Do you know who Dusty Springfield was?  A British singer and record producer (1939-1999). Her style and husky voice emulated the Motown sounds. 
I saw a photo of hers with a hairdo that looked like a gigantic mountain of hair and from there my imagination went to create what you see here. After I created the composition, I thought "ha! this is crazy! 
That lead to the title because Moyano is a famous neuropsychiatric hospital for women located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

The brick wall was essential for this composition because of the many expressions associated with loosing one's mind and hitting the head against the wall. 

About the painting.
Title: Moyano Heads
Size: 24x18" 
Medium: Acrylic paint 
Surface: Acid free paper.
Unframed. 
​$550 Free shipping in the USA.

The third chapter of the Dhammapada talks about the mind and the harm that a restless and untrained mind can cause to oneself and others. This chapter can be paired with the eightfold path right concentration which is all about meditation. It is in meditation when we tamed our minds. 

I selected these two verses to ponder about the mind:

"The restless, agitated mind,
hard to protect, hard to control, 
The sage makes straight, 
As a fletcher the shaft of an arrow.
[...]
Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy, 
Or haters, one to another,
Far worse is the harm
From one' own wrongly directed mind."

in meditation, we practice that when a thought enters the mind, we acknowledge it and move on by focusing the attention again on the breathing rhythm. This same concept of acknowledging and moving on must be applied to situation when someone says something that bother us. 
You can acknowledge the discomfort and in a soft tone let the other person know that whatever the person said or did has caused you discomfort. Once said, you must move on rather than letting the mind ruminate on how you are going to get even, etc. 

Every week I send out to my email subscribers a private message where I present the painting of the week with a discount coupon, and I discuss a topic related to cyber defense. In these blog posts, I will talk more about art and philosophy of life. If you want to receive cyber defense tips, I suggest you subscribe to my weekly emails. 

Topics in this post are:

• Abstract painting - Tokyo Drift
• Philosophy of Life Section
• Upcoming Art Events

Today's painting is an abstract titled ​Tokyo Drift. Why the title? Well, because I was preparing this for the Tokyo virtual exhibition. Then, it was decided that it was going to be a physical exhibition only and because of the pandemic and I cannot travel there this time. :-)
​
The choice of palette has to do with the importance of colors in Japan. Red and white are prominent traditional colors in Japan. Both colors are used in decorations at events which represent happiness and joy. Yellow denotes sunshine and nature in Japan. Black is a popular color in Japan for electronics and clothing. It mainly denotes non-being, mystery, night and anger.

Size: 24x18"
Medium: Acrylic paint
Surface: acid free paper.
Year: 2021
​Unframed. $550 Free shipping in the USA.

For this technique I am using in this painting, the acrylic paint needs to be mixed with an extender because the key is to prevent its quick drying. I cannot paint with oil paints because I am very allergic to thinner. Therefore, I had to figure out how to make the acrylic behave like oil when I want to do something that requires a lot of merging and meeting of colors. 

I like how a light color frame dresses the painting without robbing its delicacy. Note that it goes best in a wall which space is also defined by other objects. Look at how it is mounted on the bathroom wall, and above the desk / drawer table. 

Have you heard of Non-fungible Token artwork? It is a digital image with a very unique signature that makes unquestionable the authenticity of the work. This particular painting is also available as NFT at 
https://rarible.com/token/0x60f80121c31a0d46b5279700f9df786054aa5ee5:516808?

I will donate 100% of the sale price of the NFT to the nonprofit organization True Blue Service Dogs, Inc. 

Under this section, you will read about books I have read, and thoughts and tribulations of a thinker. 
I have began reading the book titled Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. I have already read his first book titled Sapiens and I have very much enjoyed it. Something new that I learned from that book is that all species were roaming Earth at the same time; rather than the previous concept taught at school that each one of them was on the verge of extinction before the new one was taking over. 

Homo Deus was written in 2015, and interestingly, it begins with the topic of pandemics that took placed from the beginning of the Homo Sapiens time until 2015. The author stated at the time of writing the book that we no longer needed to worry much about famines, pandemic and war. Interesting turn of events we are living, aren't we? 

He posed this question - "What are the projects that will replace famine, plague and war at the top of the human agenda in the twenty-first century? I think climate change is on top of the list.

He touches on the concept of happiness and I will explore that on my next post.

Happy Easter and Passover!

Virtual Art Exhibition - April 23rd, 2021 - 10-11 a.m. Pacific Time at https://meet.google.com/wgu-nsiv-ehz - A display of paintings by Cecilia Anastos related to the concept of womanhood.

Open Studio / Gallery Art Exhibition in San Diego, CA.
Date:Saturday, April 25th, 2021
Time: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. / 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. / 5 pm to 7 pm. Select a slot using the RSVP form below.
Event Title: The Concept of Women Represented in Paintings - An exhibition of figurative paintings related to women (portraits, high heals, silhouettes, etc)
Location: Mira Mesa, San Diego, CA 92126 - This is an open air studio and well-fitted masks are required at all times. No more than 10 individuals at a time will be present during the exhibit. You will receive exact location upon registration. No walk-in allowed.