Flying Colors

Gego

For the past few months, while focusing on the diverse / unique structures of cacti and rendering their forms, a very dear professor of mine would come to mind often, her name is Gertrude Goldschmidt, also known as GEGO.

Gego taught a course called "Three-Dimensional Form & Spatial Solutions" at the Hans Neumann School of Design in Caracas, Venezuela where I studied  Graphic Design. I took this in depth course of hers for 3 consecutive years and worked extensively with spatial concepts... that explains why I think of her so often when I look at these cacti and succulents.

Upon pondering it came to me how spatially interconnected we all are and thus with nature also. And that thanks to the web and art we have been able to express it in so many a wonderful ways, like this Cactus Monday group has done!

• 10" x 10" • (thelocactus) • © Lisa Rivas • "Tribute to GEGO"
• watercolor, digital, printed on ricepaper and mounted on canvas

Gego is a very well known artist, she played with the idea of the stable and the unstable elements of art. The stable elements of art was the sculpture itself, while the unstable elements consist of the constantly changing shadows and the slight movement in her design. She used scraps of metal that she would bend and weave together in order to evoke movement, experimentation and spontaneity. (Venezuelan, born Germany. 1912-1994)

She did a whole series called "Drawings without Paper"...
...to read more about her click GEGO

The creative economy is giving rise to a new spatial fix and a very different geography
– the contours of which are only now emerging...

IF • Poise

o

In this

first heaven

of knowing,

o

the flesh

takes on the

pure poise

of the spirit.

o

Theodore
Roethke

original painting - private collection - Nashville, TN - USA - "Odalisque"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 36"H x 54"W • © Lisa Rivas

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In the poise of intuitive balance,
death is destroyed upon entering the Sanctuary of the True One.
Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Scripture of the Sikhs)

Lolo's tenderness...

When I saw this little piece
by Studio Lolo
I was struck by it's simplicity,
it had a delicate personality,
and oh! I saw it was a portrait!
...a soft-shy "Cactus Sprite"
So very magical!
Then Laurel sent it to me !!!
...in it's own custom envelope
and a very appreciative note!
So now I am the one saying
"Thanks" Lolo! "Thank You"

Studio Lolo is a "wonderful artist" and an avid "animal caretaker" from San José, CA.
I met her through my participation in Cactus Monday, please visit her site!

La Bruma...

Do you wish the world were happy?

Then remember day by day
just to scatter seeds of kindness
as you pass along the way ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American poet and writer 1850-1919)

• 10" x 10" • © Lisa Rivas • "La Bruma"
• watercolor, digital, printed on ricepaper and mounted on canvas

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.
G. K. Chesterton

It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish.
J.R.R. Tolkien

IF • Subtract

I painted 2 different pieces ÷ (divided) ea. into 2 groups = odd strips / even strips,
or - (subtracted) the odd strips or the even strips from each painting!
Then I + (added) the even #s (numbers) with the even #s (numbers) for 1 painting,
also I + (added) the odd #s (numbers) with the odd #s (numbers) for 2nd painting.

I ended up = with 2 similar paintings = they went to 2 different art collections!

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original painting - corporate collection - Boston, MA - USA - "Translation"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, foil, quilted • 39"H x 31"W • © Lisa Rivas

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Result = ½ half of each image has been "subtracted" from this final piece!

Math can be confusing or tricky at times and one can lose tract easily of something.

No legacy is so rich as honesty. William Shakespeare

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The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. It is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. Many blind people find this number machine a very useful tool throughout life.

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"Nowruz" marks the first day of spring and the New Year in the Iranian calendar.
It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed.

We got spring!

A photograph of the Hawthorn Bush next door...
... transformed with illustrator enhanced flowers.

It is one of my most favorite "shows"... and a sign of spring!

"Hawthorn Snow" • digital illustration - Lisa Rivas © 2008

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.
And when you've got it, you want - oh,
you don't quite know what it is you do want,
but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! Mark Twain

Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men. ~Chinese Proverb

The sequence...

... of "La Bruma"

Opening stages...

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... the adding of drama with India ink!

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... then the rendered wax line is ironed out and outlined with pencil.

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All the rendering is done in hot wax using the "tjanting", a tool for drawing fine wax lines.

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The "Grand Finale" will take place next week on another Cactus Monday post!

The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time,
but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order,
it is the continuous thread of revelation. Eudora Welty

IF • Legendary

Mythological places are "legendary places" from a relatively cohesive set of myths.

There is an ancient legend which warns that, should we ever learn our true origin, our universe will instantly be destroyed. Len Wein (American comic book writer)

"Flight of Fancy"
• watercolor, wax, iridescent crayons, rice paper, quilted • 38"H x 34"W • © Lisa Rivas

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If King Arthur is all myth and no historical fact, then its academic as to where the places actually were. However if there is some historical fact behind it, then where did the legendary adventures of himself and his Knights of the Round Table actually take place?

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Metamorphous...

The tile to the right was created by drawing onto a glass surface that had been coated with very thin layer of colored glass powder. I drew the image by scratching into the surface with a sharp tool, I also used 2 different colors of powder glass and drew again. Once the drawing was finished it was annealed / fused in a kiln. This glass piece measures 6" x 6".

I then scanned the tile and changed the colors and texture digitally.
Next will be to print this and then do a photo transfer onto another surface.
More to come...

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We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.  ~Maya Angelou

A glimpse...

... of my painting area

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... of an initial start

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... of further progress

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I'm trying to connect the sky and the earth through the winding maze of "La Bruma"

Bruma ➙ brume ➙ fog ➙ mist ➙ murk ➙ smaze ➙ a mixture of haze and smoke!

The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.
Buddha, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.

IF • Intricate

This is one of my day jobs, illustrating & drawing maps. At times these maps can get very intricate and they have to be clear and precise, a design challenge at times.

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics.

I can change the color of strokes (lines) or fills with the an action click! At the right is a wire image of the 2 color map below, it is a vector drawing.

I am always open for this kind of work.
Contact me if you need a map or a diagram!

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The map is not the territory.
Alfred Korzybski (American Scientist and Philosopher, 1879-1950)

Mega... e-Stamp

The first MegaByte e-Stamp
Giving a "mega" THANKS to you, your friends and love ones!
Mega: it comes from the Greek word "megalo" meaning great.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

Thanking You • 11 megabyte e-Stamp
archival pigment print on archival paper • Lisa Rivas © 2009

You can purchase this print here, it would be a wonderful gift!

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Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Voltaire

Beavertail Cactus...

... is another Opuntia type cactus. It is a low-spreading spineless perennial with flat, oval to roundish pads. The areoles contain numerous short brown glochids (barbed bristles) which can be painful if one brushes against them. It blooms from March to June with bright rose to magenta flowers which appear on the upper margins of the joints.

Beavertail Cactus •  sketch - drawing • Lisa Rivas © 2009

The fruit is pear shaped commonly called prickly pear or cactus fig and measures more than an inch long, juicy and edible when ripe. Also called "Tunas" in Mexico.

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Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher

Click here to download an awesome Powerpoint Presentation:

Cactus-BeautyInBloom pps