught my attention in such a way that I decided then to become a painter one day. In fact, it prompted me to even dare to paint my own version of water lilies, my first painting ever, and to dream of a world of Art and beautiful paintings beyond Tegucigalpa, the land locked city where I was born. The painting itself was so breath taking for my young mind that it got my spirit spinning into a wild frenzy of Impressionist dreams and visions, but what caught my attention above all was an unpainted corner of the same which Monet either skipped or intentionally left as an invitation to the viewer. What goes there, what would I paint there? What follows? Why is it empty? Many years, a career in business/ physics and a continent later, the Beyeler Foundation brought Monet to Basel, in a landlocked country, and with the celebrated exhibit came this massive painting, no longer an square inch wide image in a book, but worthy of a wall of its own. Though terribly busy at work at the time, I went to Riehen and made my way through the crowds at Beyeler, forever unable to follow a guided tour, until I came, by pure chance, upon My Lilies! Yes, the unpainted space was there and amidst the crowd, I started to cry. Here was after all my invitation to paint, and I haven't stopped ever since.
PAINTING: A TOPIC OF PREFERENCE
"Your dreams come true in technicolor"- Yes, cinema is by far the must vivid of the visual arts, the most popular in Western Culture. However it has not existed nor followed Humanity since it beginnings, as painting has. To be able to draw and paint is natural in humans and allows them to express and convey a concept, a vision and/or a memory with little else than a fingers and pigments (Altamira). No full production project, cast and crew is needed as it is individualistic, upfront and personal. It is therefore, through the Ages, the preferred trending tool for capturing/reflecting reality, dreams , fears or trying to interpret and communicate visually, without words, the reality around us when a camera was not possible. A painting reflects a vision personalized and brought to realization through an individual's eyes, brain, education, believes, social, political and mental state, commitments and conviction(s) . Produced in whatever means and material are to him or her available in a given period of time. So they reflect directly "the Times" lived conceptually, spiritually, mentally and physically. I think it was Dali who stated that the perfect painting is a photograph made by hand. Painting also allowed mobility not only ease in production. It allowed Kings and the Powerful -those who could afford to commission-Immortality. To some of us, it allows creative release at an acceptable production ratio. One must also roughly consider and conclude that cinema or film at is early beginnings, was but a succession of images or paintings. And Yes! Painting is by far the most forgiving of the Arts!
Edited by Elba A. on Sep 8 at 5:19pm