Coloring Shadows
My love for painting is renewed when it sparks spontaneous conversations, whether with friends or strangers. Murals make that exchange easy, but small-scale works don’t, and lately, that’s where I’ve been focusing. I enjoy painting indoors, at my own pace… but the canvas asks for conversation. It leaves me wondering: is it possible to bring […]
Friendly Future
In the dictionary, “old” refers to worn out or irrelevant, but not accomplished or wise. It surprises me that we treat with such disdain something that occurs naturally over time. (I wrote about this in my newsletter #4). In the world of Animalitoland, Time didn’t exist. Until I asked my characters to help me visualize the future with kindness. But what is the […]
Unsettled
I don’t carry many belongings, but my mental space looks like a hoarder’s palace. I often find myself staring into an abyss full of chaos, wondering what of all that clutter is an important part of me, and what is just noise that slipped in unwelcome. If I find the difference, I can know what to let go […]
Disappearing of the Self
My parents’ house was full of spiritual books. As a child sometimes I would peek at them, losing interest immediately. Words like “consciousness creates an illusory sense of SELF, attaching itself to certain forms, feelings, desires” I interpreted as “seek to detach from everything, feel nothing, until you disappear”. And I would think: -How awful! […]
Beyond Gray
Vancouver is also called Raincouver: clouds cover everything in cold grey. Different from the gray of the cement in Buenos Aires, a pressure cooker with 16 million bubbles that talk and curse non-stop; Different from the gray of the paint used to cover up graffiti in Madrid. The shades never match, building up layers of […]
Transition
Last month I was invited to paint in Vancouver’s downtown, following social distancing and extra precautions. The project aimed to change the desolate view of closed, boarded-up shops. I’ve waited for a chance to paint here since I moved in. When it arrived, after the winter and the quarantine, it was an abrupt change of routine: spending all-day […]
Looking Forward
This is a chain of thoughts I started putting together at the end of 2019, since I realized I was getting depressed and the fault wasn’t on Canada’s coldness, but on the lack of future perspective. And to unravel what smells fishy is to find what can you do about it. Mind Being curious […]
Reset Button
Canadian winter: one more month for it to end. I didn’t know it would be so crushing, the lack of sun, dusk at 3 or 4pm, snow and eternal rain. After moving around the world at full speed over the past few years, I was underprepared to step on the brake in this frozen landscape. […]
Life Umbrella
December is almost over, dragging fatigue and the promise that January will bring a reset button. This year was weird for me: moving from Spain to Argentina (so long, second home!), work trips from Argentina to China, to Norway, to Argentina, to Sweden –Sweden is near Norway, why Argentina in the middle? Because I was […]
Talk to strangers
When you move to a new country, you gotta get out there and meet new people. I went through it when moving from Argentina to Spain, and now I’m starting again in Canada. I feel more outsider than ever, and comfort is far away. But that’s why I travel, to face discomfort and shorten distances.Last […]