Sunday, September 27, 2015

Unlikely Art

Why not a clothesline full of dangling bras of different colors to make a statement about ambiguous meanings in urban space?  Beauty is possible in unlikely forms, if you open yourself to imagination.



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

A Guinea Pig for the Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci's fresco, The Last Supper, is by far the most noted and commented on painting with this theme.


Here is one from Cuzco Cathedral painted back in 1753 by Marcos Zapata. This painting combines Christian iconography with that of Incan cultural artifacts.  In this painting, Zapata substitutes a cuy, or guinea pig, for the lamb in Christian symbolism. This illustrates cultural blending while essentially using the Christian symbolism behind the theme. Instead of the traditional lamb, Zapata's Last Supper features a platter of cuy, or guinea pig.  This Andean delicacy provides lots of protein. The cuy was historically a sacrificial animal used in Incan agricultural festivals and is exactly like the lamb, a traditional Christian sacrificial animal.