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Cuando el artista se mira de cara
Un artista, bueno o malo, no deja de retratarse nunca. Da igual que pinte un bodegón, escriba unos versos o toque estos acordes o aquellos: cada obra de arte es un resumen más o menos explícito de una manera de ver el mundo. De igual modo, cuando un buen pintor -o fotógrafo, o escultor- retrata a alguien, debe esforzarse por hacer de su representación una suerte de resumen biográfico. Sin contar con las facilidades descriptivas del escritor, el artista plástico debe, ante todo, volver visible el ser profundo del retratado, o sea, lograr casi lo imposible: que, al mirarlo, uno sienta empatía hacia un total desconocido.
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Happy Belated 14 July! Bastille Day AND National Nude Day!
Did you know that for many people, July 14th marks a very special day in the calendar? Of course, yes, Bastille Day falls on that day – auspicious event, revolution, storming of the Bastille: paving the way for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s final meeting with the guillotine – however, that is not the event that I am referring to. In addition to La Fête Nationale, nudists the world over celebrate the lesser known, or at least lesser-publicised – National Nude Day. Whilst readers in England may not have been aware of this day, our friends on the other side of the pond certainly had their fill of ‘Nude’-related headlines.…
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Where the Wild Things Are
It is at dusk that our imaginations and fears start to play tricks on our minds. The sun-filled, logical part of the day is over. Twilight deepens. Looming shadows, the scuttling of animals, and eerie, indiscernible shapes; the witching hour approaches. This is the time, walking home from work on a cold winter’s night, when your brain conjures up all those things that go bump in the night. You walk faster, trying to get ahead of the possible footsteps behind you, jump at the tree branch when it brushes your shoulder, and peer ahead into the gloom, trying desperately to make out what the troll-like shape is in front of…
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If it ain’t Baroque, fix it!
Bear with me here. The Baroque movement is a combination of beauty and grotesque; high drama with intense focus on every element. It started under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy during the 1600s. A century later, during the late 1720s in France, Rococo was invented – was this a backhanded attempt at a war between the Romance languages and arts? Meant to create imagery for those unable to read, Baroque set out to be a symbol of unity among the masses. In light of the most recent events in the US, a country that claims to want unity while ceaselessly coming up short, I can’t help…












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