On a late night at the studio I set up some still life’s and took some images. This was part of my midnight art practice, a collection of works created around / after the hour of midnight in the studio.
I shot these images in the dark using a handheld heavy duty flash light to illuminate the work and my other hand to hold the camera steady as the shutter opened at a longer exposure.
Photos using Cannon Ae-1 and 35mm Portra 400 film
I started this piece on a night at the studio. A visitor came to the studio on this night and spent some time with me. The result, a summary of that encounter. Parallels.
Untitled. 2021. Charcoal on drawing paper. 90 x 48in.
Galilee White Anemone with Black Eye cut and propped up by two small frogs underneath
After spending some time making my 8.5 x 11 charcoal pieces I decided I wanted to create a large scale piece.
I had some heavy duty drawing paper so I laid it out on the studio floor putting weights on the ends to avoid having the paper curl and began spreading loose charcoal around with my hands wearing nitrile gloves to protect myself. After I laid out a few ikebana books open to select pages and began to carve out the image using an eraser and charcoal sticks.
At some point my mom called me. We began talking on the phone. My mom likes to talk about religion and Catholic mysticism. So she began sharing the story of Sister Lúcia dos Santos , one of the three kids who witnessed the Virgen of Fatima miracle and who was given visions of the end of the world. As she described the story of Fatima, the apocalyptic visions and the “Miracle of the Sun” that took place on October 13, 1917, where where the sun appeared to change colors and rotate, I continued to draw.
My mom is very present in this final piece. As I look at it in it’s final form I’m certain remnants of our conversation seeped into this drawing. A drawing which manifested itself with no prior planning. In the making of this I also thought of her home town of Zapiguri in the mountains, I thought about my dreams, portals into other mystical spaces, stories of the supernatural I grew up hearing all resulting in this piece.
A Visionary Call from Alicia. Charcoal on drawing paper. 90 x 48 in. Chicago.
Image taken of the setup with the main studio lights on June 9, 2021
Typical lighting situation for my charcoal drawing setups, main studio lights turned off with a few spotlights lighting the work area / piece
Xerx is a very good friend and he was one of the people I spent a lot of time hanging out with when everything was shut down. He’s also a magical floral designer.
On this day he picked me up and we headed to the studio. When we got to the studio Xerx took out two floral crowns he had made. I picked out some clothes I had brought and he snapped away using his digital flash camera.
I feel very comfortable around Xerx so this was a fun little shoot together.
Ideas that have been floating in my mind and needed to be expressed on paper.
Painting 4
For this one I took a different approach, I was inspired by the night sky of Chicago in the winter, a little bit of green/brown from the light that reflects back on the densely clouded sky. I’m also curious about adding jewels to the painting. I sourced the coup from a vintage store in Chicago, I like the detailing on the glass and I wanted to capture it in some way.
I spent some time browsing art on the web in 2020. I had a little Goya phase where I would go on el Prado’s website and look at a bunch of Goya’s work on my large Mac monitor. During that time I really gravitated towards the darker toned paintings, something about them felt soothing and peaceful. I took a cinderblock I had in the studio and positioned it at an angle and made this painting .
Painting 2
One late night at the studio, I set up these rings I had and snapped a flash photo of them, resulting in the image of two eye floating in the sky. The following night I painted this piece at the studio.
Painting 1
January 16 - January 18, 2021
This painting took me a few nights. The first night I planned on working late into the night. But the heating stopped working in the building. By hour 2 I was freezing. I decided to call it and head home around 3am. I returned a few nights later to finish the piece.
A drawing I made after a dream I had of an old friend.
I had been having dreams of this old friend for a while, looking back I now know what it meant.
For this image I used a photo I had taken of a flower arrangement another friend, Xerx, had given me as reference.
4x6, Colored pencil on heavy-weight cardstock paper
Reference image I had taken of Xerx’s flower arrangement gift using flash in the darkness of my personal home bathroom
I decided to do a drawing using colored pencil. I’ve been playing with this image of cross-shaped eyes in a landscape.
4x6, Colored pencil on heavy-weight cardstock paper
A DJ set at the studio
Polaroids by Daniel Delgado
After much anticipation, the studio is open :)
I really enjoyed this birthday, maybe because in a selfish way I enjoyed the solitude and isolation that 2020 provided. I went to the beach in Indiana and it was empty. I went to the Botanic Garden later that day, empty. I got back home after a nice chill day being in nature to find two weird sunburns on my ass. It was a nice little birthday.
Temporary Beach Sculpture 1
Temporary Beach Sculpture 2
