The song "El Pajarillo," Yaraví, has allowed me to reflect my emotions in my work in such a dramatic visual setting. The deep heart penetrating words "Por que con tanto rigor has castigado mi amor?" ..."Oh why have you punished me, With such sternness, my love?" Listening to these words, the song, brought up emotions that I tend to keep locked away from the world. I am only still discovering the powerful journey of love, to be "in-love"...to love one so much, that their emotions leave one in a bind, a twisted push and pull of emotional exchange. This battle does make me feel like "my shadow will go missing, when the heat of the sun brings you fatigue." Love is a powerful, blissful exchange of energy, but this love can so easily turn into hate, pain, sorrow...something so sweet can turn sour...why do our hearts allow this bio-polarity to occur?...without this duality...would 'Love' need to be redefined? Could love only be ecstatic...only full of positive vibrations?....but without the negativity that occurs with love...where one feels like their heart is being ripped out..or their pulling on the others...creating pain in one's life...when our actions affect the emotions of another so intensely....that it burns......what is love then? This emotional roller-coaster called 'love'... why would anyone want to board this train?...For the thrills, laughs, cries? There may never be a explanation of why we go through all the struggles of being 'in-love' with someone...but I know even though my heart may feel punished, I am at bliss simultaneously...because how precious it is to be 'in-love'...a feeling that is priceless...words only can hint at what this intangible entity is...but we are lucky to have songs like "El Pajarillo" that come close to expressing 'LOVE'

 

The words of the songs Zamba del Grillo...the Zamba of the Cricket, and Tierra Querida...Beloved Land, took me to a place of  reflection...turning inward to that space, that "Void" that we all long to fill. Whatever fills that void, whether it may be a place, person, or material things... one then gains some sort of satisfaction...pleasure...completeness.  This longing for fulfillment of our internal voids...or the opposite to fill a void with one's self...I believe is a primal human characteristic. However this fulfillment isn't meant to be satisfied completely, otherwise we wouldn't be yearning.  The first verse of Zamba del Grillo speaks of this found feeling of a void being filled...again yet only temporally.

"Into the hills of Tucumán
my paths have carried me
and they have brought me back
feelings that will never be forgotten"


How beautiful the words that express this love...at the end of his poem:

"and I, with a shadow in my soul
made my way, thinking of the absence, of good things lost..." 


These words sang to my hands as I created the first part of my work...the Positive.."the one that yearns to fill a void" of the clay piece..it is expressed as the vertical element.



In Tierra Querida, the words again touched the aspect of void, longing to be filled: 

"I will make my way over hills,
through forests and plains, all through my life,
bringing songs close to you
for your hope, beloved land."

...to the last verses:

"searching out the soul of your horizons       

in order to sing to you, beloved land."

This directly translated in the bulbous clay work with the void pouring out...through it...longing to be filled...but this may only last for a brief moment in life...for the love of longing will always be present. My work displays the dance of the yin and yang...the positive and negative...always so close...yet so far...as when then touch, for even just a moment...contentment, bliss, peace is found.

After reading Atahualpa Yupanqui's El Mito del Viento...The Myth of the Wind, I felt the urge to visit a loved one who has passed away this last summer...just like the wind...as his life blew by I was lucky just to be a wrinkle in his time...My grandpa, was a man whom I've always looked up too, a man of honor and respect....whom I only became close to in his last years on this planet...Although I know his love was always infinitely there. As I payed my respects...I saw a image of a horse on a tomb stone near by his...this image instantly spoke to me...I could resist taking a picture...which then lead me to see the reflection of the grass mirrored on the black stone. This translated into a surreal meaning to me...that my grandpa's spirit...the horse...is always with me here on earth...the grass. I decided to paint this reflection...and later that evening I had an paranormal experience. I believe my grandpa came to visit me...as I went to bed I felt a presence near...as if someone was there in the corner of my eye...and about a hour later, while I was sleeping I get woken up by my Pandora music player comes one...with the song "Miracle" by OceanLab. I was in shock...a bit scared and weird-ed out..but also I new I wasn't in harms way. I am very grateful for that visit from my grandpa, since that song and in that moment of my life all seemed to make sense...a feeling of being content, at peace, no fear, no worries, to just be in the moment...just like the wind.