The Divine Performers and Individuals

Drawings from Portrait Sessions, March 2011

I’m continuing to work on more and more portrait for my project, “Localize Anonymity”. Early March, I drew a few people from Cirque du Soleil: Brien, Mateo and Wassa.  All beautiful, strong, and energetic.  They perform 10 shows a week for Cirque, yet still have time to go to school, teach, travel, and have time to pursue their dreams and independent Artistic and Charity projects.  Amazing!  Truly shows just what humans can be capable of!

My favorite drawing of Mateo!

Mateo is the head clown from Criss Angel’s “Believe”. He was amazing to draw.  He moved to Vegas from Spain, where he and his brother worked as clown street performances. Mateo is an artist himself. He is unique and thoughtful!

Wassa and Mateo, photograph by Gina

Wassa, is a dancer, fashion designer, writer, director and soon to be filmmaker. She is amazing and stunning, beautiful, intelligent and creative. She creates beautiful clothing from her line, WASSA WEAR. She also directed and wrote The Art of Prostitution: play/dance performance about the sex trade industry.

A drawing of Brien. He performers for Le Reve. Brien’s a MOVER. He helps put out the Charity event Circus Couture. Cirque Couture is a Charity Event to help raise money for St. Baldrick’s Foundation and The Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases of Las Vegas. He speak Spanish, and I’m sure he will pick up more languages later. He goes to school, travels and teaches. He has an amazing outlook on life and experiences. I’m sure there is nothing Brien can’t do.

Thanks so much for letting me draw all of you amazing folks!
–Cristina

Words over the Visual

I always found “words” a mysterious way of explaining things and emotion.  I choose the  “fight” to express with visuals of pictures.  Now moving forward, I have began challenging myself to make sense of how “words” have meaning.  The sounds of words and pronunciation still confuses me.  As words have meaning to me through writing, or in a story-line.

As my challenge, I decide to writing more, starting with “Haiku” form.  I feel that haiku’s more simpler style of combination of words to visual, will cut the PAIN part of writing.  I will move to the most challenging for me “simple essay”.  I’m going to bump into grammar, punctuation, and spelling along the way.   full speed ahead… don’t fear disaster!

-Cristina

Nesting

Moving in a new space. I’m feeling in the nesting mode.  Our new space has great lighting and large wall space.  Great of motivation to make more artwork (though careful not to make the space just a Cristina gallery).

A Nice place for reading.

-Cristina

Spectators, we watch…

I woke my mom up on Friday, sometime between 11:00 and midnight, as I heard about the earthquake in Japan from a text from a friend. Receiving news from my Aunties’ text message (phone lines still remain down) from her cellphone we learned my family, who lives in the Tokyo area, are all safe from harm. Just some property damaged: broken walls and a gate fell.

The Normalcy of Japan daily life will return, but they will face shortages, fears, lost communications and “the unknown” regard the nuclear plant near by Tokyo. The event has cause my Auntie fear, leading her to start considering moving to a place of unknown big earthquakes, a place like Las Vegas, NV. (Las Vegas has has not had any known big earthquakes but it still lays on many faults.)

As we all watch in on the height of the media storm, we sit as spectators, watching disaster footage, unable to do anything to help. While people explain the science and nature of earthquakes and tsunamis, we often lose the human stories of the people that disasters have struck until later. Is the idea that mother nature’s disasters have increased within the last couple of years? Or are we more aware due to news accounts; the technology of internet has made it capable to video footage from cellphones and to be uploaded to watch as the events unfold. This results in creating a global awareness to theses occurrences, that we might have not have been aware of before the global internet connection.

Our awareness of disasters , either Man-made or Natural, we are looking together for ways to live together. Safer ways to provide nuclear energy through other means. (Though Research of Safer Nuclear Energy have been already been provided through Bill Gates’ research “Pebble Bed Reactor“. ) We are going to have to change as we continue to live together with nature.

Those who want to help can go to www.redcross.org and donate to Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami. People can also text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.

Reno, the smallest big city

I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Reno. It was the first time visiting the city.

Here’s a few pictures for my trip!

When the interconnectedness of people gets greater, the world gets smaller

Our New Renaissance is Approaching, full speed ahead!

During the Renaissance’s Portrait Painting was at a high and strong interest.

I think us as artist are back to the interest in the Art of the Portrait, we are viewing the world and assimilating people to our world’s view.

A portrait is a way to ground our community for reassurance.

So this might be why, like many artists, I’m drawing so many portraits in the last couple of months and will continue until the Summer.


(photo credit: Gina @ Blackbird Studios, Las Vegas NV)

(photo credit: Jessica @ house in Las Vegas,NV)
-Cristina