Emulations
Gotas de lluvia(Raindrops), cianotipia - 150x150cm, Luis Gonzalez Palma
Nubes que pasan
Caminan con el viento
El rio sueña
(passing clouds
they walk with the wind
the river dreams)
Luis Gonzalez Palma is a Guatemalan artist “has employed traditional and unique methods to study the gaze, the nature of humanity, and existence itself ” (Art Dealer). In Gotas de lluvia, Luis Gonzalez Palma experiments in his “agua” series, exploring the visual geometry of his interpretation of raindrops, utilizing his personal view on nature and its place in the universe. He uses cyanotype technique to create his cyan blue hued water drops. The technique employs chemicals and water to create high contrast images. He uses this art form to replicate the water drop stains that seem like a microscopic universe or an aerial view of the oceans. For the first time viewer, it can be interpreted that Palma is trying to make us view nature in a different way, a more abstract vision of reality. According to Palma “We know that the universe is related to divided flows of energy. Resonance fields that flow through the firmament. Imagining them in silence, in a musical way, like a silent prayer, gives me the chance to see the world with different eyes, observant, attentive, careful eyes. Chantal Maillard says it more clearly: "There are things that cannot be taught if you don't keep quiet."”(Ruiz). In this way, Palma wants us to see through his eyes the nature of water, how it flows like the universe, having an important significance in our lives as a sustenance and an essential part of life.
Imitation of Raindrops
Water as it drop
Forms rivers and stream
Look how it flows
Like the Universe
In my imitation of Luis Gonzalez Palma’s Raindrops, I was not able to utilize the cyanotype technique but instead opted to use cobalt glass bowls filled with bubbles to replicate my interpretation of his raindrops. Taking pictures of different angles and regions of the glass bowls allowed me to come up with nine different images. I then used the Instagram app to create a collage of this abstract image of “squares in a square” shape. This image was then tinted a deeper blue using Photoshop to wash out the brightness of the original image. Though my view of Raindrops is not as realistic as Palmas’, nor as intricate, it shows textures that try to replicate the different shapes raindrops make as it splashes against a surface. I added a poem an ode to Palma’s own poetry that he has attached with his picture. The poem is dedicated to water and nature, the two themes that run through Palma’s artistic creation.
Talk Here
From conversations overhead while walking, Dyan Marie
Dyan Marie is a painter, photographer and sculptor who captures neighborhood scenes in her native city of Toronto. Her organization How We Live In Cities responds to climate change and population shift with art and ecology projects. In “Talk Here” a blurred image becomes something that symbolizes the rush and hecticness of city life, that does not have time to look at the abandonment that is a side effect of that environment. Poor neighborhoods filled with urban blight, the degeneration of urban areas as a result of neglect. It seems to say slow down, do not go so fast, see what is really there not the hustle and bustle of the city scene. It is saying to the viewer to fix the problem, bring life to the blurred vision. It says we rush to consume, have the best of things without realizing the after effect in the waste that is produced, the abandoned neighborhood left in neglect. Even the word ‘abandoned’ has a negative connotation, making the viewer have a sense of sadness. The photograph urges us to say,”Where is the hope?” It cannot be seen.
Walking the city streets
In my inspiration of Dyan Marie’s work I try to take a picture of the city street at night and blur the scene by focusing on a minute detail in the image. While Dyan uses the horizontal direction to symbolize that stagnation, and sad feeling that comes when you see the word ‘abandoned’, I try to use vertical lines to represent the tall buildings that rise in the city scene. The lure of the big city lights and hustle and bustle that occupies many of our lives and makes it hard to see the realities that hide in the corner alleys and dark spaces. The effect of what urban living contains, its’ fast and cold, it has no time to see the poverty, the neglect, the abandonment that comes with city life. We are too busy with our own lives to see what is going on in our own neighborhoods. Its’ effect on us is an indifference to the plight of our neighbors.
Work cited
“Art Dealer for Luis Gonzalez Palma Photography: Fine Art Gallery.” Jdc Fine Art, https://www.jdcfineart.com/artists/luis-gonzalez-palma-photography.
Ruiz, Ana Lucía Mendizábal. “‘Los Huesos Del Agua’: Luis González Palma Se Toma El Munam.” ElPeriodico, 22 July 2022, https://elperiodico.com.gt/cultura/arte-diseno/2022/07/22/los-huesos-del-agua-luis-gonzalez-palma-se-toma-el-munam/.
