![]() ![]() He seems more eager to describe the subjects of the paintings themselves, which he does with an attention to detail gained from years of careful observation: When in the Waterweavers book Rodriguez is asked how he makes his art, he replies, "with my hand." "He didn't want to be an artist." Painting is just something he does. "But he's not a trained artist," Ospina says. "It may not be exact, but it does show how the forest is, and that's the way I've gone on painting." "I always try to bring out the figures as they should be," he says. So I had to turn to the exhibition's accompanying book, Waterweavers: A Chronicle of Rivers, which includes an interview with Rodriguez, in which he talks about his art via a translator. The complications of translators who understood the local dialect and international group calls couldn't be overcome. In Bogota, using materials provided by Tropenbos International, Rodriguez began creating paintings and drawings - entirely from memory.Īt first glance, the paintings look similar, but upon closer examination, gradual differences emerge: a tree bursts into leaf fish and turtles crowd the river and then disappear the river rises and falls throughout the year. "I had never drawn before, I barely knew how to write, but I had a whole world in my mind asking me to picture the plants," Rodriguez told a Tropenbos International interviewer in a post on the organization's website. Now living in Bogota, he continues to mine his lifetime of knowledge of the rain forest to teach others. Unfortunately, increasing armed conflict in the area forced many indigenous people, including Rodriguez, to leave the forest in the 1990s. With their help, he even created a stunningly illustrated book on the plants cultivated by his people. He taught the Tropenbos scientists to identify local plants and explained which are eaten and which are used for medicinal purposes. They met Rodriguez in the 1980s and realized he was a repository of a vast amount of lore. This group works with indigenous people to document their natural and cultural practices. As the work is not consciously meaningful, I don’t like to give the viewer an explanation as to what I think the image means or resembles but instead, an insight on how I felt on that day in my studio when the work was created.Rodriguez's intimate understanding of plants of the Amazon caught the attention of a Dutch nonprofit organization called Tropenbos International Colombia. The titles I give to my work usually bare no connection to the work itself apart from how I’m feeling at the time of creating the work. It’s like looking at clouds with one person saying they can see a lion and another saying they can see a pineapple. Only when deciding what colours to use do I consider what the final piece will look like which gives a balance of absolute abstract with no control and a considered deliberate piece of artwork.Īs the work is abstract with a hint of the representational the viewer can interpret the work in any way they wish. ![]() ![]() The technique I use to create my work is similar to the ‘Automatic Drawings’ which was developed by the Surrealists to produce drawings from the unconscious. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |