Journey – Sacred Vessels:

The Exodus brings the Arrival

I am influenced by my desert surroundings. My studio faces stony mountains and a jagged skyline, such a contrast between sky and land. The heat in the summertime consumes you and demands your attention. During the day the sun lingers high in the sky and the heat remains throughout the night. The silence of the desert accentuates my senses releasing memories along the journey, many times now with a fresh perspective.

I try to imbue thoughts of faith, restoration, and healing within my work. I believe light has healing power for the body, mind and spirit. I add healing soil collected from healing areas in the southwest such as Mission Chimayo and Sedona, AZ. Many of the pieces have the healing soil from the mission integrated into the pieces. The light emitted from the layers cast with phosphorescent powders provides light and pierces the darkness, fading over time to a tiny glow.

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

My studio is full of shards, artifacts, and salvage. At times, I re-purpose these pieces into my work which provides a pathway to new work and a new direction. I experiment illuminating the work with LED light fixtures as a way of viewing them in a dark setting. My pieces, when viewed in natural light have distinct characteristics and it is the light effects the LED fixtures provide when viewing in a dark setting that set the piece apart. A different connection and context is created as the light penetrates the translucent layers and reacts to the layers mixed with phosphorescent powders.

With this new series, I have created a sense of motion in the piece. This new work has the piece hovering and gliding over desert and ocean landscapes or seascapes. The different pitch provides a sense of descending, flying or a sense of hovering. The changing color of light creates a wide range of spiritual moods, from calmness and healing to a sense of peace.

“Seeking the Sacred V” The last of this series. 18″x 7″x 17″ Alligator Juniper, cast resin, steel ball joint hardware, LED light, UV Light. There is a beautiful planet that lights and glows beautifully under UV light. The elements of earth, air, and water intermingle as an intruder looms above the land. The resin impregnated the live edge of this piece of wood creating a seascape showing a sea floor and a sky hovering over the ocean. Clouds are suspended between layers and emit an eerie glow. An LED pulsates light behind the piece and illuminating a portion of the ray.

If the pieces I create imbue a “mystical” mood to my viewer, I feel I have succeeded in my mission as an artist. If the pieces take you to a journey of deeper perceptive state, even better.

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Lortega777@gmail.com

602-369-3698

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

“Desert Passage”

My latest pieces explore the contrast of elements; where sky and earth meet
and where light penetrates the darkness. Translucence layers accentuate the
glimmering hues of color that shift in the light. Layers of translucent resins
create dream like landscapes and mirages. Mirages are deceptive and the small
nature of these pieces can deceive the viewer looking at the objects. I like to
imagine vast vistas of the sky and layers of clouds captured in a moment of time.

Inspiration for this new work comes from the desert and the
sea and where the sky meets earth and where light is
captured in a space of “luminous colored layers”. It
also comes from deeper inside-from the DNA of the
desert and sea and from the inner being of who I am.
“Am I a mirage”…Is a question that comes to mind.

Summer is passing in the desert and the light is shifting
higher in the sky…we transition to fall-then to winter-back to spring and then to summer. The seasons of the desert have one thing in common…Light.

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

Myopia…a focused look

A “show” was just a passing thought one late winter night among unfinished pieces in my new studio space. My new work needed to be shown; Obliq Art had not put on a show in 16 months. …

Source: Myopia…a focused look

“Myopia”…Art Detour

A “show” was just a passing thought one late winter night among unfinished pieces in my new studio space. My new work needed to be shown; Obliq Art had not put on a show in 16 months. I thought of all the good times we had and miss so many of the artists and collectors and just friends who made Obliq Art a regular stop on First Friday…and that thought was sown into the universe that night. “The right people will show up”. “The right space will show up”. Sometimes you have to walk in faith.

My work was about restoration of wood and about adding a different dimension to wood. Clear and colorized resins were pour into termite caused borings. Phosphorescent resins casts were added as well as casts with pearlescent powders. Lost Memories was created this past winter. A termite infested, crooked, twisted and weathered Sycamore slab that spent much time in the Arizona desert sun. A perfect piece to restore and reclaim. Another thought…Lives are like that.

Pete Deise and I have become friends over the last year. He reminds me of the surfer who first surfed Mavericks alone for years-a lonely pioneer living a pioneers life. I’m infatuated with his new work and personally I want to see his work integrated in some of the downtown buildings and projects I am involved with, like the Jackson Street Properties I selling. And I love helping him show his pieces. Its a little different installing and showing his pieces.

Justin Queal and I have been hanging about a couple of years. Our first time showing together. We have had some lunches and times together talking about art. Again another artist that I admire and getting to know him and his lovely artist wife, Abbey. Its a rich life when you have relationships like this. Flourish comes to mind when I think of Justin’s future.

Cheryl's totems Facebook — Cheryl Brandon

Constance McBride and Cheryl Brandon have been in my consciousness for a while, especially Constance whom I first met at Obliq Art at the Arizona Center. Met Cheryl at the Fred Tieken’s Az 45 show in his gallery in Paradise Valley. Two very distinct ceramic artists with a wonderful following. Great contrast to the large pieces.

Someone asked me, “When are your shows”? I guess the short answer is “When I want”. Look forward to seeing how Obliq Art evolves. The Myopia show has allowed me and the other artist to experiment in the space.

The show opens again on Third Friday, March 18 at 7 pm and from noon to 5 PM on Saturday. Lots of parking behind the space as well as street and park parking.

New City Studio- 1300 N. Central Ave-across the street from the main Library and adjacent to Margaret Hance Park.

“Ancient Memories…Refuge”

I saw the deep borings in the wooden slab of White Oak and began exploring the notion of “refuge”. Something was attracted to live within this part of the tree, something sought refuge and existence in this fortress, I could see the microcosm when looking closely. At the same time, the pattern in the wood and its DNA reminded me of desert landscapes from the southwest; the vast areas of wilderness.

I began to create layers of air and sky by casting resin layers, relying on lost memories of desert sunsets above a remote beach. There were memories of clouds in the early morning and light at the golden evening hour. The various translucent layers, some with pearlecent and phosphorescent powders mixed with resin, emit an “other world” atmosphere. Immersed within the sky are spherical planets that, provide an “other” world dreamlike hallucination .

“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle” says Walt Whitman and I wanted to create and capture these moments.

The work “Refuge” is cocooned in light; a light created with LED lighting that I call the great light and phosphorescent light, the lesser light. The lesser light is “charged” by the LED light and continues to radiate “stored” energy as “light” long into the darkness.

Light provides healing according to popular studies. Light is an element and theme in my work while I explore the idea of the spiritual powers of healing and light. Healing became an influence in my work while researching and understanding healing. Embedded in all my recent work is earth from mission Chimayo outside Taos, New Mexico. Chimayo has been called “a place of healing”, http://taospueblo.com/ . I saw thousands of prayers posted as photos, hundreds of crutches hung on a wall and realized this too was a place of refuge. Many prayers are answered but many times it is not “God get me out of this” rather God get me through this. The more I meditate in prayer, the more I know that healing is much about surrendering.

There is something special about the wilderness-the quiet and solitude, marveling at the beauty created by God. It is a spiritual experience for me. The same with creating art, a spiritual discipline for me, much like prayer.

I often think of the quote;

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The process of creating this piece allowed me to reveal the mysterious realms of native folklore and culture. In this piece, the elements of sky, fire, earth and air are my way of capturing the essence of God. God is in the very nature of each element.

“Ancient Memories”…Refuge” 65″ x 20″ x 2″ White Oak, cast resin layers, LED lighting. I had many ideas, wishes and fantasies creating this piece of refuge and prayer.

www.stor-ybox.com AnObliqArtist

“Transparent Memories”

The “act” of layering, weaving and assembling is a new process in my latest work. Working on new pieces that have a theme of “healing”, where I encounter memories of drowning in my life. At the same time, wondering about the roots of the sea in my life far from an ocean in the desert. This piece seems to make connections and connect dots of memory. There is a sense and emotion of surrender. Healing takes place in the act of surrender…surrendering to healing. “Ancient Memories are…in the Cloud” outlines two whales who once lived in the shallow seas of Arizona during the Triassic period. The outline of a Sperm whale encases the entire piece while the ghost like image of a Humpback whale emerges from what at first looks like a mountain range. The whale’s dorsal fin provides a sense of movement flowing through that primitive sea.

“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop”. Rumi

I sense the DNA of trees, rocks and eons of time and the drop from the ocean contains the entire memory of a distant and primitive time.

Like the rings of a tree, the translucent layers relate to time, and a distant space of land, sky and sea the one that has been evolving over millions of years. Ancient translucent seas with turquoise seas, and cloudy summer vistas hover over a desert wilderness.

I know I have been here before…but its only an ancient memory now.

http://www.stor-ybox.com

“Ancient Memories are…in the Cloud”

Whale Shot Bench WEB 8-7 — Progress shot

Beyond but beneath the obvious, a story emerges from a cutting of alligator juniper, a lifeless slab of wood “beached” in my studio for over a year. I often looked at this piece of wood, imagining a design that never took place. Something else had to be released and it was an image created millions of years ago and now being revealed through the DNA of the wood and the mind and hands of a artists craftsman.

The whale has been released from its captivity, the DNA of eons of memories and layers of times ancient forests and a shallow sea filled with life. My imagination took over, remembering the times spotting whales against the backdrop of an expansive and seemingly empty sea, many times framed by the dramatic horizontal image where sky meets ocean. The composition of the piece with its long horizontal lines reminds me of the vast wilderness places; secluded mountains and beaches, the heat of the summer and the solitude the wilderness provides.I have had intimate moments with this creature in the wilderness and that was my direction and approach.

Whale Iris Blur Close — First 3 resin layers

I feel as if I am “hovering” over the scene, exploring what might be here, looking for waves, or fish. I realize I have flown over these coves, physically and meta physically. Maybe there is a connection for this piece of Arizona wood and the desert landscape. I think of the past life of this tree, musing over the DNA, perhaps dating back to the Jurassic period, when great whales and fish inhabited a large inland and shallow sea that once was here in Arizona.

I cast the 67″ horizontal edge, vertically, allowing me to create layers of sky from my imagination. Distant green lights the color of an aurora borealis, contrast with the brilliant reds of sunsets and twilight times. The clear cast layers and multiple “spheres” describe a place of planets and distant stars. Thin blue and white layers reflect an ancient ocean where it meets an ancient land.

More musings to come as I continue to create the story of this piece.

62″x24″x3″ Alligator Juniper, cast resin layers.

http://www.stor-ybox.com

http://web.photodex.com/embed/9bd2a2x4?autoplay=true

Summer is passing in the desert and the light is shifting higher in the sky…we transition to fall-then to winter-back to spring and then to summer. The seasons of the desert have one thing in common…Light.

Summer is passing in the desert and the light is shifting
higher in the sky…we transition to fall-then to winter-back to spring and then to summer. The seasons of the desert have one thing in common…Light.