Tag Archive for art

01 Dec 2010
Animals • Studio Arts

Thinking of Joel Rothschild

Joel Rothschild, author of Signals. Photo: ©Isaac Hernandez/IsaacHernandez.com

About ten years ago, I photographed Joel Rothschild, author of “Signals: An Inspiring Story of Life After Life.” I found Signals a fascinating read, not only because of the beauty of the story, but for the content. I loved it even before I read Elizabeth Taylor’s recommendation: “I will treasure Signals always…it’s written from the heart.”

What I found most moving was my own realization of what it must be to live in a world where all your friends are dying of AIDS. That’s what happened to Joel. His lover contacted him from the After Life, as he had promised, in different ways. One of the ways he would show up is as a hummingbird. Once, even though hummingbirds don’t fly after the sun has gone down, one of these beautiful birds came to him on a full moon night.

I was so moved by the story that I gave the book to some friends who had just lost their mother. They both read it in a day; they couldn’t put it down, just like I couldn’t. That week, while talking to each other on the phone one morning, one said to the other, “You’re not going to believe it, sister, there’s a hummingbird flying right in front of me, looking straight into my eyes.” The sister was shocked, “Oh my God! There’s a hummingbird flying right in front of me as well.” It was the spirit of their mom.

Isaac Hernandez Herrero. Thinking of Eric Rothschild. Oil pastel on paper. ©2010 Isaac Hernandez/IsaacArt.com

So I made Joel a small oil pastel drawing of a hummingbird and the moon, which I gave to him weeks after our photo shoot. This past Monday I was driven to draw a hummingbird with a full moon. If I remember correctly, the first hummingbird I painted was not flying in front of the moon, and the planet was green, not white. I’ll have to ask Joel to take a picture of the painting for me.

Since meeting Joel, I’ve got to know other people who lost many friends during the eighties to AIDS. While in the US, you may not hear about many people dying from AIDS anymore, in many countries there are people going through what Joel went through, losing their loved ones at an alarming rate.

December 1st is World AIDS Day, when we remember the more than 27 million people who have died from HIV infection. There are more than 33 million people still infected with HIV in the world, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. You can turn your world red in solidarity or make a donation to an organization like the International Medical Corps or Doctors Without Borders.

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30 Nov 2010
Self-portrait • Studio Arts

I’m Happy I’m Sad

Isaac Hernández. Self-portrait. Oil pastel on paper. ©2010 Isaac Hernandez

I’ve been drawing self-portraits for many years. It’s funny, because I don’t look at myself in the mirror very much, other than when I’m drawing a self-portrait. There are many days when I don’t look at myself in the mirror at all. After all, if you don’t shave or comb your hair, you don’t need a mirror. You can wash your face, floss and brush teeth without seeing you.

When I paint a self-portrait, the person in the mirror is a stranger. And since painting occurs very much as meditation for me, that person is often pensive. And those thoughts looks different every time. I’d like to capture silly emotions all the time, but do you know how difficult is to keep a big smile while looking at yourself in the mirror for hours? And with no make up! I invite you to try it.

Some people have given me a hard time for painting myself sad all the time. To them, I dedicate the self-portrait above. What can I say. I’m a happy guy. And I’m a sad guy. I treasure all emotions. I’m happy I’m sad. I couldn’t have painted myself happy without painting myself sad first, see below. Because if we were happy all the time, we would be bored from happiness.

Both portraits are still in progress. I guess everything is always in progress. When it’s over, you die. I’ve tweaked the one on the bottom several times, correcting different elements to make the forced perspective from down below work. Thanks to Libby Smith, who I had as a teacher, it’s easy for me to see what’s wrong in a face, mostly my face. Yes, I know, Libby, the ears need to move a bit lower still and the left eye (the eye on the left which also happens to be my left eye, since it’s a reflection) still needs more work. And the right could use some adjustments too. But I ran out of yellow. I painted until the oil pastel was the size of a grain of rice. I’ll get some more yellow, and I’ll continue working on it once I shave. I will come back to this blog and add the dimensions. Suffice to say that the sad golden portrait below is at least four times larger than the happy blue portrait above. What does it all mean?

Isaac Hernandez Herrero. Self-portrait. Oil pastel on paper. ©2010 Isaac Hernandez/IsaacArt.com

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10 Nov 2010
Mixed Media • Studio Arts

HoneyChild Plays Painted Piano on State St.

Isaac Hernandez. Untitled. Acrylic paint on piano. Exhibited outside the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. November 7, 2010. ©2010 Isaac Hernandez/IsaacArt.com

I played for four days, painting a piano for Pianos on State St., an event organized by the Arts Ed at the Granada, New Noise Santa Barbara, Notes for Notes, Santa Barbara Bowl Education Outreach and the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, to promote a musical instrument drive on December 31, 2010.

I’m very happy that HoneyChild came by and played it, and someone was kind enough to capture it on video and post it on YouTube. Here’s HoneyChild’s MySpace page. You can download HoneyChild’s album for free on HoneyChild’s website.

The whole thing was a lot of fun. The piano was in front of the Santa Barbara Art Museum and on the front of The Arcada over the weekend. Thank you to all that contributed to these project, Artists: Andy García, Violet Bast, Hazel Carlson, Phillip Gilley, myself Isaac Hernández, Laura Inks, Chantal Peterson, Matt Rodríguez, Andrea Sánchez and Cary Wexlar.

And thank you to those who sponsored the pianos: Cox Communications, Seymour Duncan, Montecito Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara Bowl Education Outreach and New Noise Santa Barbara. Thank you everyone else that made this great project possible.

The piano above is being donated by Pianos on State St. to Open Alternative School (OAS) in Santa Barbara. Other pianos, like the one by Matt Rodriguez below, are still looking for homes. You can buy one of them or you can recommend a school to have it donated to.

Matt Rodriguez' Piano on State.

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