Art as redemption

 Art can be anything you want it to be, and can be found anywhere you want to see it. That also means that you always have new choices and alternatives in front of you as to what you want to do as an artist, and in the ways you want to develop your artistic expression.

In my own particular case, I have always felt moved  by music and it has been that sensibility that has pushed me into my forms and manners of expressing those artistic needs. 

Jazz has always been a big part of my life and hence was born my Visual Jazz series, but it has not been the only one. From classical, to hip hop and rap, stepping through pop, rock, tango, aboriginal music, Japanese music, movie themes, and so on, I have always healthily envied the power of music to motivate us and transport us into a different level of sensory perceptions.

Even then I have always made choices. In my particular case I have always felt that there is enough sadness & decadence out there, easily found, so as to also make it an intricate part of my artistic expression. That does not mean that there is no melancholy, or references to the deep inequalities that are always present in our world that are also visible in my art, but I am always looking to express that special “musical quality” that I just mentioned, and that will help elevate our spirits into a superior consciousness that will provide the peace, happiness and energy that is needed to revert all that is wrong.

This is a personal choice. No one will ever find me condemning anyone who wishes to thread into the specific road of expressing the decadence and conflict that surrounds us in a more direct or reflective fashion. Furthermore, if there is an ingredient that is required for our expressions to become artistic, is the need for our art to be freely expressed directly from our innermost feelings and sensibilities. 

It is just that in my case, my wish is to inspire from a different posture. I hope that what I do uplifts those who view it. My desire is to  leave  those who look at my paintings, and my other artistic works, with a feeling of being hugged and caressed by color, movement, cadences and textures. I want them to experience a certain happiness and energy that leads them to leave with the positive belief that we can do whatever we want to do with our lives and with our societies, and with the world as a whole, and try to get it right.

And it is not being shallow, the same way that the other path is not being negative. They are, most of the times, just different ways to arrive to the same principle from different places. It is a recognition of our brevity as living beings and of our limited, yet strong capabilities, to act as individuals in the preservation of life at every level of cellular complexity, and of our interest in caring for this beautiful little blue planet that is the host of an ephemeral (in universal terms) human civilization. A civilization that feels so often all conquering, and yet does not seem capable of resolving matters essential to its very survival as hunger, inequality and environmental sustainability.

In my case my art, perhaps in its own humble way, aims to find an approach to recognizing that no matter how bad things can get, we have also the enormous God-given power to do good, and to change our lives and help others, by example or by direct or indirect action. And to realize that life is an extraordinary gift, and that it is more fulfilling when we give our best, when we show and share our love & affection with others, and when we are forgiving, discarding what is bad and saving all that is good in each one of us, because it is from there that we can build a better society and a better world for all of us.

Art for me, as grandiloquent as it may sound, means hope. It is a complex yet simple manner of showing that we have a soul. Sharing that nakedness of spirit is one of the ways that allows us to get closer to each other, and thus, become  better human beings.

If we look throughout history, art has always been one of the saving graces of every passing civilization. Art has always been a redemptive feature of great, as well as small and even destructive civilizations, and art will also be one of our conduits to salvation. As art in its every shape and manner will always be a part of what takes a society out of darkness and, once again, into the light.