Gaining Perspective

I recently did a little traveling to Portugal and a very quick stop in Paris to see Frank Bowling's work at the Hauser & Wirth gallery. Each and every time I travel it has a profound impact on my development as an artist and as a person in general, this trip was no different.

If you've been following along in the news to what's going on politically in this country you will find many, many people are looking for an escape of sorts, I would fit into that catagory, or so I thought. During our stay in Portugal we rented a flat in what I would call an area that is becoming gentrified. The local community didn't seem all that thrilled with what they would consider wealthy outsiders coming into a tight knit community of families that had likely lived there for generations. They are being priced out of their own neighborhoods. I get it, it has happened here in my own town.

Dig a bit deeper and you find that politically Portugal is following idealogically in the footsteps of the US. They are turning away from "open" immigration and adopting a more restrictive policy. It's not all peaches and cream in Portugal. Hop on over to Paris, what's not love? Art, food, culture, it's a beautiful place, right? Well yes for some, for others not so, they are struggling to make ends meet, taxes are exceptionally high.

Upon returning I felt a sense of grief last night as I crawled into bed. When I woke up this morning at 4 a.m. the birds were just beginning to sing, the trees are at their freshest shade of chartreuse even though the skies were gray and it's pretty darned chilly for May. What I realized in that moment is we're all fighting some of the same demons, in various stages, in various ways. No one is immune to these cycles. Not that I had any notions of finding uptopia in Portugal or Paris, but perhaps I was hoping to find something to convince myself that moving to another country would be the answer.

As for the influence this trip will have on the art I create in the coming weeks I can say I'm going to be working deeper, deeper in the sense of becoming more thoughtful about how I'm using materials, exploring how I can manipulate the materials to say more or maybe less. As a person this trip helped me see that there is incredible value in experiencing different cultures if not only to reflect back that we are more the same than different, our challenges remain no matter where we call home.

I met an artist on the street in Portugal and we talked about his work, he spoke about people hanging their clothes outside to dry influences him because the clothes are such a personal part of their lives.

Porto,Portugal

I was completely in awe of Frank Bowling's work, how he has used materials, the scale, the texture, how light is such an influence in his work.

Enamored

In LIsbon, I loved this. Graffitti is everywhere.

Lisbon

Amazing Sintra, one of my favorite days in Portugal.

Sintra