GUILLERMO ARANDA-MENA

“At night, I do not know who I am when I dream, when I am sleeping. Awakened, I hold my breath and listen: a thumbnail scratches the other side of the wall. At midday, I enter a sunlit room to observe the lamplight on for no reason. I should know by now that few octaves can be heard, that a vision dies from being too long stared at; that the whole of recorded history even is but a little gossip in a great silence; that a magnesium flash cannot illumine, for one single moment, the invisible. I do not complain. I start with the visible and am startled by the visible.” Mysteries by Dannie Abse, Poem 1973.   guillermo aranda-mena © 2020

U RBITAS refers to a collage of some of my favourite cities. If looking at the below traced image from top-right moving clockwise you could identify: Milano, Mantova, Venice, Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Manhattan, Guadalajara, México City, Zurich (centre left) and Melbourne (centre right). The collage was drawn and then painted over canvas (acrylic ) depicting a megalopolis of my ideal city.  ... conversations (versus) NATURA refers to trees that I recently observed and engaged with in locations such as St Kilda and Phillip Island, Australia; Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. The selected three on canvas (oil-pens) is in Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia and it is observation into nature and reflective exercise to "detox" from city life . The result is inconclusive.... and that is an important aspect of it.  For the transition between UBITAS and NATURA I selected an image of a boutique shop I recently visited in Hong Kong. The work is organic yet set in the city with highest li...

"Beauty in art is truth bathed in an impression received from nature". Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (Paris, France 1796-1875) House for my friend James Harley. The location is in Phillip Island, Australia. A beautiful wild island with unique flora and fauna. The project was for a owner-builder and started with the enclosure of the lower level of an 1970's home. The lower (or ground) level eventually became the living/study area for the home, Guillermo Aranda-Mena   Guillermo Aranda-Mena © 2014