Robin F. Williams

Today, I went to Robin F. Williams' opening at P.P.O.W., "Sons of the Pioneers" and, while I didn't care in particular for the work, there was one piece that I seriously liked and I liked what I read in the press release a lot.
I've been very aware, for a while now, of feminism, the patriarchy and equality and I like it when certain tables get turned in a really clever way.
So here are some excerpts from the press release which are relevant to what I'm talking about:
- "Williams challenges the roles of American masculinity and traditional portraiture by replacing the idyllic female or odalisque, with romanticized scenes of men in various states of idleness."
- "Williams drapes each figure with mixed identities that mask traditional signifiers of purpose and patriarchy in order to construct a new and sympathetic masculine mythology".
- "She adorns each male with ornamental hats and accessories, allowing them to reflect sensibilities not typically associated with the male portrait."

And this was my favorite piece, titled "Hunter".

So, yeah, I went to an opening haha! Do remember my Facebook page, which you should like and share with your friends: Gabriela Handal Arte
And also, my website (yeah, MY website. It's weird, I know) is slowly filling with my work, do not hesitate to have a look: www.gabrielahandal.com
Thank you so much for reading!

Gabriela Miscelánea

"Gabriela Miscelánea" is the name of my third individual art exhibit. It is currently happening at El Manchego restaurant, it's open to the public until February, 15th.
El Manchego opens from Monday to Saturday, as of six in the afternoon and they serve tapas and wines. It is a very cozy joint and it really lends itself, to just sitting there and hanging out, let the traffic of rush hour rush by, whilst you're sitting there sipping on wine. I don't drink wine and that's exactly what I think of, when I think of that place.

The art exhibit is called "miscellaneous", because there is no specific theme that brings all the pieces togehter, it is several themes in the pieces that are in the exhibit and, other than that, what joins the everything together, is that it's all drawings, pieces over paper and that I'm the author behind them.

Here are some pictures that I took this week of the exhibit. I was forced to move the category "heroínas y antiheroínas" into the portfolio next to the bar, so the great majority of the pieces are now in there.

1. Most of the drawings are in this portfolio, next to the bar. Feel free to carefully flip through the pages and to leave me something in the guestbook

2. These four drawings, in the category "Feelings" are drawings that I'd never shown before. They are surprisingly personal drawings and I had a hard time deciding wether to put them up or not.

3. These three drawings are all made with a Bic pen over paper, their category is "Bic Misc.".

4. This drawing, specifically, is made with Colleen colored pencils and the Bic pen, it is possibly my favorite of the three. He's titled "Demons get all the girls". I love his facial expression and his stare, his features in general and I'm also quite proud of how well the horns turned out.

5. I put my two steampunk themed drawings up, this is one of them, she's titled "Vox". Her trip is that her wind pipe's been replaced with some boom box like parts and she has some crank machine arms opening her throat to expose her new windpipe.

6. The is the second steampunk themed drawing. She's titled "Steampunk Light", it's a woman with very idealized/stylized body and limbs. Her neck requires the assistance of a little brace. She has unusually long arms and fingers, one of her very delicate hands holds some sort of magnifying glass.

Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but blogger has changed it's picture format thing into something similar to Facebook's, now, if you click on the pictures they pop up bigger and they go from one to the next, like a slide show, as you click on them.

So, yes, this is my third art exhibit, you really should go. You should really buy some of my work and you should really sit down and have some wine and tapas.

Don't forget my Facebook page, like it and share it, it really is where you go to keep updated with my work: Gabriela Handal Arte

Other than that, thanks a lot for reading and see you next time!

FIRST POST OF THE YEAR OMG
Picture of "Ojos de Búho" and close up of the little sea landscape.

And two more things:
1. My facebook page, that you gotta like and share with all yo' friendz: Gabriela Handal Arte
2. I'm having an individual art exhibit that opens on the 16th of January at Restaurante El Manchego. Here is the event in Facebook, but we're still fine tuning a couple of things and there will be new information coming on it, but you gotta go: Exhibición: Gabriela Miscelánea
Thank you for reading and I hope your holidays and your New Year were absolutely fantastic!

Burns like incense

This piece was relatively quick, it took maybe two or three days. It would have been one day, if I didn't faff about so much.
I used pencil, colored pencil and acrylic over a Strathmore 18 x 24 inches and 80lbs drawing pad.
I have to say that it came out almost exactly as I had her in mind, I'm aware that there's some sensuality/sexuality to her facial expression and the entire piece itself; but it's really more about passion, and they're not necessarily together by default.
I see some comic in her, some illustration and still some art. It's one of the few times where the use of acrylic is essential in the piece, rather than compliment, as I use it normally.
The burning of the edges of the paper, also to do with the whole theme of the piece, I think is a nice addition.
Here's two pictures, one of mid-process and finished.
Also, I participated for the first time in an artistic residency, the only one so far here in Panama; it was a crazy great experience. I'm refraining from showing pictures of the pieces themselves, for now, so that they can be seen in all their glory in the art exhibit.
The opening will be on July 18th, 7:30pm at the Edificio de la Gobernación and after that, it'll be open for a week. The pieces are definitely for sale and you are more than welcome to go and take all of your friends to the opening or the art exhibit itself. Here is a link to the Facebook event: Conexión Drácula 2012
Here is a link to the residency's page: Residencia de Artistas Conexión Drácula. The residency is once a year, for now. This time around, they put out the open call and they chose eight visual artists, a photographer and a writer.
It really was an incredible experience and you shouldn't hesitate to apply next time they put the open call out again.

And last, but not least, remember my Facebook page: Gabriela Handal Arte. You should like it and share it with your friends.
Thank you for everything and see you next time =D

Mario Benjamin

In the art exhibit I was helping to mount, out of all the things I saw, the works I liked most were from an artist called Mario Benjamin. Maybe somebody's heard of that art exhibit, it's a traveling thing called "Latitudes", it's gone from here by now.
Unfortunately, I didn't smarten up and take pictures and I haven't found those pieces in the internet; but OH WOW, they were amazing.
These are some examples of his work:
1.
2.
These resemble the ones at the art exhibit a lot, in the way they're painted and the colors and wotevz; I don't know if it was the yellow lights and the vibes inside the museum, but the ones there were so hypnotizing and beautiful.
One of them, was vertical not horizontal like the two posted above, red and black and looking down at the viewer with this defying, careless and angry stare. It was my favorite piece in the whole exhibit.
It made me feel as thought it was some sort of creature, that was in it's human form for now. But whatever it was still showed and he still emitted the angry vibes of the creature he is and it constantly struggles to go out.
A pretty mediocre source, if you want to read more about him
I WAS a little frustrated when I read the exhibit's catalogue, though, because I was hoping to read more about him, his paintings and how he feels about them and there was nothing about that. He was saying something about the identity of the artist's country and the stroke or some sort of puzzle type of thing.
I'd like to really pick at his brain and see what's up in there.

I've been pretty busy with a day job I found and working on my usual things, but I'm not stopping!
The group and fan page in facebook are up and going strong, JOIN both of them, invite other people, leave me comments, feedback, opinions, ideas in the wall or the pictures; that would be seriously great! <3

- Join my group in facebook Gabriela Handal Arte, and invite other people!
- Become a fan in facebook Gabriela Handal Arte and invite other people, too!
http://condron.us/

The paintings (and one sculpture) that were part of my first art exhibit. Part Four.

This is the fourth entry on the paintings that I put up for my first individual art exhibit. I think it will be the last one.


1. "Transformación": I LOVE this painting. LOVE. I love how her body looks, her back, the dimples on the small of her back, her arm, her dripping blood, her fist, her butt, the horns tearing through her skin, the ochre, the crimson. She's SO beautiful.
This character is transforming, as said by the title of the painting. The three horns coming out of her forearms are the first change her body is making and she's closing her fist, because it hurts and because she won't be human anymore. So there's mental and physical pain in there.
There's not much more to her than that.
This painting's 24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas and USD 1000.00.

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2. "Hunter": I made this piece back in school, that I was much more into fantasy art, so this came to me relatively easy. With all the piercings and shit, like in the Luis Royo and Dorian Cleavenger work.
It's a creature, that's having kind of a bad time hunting, because she didn't find much except a mouse and is just looking at the viewer with a bad trip on her face.
This one's 24 x 24 inches, carbon on.. I don't know what it's called, but it's the same paper as the brown paper bags; and it's USD 350.00.

3. "Nyx": A picture in ZINK! magazine was my reference for this painting, because she was just standing there, looking at the camera and I don't know what they did, but some of her hair was floating. Like a little bit of breeze blew, really cute and mysterious looking.
SO YEAH, this is Nyx, Nyx is the female personification of the night, according to the Greeks. And, because she IS night, she's awesome and I like how she turned out. She has a nice fixed, confident and curious stare and she's just materialized herself from the colors of the night.
I made her eyes orange, because blue eyes are boring and too much of the realm of my walking life, so the background is blue and I chose orange, because they're the complementary color of blue. They actually remind me of a tiger or something, I guess it's the tone.
"Nyx" is 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas and USD 600.00

4. "Autocreatura">: This is a self portrait and I know it's a weird painting, leave me alone XD
Her skin from the chest down is meant to be like red salamander skin and she's also meant to have the horns.
Her trip is that she's an envious demon and I realized this after having worked on her for a while and looking at her. The smile on her face and her eyes, tell me that she's looking at me because she's enjoying the thought of little bad things happening to me. Like, she'd pull stupid pranks at me, like tripping me as I walk by or me dropping my shit or whatever and she's get a kick out of it. Or you, if she was looking at you.
Anyway, her face and stare are enough for me to overcome her strange background, which I guess is consonant with her envious thoughts and wishes.
This painting is oil on canvas and it's USD 700.00

The paintings that were self portraits, weren't/aren't about me wanting to present myself in a certain way or showing a hidden thing about me. I don't really *see* myself in the self portraits that I've made, I just happened to be an appropriate model for the image I had in mind.

I want to post again that website, that you can go to to see a bunch of other blogs and if you link to it, your blog will appear in that kind of blog slide they have going on. Which is super cool. condron.us

Also, and finally for this entry, please remember that I've made a group in facebook. And in said group you can see SO MUCH MORE of my work, that is if you don't give a shit about words and want to see more images XD
Seriously, though, there's like five pages with twenty images each in the group, right now. I'd seriously love it if you joined the group and left any kind of feedback, thoughts, ideas, comments, opinions, whatever on the wall or any of the pictures. And it would also be nice if you decided to add me to your friends list, but REMEMBER to tell me you found me through here, because that would totally make my day!
Gabriela Handal Arte

Strange World

This was the invitation/flyer. The only thing made by computer is all the writing except for "Mundo Extraño", I made that with watercolors.

"Strange World" was the name of my first individual art exhibit and I had to put it together all on my own. From finding the place, to making the paintings, to decorating the place, getting foodz, making invitations, fliers, posters, hiring somebody to cater, putting it on some kind of medium of communication. EVERYTHING.
The purpose of it, was for me to be able to get my Bachelor of Arts degree, specializing in easel painting. I don't even know how that measures up to the rest of the world, because I always get impossibly confused whenever I want to look for Masters or something. I GUESS? A master is what comes next? I don't know.
ANYWAY, yeah, before being able to make the art exhibit and work on it, I had to write like a little thesis that revolved around the theme that I wanted to make the paintings about, which was Fantasy Art. And why I chose it and why I like it and an analysis of the paintings, glossary, whatever the shit. I say little thesis, because I didn't go over one hundred pages of written stuff. So I had to present that shit, talk in front of three teachers so they'd grade me and whatever and THEN I'd be able to make the art exhibit.

I was actually pretty clear on how I wanted the place to be decorated and what shape I wanted the room to be. It's relatively simple: I just wanted the paintings to be hanging all over the walls of an entirely matte black, square room. I didn't even think of framing the paintings, because I think that's up to the person that buys each painting and it's better if they see each painting in it's most bare form. In MY opinion, anyway >_>
There IS such a room as I wanted here, in the "Museo de Arte Contemporáneo", funny thing about that joint, is that it's pretty far from being a museum, it's just a huge ass mother gallery. But, yeah, they have this little room, that's all painted black, the walls, the floor and the roof; and the time I entered there that I was totally taken aback was with this artist woman that did things in metal. I don't remember her last name, but she had in that room these BIG ASS metal wings, painted silver and they were just hanging in the middle of the room. And, you know, describing sensations is always a ramble and it's always confusing and this is why this is a big fucking paragraph of bullshit right now, but I felt like I was floating in space or just somewhere where I was somehow separate from the rest of the world and I felt immense comfort and wonder. Like, the wings were just these super mysterious.. contraptions, that although I knew were hanging from nylon strings, were just floating there, suspended in time.

These are the wings, except that they're huge wings and they don't look as awesome with that grey background. Her name is Emily Zhukov, by the way >_>

I wanted that sensation for my art exhibit and it's kind of the sensation that I feel when I see my finished works.
HOWEVER, that museum doesn't hold art exhibits for artists that aren't recognized, but the director guy super totally loved my drawings, so that was cool.
I found another place with a nice square room, it's this stupid, trendy library place we have here called "Excedra Books" and they have a conference room where they hold art exhibits. Except, I'd find in the end, I was only renting the walls and not the entire room, so they still held conferences in there and it wasn't an awesome empty room anymore, it was full of folding chairs most of the time. Fucking assholes >=/
So, since I couldn't modify the room itself, I kind of had to work on top of the walls, like I couldn't paint the walls, for example. What I did in the end was just hang black fabric behind each painting and WOW it was amazing how everything looked. The lighting was perfect, because I'm incredibly fond of that yellow colored lighting, it's always been the color of the bulbs in my room XD

It's a pretty big room, as you can see. The paintings looked so small

I LOVED how it turned out, because when somebody approached whichever painting, it would look as if it was just floating in space, because everything was black behind it and with the little bits of air from the air conditioner or whatever, the fabric would move a very little bit behind the paintings and it looked like they were breathing, but the kind of mellow breathing from when you sleep. It was the most incredible thing ever. And I was SO proud of them finally hanging for a public to see.