Relief

I was able to to reconnect to my my blog...Peace.

The Environment in Us

The environment has a subtle and balmy influence, which helps us forge our psyches early in life. I have made many friends from different parts of the world, which share the same opinion about the influence of the environment on our formations. Some of these friends grew up in the Appalachian Mountains and others in the Andean Mountains. Their characters reflect the ponderous country lifestyle inherited from the mountains. I also have friends that grew up on the beaches of Mexico and Rio, and the beaches of Greece and Italy. Their expressions and behavior convey the colors and free lifestyle of the beach. I love the beach, but my beach does not resemble the stylish conventional one. It sways like the high breakers of Rio’s Barra south shore; it blows like its occasional gales of Southwestern Winds, and it scars with its trails of dangerous accesses.

 In Rio we have a nickname that became synonymous with sun, sand, and surf—Cariocas— meaning an individual born in Rio. As a carioca, I learned the way to Rio’s surf beaches where waves of ten feet were not attractive to tourists. Besides, the long and arduous travel to connect with their beauty worked like a magnet attracting me and my friends to experience it firsthand. Body surfing was our thrill, and we could not engage it freely on a crowded beach. There was no way to connect with that spiritual dimension that comes only in solitude. A far and untouched beach were the answer to our quest. In addition, the political pressure my generation was under gave birth to a special breed of Cariocas: The Tropicalians. The beach thrills seekers experiencing places, which later were in danger of environmental annihilation.
             Born out of the 70’s music style, the Tropicalia movement gave Brazilians a new cultural identity. Its writings, lyrics, and rhythms, provided us the motivation to explore new ways of living and to fight the tyranny of the Brazilian military government. Tropicalism helped catalyze the time, and it sent us on an environmental exploration to discover personal potential. I pushed myself to extremes to camp on Rio’s secluded beaches. To access its beauties, we had to bushwhack all day up and down dangerous steeped hills praying for no snake bites. The price was high on our physical structure, but the spiritual benefit was awesome. It gave us the endurance necessary to go on with our lives. Incredibly, my guitar survived all the rain, sea water, and falls throughout those journeys.
             I always thank the leaders of the Tropicalia movement for guiding my generation. Brazil was under military repression for the fear of communism. The military created a board of censorship to filter any article of writing, music, and speech going against its campaign. I remember the word they used: subversive. It resonated like bombs exploding with terrorism in our heads. In fact, they were planting the bombs themselves and blaming the political parties. Their campaign to keep the public scared also included a curfew. Nobody allowed on the street after sundown! That’s when the Tropicalia movement spread like wildfire. The artists had to become masters of metaphors to elude the censorship, and give the people the message of hope. Sometimes, the board found some writings too obvious and prosecuted the artists. Some artists ended up exiled. Others were imprisoned and tortured. But the Tropicalia survived and provided us a psychological outlet. The message transpired: stay informed and educated! Don’t believe in military authority! They are deceivers, destroyers of freedom! You had to have experienced that kind of repression, with beatings and public searches, to understand what freedom means; and I have to thank also, those incredible beaches for their existence. That environment forged my character and helped me survive the 70’s in Brazil.
           I left Rio for America in 1985, when the Brazilian military government gave the country back to its civilians. It was a time of amnesties and many exiled artists returned home. Political parties finally gained the freedom to follow their ideals, and the Brazilian people had hopes for prosperity. In America, I heard of new entrepreneurial deals with the world markets and Brazil. It created possibilities that were unheard of in the “repression” times. Unfortunately, by the 90’s, I learned that the entrepreneurial machine was bulldozing its way through, and giving birth to beachfront real estate destroying Rio’s natural beauty—Irony larger than that, I had never seen. After the Tropicalians finally won their battle, the new Brazil began to destroy its environment at a rate never believed possible. I am still in touch with many of my youth friends, and they told me that the neighbors of Barra da Tijuca Beach, the beach we grew up, had come together and fought fiercely against the developers. They got to stop them very near our beach sanctuaries.
            The miracle of free-spirited environmentalists won the votes in the Brazilian Congress, and the creation of “The Sanctuary of Prainha and Grumari” occurred. Its extension and difficult access make depredation impossible. If you find your way there, it means you love that place. And I found my way there again in 2009, and walked through its narrow trails to gain its white sands. I slid on my scuba flippers, jumped into its Green-waters, and swum across the strong currents passing the breaking points. After a couple of swells, I spotted a huge one, and I went for it. It raised me about 12 feet and my adrenaline to a million—“too late to back off.” I dropped the beast, cut it left searching for the “rail,” and got it! Immediately, I heard again that familiar explosion followed by the roar of a freight train coming behind me. A thousand memories flowed in that nanosecond, and in a natural response, I let out my roar. The wave refused to kill me once more. Instead, it thrust me towards life, like it always did. With gentle power, she allowed me the connection, and I became infused in my environment once again.

Andre Gomes

True Freedom

TRUE FREEDOM

              I read long ago that Aristotle summarized the human spirit into two great traits:  the human sense of beauty and the human sense of aggression—although, he could not offer any answers why humans possessed such dichotomous feelings.  I know that even Socrates had trouble understanding this human phenomenon as we can perceive it in his dialogues throughout Plato’s works.  Nevertheless, other philosophers like Buda and Jesus, sensing the same conflict opted to reinforce the beauty aspect of humans.  They believed that the practicing of the golden rule could conquer or subdue human aggressive tendencies. Undoubtedly, these two latter philosophers, whose lives are worth analyzing, raised some discomfort among their contemporaries with their life’s passive aggressive approach because in their time, a peaceful person was viewed as weak.  Let me try to reason this concept somehow with a question I have: Have you ever questioned why we humans can manage to influence large masses either to build marvelous things or to commit horrible atrocities? If you had never asked yourself this basic question, I don’t know how to introduce you to the concept of true freedom. But, I will give it a try.

 Let me start by stating that human aggressiveness, in a good sense, can be channeled to build great things, or to wage wars in a horrible sense. But, in a positive sense, for instance, I can safely say that the ancient cities of the Giza Plateau, and the city of Athens and Rome, just to name a few, attest to this principle of passive aggressiveness.  I also realize that the real catalyst behind these human accomplishments has to be the sense of beauty. The construction of these cities flourished in peaceful times when the aggressive drive was properly channeled to the Arts. How else could those architectures be conceived without some sense of beauty, or constructed without an educated aggressive drive?  The reason why in these days we have trouble comprehending the amount of effort and dedication applied to construct those ancient cities it is because we have lost their vision of beauty (which were connected with a sense of spirituality), and our aggressive drive is applied solely to economic gains (which is the tragedy of our time).

 Let me use another example of applied passive aggressiveness. Many scholars agree that the middle ages did not produce anything other than superstition and torture. But, they forget to recognize the works of the cathedral builders. The cathedrals’ work kept many generations of craftsmen dedicated to the Arts. The psychology behind those monumental works is the development of the sense of being free from that basic uncontrolled aggressiveness. While many hands were producing architectural works to last an eternity, these men were also developing patience, tolerance and internal peace, which in turn, once mastered, becomes true freedom.  

It is the honor to work, the honor to learn a craft, and the honor to conquer and master one’s own self that gives an individual the correct measures to appreciate the cosmos. That’s true freedom.  I could also have used the example of field workers or peasants to illustrate the concept of passive aggressiveness even though they seem to be lost without intellectual work. In reality, they understand the cosmos at the spiritual level. This is something completely missing from the intellectual point of view.   Finally, I could never have used the image of a soldier for the same purpose because they are not free.  They are captives, blind oppressors of true freedom. They were tamed to believe that they fight to keep the world free! What a catastrophe…look at the cities they invade obeying corporate insanity; look at the bodies they leave behind…It would be better to  had used the hands to plow a field, to build a home or a bridge, or to teach the youth. I hope I have disturbed you to think again of what it takes to be truly free. These days that we are living are fulfilled with messages of inverted values.  So please, leave the paranoia that we need an army for protection. The best protection is to build peace through collaboration and sharing of resources.

Andre Gomes July, 19 2013.

Rocky Beach

I finally finished this painting.

Most of the time, artists copy works from other established artist to capture and practice their own style. Art expression is an on-going endeavor without the expectation to know when it is going to end. Actually, that's no end!
So, here are some copies I made last year following this principle. The reclining nude and the two seascapes are copies from photographs. The mountains are copies from two Californian Impressionists, Edgar Payne and William Wendt. The Barn is a copy from the German-American artist Wolf Khan, and finally the seated nude from Modigliani, and the two nudes from Paul Gauguin. One thing I have to point out is that photographs from actual works sucks! No camera whatsoever at any time will be better than the human eye to perceive the richness of colors. So, bear with me with these photos. Peace.

Since the end of the year in approaching again, I will have some time to engage in my true aspiration in this life. I am confident that a new form of expression will come out of my brushes this time. See ya soon.

New Acrylics December 2011