Friday, March 30, 2007

bathrooms & kitchens by marguerita

























At home,the other two places,that I love to spend my time,besides my studio and my bedroom,are the bathroom and the kitchen.
Maybe because of the water.
I am a Pisces.
And as Life has given me a puzzle with continuous challenges,I end up creating kitchens and bathrooms,besides my drawings,paintings and sculptures.
About the kitchen,I always loved food,not that I eat so much,I am in fact ,rather a gourmet not a gourmand.
And I am always interested in finding flavors,tasting different cuisines and very curious about how Nature can be more creative than Humans.There is always a surprise.
And so much fun,to make a meal.
It is just the same ,as when I start a new artwork.
And the parfums and smells of different ingredients.
Of course,at times,when I get a headache,any smell will drive me out of my mind....
So going back to my kitchen...
when I was a little girl in Rio and Sao Paulo,,I would go out early in the morning, before school,to buy milk and walk around getting fresh fruits in the street feiras.
I still remember the smell of mangoes, the coconuts, and the African spices,the colors and the sounds.
And,then our maid,Bibinha,her name in fact was Rosalina,but I changed it,would bring a live chicken ,to make stock, and had to deal with a fight with me,as I did not want her to kill the poor bird.
My mother had a volume of the French Larousse Gastronomique, that she brought from Paris,where she landed after the war,and books on pastries.
She loved to make pastries,something I inherited from her too. ah...her lemon meringues....
My mother loved the home.Beautiful linens and towels.


And comfortable beds.
Food at home.
No short cuts.
And bathrooms,oh I love a bathtub.
To hang out in the water.And get a bain de figuier soap.
The parfum of a fig tree...... and let my mind float.

Maybe I was a Roman Princess...... maybe I lived in Pompeii.
And poof I went,when Vesuvio blew up.
When I went there,years ago,I was wondering around in the ruins,
and felt as I knew the place quite well.Of course,there were some minor changes in the meantime.....but the bakery, and the fountains,and that lust is still in the air.
So,in my inumerous years in New York,I created few kitchens and bathrooms.
In lofts on 19th Street,on 17th Street,in a restaurant on Second Avenue, in a loft on Third Avenue and where we live now.


I painted the walls in one and created from scratch another one,a la zen.my way.

photographs by marguerita

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Rio- Sonho Meu- Jardim Botanico

Rio, lives in my heart forever.
My parents moved from Australia to Brazil in 1954 and I always remember the city, my way,as in the poem by Antonio Goncalves Dias
"Minha terra tem palmeiras onde canta o Sabia.

http://www.brasilemb.org/profile_brazil/profile3ml

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Sabia is a little bird ,with a wonderful song, typical from Brasil.
My Brasil with s.
The Sabia also become a symbol for exile.
It is very sad for me to hear and observe from faraway,how a paradise of Nature is lost in violence,a violence that even I and my family,where subjected too,four hours after landing in the country,on my first visit back after 25 years.
We were walking on the beach,near the water, parallel to the Copacabana Palace,when five men with knives appeared and attacked us.
We nearly lost our lives,were robbed of our belongings, but I still love Rio and hope for a miracle happening.
Cidade Maravilhosa, cheia de encantos mil.......
Violence must stop immediately and beauty overpower evil.
On that trip,I realized a dream of mine for years.
To visit again the Jardim Botanico.
Seven years later, I still see in my mind the picture of horror,
while at the same time,the recollection of that beautiful sunset, so Rio,the colors and the sensual air.


Photographs by marguerita

































































































of dreaming & other thoughts -1

marocco
photographs by marguerita bahia

dreaming,sunshine,lemon & yellow

So yesterday I went over to an event.
I was rather shocked to witness, how a number of young people today, are not able to dream anymore.
The event was about photography.
Most of the images,were of decaying,rotting spaces.Gloom.Despair.The End of Fantasy.,the end of Illusion,the end of Dreaming.
What is this all about.
Gore is getting fat.
And my son Jacob attending Buddhist classes.
Good.
And my other son,Stefan trying to fix my collapsed computer.
And my husband doing a party for a Rum with Lemon.
And my Argentinian friend learning to drive..... wherever he is....

In the news, an old newspaper colleague of mine,is going to be in the Brazilian Government.... many years ago,we had a surreal conversation.
I had bought a hose for my little penthouse forest from the nursery near the newspaper building.
It was too long.
I told Miguel Jorge about it,en passant,when I come over to work.
He told me that he needed one also,by coincidence.
So,we made a funny deal.
He came over to my place and we cut the hose in half.
Then,I remember telling him,you see Miguel,we can achieve Peace in the Middle East,as brothers and sisters,we share a common vehicle for water!
Miguel's face changed .He looked like a bull in rage.
All Biblical lies,he said angrily.
We,never were brothers,cousins or whatever...
Biblical,propaganda lies,we will never have Peace??????? Miguel mumbled.

Ah,the color yellow..... at last.
Sunshine.
You are my sunshine,my only sunshine,you make me happy,when skies are grey

Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Eleventh Incarnation of Lord Vishnu

The Adventures of Grishna
by Marguerita
(all rights reserved.marguerita bornstein.2007)


The fabula I tell, in a sequence of 46 and some more drawings ,encapsulates Chapter One of my fertile imagination.
For the storyline, I created a fictitious love affair,made up of diverse comments and my curiosity.
It is all , a comic variation and a take on Krishna,The Divine Lover,myth and legend.
And atthis very moment,my son Jacob brought home a book,The Spice Box,a Vegetarian Indian Cookbook.
Spices,a subject that always interests me.
Allow me only to respond ahead of any queries,as I was questioned by an editor,I did show the drawings to,about my characters.

For years ,a very adorable Brazilian friend of mine,when I would send him images of different delicious things to eat,he would always come up with one demand he craved for : a sultry black woman.
As I grew up in Brazil,I understan d his sense of humor.
Politically -correct,most of the times can be taken to an imbecile road,as much as I am sensitive to how words can be lethal in many occasions.
So,as long as we maintain a level of respect and consideration,sense of humor cannot be censured.
In this case,the use of a black woman,has a sensual and loving connotation.
The Baianas,who I associate with the wonderful spices,the pimenta malagueta,
foods of African influence,the etymology and customs,dances and beliefs.
They are known for their cooking skills and are very spiritual.
Besides,I was brought up to respect every soul on this Earth,and not to harbor anger,despite that my mother and father experienced the most horrible
suffering that Man can impose unto another.The Holocaust.
The animal that appears in the series is a capivara.
It is a typical creature from Brazil and Argentina.
I also read a lot, about the way , the capivara lives.
I got inspired and started my Drawings:Capivara Series.
In Argentina it is called a carpincho.
Two years ago,I met an Argentinian man,by chance.
He told me that his mother,had just given him a leather article,made of carpincho leather.
Here he works as a painter.
En passant,I mentioned to him,my friend's desire.
My Argentinian new friend has a sense of humor and we talk mixing Portuguese and Spanish,which is called Portunhol.
One of his jobs,was at an Indian lady's home.
He refers to her,when talking to me,as la Hindu.
And many times,he is going crazy,with things that are happening as they have some language miscommunications.
So,he calls me and when is all upset,he just asks me about the black woman...
he also likes a lot,to eat duck(pato) and chocolate.
So,here is my plot:
The painter,the carpincho as a spirit(the duende) and the black woman that seduces him.
The Argentinian,whose name starts with G,becomes Grishna.
When I showed him my first drawings he understood my humor and saw the carpincho as a duende.which means a spiritual creature.
Khrisna,The Divine Lover,revered god,hero,the unique representation of these and many other attributes,is for centuries one os the most popular deities of the Hindu pantheon.
His colorful personality has permeated the realms of painting,sculpture,poetry and dramatic arts,as well as religious and cultural life at every level;it continues to exert powerful influence on everyday life and customs,d'apres David R.Godine.
In one of my drawings,the black woman sings a Brazilian song",Eu so quero um Xodo",by Gilberto Gil.
The lyrics are about the desire to find a lover.
The Perfumed Garden- for the Repose of the Mind,are sensual drawings,a classic work of Arabian Erotica,written by Sheik Nefzawi in the Sixteenth Century.
This work,was commissioned by the Grand Vizier of Tunis,who asked the Sheik to analyze "the source of our greatest pleasure.... in order that this knowledge should be widely known"
The notoriety which the Perfumed Garden has attracted,was predicted by its patron:
"It is only the ignorant and tearful"he said,"who will avoid it or try to turn it to ridicule".
Since its earliest exposure,Sheik Nefzawi's work has been consistently banned and supressed.
The work was translated by Sir Richard F.Burton (1821-1890) famous for his Arabian Nights,renowned as an author,explorer and Orientalist.
As the greatest Arabist of his time,he brings to The Parfumed Garden a profound knowledge of Arab life and literature.
Hope that who ever read and looks at my work will enjoy what gives me inspiration.
I am also influenced by Goya,(Francisco)not the canned food.
Marguerita

ziriguidum

L'elegance c'est un facon de se mouvoir.
C'est aussi savoir s'adapter a toutes les circonstances de la vie.
S'il n'ya pas d'elegance dans le coeur,
il n'ya pas d'elegance.........d'apres Yves Saint Laurent


verde que te quiero verde


and now an affabulatori.A word that comes from Latin, meaning fabula, a fable or a tale..sowith gusto and feeling.a monologue, d'apres Ascanio Celentini ,a Italian Actor who goes on stage for critical acclaim,with his divagation, solo, looking for clues in history, about the horror we arefacing now, roots in the Nazi's devastating invasion, the rape of Europe.Rape.In every sense.Of course, in America, it is difficult to talk about this theme.There is a wall.The lies that cover the truth are deep and slowly pulling through.but as my mother would joke:" Until the fat man loses weight, the slim man dies....."So let's go for the boring mundane.The door opens and closes.The window is there. Go figure.Brush your teeth everyday and smile.The whiter, the better?Oh no.I cannot stay away from the shadows that I live with.There is always that inquiring desire.Nature played a number yesterday. We had a lovely blue sky, which made me dream and lose myself in imagination.My computer crashed on me. Just a machine. And here I feel like a limb of mine, cut off from me???Standing there dead. I feel like my intestines, were pulled out.eh, a theme for me to do drawings, besides my BRAIN cycle series, not a bicycle.I have to reconfigure how to deal with that new situation.My coffee machine is out of commission, few days agowhen my son Jacob, broke the steam handle, by accident.So no coffee for me, no cappuccino that I like to make.....Ah, mondo machina....I miss the green ,the tropical, sensual green. TheBrazilian green that I grew up with.I am not a snow being.
Not a cold animal.A hot tamale, as my friend Ham, would call me every time he saw me. I always like tabasco in my chicken soup, which I make from scratch.Inside me, a song,gilberto gil's xodo,"que falta que eu sinto de um bem, que falta me faz um xodo, mas como eu nao tenho ninguem, eu levo a vida assim tao so, eu so quero um amor, que acabe o meu sofrer, um xodo pra mim, do meu jeito assim, que alegre o meu viver"And I feel like a volcano.I want to create, I want to dance, I want music, Spanish cheese, membrillo and a drop of wine on my lips.Just for taste.Flavor,fervor, ardor,as I remember time ago, a friend of mine the writer Luis Carlos Lisboa, would commentArdor....about something I cannot recollect,ardor,humor,candor, eh, la vita e mobile......

Saturday, March 10, 2007