An artistic version of Dracula. Una versión artística de Drácula

Based on the original, Bram Stoker´s Dracula

Espadas. Swords

Pinos helados. Frozen pines

Luna de Halloween. Halloween Moon

Whisky bottles and glasses. Botellas de whisky y vasos

Bones. Huesos

Estallido de cristales. Outbreak of crystals

Pinos en la montaña. Pines in the mountain

Ailurofobia. Ailurophobia

This one represents my fear to cats, they are beautiful, but also scary -for me-.

Máquina de la Colonia Penitenciaria. Machine of the Penal Colony.

This illustration is based on the machine described by Kafka in his story ¨In the Penal Colony¨, my favorite one. The machine had been designed to insert needles in the condemned´s body while writing his sentence. All design patterns were absolutely intrincate. The whole process is like a religious epiphany until the victim finally understands the sentence and dies.

Membrane 2. Membrana 2

Autobomba. O Guerrilla

This image is based on ¨Fanatism¨, a story that I´ve written based on the past (?) events at Irak. In the story, I don´t say where the main character lives, but, after all, it could be anywhere.

Open skulled. Cráneo abierto. Or Specter. O Espectro

Escarabajo en telaraña. Beetle in spider web

Lines. Líneas

The death of a star. La muerte de una estrella

“And after that the melodye herde he

That cometh of thilke speres thryes three,

That welle is of musyke and melodye

In this world heer, and cause of armonye.”

Geoffrey Chaucer. From ¨Astronomical Lore in Chaucer¨. By Florence M. Grimm. Lincoln, EEUU, 1919

Woman in filigree. Mujer en filigrana

Digital brush. Pincel digital

Eye through shutter. Ojo a través de la persiana

Frutilla en el agua. Strawberry in the water

Fire. Fuego

Rizoma

That´s a colorful representation of a rizoma. The great property of a rizoma is that when you cut a part of it, the rest of the root will still be living, independently. The theory is applied in urban morphology.

Almejas bajo el agua. Clams under the water

Two versions of my Jack O´lantern. Dos versiones de mis calabazas de Halloween

The first time I carved a squash for Halloween, I didn´t have any special tools. Worst of all, my youngest daughter asked me to help her with it, but many days before it was required to bring to school. So, I didn´t count on the main problem: it would rotten soon. There was an exhibition and ours was not the only one that showed the consequences of time, not like this painting, but it was a little ruined on top. The next one is a softer version:

This particular Halloween, a friend of mine gave me her remaining squash, not a Jack O´lantern, it was full, but it was a huge one. She said she lived alone and didn´t know what to do with it, after all it is food, isn´t it?

So, I cooked pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin salad, pumpkin this and that..... :)

Hindu butterfly. Mariposa hindú

This is a fractal I´ve generated based on a Mandelbrot´s.

Villa Diodati

My version of Villa Diodati environment, in the night when Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and other writers were gathered listening to a German horror story read by Lord Byron.

¨The Villa Diodati is a manor in Cologny close to Lake Geneva. It is most famous for having been the summer residence of Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, John Polidori and others in 1816, where the basis for the classical horror stories Frankenstein and The Vampyre was laid.

Originally called the Villa Belle Rive, Byron named it the Villa Diodati after the family that owned it. The family was distantly related to Italian translator Giovanni Diodati, uncle of Charles Diodati, the close friend of poet John Milton. Despite the presence of a plaque at the Villa heralding a supposed visit of Milton in 1638, in fact the villa was not built until 1710, long after Milton's death.¨ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Diodati

Psychedelic sphere. Esfera psicodélica

This is a fractal psychedelic sphere floating in a spychedelic space. It contains an object inside.

Towels sculpture. Esculturas de toallas

This is a digital sculpture with the mess my son and daughter leave with the towels in the bathroom. The good part of it.

Fractal Bubble. Burbuja fractal

Fire in the grove. Incendio en el bosque

I made this painting thinking about so many fires spread in the mountains, destroying houses in  the hot summers of California. I remember one afternoon of 2008, I was looking through my kitchen window, and the clear sky suddenly became dark as night, it was so scary.... I thought, ¨a huge storm!¨, but it was smoke everywhere, coming from the north. Whole neighborhoods burnt to the ground, the reason, an accidental fire, a cigarette, anything that provoked a domino effect.

Uterus with multiple embryos. Útero con embriones múltiples

I have a previous digital painting of an uterus with an embryo inside. Then I made a different one containing multiple embryos. The original painting has more colors, but I decided to leave it in red and black, it´s more like a poster but it seems to me stronger, as the feeling a mother must have knowing she has so many lives inside her body. The lines on both sides of the uterus are the energy emanating from the fertilized womb.

Rat´s head. Cabeza de rata

Inspired by Bram Stoker´s story The Judge´s House (In the book Dracula´s Guest). The rat seems almost human, but it was devil.

¨There on the great high-backed carved oak chair by the right side of the fireplace sat an enormous rat, steadily glaring at him with baleful eyes. He made a motion to it as though to hunt it away, but it did not stir. Then he made the motion of throwing something. Still it did not stir, but showed its great white teeth angrily, and its cruel eyes shone in the lamplight with an added vindictiveness.

Malcolmson felt amazed, and seizing the poker from the hearth ran at it to kill it. Before, however, he could strike it, the rat, with a squeak that sounded like the concentration of hate, jumped upon the floor, and, running up the rope of the alarm bell, disappeared in the darkness beyond the range of the green-shaded lamp. Instantly, strange to say, the noisy scampering of the rats in the wainscot began again.¨

Bram Stoker. Dracula´s Guest. 1914

Digital sculpture in wood. Escultura digital en madera

This image brings me memories of the elementary school, when we made some arts and crafts with hangers, matches, boxes and other domestic materials. It still looks plain for me, so I´ve added some colored shadows.

Maybe I´m missing the wood but I can see a wave movement on the surface.

Regalo a mis amigos virtuales (Gracias por estar presente)

Ésta es la primera vez que hago un premio, que en realidad es un agradecimiento a los amigos virtuales que me acompañan desde hace años, algunos no tanto, pero tienen la constancia de pasar por mis blogs y grupos, saludar, comentar, lo cual es un aprendizaje y satisfacción para mí. Sé que participar de las redes lleva mucho tiempo, por lo cual, a aquéllos que se acercan cotidianamente les estoy doblemente agradecida.

He pensado qué imagen les dejaría, y trabajé una foto de un frasco de preservas -que hice yo misma- porque  conlleva la metáfora del tiempo, de lo que dura y no perece. Pueden llevarse la imagen a sus sitios, dejarla, pasarla, sólo mirarla, recordarla, cómo gusten; se llama ¨Gracias por estar presentes!!!¨. 

La lista de abajo no tiene orden alguno, fui sacando los links a medida que iban apareciendo. Todos tienen su mérito, en sus distintas actividades, y los invito a clickear en los links y conocer sus sitios. Es una lista abierta que iré completando.

Debiera también mencionar a mi esposo, arquitecto Luis R. Makianich, quien no me comenta por escrito, sino personalmente, día a día y mucho he aprendido con él también. A la derecha verán El Artista y su Técnica, uno de sus tantos sitios, pero el más adecuado para este blog.

Miri de Sweetcakes Toronto

Escritora Marisa Aragón Willner, creadora de Parnassus Patria de Artistas

Pamela de Rescatando recetas

Arquitecta-escritora Liz Carreño

Elsa Gillari de Expresión Creativa

Judith de Mi rinconcito de magia

Escritora Sandra Fontecilla

Poeta Antonio Campos Villagomez

Escritor Beto Brom

Gloria de Kanela kitchen

Annie de Recetas y Condimentos

Escritora Nicole Sagan de La Bailarina Descalza

Escritora Nenfa

Escritor Luis Alberto Gontade Orsini

Escritora Belkys Sorbellini

Escritora-pintora Mané Castro Videla

Escritora Marquesa Luna

Escritora-pintora Teresa del Valle Drube Laumann

Alejandro Duarte de Cocina y Algo más

Poeta Rafael Fernando Ospina

Ana de Sonidos y Sabores

Oli de Entre barrancos

Escritora Ninfa Estela Duarte Torres

Profesora María Dolores Velasco Vidal

María Eugenia de La Aldea de las Letras

Anilegra de A través de mi bola de cristal

Yolanda de El balcón verde

Caro de Caropimiento

Escritora Mónica Cussotti

Mayte de Rústica

Mari de Mari´s cakes

Nathalia de El punto del caramelo

Nati de Mi huerto

Conxita de Té de Ternura

Escritora-pintora Olga Lucía Florio

Escritora-pintora Anna SB

Escritora Marquesa Luna

Criss de Alimenta

Mary de Cuchilloitenedor

Escritora Julia del Prado Morales

Mario de Cocinando historias

Elena de Cuatro Especias

Nieves y Elena de Lacajitanievesyelena

Dae Para estar por casa

Norma de Siempre es Primavera

Isabel de La Cocina de Morenisa

Tremendita de Tremendita blogspot

Mónica de Saboreando las Estrellas

Sofía Aurora de Mil ideas mil proyectos

Marlis de Recetas de Marlis

Juani de Las cosillas que hago

Trini de La cocina de Trini Altea

Lorena de Notas en mi cocina

Miren de Blogmiren

Gimena de Dulcegimena

María de Cosicas dulces y algunas saladas

Nieves de Igloocooking

Carmela de La panadería de Carmela

Marimi de Sabores y olores

Nikichan de Recetas de una gatita enamorada

Silvia Calvino de Las Recetas de Silvia

Petra de Mamá qué hay para cenar

Sonia de Encontrar la felicidad en pequeños detalles

La creme de la creme

La imagen original, llamada Frasco de vidrio. Glass jar

Corpiño en la playa. Soutien in the beach

I didn´t expect to paint a surreal soutien in the beach, but it was like automatic painting, I didn´t even think about it until it was done. Under this point of view, this is a surrealistic painting. The soutien could be also sun glasses, the dark color above, the sea with floating fish, and the shells in the middle, the breast that is out of the cloth container. Below, the sand, above the sea (Or should I see behind?)

Broken Plate. Plato Roto

Cremation. Cremación

Based on Percy Bysshe Shelly´s cremation on the shore near Viareggio, Italy.

The breath whose might I have invoked in song

Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven,

Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng

Whose sails were never to the Tempest given;

The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!

I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;

Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,

The soul of Adonais, like a star,

Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.

Last stanza of Adonais (1821) by Percy B. Shelley

Leaves. Hojas

These leaves have a Mandelbrot fractal as basis of the image. But, this is not a Mandelbrot fractal.

Pitufo. The Smurf

My version of one of the smurfs or ¨pitufos¨ in Spanish. One of the oldest.

Settlement in the desert. Asentamiento en el desierto

This is a representation of an archaeological settlement, it could be in the sand but I envision it in a desert land in North America, maybe Chaco Canyon. This is round because it has indigenous kivas, and the long lines around the settlement represent  the idea of the mystical roads that connected them. The color is the same as the territory, because the buildings materials are taken from it. Earth, landscape, buildings become mass.

The origin of this painting is not an aerial picture. But it pretends to be.

Urban density. Densidad urbana

A digital painting based on the idea of urban sprawl.

The earth is born. La tierra nace.

Towels under the sun. Toallas bajo sol

My family is pretty messy leaving the towels in the bathroom. So, trying to find the good side of it, this time I didn´t put them in order but took a fainted picture at night. I manipulated it imagining they were under the sun. Then, I arranged them in the towel hanger...patiently as always.

Rain on the water. Lluvia en el agua

This is an exercise with noise and reflexes.

Amphibian head. Cabeza de anfibio

Bosque. Woods

A dense forest defined only by its edges.

SONNET VI

Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig

and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:

maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,

a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off it seemed

deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,

a shout muffled by huge autumns,

by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig

sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance

climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind

cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---

and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.

SONETO VI

En los bosques, perdido, corté una rama oscura

y a los labios, sediento, levanté su susurro:

era tal vez la voz de la lluvia llorando,

una campana rota o un corazón cortado.

Algo que desde tan lejos me parecía

oculto gravemente, cubierto por la tierra,

un grito ensordecido por inmensos otoños,

por la entreabierta y húmeda tiniebla de las hojas.

Pero allí, despertando de los sueños del bosque,

la rama de avellano cantó bajo mi boca

y su errabundo olor trepó por mi criterio

como si me buscaran de pronto las raíces

que abandoné, la tierra perdida con mi infancia,

y me detuve herido por el aroma errante.

Poetry by Pablo Neruda.

House in La Boca, Buenos Aires. Casa en la Boca.

I took this picture in 2002, walking in the neighborhood of La Boca, Buenos Aires. It was originally built by Italian immigrants, with the materials and paintings they could take from the ships. This is one of those old houses. Now, it's a memory for me, so I like to show it as a painting. It's nice to see how the tree branches and the lamp posts are in equilibrium with the horizontal lines of the metal sheets. Verticality against horizontality.
Coming back to my previous post Is photography a representational art? one could ask if, there was need for me to touch the original photograph, if this kind of ¨painting¨ is better than my picture. In this case, I should say, yes, this version is better, if it shows my objectives, the emphasis on textures and yuxtaposition of lines. The picture was taken with one of the first digital cameras and did not reflect what I wanted. The original was representational for the house, but not for my intentions.