One Stroke at a Time

What I find hard to do, is to take control. The passion that drives me to paint is transformed into this powerful energy and strength that needs to be controlled, so I don’t end up damaging the canvas. This energy I talk about needs to change from physical to emotional at my fingertips. It cannot be added to the brush.

I was chosen by my style of painting, I didn’t choose it ...don’t ask me why, but at this moment this style of painting is what’s coming out of me. Detailed oriented, short strokes, carefuly-chosen colors ...one stroke at a time. I would’ve wanted something a little more physical, with speed, long strokes, lots of imperfection, that’s something that seems to fit me better, may be I’ll try it in the future ...but like I said, what you see at this moment is what’s coming out of me.

May be it is the period I’m in right now, may be it is the way I want to tell you the story, or share my memories. may be I just don’t want you to miss any detail of what I have to tell you through the painting. I don’t want you to mis anything.

I had some time to paint over the weekend, I got caught by the detail of the bullfighter’s parade-cape or Capa de Paseo, which is the cape they wear on the left shoulder as they walk into the arena before the fight. I spent a lot of time making decisions on what would go on the cape. I’m liking the wy it’s going.

It must’ve been around 1977 or 1978, I was about 14 years old, I was at the Plaza de Acho, a beautiful bullring in Lima, Perú; it was built in the 1700’s and restored in 1946 or so, I was standing there, at the gate where all the bullfighters need to pass through to get to the ring, I had a piece of paper and a pen, I wanted autographs. I did that every year. All of a sudden, Francisco Rivera “Paquirri”, a very famous Bullfighter scheduled to fight that afternoon, appeared dressed in his suit-of-lights and with a big smile took my paper and pen, gave me his autograph and shook my hand. I was shocked. I will never forget that moment.

One thing I remember very vividly about that moment, is the color of his “traje de luces” (suit-of-lights). It is the color I’ve applied to this painting, it was an aqua-blue and gold. Just the way I saw it. Just the way I remember it. Many people call bullfighting “the dance with death”, and you would think that to an event that’s called that, everybody would be wearing black, but a bullfight is a beautiful celebration of color. That’s ironic.

Francisco Rivera “Paquirri” was killed by a bull in 1984.


Peace.

74.63% There.

Getting there. I don’t have the luxury of spending every day painting. I have many other duties that at this point in my life, take priority. I’m happy I was able to spend a few hours painting over the weekend. For a long time I felt as if I was stuck. It didn’t matter how much I was painting, it just seemed like I was going nowhere. It felt like I was going to be painting the same thing for the next few years. Never finish.

But!! this weekend I got out of the hole. I clearly see now the ending of this painting, I feel like I just started it, and that’s a good thing. The excitement is back. Of course, I have a few more weeks to go but I know exactly where I’m going and what I have to do.

In every painting I’ve done so far, I’ve found a big hurdle, a big challenge; I encountered situations that I had to figure out by myself (you know, no art book or no painting classes), for example: On the first painting “The Cajonero” the challenge was the feet. How in the hell was I going to paint feet, I’d never done it. So it took some time to play and do it over and over and over...

On the second painting “The Anticuchera”, it was the fire of the grill. Shit! FIRE!! ...I didn’t know how to do it, not only that, Fire brings lighting, so fire had a huge effect on the lady doing the grilling, so it was a little complicated. On the third painting “The Turronera” the challenge was the darkness, I wanted to show a lot of detail, but all this is happening at dusk, plus I wanted to show people in the background, so I had to play with perspective.

And of course, on this 4th painting (no name yet) I also had to get myself in a messy situation: The SUIT OF LIGHTS. I was very excited when I decided to paint the Bullfighter, then I thought: Oh Shit ...what about the suit of lights!!? ...so, I just have to do it. I’m at a point of no return.

That’s all for now, Soon I will tell you the reasons why I painted the bullfighter, why the color of the bullring, and why the purple cape and why the color of the suit of lights. The process continues, and I want to share it with you. The suit of lights is beginning to shape up. But there’s still a lot of work to do.

Peace.