Tlalocelot - Tiger of the Feilds

Tlalocelot

36 x 48", Conté on Wood

Tlalocelot is the Mexican Aztec name given to the ocelot. It translates to mean Tiger of the fields. I have been working on it for the past month and finished it earlier this week. This is the largest piece I have done in Conté and the first that I have done on wood. However, I have a stack of the same size and texture of boards lined up for the rest of the animal series I am doing. The boards that I chose have a lot of texture to them, but the effect does not totally comes across in the picture (it's better in real obviously).

When I started doing this piece I had no idea how to approach it. Coming to the point of drawing it felt a bit like pursuing the cat - and for anyone who's ever pursued a cat, it isn't easy. One night during Savasana after a great practice, when I had totally surrendered my pursuit, I had this lovely moment of imagination / vision. This feral beauty (mr ocelot) slinked up to me and laid down on my chest. He looked at me with those omniscient eyes and silent magnificence. The feeling was full, exultant and I think I might have laughed out loud. After that the drawing came easier. I believe the message the ocelot brought to me after all was the power of surrender.

In Yoga today the teacher was telling us about balancing steadiness with sweetness in our poses and our breath. I find that that applies to my whole life. When I attempt to make art of any kind it's that balance that I have to create in order to get through the self doubt and the burden of expectations. Another image came to me today that will probably follow into my next piece / animal investigation. The next animal I think is the horse.

I hope you enjoy the work. Comments / criticism much appreciated.

Disillusionment of Form

Disillusionment of form

30 x 40, acrylic on canvas

This piece was a long time coming. I mean it sat ‘completed’ on my easel for a long time – and every time I looked at it I felt a little angry that it wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Then one day I got really angry at it, put on the Blitz album by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (thank you elfie) and finished it. I like it a lot more now which I guess is the point. It has something to do with feeling invisible and cold but still knowing there's smthg powerful in you that will not be silent. Or smthg… I don’t like saying what my pieces are about really but I had a while to think about this one. If I was gonna say it I’d write a poem. As it is I painted it – so there it is.

I have a problem of space that I didn’t have in Trinidad. If I wanted to prime the wood panels I have home to paint on them – I’d take it outside and do it. Here however, I am renting so I can’t do it inside – plus its winter so the fumes would be trapped inside and I can’t go outside right now to prime it because the veranda is covered in snow and I’m not sure how the paint would dry in below zero conditions. One of these good days I am going to bite the bullet and rent some studio space. This is getting ridiculous.

Hope you enjoy.

My First Ocelot

This month I've started learning how to draw animals. I'm going to work on certain creatures one at a time, the first of which has been the ocelot. It's been such a cool experience, having never drawn animals before in any real capacity, to try to figure out their unique geometries. At first I found that my cats looked alot more like dogs. I guess because I've spent much more time around dogs. To help me learn more about the anatomy of the cat, I got this book called Cyclopedia Anatomicae ( http://www.amazon.com/Cyclopedia-Anatomicae-Illustrations-Animal-Figure/dp/1884822878 ), which showed me the skeleton and muscles of the cat and the way that it's joints bend. I also used a bunch of photographs of ocelots that I founds online, most notably from National Geographic sources. There's something really beautiful about the form of the cat as it follows the agility and the power of the species. For example the curve of their backs down toward their hind legs and tail, comes from how much power they exert through their hind legs and how much influence their tails have over their ability to balance when they climb and jump. In the case of the Ocelot, I was also really fascinated by their coloring and spotting which was hard to get a hang of. I mean are the spots random, or is there a pattern. There was so much I took for granted until I started drawing them. I think I am almost at the point to be able to move on to the large piece I had planned. I am still having some trouble with the proportions of their whole bodies. With humans there are a billion books on the geometry of the body, but with the cat, I kinda have to figure it out from pictures. Anyway - I had a great time with these sketches. The ocelot is such a powerful and graceful creature. I feel they are the epitome of feral beauty.

Will keep u posted on further developments!

New Things

Untitled October 2010 

Untitled Acrylic November 2010