This Year

This year i have asked the same question to a lot of people, how was this year for you? And, despite the personal differences, we all agreed that this year in particular has been really really intense. For me it’s been an awful year that I want to get pass as soon as possible, but also a year for reflection, to think about my inner process and to learn from it.

In particular this semester has been, the only one I think, that I hated most of my classes. For this reason I’m now in danger to fail one them, and it’s making me really anxious, because this never happened to me before, cause of that I’m drinking a lot of Melissa tea so I can sleep a little better. Also I’ve been really tired, I don’t know why, but for this I’ve been skipping a lot of classes and I feel guilty about it as well. Anyways, university aside, I think it’s been a good year because I’ve met really nice people, people I’d like to keep forever in my life, and I cannot be anymore grateful for that. I also re discovered Madonna and it makes me feel like a good gay man.

Now, the only thing I’m thinking is to pass all my classes and after that I think I’m going to be at the beach, tanning and drinking mojitos and whine. I totally deserve that cause this year I’ve put all of my efforts and it seems that it wasn’t enough, and I’m okay with that, I only want my well-deserved rest. 

An Ambition

I’ve always wanted to be famous, i think this is one of my most irrelevant and surreal ambitions, but it’s something that always atractted me. And i mean it in every way posible, so its not really important what’s the main thing that would make me famous, as long as i make it.

I think this idea appeals to me because i have a fixation on the things that society allows you to do for being famous, for example i would like to put my paintings or myself in a museum, i would love to see all of the artsy stuff being stared and comtemplated, i also think that  with this kind of exposure it is posible to do outrageuos things.

I think i’m inspired only by the things i find beutiful, and those kind of things are worth of being seen. So, i dont think im inspiring myself in anyone in particular, but in a bunch of stuff that drags my attention, in general they are weird and fun and crazy and colorful, and that makes me think bigger and bigger.

For me, to achieve this ambition it would mean to have the approval of lots of people who agrees that the things i made are worthy, and also it would implies a lot of fun situations that i would be involved in, to be free and to do what i want without worrying about anything else.    

A hobby I have

Since I can remember I’ve always had the need to make things prettier to me. And it could be anything, I had to make my hand writing prettier, my clothes prettier, myself prettier, and that need is always pushing me to an artistic side of me that makes me really happy. So, all of that was condensed in painting and drawing. 

I started painting when I was in school, maybe I was like fifteen years old, and it was mainly because my art teacher was really motivational to me, and also I discovered Gustav Klimt and I fell in love with his work. The first things I made wasn’t really good, and if I have to be honest I think I’m not like a natural talent, but in the practice I noticed that you don’t have to be a genius to make really good paintings. As time passes I got better and now I’m really happy with my drawing skills. 

I love drawing because I can create anything; I can put in the paper all the things I like. It’s fun because my favorite colors are black, white and all shades of pink, so those are the only colors I use, and I combine them with naked people and fluffy animals. I like the contrast that makes people who seem really sad or serious with pink bunnies and little birds, or black snakes and dark roses.   

 

Pedro Lemebel

I’m not sure if this person is the greatest Chilean ever, but I really like him and I had the chance to actually meet him, even though it was fast and full of people, he made and effort to listen to us and talk about everything we wanted with him.

Pedro was an artist that I really admire, because he is one of the main characters in our history that spoke for the gay and transsexual community, and not in the typical tragically way that it’s portrayed, but in a raw and honest way. He wrote a lot of chronicles and novels, like “Tengo miedo torero” (I’m afraid bullfighter) and Zanjón de la Aguada, in this texts he shows the Chile of 80’ and how the double standard worked in our society, connecting this with the dictator ship and the brutal power of control that dripped from it. In the other hand, he also worked with performance art as a way of political intervention, as we can see in the performances he did with the Mares of the Apocalypse. In one time, both artist (Lemebel and Casas) enter this campus fully naked and riding a white mare, as a symbol of the re foundation of the university, I think it’s really touching to know that he used this space as a canvass for his artwork.

Now that I’m older, I would really like to ask him how he perceives art in Chile, and how we could change this stoic paradigm that makes art, in my view, something really dead and full of European influence, and not in the good way, but in the sense that we are used to replicate it and not question its influences and political statement. 

Favourite food

I’m not really good at eating; it's kind of not a necessary thing in my life if it's not a thing i really really love, that’s why I have such bad eating habits, I'm the kind of boy who rather smokes and drink tea. Like, if it's any beans or peas I’m not going to eat them, iug.

Anyway, my fauvorite food is all Asian food, specially the one that is spicy or sweet. I like It because it includes a lot of vegetables, in all the different forms you can imagine them, Asians are so used to make their dishes based on the flavours of roots and plants that the meat is often not necessary, and that is very nice thing when you have a vegan sister. I think that’s one of the main reasons I enjoy Asian food so much.

Finally, to make one of my absolute favorites you need tofu, spring onion, carrot, broccoli, peanuts, mushrooms and zucchini (you may add any other vegetable you like). So, first of all you need to fry the tofu and then stir fry all the veggies depending on wich one takes the longer. After a few minutes you add the peanuts and the sauce, wich is made with soy, chili, a little sugar and sesame seeds. And there you go, you have a really nice vegan pad thai. Enjoy guys!

Bless 

A job

My interests are always around the field of arts and aesthetics. I believe in art as a form of life, so basically I do everything keeping that in mind. Also I'm very passionate about fashion, because it's a form of self-expression that I’ve built over the years. So, if I have to choose a dream job it has to be something in that area, maybe as a designer or art director on some brand. 

As I said, I think the main skills I would need to be successful is a sense of construction of the visual object that makes it special, the creative will to make a statement and tell a story that appears clearly to the eyes when you see that. Also, I think as an artist you should always make people uncomfortable, to shock them, so I would like to make clothing not as an embellishment or a way to cover yourself, but an extension of your persona. I’d like to be over dramatic about my looks, because it’s funnier. 

Working as an art director would allow me to express myself, and live the art as I’m feeling it, so it’s the main reward I could possibly get from this. And not to be bored, I hate being bore.     

What I'm reading

Okay, as you may (or may not) know, im a psychologist student, so the most things i read are for my classes. Some more interesting than others. 

At this moment I'm reading a lot of articles about the prison system, and how to make interventions in that context. The one im actually reading is called "Women faced with the punitive System", this paper presents an analysis, from a gender and feminist perspective, of the flaws that jail (and the punitive system itself) has, specially when it refers to women. In general, this article claims that most jails are not prepared for this demography, Another goal of the paper is to build a profile of the famale offender, and it says that most of them are uneducated and poor, in another words, these women are from the marginated regions of society. 

I think this topic it's quite interesting, but also really complex. I think that, as a society, we have a lot to do when it comes to gender issues, because when you look at the things we take as granted or obviuos, you see a lot of male domination, you would see the patriarchy in all of the spaces.