Jane Madrigal (USA/Mexico)

Xilonen. Woodcut on Amate Paper: 18 in x 24 in, 45.72 cm x 60.96 cm, 2012.

A young Xilonen wearing a ceremonial head dress blows the conch shell. She is calling forth both the living and the dead as well as the divine and cosmic energies. The time is now. The four directions have been opened. This image is of my daughter’s first ceremony has she prepares for her coming of age initiation.

On September 22, 2012, my daughter celebrated her 13th birthday with a Xilonen ceremony. She prepared herself for over a year by doing sweat lodges, learning the Danza, participating in ceremony, and growing corn.

The Xilonen is dedicated to young women to celebrate coming of age. This rite of passage ceremony seeks to empower young women to become contributing members to our society and at the same time to help them be proud of who they are and how important they are in the community. They are taught respect and service for others.

The ceremony of Xilonen or Chicomecoatl has its roots in pre-Columbian indigenous culture. Xilonen is a Nahuatl word, the language of the Aztecs, and means young tender ears of maíz (corn). The purpose of this ceremony was to assure a return of the waters and good corn harvest in the coming months. Those more fortunate had the duty to share what they had with the less fortunate. These ceremonies were characterized by the sharing of food and the giving of gifts for 8 days.

In modern practice, the focus has been the continuance of traditions and teachings with the children of our community. We hope to “plant” the seeds of understanding about our indigenous heritage with the hope that they will “grow” in this knowledge in the future. The corn is the most important plant of the Americas so it is the focus of the ceremony. It is symbolic of our relationship to this land and is a symbol of our people.

Jane Madrigal: In Her Own Words

I am a wounded healer, Xicana artist and muralist, radical woman warrior, and revolutionary earth mother. My work is a reflection of my values, which embodies a deep reverence for indigenous culture, the power of women, and a vision of a better future for the next generations.

I began painting in my early twenties after my first trip to Mexico. Inspired by the story of my ancestors, I began painting indigenous imagery and religious icons as a way for me to embrace my culture, educate my community about our people’s struggles, and honor our history which would otherwise be lost.

 Activism

My community work began in Austin in the 90’s, where I became a pioneer in the graffiti art movement receiving national recognition for my work with at-risk youth through my graffiti art program, SKAM Productions. I continue to work with youth through my program Art in Action a graffiti arts program created to provide at-risk youth with positive means of self- expression through the production of murals. Check out this link: “Transformation: Taggers forgo spray cans for artist’s brush“

I was mentored by the late Marsha Gomez and other curanderas and received extensive training in art of traditional plants and healing at Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change. I continue to work with and grow my own medicinal plants and produce a line of herbal remedies under the name Home Girl Healing. I teach workshops designed to be a comprehensive overview of traditional plants and healing with an emphasis on Indigenous knowledge. Throughout history, herbs and sacred plants have had an important place in the medicine of our people. The preparation of these medicines were carried on, developed and evolved over thousands of centuries. These medicines were part of our ceremonies for a good way of life and handed down to us from generation to generation. I teach the basic philosophy of Curanderismo, the proper use of herbs and flowers for medicinal purpose, and the proper technique to make tinctures, salves, essential oils, cough syrups, and limpias.

Culture

The origins of ancestor worship can be traced back to indigenous peoples cultures whose Earth based religion and spirituality was rooted in honoring the spirit of the land (Mother Earth) and ancestors (The Dead/Los Muertos). It is founded on the belief that the dead live on and are able to influence the lives of later generations. Our dead ancestors have special powers to influence the events in our life and control our well-being. Protection of the family is one of their main functions. They are intermediaries between the living and the divine powers, and can communicate through dreams and by possession.

The traditional Mexican holiday El Día de los Muertos (celebrated on November 2nd) honors the dead (ancestors) through the gathering of family and friends to pray for and remember those who have passed on to the spirit world. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private home altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.

I teach Honoring Our Ancestors workshops to discuss the traditions of ancestor veneration and the importance in cultivating family loyalty and continuity of the family lineage. Participants receive the cultural knowledge and understanding of Dia de los Muertos and the historical connection to the ancestors. They receive information on basic home altar building requirements used in creating traditional altars for the dead.

The workshop includes a sugar skull painting session where participants decorate their own personal sugar skull in remembrance of a departed love one as well as participate in building a community altar. Check out this link for more information about this work.

Current Projects and Exhibits

 Journey to the Underworld and Other Forbidden Places Before the End of Time. This solo exhibit the opens November 30, 2012 and run thru Jan. 2013 at Bihl Haus Arts in San Antonio, Texas.

Journey to the Underworld and Other Forbidden Places Before the End of Time is a cosmic journey through time and collective consciousness. The installation will feature a temple to Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, as well as other sacred indigenous feminine deities.

Honoring the ancient belief that held sacred the feminine principle and equated it with spiritual power and reverence, this is a journey through time where women are goddess and warriors instead of wives or whores. 

Remembering the ancestors and acknowledging those who have paved the way for us to be here today as we prepare for transform. Women will be the salvation of the world. 

The future is female. We will heal and transform through our journey to the underworld.

 Dia de los Muertos: Visual Artists Honor Musicians. South Texas Popular Culture Center ~ 1017 E Mulberry, San Antonio, Texas, 78209

Local visual artists have created altars to remember and honor deceased musicians and others who have contributed to the South Texas Sound. I created an altar for Selena. She was a revolutionary Tejana singer who broke through gender, racial, and language barriers. She was named the “top Latin artist of the ’90s” and “Best-selling Latin artist of the decade” all before her death at age 23. 

Selena’s music and legacy continues to shape and influence the lives across multiple generations of Tejanos. She is a cultural icon and musical legend of my generation.

Revolutionary Women Woodcuts. Scheduled to open Tuesday, March 12, 2013 and run through the month of June @Promega Corporation.

In January 2012, Dr. A. E. Gomez, historian and professor at Arizona State University approached me with the idea of creating woodcut prints of revolutionary women in history. As a historian, he felt there was a need to recognize the revolutionary contributions that women have made throughout history. Dr. Gomez is a collector of my work and thought as a female artist and cultural arts educator whose creations contain strong female imagery, I would be the ideal person to create this significant body of work.

I had never created a woodcut but was intrigued by the idea of producing this radical art. I applied for technical assistance from the City of San Antonio’s Office of Cultural Affairs and was awarded a $1,000 grant to travel to Arizona to work with Native American Master Printer Damian Charette at his Tortuga Studios and Press in Mesa, AZ. I did a week long intensive workshop and produced the first five woodcuts in this series of work. While working with Damain, I was offered the opportunity to exhibit my woodcuts during women’s history month in Madison, Wisconsin.

The woodcut or xylograph is the oldest technique used for old master prints. It was a favorite printmaking medium during and after the revolution in Mexico, particularly in the Taller de Gráfica Popular, when members from South America, the Caribbean and the United States, used art as a method to educate the public about culture and politics. This legacy continued during the Chicano/a Movement of the 1960s and 70s.

This exhibition, created through these historic and under-represented technologies of reproduction, offers a different genealogy linking politics and art through a project emphasizing the collective struggles, survival and solidarity of women who organized for transformative social change. Combining the woodcut techniques with popular education to promote women’s history and the importance of memory for both inspiration and survival, this project emphasizes how women have always been on the front lines of social movement organizing.

Through the creation and documentation of the stories of our sisters in their struggles we become conscious of their legacies, create an occasion to honor their organizing as lifework, and pass on the record of learning and technique to the next generation. This exhibition will feature the first 25 Revolutionary Women woodcuts created in this series of prints focusing on revolutionary women who lived during the 19^th and 20th centuries. Check out this link for this project.

A Poem By The Artist…

Witches are the Guardians of the Village (for Doña Enriqueta)

It was the year 2010, when things started to come full circle.

Things started to connect or reconnect to those things that were left undone from another time now gone, the past I think it’s called.

The doors that got shut on unfinished projects and missions.

The path that became blocked by susto or some other kind of emotional issue that laid buried deep within my existence, my energy.

Those little traumas, or maybe big traumas, that happened and kept me frozen in time for that moment of shock.

The worst enemy.

I remember that moment of fright

and liberate myself from the susto.

Death always plays a role on some level.

Transformation is the key.

The ancestors are here to help me.

But I must learn to listen to universe.

To understand it’s laws.

God, or the divine soul I am looking for is me.

We are all part of that energy that comes from the most profound place in the universe.

So we must offer up respect because that’s what’s going to cure us.

And conduct ourselves with consciousness.

After all, we are a garden of flowers

Nothing is impossible and everything is sacred

I remember grandmother.

I hug you and suddenly I am grounded again.

I am rooted firmly in the earth.

I remember and the susto slowly releases itself

My kidneys no longer hurt from holding on to the fear for so many years

I remember grandmother

That long ago women played an important role in society.

That mother nature is everything for us.

And that we must nourish ourselves with love.

After all, how much are we really worth?

I remember grandmother

And I will offer up a prayer of gratitude every morning and every night

And I will use the color purple to heal myself and others

I will wear red for protection and keep my circle of energy closed

And I will be the guardian of the village.

Jane Madrigal

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Paula Meninato (Argentina)

Separation of Heart and Mind. Chalk Pastels on Drawing Paper: 73 in x 35.5 in, 185.4 cm x 90.2 cm, 2012. 

 Above all, I am determined to create tangible changes in others through my art and activism. However, I attempt to accomplish everything but encounter my own limitations. I aim to seize the day but I often backfire. My art is a reflection of the sentiments that occur during this clash. Therefore, my art is the product of struggle. Moreover, my vision is skewed due to diplopia, an eye problem that causes me to distinguish my surroundings as double. Because my artwork demonstrates my flaws, diplopia serves as a starting point for radical distortions of my corporeal and metaphysical self. 

Ruben Millares (USA)

Number Field 1. Serigraphy: 15 in x 23 in, 38.1 cm x 58.42 cm, 2012.

 The Number Field series challenges our understanding of numbers as well as the traditional formats in which they are encountered.  By printing multiple passes of collaged numbers one on top of each other, figures that once had a very specific meaning and relevance are stripped of this value and re-imagined. The artist, who is also a CPA, spent hours hand plucking numbers from actual financial documents and gathering them into intricate patchwork collages. Each number is greater than 75,000, taken from personal financial statements, investment results, business proposals, projections, net worth, stock holdings, etc. The amounts, size of numbers, and multi-layered saturation cause the eye to constantly change focus in an attempt to understand, inducing an over-stimulating effect. What do these numbers mean? Is there a hidden formula?

The tedious process becomes a meditative practice removing all original significance from the numbers and allowing for their reinterpretation by the viewer. The intricate multicolor patchwork initially appears pleasant, but once approached closely, intensifies as the numbers begin to take meaning through the viewer’s relationship to them.  Are they deaths? Births? Unaccounted for or evaporated disaster recovery funds? Gallons of oil consumed or spilled? Bailout funds? People? Numbers define everything around us, but in this case, the viewer’s relationship to these figures creates new meaning. The series serves as a mirror into our own lives, where numbers become a pixilation of everything that makes up the world around us – the NOW ever present, alive and in flux.

Doris Nogueira (Brazil)

Split. Mixed Media on Paper: 30 in x 44 in, 76.2 cm x 111.76 cm, 2012.

Seize the day. For me every day and every moment has meaning, regardless. It is all part of the continuous cycle of life, where art has been a constant journey. The moment is to celebrate 40 years of my artistic career – or “art making” – and all that art has been in my life. My art is the voice I use to express all things in me and around me: family, community, the world. Today, the feeling of divide I have comes from living in one place, my children afar and my blood family even farther away. The work Split depicts just that.

AR-L: Would you please tell us about the residencies you’ve been involved in during the past months? I know you were doing something with the children of military families and would like to learn more about this work.

DN: I was invited by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia to be a guest artist at Fort Dix Elementary School to work with children of military and deployed parents. As the daughter of an Admiral in the Brazilian Navy and sister of a high commander officer as well I had a lot in common with these children to say the least. The main idea of the project was for the students to write and illustrate letters to deployed parents or dear friends inspired by wartime letters and documents from the museum’s collection. After examining several documents, letters and photos during a field trip to Philadelphia, a letter was chosen with the input of their teachers as a point of departure. The letter from Alexander Biddle to his children dated November 11, 1862 was our inspiration.

Our project is moving right along and the young artists created mixed media prints that highlight their narratives. These two components will be used in an edited children’s book. The goal of this project, funded by the Pew Center, is to bridge the gap between past and present, support the military community as well as to help the wider public understand the experience of soldiers and their families, both past and present. It has been an incredible experience .

AR-L: Your piece for the Diálogo 365: CARPE DIEM exhibition is titled “Split” and I know that like so many, you divide your time between your residence and other places around the world in order to be with your loved ones. What can you tell our readers about the relationship, if you perceive any, between your career of an artist and your experience as an immigrant?

DN: This is something that I will never know. Where would I be, as an artist, had I not left my native country. I know that art is a part of who I am. That the art I create has a profound innate connection to my roots. It feels, still to this date, strange that I carry a “label” as an artist in this country where I have lived for the past 34 years. In comparison, looking back at the history of art in Brazil, where so many artists immigrated to, I have never heard a “label” related to their provenance. They all were embraced and were and are Brazilian artists. This is an interesting thing. I think I am blessed in a way for being able to live and experience both cultures. Although it is very, very hard on me. The Portuguese language has the word SAUDADE that is impossible to translate. Perhaps “longing + missing” put together? This feeling becomes a constant part of my life. I think this is exactly what prompted me to create “Split”. Division of equally feelings or divided reality??? Who knows… Life goes on…

AR-L: Would you like to tell us something about your current projects as an art educator?

DN: The first pilot children’s program I worked at was in 1972. I still love to work with children. In a way I feel that the work of a “teaching artist” is part of your creative life. It gives you the platform to come up with new ideas, new experiments and new projects. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Appel Farm Arts & Music Center and Woodbury Art in the Street Summer Program give me this great opportunity: to share with children what I know.

AR-L: Are there any current and/or upcoming projects you want to tell us about?

DN: Yes, there is a very exciting project coming up. I just finished the art making part of it. It is a site specific piece for the Museu da Praia in Brazil. “LIFE: 40 years of art making” celebrates my professional artistic career. My concept for this exhibition was to create a scroll of continuous drawing in black Indian ink on rice paper symbolizing a time line. Intersecting the flow of the drawing I will place digital color prints representing different stages of my art. The scroll will be mounted directly on the wall in a prolonged line flowing through the rooms. I am also showing a set of (10) 11”x 17” photographs of interventions with printed 3D block letters LIFE done at the Eastern Shore, MD. For more Information on Museu da Praia check out www.thebeachmuseum.com.br

I also participated in an amazing Arts Festival this past month. The first Annual Woodbury Fall Arts Festival, where I was one of the featured artists. Check out their blog @ www.fallARTSfest.com 

AR-L: Since another of the “carpe diem” themes is the idea of the harvest: is there a favorite Fall recipe you’d like to share with us?

DN: Oh! Boy! You got me here. In case you didn’t know I LOVE to cook and create my own dishes. I am also known as a great recycler of leftovers, just ask my kids… What is hard for me some times is to give precise measurements but I will try my best. This is a new Doris’ recipe for chili. Actually I made it today. It sounded like a good hurricane comfort food. Here it goes:

Doris’ White Chili

• 2 deboned chicken breasts
• 1 large onion
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• ½ cup chopped up parsley
• 2 small cans of white beans
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• ½ large cauliflower
• Chile verde or jalapeño peppers (to taste)
• Salt to taste

Prep: Cut the chicken in very small pieces almost like ground meet. Onions also cut in small pieces. Boil the cauliflower until soft and make a puree, using a blender, set aside. Chop up the peppers. (remember the “hotness” of the chili is up to you) I like medium. I like to blend the peppers when preparing the cauliflower. It gets really mixed together and fine.

Cooking: In a deep pan put the oil, “sautee” the onion. Add the chicken and let it cook a bit until it is all white. Add the broth and remaining ingredients. Cook it to a boil then turn heat to very low and let all simmer for about 30 minutes or so. We ate it with good corn chips on the side. It serves 4, if you are not greedy.

Enjoy!!!!

Carlos Nuñez (Ecuador)

Street Sign. Steel Metal Gauge: 18 in x 12 in, 45.72 cm x 30.48 cm, 2012. 

 Most immigrants sacrifice their lives to be in the United States. They will sacrifice everything they have and some will pay the ultimate price. They have made a decision to  make the best of their days, regardless of their personal belongings or the barriers surrounding their motivations. They have all made the decision to seize the day by sacrificing everything for a little hope.

Daniel Oran (Cuba/USA)

Irradiance #36. Pigment Print from 8 x 10 film: 30 in x 24 in, 76.2 cm x 60.96 cm, 2011. 

 Life is engulfed in electromagnetic radiation, now more than ever. Every word we read and every call we make is pattern written in this spectrum. Visual art is never more than the eye’s perception of radiation – yet somehow, within it all, there are moments of beauty hidden within the chaos. Today, everything is fast-paced, a barrage of information. Signals pass through our skies to and from devices – more calls, more texts, more movies, more photographs, more and more information encoded in light or the broader electromagnetic spectrum. Given the pace of our lives and even the speed of the signals we send and receive (roughly 2.99*10^9 m/s), it makes me wonder what hitting the pause button might look like. To take a slice of light out of both time and space, to see just a fragment, here and now. In a sense this work is a glimpse at precisely that. A moment, distilled from a fragment of cohered light, cast through glass to produce an image.

Amalfi Ramirez (Venezuela)

Carpe Diem. Mixed Media: 30 in x 22 in, 76.2 cm x 55.88 cm, 2012. 

My piece is definitely about Love – The Love of Life and the ignoring of the inevitability of Death. In an opposite approach to the artistic themes of a Momento Mori where we are reminded that we will die, this young girl looks directly at the viewer as if to say “Forget about it! Ignore your mortality!”.She’s about to cut the cord, the end of which holds a skull inside a bubble. The bubble will burst and disappear in the next second leaving only moments of Love, Joy and Passion.” This girl knows the real deal. We are all passing through and it’s best to enjoy every moment.

This new work inspired by the curator’s theme “Carpe Diem” was created in France and traveled through Spain and Portugal before arriving home to Philadelphia. I worked with a new technique, mixed media/collage. I wanted to bring more visual elements to my work, more texture, more storytelling. For subject matter, I used images of people “seizing the day” taking the moment to its fullest expression, being in the moment and experiencing the joy of living. “¡Qué Viva La Vida!” 

Alejandra Regalado (Mexico)

In Reference To – The New York Series. Six Digital C-prints: 15.7 in x 31.5 in x 2 in/EA, 40 cm x 80 cm x 5 cm/EA, 2012. 

LETICIA M. | Netzahualcóyotl, Estado de México – Elmhurst, Queens. LETTERS SENT BY JUANA TRINIDAD SERRANO

“These letters are the memories of my youth in Mexico. They are filled with stories of the best moments of my life with my best friend, Juana Trinidad Serrano.”

What objects will you choose to accompany you for the rest of your life. Can you imagine, have you experienced that single moment when you have to decide what to take with you on a trip as full of dreams and hope as much as uncertainty and loss? The objects that will accompany you represent your culture, your family, your identity. In Reference To… is a photographic project about Mexican female immigrants across America, exploring issues of cultural identity and our relationship with personal objects. The New York series is comprised of 200 images, 100 portraits of Mexican women and 100 pictures of their most cherished objects that connect them with Mexico.

 

Tony Rocco (USA/Colombia)

Doña Rosemary. Archival Pigment Print: 30 in x 20 in76.2 cm x 50.8 cm, 2012. 

 Getting to spend several months in Colombia each year for the past 10 years has enabled me to see and photograph some of the positive changes that have taken place in my mother’s birthplace. Gone are the times when it was impossible to travel within Colombia for fear of violence. Colombians at last are getting what they have always wanted: to truly enjoy their country, to live their daily lives without fear. In my portraits I attempt to capture the elements of nobility, hope, and strength of character manifested by Colombians, qualities that have enabled them to persevere and overcome many hardships.

AR-L: What can you tell our readers about your work as a photographer?

TR: I mostly photograph people. Since I began taking photographs as a teenager I have tried to capture the essence of people in my images.  I try to use the camera as a way to investigate the individuals in my photographs and better understand who they are and where they come from.  About ten years ago I began training my focus primarily on exploring my mother’s native Colombia and this work continues to drive me to learn more about Colombia and its people.

 

AR-L: How and when did you start your international community project with youth and photography?

TR: About 12 years ago I started a Photography Coop in Philadelphia with a group of friends called The Light Room (www.thelightroom.org), which is devoted to furthering the knowledge, appreciation, and understanding of the photographic arts.  One of the things we all agreed was important was to pass on our knowledge and love of photography to another generation.

We started by recruiting a group of my 7^th grade students and continued working with them until they graduated high school.This is a big difference between my program and many others in that we don’t start over with new kids every year.  We keep the same kids and continue building upon their skills, making them better and better.  I am constantly told that some of my student’s work rivals or surpasses that of college photography students.

I spend all my summers and most holidays in Colombia working on my personal photo projects and in 2005 was introduced to a special group of kids and their families from Cali called Aguacero.

Our first year I taught them with plastic disposable cameras and we had an exhibition at a downtown gallery.  The next year I brought them digital cameras (thanks to Latino Partnership) and we had another exhibition in Cali.

Grupo Aguacero students with Reporteritos from Cartagena

I’m proud to say those 15 year-old kids are all grown up now (graduating college) and have started their own nonprofit working with at-risk youth in their neighborhood: the students have become the teachers!  I continue to work with them but as a friend and supporter, a regular member of the group. They recently got a contract to take photos of 14,000 students in their neighborhood.  It makes me so proud that these former students are now helping the community and making money using some of the skills I taught them.

 

Three years ago I began 2 new programs independently, one at Stetson Charter School in North Philly where I teach and the other in La Florida, Colombia, a farming village near Bogotá. 

I decided that instead of teaching the groups in isolation that there was so much they could learn from each other.  So last year I took 5 of my Philly students, 2 parents, and 2 teachers to La Florida as part one a 2-way photography-based cultural exchange.

It was incredibly successful and the kids forged amazing bonds of friendship and learned so much from each other.  This summer the goal is to bring a group of the Colombia students to Philly and exhibit all the student’s work alongside my own at Taller Puertorriqueño’s Lorenzo Homar Gallery in June 2013.

 

There is a boatload of info about my projects with youth @

www.stetsonshutterbugs.blogspot.com,

www.camerasforcolombia.blogspot.com,

and www.grupoflormorado.blogspot.com

 

 AR-L: Who are the young photographers? Where do they come from and what are their backgrounds?

TR: My photo students from Philly are recruited from the student body of Stetson Charter Middle School where I teach computer science. They are mostly of Puerto Rican and Dominican backgrounds, though I do have two African American students.

 My students in Colombia are from the village of La Florida where I partner with Fundación San Martin de Porres, a Catholic foundation run by a wonderful man, Padre Angel Alfaro. The kids and their families are members of his congregation.

 

AR-L: What are some of your short and long-term goals for this program?

 

TR: In the short term I hope to complete this 2-way cultural exchange successfully and have an amazing exhibition this summer.  It is incredibly challenging to raise the money and organize the events.  Thank God I now have an amazing board of directors that will help me take our work to the next level. Our foundation is called Photography Without Borders and our long-term goals are to get larger and more consistent sources of funding and to build partnerships that will allow us to continue our programs here and in Colombia.

 

AR-L: Do you have any upcoming projects or exhibitions you would like to tell us about?

 

TR: We will be having a big Kickstarter Campaign in the Spring 2013 to help raise money to bring our Colombia kids to the US this summer.  Also, our big exhibition in the Galería Lorenzo Homar in Taller Puertorriqueño in Philadelphia is less than 8 months away and will be a great way to highlight all the hard work these kids in Philly and Colombia have been doing the past 3 years. It will also be great for me personally to be able to show my recent Colombia work alongside that of my students.

AR-L: For the recipe portion of this blog interview Tony admitted he doesn’t cook much so we decided to research some of his favorite Colombian dishes. Here’s a recipe for Colombian Chicken Sancocho @http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/:

INGREDIENTS (6-8 SERVINGS)

• 3 ears fresh corn, cuted into 3 pieces
• 12 cups of water
• ½ cup aliños
• 1 big whole chicken
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 green plantains, peeled and cut crosswise into 2 inch pieces
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 6 medium white potatoes, peeled and cut in half
• 1 pound frozen yucacut into big pieces
• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot, place the chicken, corn, aliños, chicken bouillon, salt and green plantain. Add the water and bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to medium and cook for about 30 to 35 minutes.

2. Add the potatoes, yuca and pepper and continue cooking for 30 more minutes or until the yuca and potatoes are fork tender. Stir in the cilantro.

3. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve in large soup bowls, dividing the chicken and vegetables evenly.

Freddy Rodriguez (Dominican Republic)

Folding Screen # 5 – Sides A & B. Acrylic on Canvas: 24 in x 72 in x 2 in, 60.96 cm x 182.88 cm x 5.08 cm, 2008.

 Since early on in my career as an artist, the writings of Julio Cortázar have influenced me: my installation work, my collages, and the use of text on my paintings, an artist book and the folding screens. When I created my Folding Screen # 5, I was inspired by Julio Cortázar’s novel “Rayuela.” The novel can be read in different orders: in the traditional lineal way from beginning to end, or in the order the author suggests. Over the years Cortázar fans have been making their own suggestions as to the order in which to read “Rayuela.” This is what I propose with my folding screen. It can be displayed and looked at in an infinite number of ways. The folding screen is painted on each side in different styles. It can be folded in different ways to create different compositions. There’s no up or down. The screen can be shown in the direction the curator/owner decides. Each day can be a different visual experience. This is also a metaphor for carpe diem and how I approach my art. I make sure I do what I want when I go in my studio. Each day is a different day.