Patina

Wikipedia says pa-ti-na is a green and brown film on the surface of bronze or similar metals, produced by oxidation over a long period. And wabi sabi is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. While walking down the street today I honed in on this chair by the side of the road and found all those elements together. Even though inviting you to sit down, you couldn't help but stop and observe the rusted paint, the peeling of one layer of color over the other. It reminded me of the peeling walls in Antigua, Guatemala, and what is below the surface... the marks left behind.

Judy Tuwaletstiwa

It is always a joy when you find a similar mindset in the work of another artist. I would like to share with you this video of the artist Judy Tuwaletstiwa. I love the way she moves through different media: fabric, glass, ink, paint and natural found materials. She listens to them, learns from them... in some way she gives them a voice through her artwork. During one of her recent lectures, she quoted painter Philip Guston " I go to my studio every day because one day the angel might come, and what if I don't show up and the angel comes". “Judy Tuwaletstiwa_3.5min” from Melinda Frame / FRAME+WORK on Vimeo. The video is available for your viewing pleasure at https://vimeo.com/335994167

Transition

After several years of hiatus from writing in this blog, change is compelling me to start again. Wikipedia tells us that transition is the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. If we apply this to us, we did change from one state to another, in reality from one country to another and many conditions with that. It is a space in time that I have experienced many times. I remember my Dad telling me when I married George, "Mi hijita te estás casando con un nómada, esos gringos se mueven de lugar a lugar". And although this turned out to be true and we have crossed borders and moved from one property to another several times it has opened the opportunity for us to learn about transition. I love this space, in which we are forced to go through all our shit, get rid of the stuff no longer serves us, to untangle ourselves from the day to day responsibilities and the set schedule. There is an anonymity that comes with it which is refreshing.