American Sweet Heart.Was created during 2003-2005
Its my first serious Collage, I have done many in the past but the magnitude of this one allowed me to take Collage to a whole new place in my work.
Before American Sweet Heart, I had used collage as a tool, in some way I think I had always left it in a kind of school project level, an exercise of sorts.
I enjoyed the idea of the sensations you get by juxtaposing images, its also a fluid way of delivering a message.
What made this a unique piece, is that it took me into that overwhelmed place where the piece captures you. The same feeling I get when I'm painting a mural. Now I am not saying it was a piece that was created fast. It took me quit a while, staring at it for hours and hours and days and weeks at a time; until suddenly, I would know exactly what to do and then I would have to let it sit for a while until I figured out what to do next.
This piece seemed to be magical. I believe specially for one reason, this collage is constructed based on an old painting, that even though was not my favorite; I still liked it. There is something beautiful of destroying in order to create, a strange empowering moment, when nothing matters and the destruction of old allows new to flow.
The images I used are also very important to me. I have collected them since I moved to United States. some I have brought back from trips to different cities in California and New York as well as from Portland and Seattle. Mostly I look for images on the streets as I like the wear caused by the urban environments.
there are also images from the cards in Vegas that dancers and adult entertainers use to promote their services.
There are obviously images from the most powerful Trade marks in the free world.
These I like to use their packaging materials, which I like treating them to separate the colors from the cardboard, it makes me feel I recycle their Ink into simple color in my Art.
The Spiritual meaning or message I get from this piece, is one that I believe "American" means something very different from People born or that live in the American Continent.
I think "American" to most people outside of the United States of America means something very different, a Lifestyle, a dream, a lie, a system, a powerful force that influences the entire world.
It is an ideology which has always been a paradox of positive principles and negative deliverance.
By working on this piece I understood my emotions and perceptions of these concepts, as well as the way I was relating to the people from this new country, as well as my own American psyche.
I believe humanity still has inner beauty despite living in a sick society.
