A Flor de Piel.

(Skin Deep)

After a long break from painting I am back with the muses, riding my horse through white gesso landscapes. As I see the world through my window, my television and the stupid jokes I get by e mail (which by the way, only encourage the current state of affairs; funny does not change iniquity, it only makes it cozier), I wonder about what to paint day after day. How can I make effective change through these paintings? How can my creation affect the world I inhabit? As I see all the ugliness resulting of our indifference, the weather changes resulting of our laziness and the world immerse in such despair, what can I do besides criticize and join the choir of dormant complainers?

I struggle. I think of all those artists who sat in front of ‘nothing’ just like me, day after day…. I think of my favorite artists, my painter heroes, Gustav and Frida. What did they do? He lived within a last creative tumult before its decline; one of my first art teachers told me how he brought beauty to an ugly Europe. Frida faced not only her own physical pain and heartaches but also the political turmoil in her side of the map. What do I see in their works that moves me so? I see deep and glorious beauty.

Klimt found beauty in the primal forces of sexuality, regeneration, love, and death. The Kiss (1907-08) celebrates the attraction of the sexes; and Hope I (1903) juxtaposes the promise of new life with the destroying force of death. Kahlo’s Self-Portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States (1932) deals with identity issues in such a visionary way that achieved eternal relevance. My Dress hangs There (New York) (1933) allows me to dwell on my own issues with borders and international power struggles. Gustav Klimt and Frida Kahlo--what do they have in common? What do I share with them besides brushes? Like me, Klimt also created art at the turn of the century; a strange time to live in. So much hope lays on the change of a digit, yet the morning after the world remains the same.

War, uncertainty over my children’s future, landscapes that call me, winters that sadden me, languages that tire me, floods and earthquakes, gigantic waves, missing chidren…. I want to believe, I want to believe… I need to believe! That’s when I need their beauty. One look at The Kiss and I am at peace. I could sleep on Klimt’s fine clothes and glorious gold leaf kaleidoscopic wraps. I can lose myself in his obsessive ornamentations. I can feel Frida’s marvelous masochism, I can touch her glorious head pieces, and I can feel the starch of her complicated embroidered Tehuana dresses. Their beauty, even the beauty of pain and suffering feels like a promise of better times. The world needs beauty, I must create beauty. My humble contribution is this exhibition.

I hope you can find beauty in Grasse Matinée, a moment and a place where all I need in this earth to be happy fits in the small area of my bed. Maternité expresses my firm belief in taking pride in motherhood; there is no greater contribution to this earth than mothering within awareness and generosity. Amor en Flor holds the beauty I see in manhood; unafraid of showing sensitivity and the glory of a balanced female and male essence. The dresses I constructed, detail by detail show our attempts to be what we wear, forgetting that we carry our identity skin deep, it does not matter how much we cover who we are, it always resurfaces. I resolve this search in the tattoo over nude bodies, a trend that I love. To me, it is the ultimate search for self-representation. It breaks the slaving belief that we can only decorate our bodies within a restricted repertoire predetermined by trends, fashion and money. In the end, we are simply light covered in skin-- our skin can allow that light to shine through, only if we allow it.

Expect Beauty represents where I am at today. I do not wish for it, I do not long for it; I expect it. I expect the world to be beautiful, because it is. We have made it ugly and I can only make change by creating beauty brushstroke after brushstroke. It will take time but it feels better than making it uglier with indifference.

A Flor de Piel is my promise of hope in the future. The naked body implies change. Whenever we are naked, change occurs, even if it is the simple change of clothing. I hope my images of beauty inspire you to go deeper than that, to expect beauty, to enjoy those little moments when all whom you love are on your bed, on your couch, near you. To enjoy your friendships and the glory of letting a friend truly see you {Amitie, les Copines}, to see beauty even when you see No way Out.

My deepest thanks to Alain, who brought so much beauty into my life, to Monique Amir who pushed me to create again and to come to Galerie Richelieu, to my children who give me hope in a better present, and to all the friends who have encouraged me through these years (you know who you are).

Carolina Echeverria
2005