Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Back by the Waterfront

Stephan Keszler at Scope in East Hampton - July 26 2008- drawing by Marguerita

So,here I am, my computer has crashed, I am in a new world and living is like my principal Dona Soledade wrote to me from Brazil,many years ago: " Caminhe,caminhe,caminhe. A vida e um eterno caminhar.O que tera de ser seu, vira ao seu encontro."
"Walk,walk,keep walking.Life is an eternal walk.Whatever belongs to you will appear on your path".


An array of past ,present and future converging.I ran into a past date of mine from the last century, saw him in art gatherings in the Hamptons, where I met also Bob Colacello, who in 1976 turned down my Humor Page commissioned by Andy Warhol . Bob told me that my consolation prize, was to learn from him that he turned down Anna Wintour at that time also,besides women,men & other exotics.Colacello also promised me that he would make up for his act in my case,at some point, alleging that he considered me to be too Red in 1976 to caricature the ongoing depravity of the seventies....

Since July when I last posted ,I underwent a reincarnation of sorts.Standing in the middle of my studio in New York City, in complete chaos,with no idea where I would be going to, the mover showed up.So where are you moving to ?..... I do not know,I answered,as much as I nurtured in my mind a place I had seen years ago and wished I could live there.At the time,I was concerned that it would be too difficult for my sons to change their schools and I dreaded the distance and methods of transportation.
I longed for a quiet place,near the water,where I could become a part of the community and feel the energy in the air.
I needed the environment to inspire me.
Manhattan , after living there for thirty two years, for me,sadly enough is saturated in tension, a zombie like atmosphere,where artists are not welcome,if not for the galleries and marchands to play their games.That empty pursuit of pompous glory is in fact a castrating mandate,which was never my goal.I was born with my talent, inheriting from my ancestry a vision of reality which gave me the strength to face the most challenging and frightening enigmas that Fate chose to award me with.
My spirit is intact,although I must admit that my body has taken a tough beating. Never mind, I am still like a bamboo.At many moments,I talk with Death, (thus my Monster series began.)who comes a number of times around and offers me relief from this grueling turmoil in which I am marinated. Go away,dear. I am not ready yet!
I will get bored stiff being Dead.
My only desire is to live and complete my various projects that I have been conceiving,besides watching over my sons,as much as they become independent selves and tearing away from me to prove that their wings are there and force me to continue on my path as an artist and creative soul ,which I set aside while both were growing up. My sons were my priority, my work in progress,while my art was always happening in sotto voce.
So,here in despair,after the mover asked me for the third time,my destination, I answered him,by asking where would he store my artwork and all my things?
- Red Hook!....
Ah Ha! That is was exactly the place I wanted years ago.
I love history and remembered that when the Dutch were sent out from Brazil in the 1600 hundreds,their point of entry into America was through this piece of land,which they named Red Point and subsequently the English renamed Red Hook.
As much as I will never be suppportive of invaders, we must recognize "Prince Mauritz van Nassau- Siegen, whose entourage when he arrived in Brazil in January 1637 included intellectuals and scientists, such as physicist Willen Pies, biologist George Marcgraf, painters Albert Eckhout and Franz Post,poet Franz Plante, and even historians, among whom Gaspar Barleus.
Its is fair to say that the scientific and artistic objectives of his expedition
were contrary to military goals as well as land occupation andexploitation purposes.During his stay in Dutch-Brazil,Mauritz van nassau-Siegen attempted to create a civilizing centre of perspectives that went far beyond their era."- from Dutch- Brazil- Documents in The Leiden University Library.

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