Greenwich Village in porcelain

SO OBAMA WON!! YESSSS!! And how is Manhattan celebrating? IN BLUE!!

And this post has just GOT to be inspired by this amazing city, and how it inspires my work once again. But first, let’s go back in time, to 1957 to be more precise, and to Greenwich Village.

A party hosted by Art Ford in his brilliant Greenwich Village apartment and with Cy Coleman performing – I can’t think of anything quite so glamorous and just FUN! And what about the closing illustration of Washington Square? ANYWAY…. I then thought, why not do a piece that captures the fun and sophistication of this era? And so my Greenwich Village bowl came to life.

I painted the outside inspired by Greenwich Village facades with the inside being an Art Ford party in full swing! Then I got excited about the results and did another bowl, this one smaller, just concentrating on the guests and musicians.

And then I just HAD to do a mug as well, this time ONLY with dancers. I have more plans for this Greenwich Village party theme, so do stay tuned!

NOTE: Photo of Manhattan in blue is by Shane Walton, and the rest are by Araceli Robledo.

NOTE2: On my way to Jim and Valerie‘s to deliver their Greenwich Village bowl, together with the MoMA and Central Park bowls they had also purchased, the bag in which I was carrying all 3 pieces broke and they smashed into the pavement. It’s been just a few weeks, but don’t think I have recovered from the trauma just yet…!

Egon Schiele

This should have been a very short and concise post about my self portrait.

But then I thought I’d write about artists and their self portraits. Maybe even curate a collection of my favourites. The first one that came to mind was Egon Schiele.

He has a brilliant collection of self portraits that span many years.

I thought I’d write about him, his brilliance, his rejection by his contemporaries, his very graphic nude portraits.

His muses, of which there were many, but mainly Wally and Edith, who would later become his wife.

How they both died of Spanish flu while still in their 20s. First, the six-month-pregnant Edith, and three days later, Egon himself. How he drew portraits of her during those three days.

But that would make a very sad yet beautifully moving post. So to add a bit of colour I’d also show one of my favourite of his paintings, Seated Woman with Bent Knee.

And how it inspired Peter Lindberg in his 2008 portrait of Julianne Moore.

NOTE: If you wish to know the source of each of the images uploaded, simply click on the image itself.

People

I’m a big fan of Barbara Streisand, huge. However, I think she got it all wrong with her song “People”, when it says People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. I’d actually change it to People who can draw people are the luckiest people in the world. I mean, it’s HARD!

A few weeks ago I met up with my brother Domingo in New York for 24 hours (which ended up being 48, although that’s another story on its own). We had a fantastic time together, walking from Broadway to the Battery and taking in everything the city has to offer – including dinner at The Modern. Mmmmm… When I came back to Toronto I was full of NY inspiration, which slowly dissipated unfortunately… until TODAY.

I did not draw buildings, I drew people. The first dozen sketches were so hopeless I almost gave up; 9-year-old Araceli would’ve done a far better job. But suddenly they started turning out a bit better and after drawing another dozen New Yorkers from the 60s I’m actually quite proud of the following 4 who made it to this post.