“The Arrival”

Gliding over a canyon drawn by eerie lights penetrating the darkness. The spirit world beckons the arrival of the new light. It brings new meaning, new thoughts of well being, prosperity and peace. The hope that Light illuminates the hope in our lives. 

  “The most precious light is the one that visits you in your darkest hour!” Mehmet Murat Ildan

The arrival of this Light emboldens us to search and find new strength from a revived faith.  The Light allows us to experience a renewing of mind and spirit, bringing new ideas into unfinished parts in our lives.

I continue the theme of Light penetrating the darkness. My pieces act as ” lenses” diffusing LED light through the translucent layers of cast resin. Hidden layers of light come alive in dark settings, creating and emitting their own light illuminating our world.

Mixed media. $350 to $500 .

11″ to 15″ in height- 4″ to ” wide. Cast resins-wood-LED light and steel mounting hardware. The art of Larry Ortega

 

Exodus

Seeing the final phase of these pieces: final resin casts, the LED lighting location, additional airbrush detail, sanding, engineering hardware to attach the steel rod to a base.

Flying and hovering and strange night lights all part of the story of Exodus. Freedom is the theme of the Exodus and wings provide a unique freedom. I often have dreams of flying or hovering outside my body. Freedom is a spiritual feeling and is associated with light. 

The cast resin pieces become a lens diffusing LED light through the wing and surrounding area. It’s a soothing light, a light you might see in the distance of the desert wilderness. Exodus is a story of a flight to freedom through a desert wilderness. The journey is illuminated at times with a column of fire or clouds for the masses to follow during the day and during the night. A journey in the desert at night avoids the heat of the desert day and the stars of the night illuminate the desert floor.

New pieces-Cast Resin Wings: 34″-38″ wingspans. LED light-wood and resin bases. Series of 12 available this fall. More at: Online Gallery Website 

The Encounter

In my dream, I am alone in an ocean desert. The moonless sky helps shield the pitch black sky protecting it from celestial lights. The sound of silence is deafening. I am lost, helpless and desperate for a sign. Hope becomes fear as the wilderness becomes unrecognizable and my faith is my only assurance until the Encounter.

“The Encounter I” is the working title of this mixed media piece. The cast resin molded wings are cast with phosphorescent coloring-aqua-sky blue and green. The wings are airbrushed with pearlescent lacquers and additional clear resin cast is cast on top.  

I like the idea of the mixed media pieces hanging on a wall with the LED lighting illuminating the work. I love how you can apply a “fade” on the lights as the LED lights cycles through an array of colors. One of my personal favorites is the yellow-orange colorization.

This particular suite of work is entitled “Strangers in a Strange Land”. We all experience the unknown in our daily walk of life, some through a death experience or in a meditative state. When we are lost, we seek the familiar and in our desperation, we cry out for a sign. This the first in the series of these sculptures. The each wing is 17″ and it the photo above, the wings are verticle emulating that angelic being that becomes a light we follow.

http://www.stor-ybox.com  @anObliqartist

“Strangers in a Strange Land”

“The Encounter I” My studio has an abundance of resin and wood shards, artifacts from past projects, and salvage, things I cannot throw away. It is full of music as well and my mind wanders through the biblical stories of the Exodus, where guiding lights and columns of clouds and fire are found along a desert journey. Before starting work, I muse on some of my common themes in my work, the themes of healing and restoration.  Bits and pieces of memory are stored in the shards of my work, time is captured and measured in these lifeless pieces. I look to release the memories contained by using the media of resin, LED lighting wood and steel.

At times I think myself as an alchemist,  looking to release the memories “stored” in the pieces. I am drawn to using resin, LED lighting wood and steel.  I seek to create commonalities between materials, and the experience and memories.

In this photo, I imagine the molded resin wings engulfing what looks like the heart of a being. The LED lighting pulsates colors through the translucent layers of cast resins.

Healing, light, and restoration have become central themes in my work. My imagination is inspired by nature and depicting stories from scripture. I imagine a time during the creation of our world, the light, the formation of earth and sea. Stories of hope, healing, and provision while lost in the desert. LED and UV light is a medium that I use to illuminate my work.

When I am in a wilderness environment, I imagine a time when the landscape was shrouded in chaos but formed to create meaning and mission where time, space and light dispelled the darkness as new beginnings emerge.

The desert and the ocean have always been part of my life as has surfing, diving, fishing, sailing and exploring remote realms in Mexico, Central America, Alaska, and Hawaii.

One of my favorite artist’s quotes comes from British artists Francis Bacon “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery”. My feel my work has a mysterious nature to it, lights that penetrate the darkness and seemingly comes from within the work, light that pulsates a healing and meditative mood and helps penetrate the darkness.

 The Art Process   I utilize resin, wood, steel and light in most of my pieces. The translucent nature of resin and how I cast and color resin layers creates skies, clouds, oceans, and landscapes. I mix phosphorescent powders into certain resin layers allowing me to “create” light in the darkness. I use LED and UV lighting to illuminate the resin layers and the light seeping through the resin creates a sense of wholeness, healing, and peace. 

The perception of these works shifts as the color of light is changed, at one point a sunset at another time a twilight in the desert or ocean landscape. Any light “charges” the phosphorescent layers in the work to produce a radiant quality…an eerie glow. That “glow” dissipates over time but may remain a subtle light throughout the night, only to be charged the by the light of a new day.

More on website: http://www.stor-ybox.com

 

 

“The Rent is Too Damn High”

Many in the know…knew. It was inevitable that not all the restaurants opening on the 7th Street restaurant corridor could survive. Frankly, I thought there were several other eateries on 7th that would close shop before The Herb Box on 7th. I read the reviews on Yelp to help gather insight from customers and it was not pretty. The quality of food may not be the issue but rather the type or lack of service took its toll according to the reviews. I am reminded that it is called a “Hospitality” business. In the eat or be eaten business you have to be on the lookout for all predators.

Yes…its a different business model. No, your sales don’t support the rents the developer “needs”. Infill sites are becoming a rare find and demand is high, and some building costs have increased 33% in a short time. How you determine rent all begins with the cost of real estate and properties along our prominent arterials with strong visibility and parking can be costly. The Colony is a good example. The developer paid a market price to purchase the property. The success of The Yard started the stampede on 7th street. He took on the task to redeveloped the project and committed to his internal return on investment scenario. He went to market with a creative vision to reposition the property. I think he did a great job with the project. Demand for space was high and phase I leased up very quickly with local contemporary restaurant offerings and no chains. As most good developers know, the restaurant industry is highly competitive and the risk is greater in this retail category. But with high risk can come high reward and the Colony filled up quite quickly with local known names and concepts weighing the risk with entrepreneurial spirit before signing long-term leases. Many (not in the know) blame the “greedy” developer for charging high rents and that is how we get to the “rent is too damn high” syndrome and the only reason the restaurant failed.

From what I experienced and what I read, service at the Herb Box (or the lack of) contributed to it’s demise. Competition played its part, culling the herd of those with empty seats along the foodie corridor. They will surely find a replacement tenant (bet you 10 to 1 it’s a restaurant), another “local restaurant” willing to ply Phoenix’s 7th St food corridor.

 

Seeking the Sacred

Our personal journeys take us to many places. At times we find ourselves along paths that are unmarked and without light to guide us. We are forced to confront fears that only darkness can produce. But we are driven to explore, it is part of our DNA as humans whether it is reaching to the stars or the depths of the ocean or… the boundaries of our imagination. We begin the journey as children: bringing natural curiosity as artists, scientist, and philosophers.
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A new series of work titled “Beneath the Darkness” reveals imaginary desert and ocean realms. Places and moments of time where light penetrates the darkness providing hope, security, and inspiration. A concealed LED light illuminates the cast resin layers in the cross-like shape and radiates a light within the steel and plexiglass base.

“Seeking the Sacred”

I had a sense of creating something sacred, perhaps a holy vessel, something that can produce a sense of peace and maybe miraculous healing. My own faith says that is possible. Some say that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. I hope the piece becomes that beacon providing the light into a voyage to a sacred harbor.
Two in a series: Resin-Steel & Light       19″x 11″x4″ See at the Ice House
First Friday April 7th 2017.

www.stor-ybox.com

Markers in the desert…

By day you led them with a pillar of cloud,and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. Nehemiah 9:12

What does an invisible God look like? Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen. His invisble Attributes  were in the clouds and in the night sky with as a pillar of fire for all to see and follow, all day and all night

He is the image of the invisible God Jesus

A new series of cubes and terraforms that are exploring light in the desert wilderness. The 2″ x 2″x 3″ resin cubes are like milepost along a journey, a sign to stop and rest, to take in the energy that comes only from the Light. Infused into the resin casts are layers of phosphorescent casts which when charge with light emits an “excited light” electrons. The excited light in my pieces last for a period of time as they exhaust their power. A reminder to connect and recharge your life with the giver of Light.

http://www.stor-ybox.com

@anobliqartist

https://www.facebook.com/larry.ortega.73

Cubes and Terraforms

As the seasons change, I am transitioning into the hot summer days and nights. My spring work included some of my largest pieces including “Lost Memories” a 7′ casting into the live edge of a Sycamore slab.

 

 

Late spring and going into the summer has me working on a series of cast resin cubes. I have describe some of my pieces as “terraforms” …worlds within worlds and “other worldly”. I see vast desert and ocean wilderness areas that have been part of my entire life. Dry clouds over a horizon, light dancing off the morning water and a millions stars illuminating the night sky.

The desert has played a pivotal role throughout history including the flight of a group of immigrants redeemed from slavery and promised a” land” of milk and honey. A visible sign of an invisible God is seen in the distance.The column penetrates layers of clouds lighting the sky for all to see and never leaving them-strengthening the promise made long ago. Exodus 13:20-22

Set on lighted platforms or as a stand alone piece in a garden window and sills. The cubes absorb light energy and exchange it as luminescence, eerie illumination produced.  StoryBox-creations as An Obliq Artist 

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Lost Memories-New Musings

The sycamore slab takes on a new life juxtaposed against a corrugated steel background, like an ancient relic, a religious icon illuminating a dark outdoor space. There is new meaning in this space, the context has changed-the space has been transformed and in its center is the light emanating from piece “Lost Memories”

The wood was termite infested, crooked, twisted and weathered in the Arizona desert sun, I was drawn to this 10′ sycamore slab for those reasons-the greater the deterioration, the great the opportunity to transform the piece and claim it as yours.

I saw the wounds to this tree, the borings into its flesh and  perhaps was the debilitating condition that ended the life of this magnificent tree. I was drawn casting resins into the “live” edge of the slab, the process of restoring, is almost fetish like and a driving influence in my work.  The edge of this piece with translucent layering of resin casts with phosphorescent and pearlescent powders, has become the focal point of this piece. Illuminating the edge with LED lighting provides an other worldly appearance, confronting the viewer.

During the process of creating, there is a time to let the “muse” take over… that involves letting go of my desire and my efforts and creating what God has called me to create. Allowing faith to infuse my art is a major part of my  creating process.

When I am alone working in my studio, listening to the silent sounds of the desert, I ponder so many questions, themes and challenges.  Lifeless wooden slabs confront me in the studio-rough surfaces-crevices and live edges. Hostility is depicted by the jagged, sharp pitted edges as well as the size of the piece that confronts me. This lifeless but beautiful fragment of a once prosperous living entity; a majestic Sycamore tree existing in the wilderness was my task for reclamation. I am certain, that when God saw my life- He saw the same challenge.

Phil 2:13 For God is working in you-giving you the desire and power to do what pleases…Him.

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