Our First 50 Years together

 This is our NOW
This is our moment to celebrate
We thank Life for 5 decades
our three children, María, Ricardo, Alejo
Their companions, Chema, Mary and Lysanne
And our grandchildren: Emilia, Luisa, Camila
Tomas, Mateo, Reed, Gabriel and Nicolas, born two weeks ago
We thank both our families and all our friends, here and there and everywhere
So many experiences, such joy.  So many houses we have planted a tree and flowers.
Now we are starting the most beautiful one, in Villa de Leyva, Colombia.
So much to be grateful for.
for each one we love
for each one we learn with
for each one's time
and good conversations
together.
Gracias.

About the Mural in La Cueva

THE IDEA OF A MURAL AT LA CUEVA

PETER KING and Hugh Hamilton offered an Architectural Mural workshop in the Summer of 2011 at Hue’s beautiful Art Studio near Kemptville, Ontario. 

I felt, -this is for me! That is what I wish to do in our new home in Colombia. When the time came last Summer, however,  we were away and did not make it to the Workshop, but after Hanne showed me many photos of the process, told me all about it and together with Bruce and Ricardo, the four of us went to visit our friends Hugh and Susan, see the finished work at the Studio door and talk about it.

This is what I wish to do, again I said to myself as I got home that evening. How could it be? Where, how to do it for our new home?. And started sketching. “We are the people of corn”, remembering Miguel Angel Asturias. And we are the people of guadua, a strong variety of bamboo for construction, used in most of our Latin-American countries in so many creative ways, architectural, traditional, contemporary, structural, artistic and decorative. These are my roots, this is what I must do and express as homage to our culture. The sketches started to take shape of long canes, both bamboo and corn have the same plant structure, monocots, hollow stalks with long pointy leaves. The design became a maquette I made and fired and saw it would work. I showed it to Hanne, and invited her to come to our small town in the Mountains, Villa de Leyva, stay with us and we would both do it. So we did.

Bruce and Hanne came to Colombia for a month, February 2012. After a long and adventurous trip, they arrived at the bus terminal in Villa de Leyva, where we picked them up and went to our home still under construction 5 K North of town.

PREPARATIONS, SETTING UP.

During the previous month, January,  Ricardo and I were quite busy: finishing construction of our house and setting up the Art Studio. We brought a truck full of old self dug clay from the 90’s, as it had been sitting in bags at our old cottage where I had my art studio, both rented for the last 10 years while we lived in Canada.

Photos of the mural process  click here...  and here is the story:

I found the dried up terracotta clay and knew it is a treasure. 

It had different types and colors and I start to revive it in water, then select groggy clay and hand wedge some 20 bags, (200 Kg) enough to start our project. We also brought in a small truck my gas kiln, put away for over 10 years. So I had maintenance done by a technician and did a test firing, a failure, it did not work at all. By now, February 4^th, Hanne and Bruce have arrived and we start our mural. The first chore is to set up the Art Studio and have the kiln work!. Tables made by mi carpenter sister and her Carlos, organize boards and tools.  But we had Ricardo and Bruce’s help. Also by phone,  Jorge, the kiln constructor’s advise. (http:/materialesceramicos.com). We made some modifications to the gas installations and we were ready to start. The kiln worked.

DESIGN

First thing to do, from my sketch, was to measure and make the design life size on paper 3m high by 2m wide of two corn stalks at the left and three bamboo branches at the right, joined at the top with a bamboo shut. Birds have been present in my work symbolizing peace, so they are included and I add some small wild animals form the region, a turtle, a hare, a bee, a small alligator, mice and frogs.

I draw tree bamboo shuts at the right, two corn plants with the flower at the end and some corn cobs and rocks as a base. Huge glaciation rocks are found everywhere in the region. At last I felt I am honoring our culture, nature and life in these mountains with the corn, bamboo and some of our native animals and rocks.

MURAL WORK PROCESS

We start making slabs for the canes and leaves. We have a few tools but lack sponges and boards. Could not find any in the small town, had to order plywood to the construction guys for from the city of Tunja. At the Saturday town’s market we find cotton for sheets to cover the work area and boards. We find left over PVC tube cuttings for supports and work really starts. Daily, with Hanne’s discipline, excellent  and careful work, my creativity and speed we make a team. I must divide my time between the studio and work in the garden and the construction, but Hanne dedicates all her energy and time to the mural. Slowly canes start to line up, different shape leaves, knots for the joints, animals, rocks. Following the detailed design, two weeks are gone. Now it’s time for drying and to decide between the two of us on how to finish. We get red iron oxide, special tile cement and a tan color grout. Have the entire wall painted raw terracotta color, matching the shade of the house and borrow scaffold from the construction site.

First firing with the text “La Cueva” and tests with the different terracotta clays. It all goes well.

Finishing touches, fitting pieces of bamboo, corn and leaves, finishing edges, measurements and all is set to dry. We take a break, go to the mountains, Hanne and Bruce hike the highest mountain of Iguaque, visit the Goddess at over 4000 m. high in her sacred lake where the founding myths take place.   We go back to work, firing the pieces. It all goes well finally with the kiln, after Ricardo and Bruce change the spring of the gas regulator.

Three firings and the mural is ready  to be cemented to the wall. Hanne’s fear is the cement, will it work, will it keep the pieces up, will they not fall down during the night?

FINISHING THE MURAL. Set up the scaffold, bring out the numbered pieces in order, apply cement and hold with masking tape till the following day, apply grog, retouch the wall and the day before the two of them travel back to Canada via Bogota, we finish. It’s up, it’s done, it is beautiful. We laugh and hug and toast, it must be up for years to come and many people will see it and join us in this homage to our culture, our roots: corn and bamboo.  

Primer trabajo en el Taller de La Cueva, MURAL

Bruce y Hanne son los amigos canadienses, ella una excelente ceramista. Consagrada. Vienen de visita, el deseo es participar y trabajar con nosotros aquí en este momento en que iniciamos la vida en La Cueva y organizo mi Taller de Arte. Organizamos el espacio.
Tengo arcilla recuperada de Guamuca, traigo arcilla especial de escultura de Jorge Perez, Productos Cerámicos en Chía.
Nuestro primer trabajo, un mural para la puerta de entrada.
Hago el diseño siguiendo una intuición que tenía desde Ottawa, trabajar la guadua y el maíz, nuestro soporte en la construcción y en la alimentación. Siempre.

Dedico tiempo a ver trabajo de ceramistas que me han inspirado, que han sido guía, Maestros en mi trabajo.
Busco ideas, cómo hacer el mural.
Hanne tiene gran experiencia, iniciamos el trabajo.

2012 Rumba y Conga, enero

8 dias después

Llega Conga con casita, regalo de Luisa

Rumba.

En el pueblo de Villa de Leyva, hay una tienda, La Salsamentaria. Los dueños cuidan perros callejeros y abandonados Se han dedicados a esta acción humanitaria y perruna. Muchas personas, en otros países hacen cosas así, favoreciendo animales. Aquí yo no lo conocía. Hablé con él, le hice la solicitud de una perro o perra, ni muy pequeño ni muy grande, más bien tranquilo. Y me dice, -La tengo. All[i, debajo del camaión de gaseosa está echada. Me asomo a verla. Color caramelo, medio dormida. Al acercarme, levanta la cabeza, me mira, voltea su cabecita, me mira. Le digo, eres la perrita que quiero. Eres mia. Vuelvo a la tienda, el dueño está viéndome, de pie en la puerta. Sonríe. Le digo, me la llevo, es mía. Yo la cuido y la quiero. Me dice que está "arreglada" (esterilizada) desde hace 4 días. Le faltan todas las vacunas. La llevo a casa. En el carro vomita, se ensucia, pobrecita, desconoce. La tranquilizo, le explico que vamos a La Cueva, a casa. Estoy feliz. Esta foto es en su primer día con nosotros. tiene un lazo, por sugerencia de Jaime, de repente desconoce y se va....  la mantengo amarrada, la llevo por todo el jardín, le muestro todo. Coloco un tapete de lana para que duerma. Dos días después ya no tiene lazo, lo ha trozado, pero no se fue. Esta feliz. Se ve que va a recuperar su peso normal e iniciamos las vacunas y visita al veterinario. Es una perrita tranquila, obediente, fácil e inteligente. Aprende rápido a "no entrar a la casa". 

Dos semanas después encuentro a nuestra amiga Luisa en una tienda veterinaria de Villa de Leyva. . Pregunta por Rumba, le digo que va progresando, que está muy bien. Me dice, -está sola. Y cuando ustedes se vayan, va a necesitar compañía. -Noooo, dos perros son mucho, le digo. Cuando ella insiste, le digo, voy a pensarlo. Lo hablamos con Ricardo. Nos toma dos días ver, decidir, ok. vamos a recibir otra perrita recogida. Vamos a verla, es preciosa. Color arena de Capurganá, del Mar Caribe. y ojos caramelo. Ha sufrido, recibió un golpe en su pierna, se está recuperando de la fractura. Luisa me dice que en 8 días está "lista". Esperamos y una semana despueés vamos con Rumba a buscarla. Se entienden desde el primer momento. Luisa tiene una casita de madera, colchón y una olla de sopa de arroz para la llegada a La Cueva de las dos perritas. Vamos felices, con las dos en la camioneta, Rumba vomita. Parece que se marea entre el carro. Bueno, hay que aprender a viajar con ellas. Van sentadas en el asiento de atrás, nosotros felices con nuestros dos tesoros. Rumba y Conga. Inicialmente las mantenemos en el patio cerrado, para que se acostumbren a la casa, a la comida, a nosotros, a la compañía de la otra.

Aquí están el día de la llegada de conga, en el patio.
 

Taller en La Cueva

Desde octubre aquí. Boyacá. Colombia.
Terminando la construccion de nuestra casa, La Cueva.
Y en enero comienzo a organizar mi Taller de Arte.
El espacio, nuevo. La luz, nueva. La temperatura, nueva. Todo nuevo aquí.
Hacer de este espacio de nuevo mi templo de creatividad.
Donde voy a trabajar, crear, expresarme.
Inicio, trayendo el horno de cerámica de Guamuca. Vendimos la casa, traemos nuestras cosas, llega el horno. Colocarlo. Provisionalmente, aquí. Después, veremos dónde es su lugar.

Este es el lugar 

El técnico y el conductor del camión, Don Félix. Ricardo siempre ahí, disponible, colaborando.

In Colombia! Food, farm, family, friends

Fried flat plantain, patacon

Family, Paula, Sebas, Simona... all the love, all the hugs from family and friends at our arrival

Sea food soup... our re/encounter with our food, traditions, culture, ways of doing thing, of living...  our people. Our belonging.  

Carlos at his workshop, I do hope to learn to make art work at the forge with him! 

The Studio will be organized soon. I have visited our kiln-maker, Jorge Perez in Chia, organized to take to Villa de Leyva tools, oxides, shelves, my kiln... soon.

Will start to work there. A big challenge. Life will tell...

Arriving in Colombia

This is the Blog of our Project.
Our dream.
Starting again for the next 50 years of our life together...
Next July will celebrate our first 50.
Visit our place in the mountains and our construction of La Cueva, in Villa de Leyva, Boyaca, Colombia at
La Cueva, Villa de Leyva

First photos with family in  Tabio y Subachoque, 1 hour north of Bogotá.

Bye Bye... casa y jardín

Bye Bye, casa y jardíne


So we sold the house. And the garden...
and packed... lighten up, was the feeling...
Left treasures at Maria, Ricardo and Alejandro's homes...
Left our furniture with friends, who will use and enjoy it.
Left our 10 years past in Ottawa...
Now, a trip to Colombia. Intense, deep, free.
We feel as new lovers starting a home, starting again.
That is what we do... Start again, for another 50 years.
Will set up a house, a studio, a work space in the mountains
La Cueva, Villa de Leyva, Boyaca, Colombia.
What's next? Life will say.

Una pagina de Jose Saramago,

Hoy cerramos la casa.....  recibo esta pagina, interpreta el sentimiento que tenemos Ricardo y yo en este momento... Por eso, la copio.  Gracias, Alfredo, por pensar en nosotros y enviarla. 


¿Cuántos años tengo?


José Saramago



¿Que cuántos años tengo? - ¡Qué importa eso!

¡Tengo la edad que quiero y siento!

La edad en que puedo gritar sin miedo lo que pienso…

Hacer lo que deseo, sin miedo al fracaso o lo desconocido...

Pues tengo la experiencia de los años vividos

y la fuerza de la convicción de mis deseos.



¡Qué importa cuántos años tengo!

¡No quiero pensar en ello!

Pues unos dicen que ya soy viejo/a,

y otros "que estoy en el apogeo".

Pero no es la edad que tengo, ni lo que la gente dice,

sino lo que mi corazón siente y mi cerebro dicte.



Tengo los años necesarios para gritar lo que pienso,

para hacer lo que quiero, para reconocer yerros viejos,

rectificar caminos y atesorar éxitos.



Ahora no tienen por qué decir: ¡Estás muy joven, no lo lograrás!

¡Estás muy viejo/a, ya no podrás!

Tengo la edad en que las cosas se miran con más calma,

pero con el interés de seguir creciendo.



Tengo los años en que los sueños,

se empiezan a acariciar con los dedos,

las ilusiones se convierten en esperanza.



Tengo los años en que el amor,

a veces es una loca llamarada,

ansiosa de consumirse en el fuego de una pasión deseada…,

y otras... es un remanso de paz, como el atardecer en la playa..



¿Qué cuántos años tengo?

No necesito marcarlos con un número,

pues mis anhelos alcanzados,

mis triunfos obtenidos,

las lágrimas que por el camino derramé al ver mis ilusiones truncadas...

¡Valen mucho más que eso!

¡Qué importa si cumplo cincuenta, sesenta o más!



Pues lo que importa: ¡es la edad que siento!

Tengo los años que necesito para vivir libre y sin miedos.

Para seguir sin temor por el sendero,

pues llevo conmigo la experiencia adquirida

y la fuerza de mis anhelos.



¿Qué cuántos años tengo?



¡Eso... ¿A quién le importa?!



Tengo los años necesarios para perder el miedo

y hacer lo que quiero y siento!!.

Qué importa cuántos años tengo…

o cuántos espero, si con los años que tengo,

¡¡aprendí a querer lo necesario y a tomar, sólo lo bueno!


Jose Saramago

Enviado por Alfredo Brigard.

10 años en Ottawa, time to go back home

July 20, 2001.
We come to Canada. Ten years ago. Ten years I could name as a main chapter in my life.
Being here, as an Artist. Work, exhibitions, support, a feeling of belonging through art and my work.
Ten years of starting life with our extended family here, in Canada. Ten years of pain, solitude, many questions asked, a new path found. Hard work within, questions like, ¨who am I?¨, ¨what am I doing here?¨, ¨what is this all about?¨... Ah, life. I entered the path of contact with my being many years ago, but these 10 years have been of hard work trying to answer some of the questions asked. During my last show those were the questions in the center of the Labyrinth, now I see I was closing a circle, I was preparing my body and soul for a further move. Now, I see it clearly, it has been an invitation from Life to be back, start again in our own land, our mountains, our culture, back home. The link is to my Blog made during the past couple of years, while starting this Project. Now it is the time to go, live it. Start again, a new beginning, when we will celebrate our 50th anniversay next July and I will be 69 in April. Time to start again. Life will tell us what´s next, we wish to come during the Summer months, live here for half a year, half here, half there. Life will tell...

http://lacueva-villadeleyva.blogspot.com/
http://lacueva-villadeleyva.blogspot.com/

a slide show here of our Project for the next 100 years

El proceso de nuestro proyecto en fotos

Mi Trabajo en el estudio este año

Mi Trabajo Este Año

Algunas fotos del trabajo que he hecho en 2010.
Ha sido un buen año. Personalmente, el mejor.....
Por lo que vivimos en la familia..... la salud, el matrimonio de Mary y Ricardo, los nietos de 20 a 2 años. Todos maravillosos.
Un buen año para estar diciendo GRACIAS A LA VIDA........
Bendiciones. Lleno de bendiciones.
Ahora, viajamos a Colombia... bendiciones... gracias.

Who I am

I found clay with a group of women back in 1983 at "La Casa de la Mujer del San Jorge", the centre of my life during the seven years we lived in Montelíbano, Córdoba, Colombia.
I worked with grass root women doing whatever was needed, and for several years as a volunteer Birth Companion, intuitive work, valued experience to become a Certified Doula today. There, and then, while working as a social researcher I repeated: ¨woman’s liberation starts in our pockets¨ while working with 16 women groups in the region. One group wanted to make pottery; another to give support to pregnant women. And 14 other themes. These two groups changed my life.

I am now a Mixedmedia Artist and a Doula. I believe this is the way Life shows its beauty and its gifts. “Our elders were potters, so we must learn how to do it”. And we did. The hard way. Go to the creek to look for clay. -“It looks and feels like soap”-, my daughter María told me over a long distance call. She is an artist and knows. She is my mentor and critic, my "Maestra".

Our work started, simple, elementary: low temperature bisqued figures of dancing women, their dresses painted red with acrylic colors and white polka-dots. And there it came to me, the BLISS of clay work. More than twenty years have gone by. They still work with clay and I am still in love with the softness and plasticity of clay, and yes, it feels like soap.

Clay is endless: all possibilities to express ourselves, to develop our own artistic language through the mystery of form, of contraction and expansion, the interaction of my soul through my hands with earth, water, air and fire. Now I am in Canada with Ricardo, my life-companion since 1962.

I have made a bridge between work in South America and my life here. Daily work in my Studio and an endless learning about life: "our main work of art is our own life". I have participated in collective and solo exhibitions combining woman-flowers, birds and angels as a statement against violence towards women and war. Again and again I make a “mountain” of clay to express our belonging to mother-earth; I play with light and shadow following Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes and our individual and collective shadows. It is the work we must do with our own personal shadow and our collective shadows.

 I work flowers, birds and angels, sculptures as symbol of love, freedom and peace. I seek to express myself as a woman committed with Life, peace, suffering, violence, death, joy, hope, love and Being. Now, I am over 60 and start each day on my path with a new understanding where the Unknown moves deep inside and pushes my daily Work. All of it. I live love with Ricarado, my family and others. I live the passion of giving support to pregnant women as a Doula (or birth companion)

I express myself in all I do, -cooking, knitting, gardening, playing, painting, making pots... all this is "my main work of art, my life".

Fin de año 2010

Cerrando trabajo en mi Taller de Arte este año, 2010

Cerrando el año en mi taller...

Para ver fotos de mi trabajo este año y una coleccion de fotos mias y de otras personas, visita la pagina en Flickr, en 

 http://www.flickr.com/people/rosario-umana/

2010 a mis hermanas, mis amigas

Album de Fotos de mi trabajo en este verano, click para ver en Picasa

Me llega este cuento...


Una mujer estaba sentada en un sofá,tomando té helado con su madre.
Mientras hablaban de la vida, el matrimonio, las responsabilidades y las obligaciones de la edad adulta, la madre hizo sonar los cubos de hielo en su vaso fuertemente y luego miro fijamente a su hija.
  'Nunca te olvides de tus hermanas' le advirtió,dando vueltas a las hojas de té en el fondo de su vaso.'Ellas se volverán cada vez más importantes con el paso del tiempo. No importa cuánto ames a tu esposo, no importa cuánto ames a los hijos que tengas, vas a necesitarlas.
Recuerda salir con ellas siempre, hacer cosas con ellas siempre. Recuerda que cuando hablo de tus Hermanas me refiero a TODAS las mujeres ... tus amigas, tus hijas, y todas las otras mujeres que estén ligadas a ti. Las vas a necesitar.
 Ella escuchó a su madre. Mantuvo contacto con sus hermanas y cada vez tuvo más amigas con el paso de los años.Conforme estos fueron pasando, uno tras otro, ella fue entendiendo, gradualmente, a lo que su Madre se refería.
 Conforme el tiempo y la naturaleza presentan sus cambios y sus misterios en la vida de una mujer, tus verdaderas Hermanas siempre permanecen.

 Después de mis 40 años de vivir en este mundo,esto es lo  que he aprendido:
           El tiempo pasa.
           La vida ocurre.
           Las distancias separan.
           Los hijos crecen.
           Los trabajos van y vienen.
           La pasión disminuye.
           Los hombres no siempre hacen
           lo que se supone que deberían hacer.
           El corazón se rompe.
           Los padres mueren.
           Los colegas olvidan los favores recibidos.
           Las carreras o profesiones llegan a su fin.                               PERO.........
           Tus Hermanas siempre están ahí, no importa cuánto tiempo ni cuantas millas haya entre ustedes. Una amiga nunca está demasiado lejos para llegar a ella cuando la necesitas.
 Cuando tienes que caminar por un valle solitario y tengas que hacerlo por ti misma, las mujeres de tu vida, estarán alrededor del valle, alentándote, orando por ti,empujándote, interviniendo por ti, y esperándote con los brazos abiertos al final del camino. Algunas veces,incluso romperán las reglas y caminarán a tu lado ... O te llevarán cargada.  
           Amigas, hijas, abuelas, madres, hermanas, suegras, nueras,cuñadas, nietas, tías, primas, sobrinas: son una bendición en la vida!
           Cada día, seguimos necesitándolas. Pásale este mensaje a todas las mujeres que contribuyen a darle significado a tu vida.
                  Yo acabo de hacerlo.              
           La mujer que ahora lee esto es hermosa, fuerte, y la
quiero.  Ayúdemosla a vivir su vida al máximo.   Por favor, promuévela y haz que ella sobrepase incluso sus propias expectativas. Ayúdala para que brille en los sitios más oscuros. Protéjela en cualquier momento, levántala encima de todo cuando ella lo necesite más, y déjale saber cuando ella camine contigo.. Ella siempre estará a salvo.

Ceramic work for my sons

Flower vases for Ricardo and Mary´s Wedding

Terracotta vases with oxides and bronze glaze, for table decoration during the wedding in Harmony Hill. This link takes you to my Blog: driving from Ottawa to Seattle to be there with them, celebrating life, love and health. It is in Spanish, but Blogs may be translated easily, just a click... 

fruit bowl for the family gatheringsand tiles for Alejandro´s new home... 

Verano 2010: el Mejor Verano... y comienza una nueva etapa. A new chapter starts

Summer in the garden

2010. The Best Summer.
I wrote a page for The Writing Group in May. Now, mid July, it has been our best Summer.
You may visit the Blog during the trip Ottawa-Seattle-Ottawa. One month driving our Paloma, to be there for our son, Ricardo. His celebration of love with Mary in Harmony Hill, Washington, July 4th.

We crossed Canada in our Dove, La Paloma... It is an unique experience to live. The distances (it took us 4 days crossing Ontario!), the beauty of this country, the Prairies, immense, the wealth and resources of Canada, the water. Lake Superior may be seen from space. Each road taken was like driving to the unknown, letting us be surprised by light, color, distance, people, places, towns, cities. We loved Winnipeg and Medicine Hat; we enjoyed the rain and fog, the sun as here, in Lake Kootenay in BC
Artistas y Artesanos BC

The wedding, prepared with loving care up to the least detail to make it unique and beautiful. Mary´s smiling eyes, her clear soul there with a golden aura and her beauty in a green silk dress. Ricardo, his father, José and Alejo, all  had the ¨guayaberas¨ we brought from Colombia for Alejo´s wedding day, a year ago. I saw my son beaming with beautiful light of peace, love and healing. The family of 7 celebrated their love, our family of 16 now, celebrated with them with joy with humour and music in a beautiful setting, Harmony Hill on the hood Canal, Washington. Ricardo´s photos of the wedding are here.

After the wedding we went camping with María and her family, and Nicolás, who is like my other son, and his family to the Olympics to share memories, talk about the wedding and the beautiful experience we all have had. After, we returned to Canada, Flight Vancouver-Ottawa and María, José, Emilia and Luisa drove the Paloma back. It was a perfect round trip our Paloma´s gift for the family. 

What´s next?
It is Summertime. I sing with Ella Fitzgerald...

Summertime and the livin’ is easy

Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high

Oh your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’

So hush little baby, don’t you cry

One of these mornings

You’re goin’ to rise up singing

Then you’ll spread your wings

And you’ll take the sky

But till that morning

There’s a nothin’ can harm you

With daddy and mammy standin’ by

 
Perfect. My best Summer.
what´s next?
I have been reorganizing my Studio, moving things around start again...
This is the way life is. After a trip or a break, start again...
In Meditation, after a distraction, start again...
in health, after a healing treatment, start again...
Here I am. Alone, home, back. Open.
To whatever Life invites me to do in my Studio, or with myself.
With Ricardo. We shall see. 

Invitation to "Caminando con Mujeres el Laberinto de la Vida"

So this has been the challenge. 

You are cordilly invited...

I have worked as stubborn as a mule, or as a goat, after all I am Aries.

Support.

First of all, from Ricardo. As always, as ever. Patient and loving.

Then Alejo, patient and loving...

Support from UNAM. And from OAC, Ontario Arts Council, a grant to set up.

Friends from OGP and Art Petch with his web page ottawapottery, advise and patience again!

Our Consul at the Embassy of Colombia, Monica Beltran also gave me support, the wine for the opening. A beautiful personal gesture from her.  

The Gallery is beautiful. I would not find any better. The people, the light, the space.

Perfect.

Then support from dear friends, like Hanne and Bruce, Chandler and Mike, Chema, Olga, Pilar, Jane. 

From my family, Maria and from Ricardo in the distance. Family. Friends. To each, Gracias. 

Now the second challenge is during the next two weeks. Vernissage Monday, March 8th, the exhibit until the 19th. It is there. The work is there, on it's own. It will develop it's own language, it's meaning and questions... 

I am grateful for Art has moved me. Other Artists, friends and from Internet, as Sugare Hara, Ghada Amer from Egypt and Sharin Neshat from Iran. Their work is with women, with what we live and do. With our conscience and awareness. They have kept me awake and going. Salud!   

http://labyrinthinstallation.blogspot.com/

My work now, 2010 Installation: Labyrinth of Life

The past two years have been difficult, but a good mixture of joy and tears, the death of Claudia (January 2008 in Seattle) and the birth our sixth grandson, Gabriel (Septiember 13 2008). We have traveled to Clombia twice, what joy to be with family and friends, sharing the stories, food, fruit and walking in the mountains of villa de Leyva in Boyacá. Now our son Ricardo now is inviting us to his wedding next Summer (July 4th 2010) with Mary Forster, an Angel that came as a gift from Heaven thi past year of extreme experiences; his family has doubled, from 4 to 7 now: Camila (19), Tomás (13), Mateo (12), Reid (11) and Isabelle (6). After surgery of Thyroid Cancer, twice a year ago and again two surgeries in two days a couple of weeks ago again, the same spot, he same sacr the same fear, I am back home. Back.

Being back means back to my Studio.

When I was down low I said to myself, it is time to start again, start again. a new project, a new vision of life from my Studio. This is the way I heal. So It came to me after reading two books, THE RED TENT, and CHAOS. Reading and observing, looking at what is going on in this crazy world during these same two years, I got a flash! I must go back to work. Questions have come with my reading and events in Middle East, Africa and Central Asia and looking for an answer to one of the questions, -Why do women dress as they do in these countries? other questions appear: What is behind the way we dress? Who is behind it all, is it culture, religion, tradition? Is it a political issue? or is a man behind it, ¨ËL¨ as women refer to their husband or companion in my country, EL, without a name... ¨El¨ is authority, fashon, sex, film? who is ¨el¨ that governs our body? To whom do we expose, show, undress, how much, how far? When? I kept on looking, looking at what is behind all this. When I was in Bogotá I mentioned the idea of answeing some of these questions through Art, that is my language. And friends and artists gave me more ideas, suppot, even garments to start to work with. Martha Combariza, my ¨Maestra¨ gave me names of women artists that are working with garments, embroidery, our bodies, the relationship of culture East-West, man-woman, on Islam and women. I have been awaken by my own questions into the looking, how do we dress. How do we walk, move, expose, protect, serve. How are our roles related to garments, as a doctor or a nurse´s choice of color and style, as a cook covering the hair and clothes, a woman breastfeeding, half covering her breast, a pregnant woman showing her belly with her two piece bathing suit in the pool, African and Asian women walking in the street with their saris and traditional clothes and their had covered. Why do women have covered their head? In the Catholic Churches I have visited in Europe, Latin America and hereall women Saints have a veil, a scarf or some sort of embroderied garment covering their head. Why did nuns keep their medieval habits and dresses until recently, after Vatcan II in the sixties? why do some of the muslim women wear black, wear or not the shdor, a burka, another head covering? On and on, the questins. And friends also have started to have more of the same. Yesterday a friend emailed me: I have become aware after your ideas for the Installation, Why do we cover? At the pool, we all held a towel half covering our bodies after swimming, why do we do it? There are just women... do we think our body is not good enough... too much weight, too old or what???  YES. This is my theme. I am working in an Instalation with the question, ¨why do w cover our bodies?¨
So I have started to work.
Where, how?
And slowly life has been giving me the hands and support I have needed. You may see the process in my blog just for the Installation.  /http://labyrinthinstallation.blogspot.com/

It will be a Mixed Media Art Installation, I am mixing four artistic elements: The first one, sculptres I am calling ¨Empty Bodies¨. the second, a ¨sacred path¨ for I invite visitors to walk alongside with women  in a Labyrinth made with women´s old, worn shoes. The third artistic element is photos of women from different cultures and times, ages and social background. I have been gathering photos from family and friends along with my own to insist on the question: -Why do we cover our bodies? And the fourth one, the CORE question, at the centre of the Labyrinth, my ceramic work with some Angels covering their ¨bodies¨ and a great big seed, my seed, your seed, your core. The final questions...
¨Who am I?¨
¨What does all this have to do with me?¨
¨What am I doing here?¨

Sculpture, Empty body. A Capulana from mozambique and a blouse from India, copper wire.

July 18 2009 a Saturday filled with light, Alejo - Lysanne

JOY!!!
 It is their wedding.
Alejo and Lysanne got married at noon. In our backyard. Just the family and Nestor and Covi. She was the celebrant. We all gathered around them to give them both our love and support.
It was a beautiful wedding day. Blessings. Life is filled with blessings.

2009. New year, new life, new plans and dreams

New Year. New Life. New Work...

plans and dreams of travels.

Last year was a difficult one.

So I did these "Six Healing Angels"

to heal and give myself support and gratitude.

They keep us company in our home, in front of my husband Ricardo's Father's oil painting of El Quijote

And a sculpture honoring Lysanne and Alejo, our son, expecting their first baby, Gabriel

Gabriel, born Sept 13 2008

at the General Hospital in Ottawa!

Alejo has been a dad for 10 minutes.

Emilia and Luisa with their cousin, Gabriel

Some of my work this year:

Madonna of the Garden

and Madonna of de Sea

Set of porcelain plates with birds,

bisque fired, drawing with under glazes,

engobes and oxides. After they will be will refired

with clear glaze.

These Five little windows are called

"I peek... inside myself"

During the past three years I have been fusing glass in the kiln. Now I also have a small jewlery electric kiln.

It has been a challange, new experience

and a whole world of learning...

How to make jewelry with glass, how to fuse, make moulds or to fuse it on my pieces.

Sometimes successful

others a total frustration

and an invite to continue...

small glass dish, fired 4 times

In February we will go back to Seattle

to give support to our son.

To be with him for radiation treatment

after two Thyroid cancer surgeries

in October and December.

He is now healed!

Photos during our last visit, the Needle in Seattle:

Visiting Stephen Hirt's glass Studio with the boys,

and the amazing Uwajimaya Market

Candle lit honoring Claudia.

She left a year ago.

when we are back, ready for Spring our grandson Gabriel

will be six months old!!!

Today we were with him and Lysanne, his lovely mom.

He is the most beautiful baby we have seen.

Smiling, goooo goooo ing and chewing his chubby little tiny hands.

Gracias a la Vida...

2008 summer Country Fair

Not much work this summer... a few pots, a few angels and peace birds... time for joy, family and friends visiting. A good Summer! Here we are at the community Summer Country Fair: Emilia, now 14, Luisa is 12. They enjoy helping during exhibitions, sales and fairs. I do too, love their energy, company and to work together.