Dear Mr. Charles Darwin...

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"Theory of the Evolution :P" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

I will be doing a different type of trip this time, as usually meant to try to find more about more and about myself. I think I found the river, but still the question now is where it will take me?

Surprise, Surprise!

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Independence Plaza, Montevideo, Uruguay

Stereoscopic Card Made by Keystone View Company.

Year unknown.

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The Harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay

Stereoscopic Card Made by Keystone View Company.

Year unknown.

Today morning Dawn and I went for the first time to an antique shop located not very far from here. While looking at stereoscopic cards, she pointed out a box labeled "East Coast of South America" which then I proceeded to browse. Soon as I opened, big was my surprise to find at first the stereoscopic card of the Independence Plaza, located on downtown Montevideo, Uruguay (Uruguay being my birthplace). After browsing the other ones, around 20 more, I found the next one, an image without date of the Harbor of Montevideo. It is really rare to find things like that, since most of the time, whatever I find is more related to Argentina, so no need to say that these two came home today and I am glad to share them today here.

Cheers!

Painting of a Midwest Blues.

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"Folk Art Guitar, Side A" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

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"Folk Art Guitar, Side B" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012

The making of this piece has been a really nice trip. During the past month I have learned a lot, as a visual artist and as a music and history lover.

On Monday I will be taking this "baby" to Grafton to be with the other 7 guitars that will be hanging at the Paramount Plaza. Hopefully soon the short movie I been working on, "The Painting of a Midwest Blues", will be done in order to share a little more about this story and why it has meant a lot to me the fact of being selected for it.

Stay tuned! More coming soon.

To the Master...

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"El Dani" 

© Flavio Martín Morante_2007

"A friend is like oneself with another skin", 

Atahualpa Yupanqui. Quote translated from the spanish.

It always have been a certainty for me that one of the key elements of the word friend is not only about been there on the good and the bad times, but also that in either one, the person you consider friend it adds something to your life as you hope always to add to them. In this times where the word friend has been sadly devaluated, it is easy for me to say that from the few friends (real friends) I have, the ones that are still around from way back not only have been on the really shitty as well as the good times, but also have contributed (sometimes without knowing) to the growing of oneself, in the same way you always hope to have contributed to theirs.

One of those cases is one of my two best friends, Daniel, who I have known for 25 years already. It was him who I saw long ago (twenty years maybe) with brushes on one hand and paint on the other making these awesome custom made t-shirts, couple of them which were deeply treasured by me before time (and use) did his part. Like the older brother I never had, I imitated him naively and that is how one day bought my brushes and t-shirts and try to emulate him somehow. No need to say that I never got an inch close to his talent, but for sure thanks to him I was able to open several doors and windows which I have been able to walk and see through time. At the same time, among one of the windows he did open was the musical one. When my musical taste was still in development (a nice way to put it), he was the first person through who I got to hear Eric Clapton and B.B King for the very first time, introduced to me with as a "this is music!. Many of those "this is music" became with time part of what I like to call the "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of My Life".

Today (and the reason to this post) is that as the final touches to my Folk Guitar project for the Paramount Plaza are being done, ready to be dropped on Monday, I found myself thinking on that, and is why I would like to say thanks to him for that. Not only for having been there in some of the best and worst times of my life, but also for giving me more than what he thinks. To you (because sooner or later I know you will read this), I want to dedicated the "Side A" of that guitar with everything it means to me.

The other side goes to my other best friend on his upcoming birthday, Gabriel, who (to make the story short for now) gave me a record once that blowed my head, specially one song, "The Thrill is Gone", which finally I was able to hear live few weeks ago from the hand and voice of its own creator, Mr. B.B King.

To both of them, CHEERS!

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"Folk Art Guitar" 

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

Italian Souvenir.

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Piazza dei Miracoli (Cathedral Square), Pisa, Italy

from the series "Italian Souvenir"  © Flavio Martín Morante_2011

I have made few changes on my website (www.picartonline.com) during the last weekend as part of annual renewals. Some additions have been made and also I have cut shorter some of the other series. Check it out!

"Italian Souvenir" is a playful but still analytical look at oneself as a tourist. What we collect, what we see and our constant desire for preserving a piece of our passing through places.

(click here)  for more.

On the Countdown...

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Digital take during the making of the "Folk Art Guitar" © Flavio Martín Morante_2012. 

April 30, the deadline to return the guitars to the Village of Grafton is getting close. I been a little busy lately but things are still on time. Also, Dawn and I are planning on hitting Chicago on the first days of May, so I will be doing some more filming on the city so I can add it to the short "Painting of a Midwest Blues", since it is part of what I had in mind as part of the story.

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Still image extracted from the short film in progress "Painting of a Midwest Blues".

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

More to come soon!

...and Action! (Recovered post)

(for some reason this post got deleted by accident, so I am posting it back after I noticed it)

Still image extracted from the short film in progress "Painting of a Midwest Blues".

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012

After several days waiting for the weather to give me a break, the sky finally started to behave with me, reason which I was able to do some filming around Grafton. Piece by piece, like a big puzzle that only my head knows what it would look like (or think it will), I keep adding pieces to it, hoping that the final product will be something good enough to ask you to take 6 minutes to watch it.

Still image extracted from the short film in progress "Painting of a Midwest Blues".

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012
Statue_ "Golden Cluster" by Norm Christianson, featuring Son House, Louis Amstrong & Ma Rainey (in the rear).

At the same time, the guitar painting (see prior posts) and the short seem to run smoothly and parallel for know. Still, there is a lot to do yet. I am planning on keep filming more. Also, as I go, the more I learn about this story, more interest I take on it, which is great.

Still image extracted from the short film in progress "Painting of a Midwest Blues".

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012. Historic Marker placed by the Grafton Blues Association.

More coming soon.

Things About Landscape Photography.

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Simple illustration on Adobe Illustrator CS © Flavio Martín Morante_2012. 

As I get more and more into landscape photography (4 x 5 format soon coming my way !!!!!) I thought of this (above) for a shirt. It says it all about passing of time, philosophy of life and the way of looking at one of photography's richest subjects, with some humor in between.

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Saukville, Wisconsin © Flavio Martín Morante_2011. 

:)

Eyes Wide Shut, but not by Kubrick!

I will start this post saying that as you may have seen I do not write/comment/critique other people´s work on this blog for the simple reason that there are a lot of blogs already writing/commenting/criticizing others people's work. Let's say I know what I think, what it makes me feel and I have learned to save my opinions for when they are call in. But today I am going to make an exception to share something I found that really made my day (maybe someone else found it before me too and I am just playing Columbus here). I am so easy to entertain someone used to say, but the simple things are the ones that give me a smile, and I hope it does to you too in this case.

I just started reading the book "Just Kids" by Patti Smith, one of the 2 "grandmas" I really dig from the punk rock scene of the 70s (the other one is Debbie Harry if you are curious) and her account about her life and her life with Robert Mapplethorpe. I like her a lot as singer/musician and as artist in general and I dig some of Mapplethorpe work, but the point is not that despite that I am enjoying big time the book. The anecdote about this is that a long time ago, I started carrying around a notebook with every book I read, in which I write down english words I do not recognize, which it helps me more and more on learning english, but also, since I am a very visual person (and curious by nature), I write any references being made that then I go looking to see what they are about. i.e_ if a painting is named, I go to see what it looks like, if a song is mentioned, I go to see if I can listen to it, etc, etc. One of the greatness of these times of easy access to information.

Anyway, as I was reading the book, on the first pages I found a reference to the painting "Les Yeux Clos"_1890 (The Closed Eyes) by Odilon Redon, 1840-1916, which after writing it down I did look for it today morning finding that it is a painting of his wife Camille Falte but also that it does look very similar to one of my favorite pictures by Harry Callahan, 1912-1999, "Eleanor, Chicago, 1949" of his wife Eleanor; one of the most beautiful women (and beautifully photographed) in photography history, reason why the first thing that came out of my mouth at seeing the painting was: Eleanor!. Now, collective unconscious or not, the analysis of it I leave it to the spaces I mentioned at the beginning of this post; all I am doing is just sharing it because I was (and am) really happy (and amazed) to find the similarities between them (see pictures below). Still, on both cases, both images are of an amazing beauty.

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"Les Yeux Clos", 1890, by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

Musée D'Orsay, Paris, France.

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"Eleanor, Chicago, 1949", by Harry Callahan (1912-1999)

I got this file out of internet. I know that there are prints distributed all over.

You can see some of Callahan's work HERE. I really do recommend it if you do not know him.

A Glass Half Full

CALL FOR ENTRIES

This is a call for entries for the WATER exhibition at Gallery 224. All art media invited, any source of water and interpretation of the subject of water is welcome. Gallery 224 is committed to curating shows unified around a common the, but at the same time, offering the viewing audience a diverse and varied approach to that theme.

Images for consideration should be submitted online by Friday, May4, through gallery224@gmail.com 
Notification of acceptance by Monday, May 7, 2012
Delivery of artwork to Gallery 224 by Saturday, May 12, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, May 18, 2012 - 5.00 PM to 7.00 PM
Exhibition runs through June 16, 2012.


(Video made using footage I shoot during this last mild winter on South Beach, with water running under the icy surface towards lake Michigan. Shot on Nikon Coolpix P7000 and edited on iMovie.)

All rights reserved © Flavio Martín Morante_2012