FRAGMENTATION SERIES

"When desire reaches the brink of exhaustion,

only the heart's coercion could enliven it again"

(Lopez-Espina, 2019)

When I moved to Brazil I finally had the chance to resume my painting career. There were scores of concepts I wanted to try. The only thing I was sure about was that my first painting had to be huge. With plenty of confidence and motivation, I stretched a 10 foot tall canvas. The designated subject was a woman from a Himba tribe in Namibia whose picture I had taken during my last official duty as a Fototreks’ guide. What I never expected, and I mean never, was for my chosen technique to be so time consuming. It took nine long years to finish this work. The technique divides every portion of the painting into tens of thousands of tiny color fragments, which I had to paint three or four times each until the segment looked solid. Frankly, even for a persevering perfectionist, it was overwhelming.

This painting will ultimately be judged as my greatest achievement, or perhaps the worse mistake I’ve ever committed. Don't forget, I was returning from a long hiatus. Regardless of which evaluation turns to be true, this massive work is absolutely gorgeous and will be the only representative within this series of one.