M. Cole. Sunrise over the Tepozteco. 2009. Acrylic on Canvas. 11"x8"
The first exhibit I participated in the USA was a low key presentation at North Harris Lone Star College Gallery, as part as a faculty collective exhibit. My submission were two pictures -one was the first Iztaccíhuatl, shown in an earlier post of 2009, and the other is the one that opens this post, a memory of the Tepozteco range- regarded by the professor in charge of the curatorial work as as pair of "delicate jewels". I was conscious that, once again as when I started drawing in 1976, I was doing art work harking back to a style at least 100 years old away by no means close to what is trendy nowadays in visual arts.
Then came the second invitation to another Faculty collective exhibit. This one at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, a beautiful campus close to the sea, in the coastal plain that hosts the NASA complex and heads towards Galveston. In the Jan 2010 UHCL I presented three "larger" pictures, Foreboding Tlamacas, Summer storm over Pedregal and White Poplars at Satelite, Edo Mex.
These events triggered a lot of memories from the first exhibit I was invited to participate in 1977 when I was 16 years old. A very young and VERY inexperienced girl, bold enough to accept the gracious invitation of a fairly known graphic artist in the New York circles, Manuel Bennett, to present her ink and watercolor drawings hand to hand with his op-art black ink renderings.
That was the starting point of a life path that surprised me how it resembled a stream of water, sometimes flowing strong over ground, sometimes going under, running trickling deep, then feeding into a stream ready to resurface any time....After 1907 I thought I was thru with visual arts creation, but seems I had still something to say.
I was never drawn to the gallery world. When in my early twenties I had the opportunity of being sponsored by a gallery in Mexico I declined for I felt kind of a fish out of water. In a world full driven by ego and the vane changing fortunes of tastes and fashion I felt I was not going to learn the ropes and develop my full potential. Eventually the market smother all attempts of experimenting and growing because it needs to keep the clientele happy, even at the expense of cutting short the artists´development.
I was sure then I had not much future on my own. My father urged me to get a University degree and make sure I might be able to support myself by other means and keep painting as a hobby. He felt I was going to go further if I did that way and he was right. Now do I think I have a future as a visual artist here in the USA? God has the last word, but I feel it difficult. In this place fine art is considered either the reproduction of the closest possible to photographic realism or the most avant garde contemporary items of new media. Canvases and paint are old stuff, crafts, what "everybody does" unless you have a name to sell by. Might be discouraging but on the other hand means taking the challenge where there is very little to lose. I´m not on the rat race by choice, so I can paint as gifts to my friends or sell once in a while a painting in a sum of money that will make both me and my client happy. I will be providing a thing of beauty for friend´s homes. The famous "rose for the soul" Fr. Aguayo SJ spoke once describing his calling as a painter.
As with so many plans, resumes, etc. submitted in the USA, No is already the answer on file. So all in there for winning: let´s keep going, keep showing up to see if there is a Yes! in store someplace. I do believe in the sincerity and quality of what I´m doing. I do believe that hard work pays sooner or latter.
At this time I have felt like painting memories incarnated in landscapes. Foreboding Tlamacas was painted in a freezing day at the Tomball studio remembering the mountain pass between the Popocatepetl and the Iztaccíhuatl in a heavy stormy day. Cold and foreboding, yet a cloud that a gust of wind eventually will dispel and the transparent turquoise sky will be seen again.
M. Cole Foreboding Tlamacas. Dec 2009. Acrylic on canvas board. 16"x20"
El Pedregal de San Angel, the Malpais as it referred to in the early times of the Spanish settlers, is a lava field set in close to prehistoric times by the eruption of the Xitle, a small volcanic cone close to the Ajusco range, south of Mexico City. In the fifties a very special looking neighborhood sprung amidst the volcanic rocks. The legendary Gaudalajaran architect Louis Barragan designed some of the most striking houses there -Casa Prieto, one of the best examples and named of the winding streets with striking simple words designating the elements, forces of nature and geological formations: Luz (Light), Niebla (Fog), Risco(Ridge, Nubes (Clouds), Agua (Water), Fuego (Fire), Fuentes (Springs)....My father constructed several residences there and the visits to that place are linked to very special moments of my early youth. There was the chosen place to build the majestic campus of UNAM... again my father was one of the designer architects. Is a place submerged in a deep and majestic silence, that I remember with impressive Summer stormy skies, making the light shine on the vegetation with all tones of green jewels.
Storm over Pedregal is a memory of those dark purple stone lined ravines full of scraggly vegetation, sorrounding the Sculptoric Space in the campus of the National University UNAM. I do frequently return in my dreams to that place and use those memories when I want to create an inner space of peace and encouragement. To me el Pedregal was a magical environment. One day, when my paintings grow more trees I´ll be painting the Pedregal Jacarandas in full bloom.
M. Cole. Storm over Pedregal. 2010. Acrylic on canvas board.
The Sunday picnics with my family in the late sixties, at the semi deserted new subdivision north of Mexico City that was conceived as a satelite to the city, hence the name Satelite came as a memory of a rolling slope lined with white poplars, moving in the wind their white/pale green leaves. In 2010 I presented that painting to a very dear friend and Minister and she honored me hanging it in her office. We gave it there a new title: "This is the day that the Lord has made"....which fully describes the joyful spirit of those long gone family gatherings.
M. Cole Satelite poplars -This is the Day that the Lord has Made. 2009. Acrylic on canvas.
The day of the exhibit at Clear Lake an employee of the UHCL who had lived all her youth in Mexico City recognized those places. It was rewarding to listen her talk to her fellow colleagues of how close I had come to show a world long gone. We shared together a lot of memories and I realized that being able to spark such a memory in an unknown visitor was something priceless who gave me a sense of purpose and a lot of happiness.
I doubt it could had been matched with the ego driven boost of the artificially grown gallery fame.
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