Body Geometry, 2013
Momentary movements, fabric; colored pencils on sketchbook

The drawing board is beginning to take shape with color, geometry and movement this summer. Excited to be working on a new rendering for Body Geometry, 2013.

Story Water
By Rumi

A story is like water that you heat for your bath.

It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!

Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.

The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that’s blazing inside your presence.

Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.

Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.

Lygia Pape, Divisor, 1968

Yaa Samar Dance Theatre performing Skirt Dance at Jacob’s Pillow Dance by Christopher Duggan

Again, the sharp new moon blade.
Again we walk a garden
with the lily’s clever talking around us.

Green satin no tailor sews,
trees putting on their hats.

A drumming begins, and we play along
on the drums of our stomachs.

The lake that was ice and iron
is now ridged in the breeze
like David’s chainmail.

A voice says to the herbs, Raise up.
The mystic crane returns.

The humiliated ones dress
and show their heads in windows again.

There is a public concert on the tomb of January.
The willow shakes its head.

Those we thought were lost are back.
Resurrection is decay, then re-creation.
How the sun is with plants is evidence enough.

- Rumi

Performance Body Monoprints, Turmeric ink on paper

Rossana Martinez
To Love and To Hold (Secrets of the Sea), 2013
Performance Body Monoprints
Turmeric ink on paper
2 x 2 x 2.25 inches

To Love and To Hold (Secrets of the Sea), is based on anatomy, body movement and its relationship with the ocean (five limbs, five fingers, five oceans). For the performance, I use homemade turmeric ink. When the monoprint is flat, it is the size of my hand. All elements make reference to the geometry found in the body.

“In the summer of 1883, the University of Pennsylvania sponsored Muybridge to undertake the largest investigation yet of stop-action photographs, including women, men, children, horses and a large variety of animals at the Philadelphia Zoo. Over the next three years, more than 20,000 individual photographs were taken, resulting in the publication in 1887 of Human and Animal Locomotion, featuring 781 different collotype plates.”

Produced by Laurence Miller Gallery & Tane Digital Video

I could relate the five Ws about this image, but I think the image tells it all. Enjoy!

I’m thrilled to be part of BRIC’s Short List curated by Elizabeth Ferrer. BRIC’s Contemporary Artist Registry is a fabulous place for discovery. Brooklyn has plenty of treasures, and artists are such an important part of the borough. I love the sense of community, creativity and history the borough contributes to the magic of New York City. And I’m proud and thankful for having the opportunity of being a (tiny) thread of this wonderfully diverse fabric. Gracias!

Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative

From Site Santa Fe‘s press release:
Montano has created works in a variety of forms that explore the interaction between art and life. At the heart of her practice is the belief that the strategies employed in the creation of and engagement with art, such as focused attention, openness, and awareness, can enhance the quality of one’s life, if turned toward everyday activities. Similarly, the experiences of one’s life can enrich one’s art.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated publication You Too Are a Performance Artist: Art in Everyday Life, produced by SITE Santa Fe. This publication will function as a performance art workbook consisting of newly created performance instructions paired with documentation of several of Montano’s performances from 1969 onward.

From her art/life story, chapter 1:

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, in 1942 to be exact, in a very small village in upstate New York called Saugerties there was born a girl-child named Linda Mary Montano…

WHAT LINDA LEARNED FROM THE YEARS 1942 – 1952

1. Parents change diapers, make trillions of meals to feed us, spend untold amounts of money on our clothing, education and well-being.

2. Adult art is a collage of childhood images, dreams, memories and needs.

3. Gratitude goes to our parents and grandparents for handing down their love of creativity.

4. Reproducing the “smells” of childhood that produced our early ecstasies is a subconscious agenda of artists.

5. There is always a creative way to empower a seeming lack of power.

6. Influencing others is a constant conscious choice for some and inevitably comes with age. Like it or not we are always visible.

Image:
Linda Mary Montano
Kingston, NY 1982

Another reason to love the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Thinking Aloud
“I can see the humanity in a way, the figure breathing.”
— Carmen Bambach

About 82nd & Fifth
82nd & Fifth is the Met’s address in New York City. It is also the intersection of art and ideas. We’ve invited 100 curators from across the Museum to talk about 100 works of art that changed the way they see the world. Eleven Museum photographers interpret their vision: one work, one curator, two minutes at a time.

82nd & Fifth is a year-long series of 100 episodes. Throughout 2013, new releases will appear every Wednesday.

Image:
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto)
Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
ca. 1510-1511
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two bodies,
Moving through the park
Breathing, talking, observing
Together,
All in green.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991
14 x 28 x 2 3/4 inches overall
14 inches diameter each
The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY

“Sonia Delaunay refused to accept the factile distinction between fine art and applied art or decorative arts. She devoted her gifts equally to the design of a fabric or to a room-size oil painting…”

“For their visits to the dance hall, Bal Bullier, Sonia created her first ‘simultaneous dresses’, made of squares and triangles of taffeta, tulle, flannelette, moire corded silk — anything that came to hand and all mixed together…”

Stanley Baron and Jacques Damase. Sonia Delaunay: The Life of an Artist, A Personal Biography Based on Unpublished Private Journals, 1995.

I feel better about our living room looking like the Hall of Justice. How fantastic is to be a kid! Great read from elephant journal.

These Few Things I’ve Learned from Superman
By  Tara Lemieux

Choreographed spools of naturally-dyed wool from Oaxaca

― Martin Luther King Jr.

First bloom of 2013. Astonished and grateful!

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

–Mary Oliver

–Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
From Yoga Journal, Feb 2013

Up early,
Moving,
And admiring a graceful partner.

Rossana Martinez
Between Two Lungs, 2012-2013
Performance Body Monoprints
Beet ink on paper
14 x 17 inches

A morning run to the water,
As I move, I witness the sunrise,
While my senses attune to all the elements
that form this wonderful circle of
light, movement and music.

Image:
Leonardo da Vinci
Anatomical Study, ca. 1510-1511
The Royal Collection,  London

Body Geometry for Sequoia Tees, 2012
Editioned T-shirt and cards/drawings, colored string
Orange, hot pink and blue woodless colored pencils on recycled/acid free paper
5.5 x 12 inches
Edition of 100

The edition for Sequoia Tees consists of the creation of a unique and editioned T-shirt by visual artists from around the world.

The edition is of 100 and the design is manually printed on a 100% cotton T-shirt. The collector can choose a number. Each T-shirt has a number punched (cut out and strengthened) in the left sleeve of the shirt. When a number has been sold no one else can buy this design with the number chosen.

The collectors’ item is wrapped in a Sequoia Tees designed gift box and comes with a certificate of authenticity. In addition, for my design, I made cards/drawings to be included with each T-shirt — which are based on my current work, Body Geometry.

The cards/drawings are made of orange, hot pink and blue woodless colored pencils on recycled/acid free paper. The dimensions are 5.5 x 12 inches. Each drawing includes a 12-inch piece of colored string. My intention is to give collectors the possibility of framing the drawing or rolling and tying the drawing for them to create their own scroll.

On a day like today, I change my tote bag from foundation manager to gallery director. My commute is shorter, but the intensity of the day is the same. I wake up early to exercise and listen to Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More. I’ve been singing that song for days…

I hear our son tell me “Mama, I love you” in Spanish and it melts me. My edition for Sequoia Tees is on view today and I’m thrilled. I look around our small apartment and smile because the hallway is currently a studio, my side of the bed has books and recently purchased art supplies. On top of art supplies and projects, the living room looks like the Hall of Justice. This boy loves super heroes! I keep smiling and think of the rooftop. The vegetable garden was a great experiment this year. The tomato plants are about to close shop, but the kale, spinach, broccoli and garlic are happy, very happy…

It’s busy for sure, but there are so many positive things going on. All I can sing is “Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free…”

Sigh No More
By Mumford & Sons

Serve God love me and men
This is not the end
Live unbruised we are friends
And I’m sorry
I’m sorry

Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea one on shore
My heart was never pure
You know me
You know me

And man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing

Love that will not betray you,
dismay or enslave you,
It will set you free
Be more like the man
you were made to be

There is a design,
An alignment to cry,
At my heart you see,
The beauty of love
as it was made to be

The day has come and I can finally share with you the images from my edition with Sequoia Tees, a cool company based in Amsterdam. I’m thrilled about this project and although it’s not quite September 27th right here in NYC, in Amsterdam it sure is. So let’s get this rolling….

The edition is based on my current series of work entitled Body Geometry. Read my previous post Peekaboo to learn more about it.

The edition comes with a card/drawing made of orange, hot pink and blue woodless colored pencils on recycled/acid free paper.


Sequoia Tees offers a discount on their site for the next 24 hours. Use the discount code “RM5″ when placing your order.

Thank you all and hope you enjoy it!

A very positive movement that is currently happening in the USA. They are young and educated; interested in the environment and real food; willing to learn a forgotten job; ready to work hard. They are the Greenhorns. Their book, Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers’ Movement was published this year by Storey Publishing.

I’ll be blogging more about one of my favorite chapters soon because it resonated to an artist’s life in some way. But here, I’ll share two wonderful lists from the chapter, Farming in the Web of Interconnectedness by Sarajane Snyder.

a good list
human health
community engagement
cultural knowledge
ecological restoration
political empowerment
economic stability
spiritual enlivening
(dependent on networks of relationships & connections)

What Does the World Need?
Listening, Slow, Less, Breath, Sharing. Free farm stands. More art space. Less consumer space. Reskilling.

Enjoy!

The project I’m currently working on is with a company based in Amsterdam called Sequoia Tees. The project consists of the creation of a unique and editioned T-shirt by visual artists from around the world. Each artist’s design is showcased for 1 day. The day my edition will be on view is next Thursday, September 27.

The edition is of 100 and the design is manually printed on a 100% cotton T-shirt. The collector can choose a number. Each T-shirt has a number punched (cut out and strengthened) in the left sleeve of the shirt. When a number has been sold no one else can buy this design with the number chosen.

The collectors’ item is wrapped in a Sequoia Tees designed gift box and comes with a certificate of authenticity. In addition, for my design, I made cards/drawings to be included with each T-shirt — which are based on my recent series entitled Body Geometry (see image). Oh, that’s right, I can’t show you the entire image yet!

The cards/drawings are made of orange, hot pink and blue woodless colored pencils on recycled/acid free paper. The dimensions are 5.5 x 12 inches. Each drawing includes a 12-inch piece of colored string. My intention is to give collectors the possibility of framing the drawing or rolling and tying the drawing for them to create their own scroll.

We have 5 more days to play Peekaboo. Meanwhile, check out Sequoia Tees‘ cool website. There is a lot to explore.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Very excited to be part of this upcoming project that merges my interests in art & design.  Keep your eyes open for next Thursday, September 27, 2012.

I finally found a title for a new series of performance body monoprints using homemade beet ink. It has taken me many, many breaths to make these new works so I thought it to be a perfect title to describe the whole experience. I listen to Florence + the Machine while I run in the mornings. Her voice and lyrics are amazing.

I also began writing about how the works illustrate what keeps me active, involve and learning every day. I haven’t finish the post, and soon will be sharing both with you all. Until then, here is a bit of more information about the new works. Stay well and active friends!

Rossana Martinez
Between Two Lungs, 2012
Performance Body Monoprints
Beet ink on paper
14 x 17 inches

Luminescence Dressed in Red & Pink, 2012

Luminescence Dressed in Red & Pink, 2012
A/P Performance Body Monoprint Book
Gouache on paper
20 inches x 6 7/8 inches