Circles of Magic

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Oteyza Exhibit Opening at Philippine Center Gallery, New York, March 23, 2009

It was an exciting night full of enthusiastic attendees curious about the reason behind my latest series. It was the first time I exhibited all my circular paintings and I was not sure how it will be accepted. It took a lot of time assembling the stands and attaching the paintings.

I was surprised to receive all positive comments and a lot of suggestions to take the show to other galleries because of it's uniqueness. Some enjoyed the fact that the works could be rotated; others liked the motorized feature; some liked them being mounted on stands so they could be positioned in any location in a room or office

The works were all based on my experiences and impressions of the world as I was growing up. They were all influenced by my dislexia in the way the images were broken up, distorted, reversed.

I am very thankful to the Philippine Center for giving me the opportunity to exhibit, to all the wonderful people who attended and the ones who brought some food and drink to add to the table.

EXPANSION

This term is used to describe the opening out of Julian Oteyza’s artistic experience. This year, (2009) all of the artwork he is creating is built upon the multiple series of art works he has created over the years.

"Rotating Perspectives" offered the viewer an opportunity to experience the art through a hands on approach to manipulating the cleverly designed canvas.

"Emerging Dimensions" offered the viewer an opportunity to experience pulsating images experienced by Dyslexics.

"Light Wave Reflections" provided the viewer an opportunity to become part of the reflective history of Julian’s Filipino background.

"Time Frames" offered Philippine History in film reel style in honor of the Philippine Independence Centennial year.

"Magic Circles" involved the viewer with the hands on experience of rotating a round canvas and viewing the perfect symbol of continuity, the circle.

"Expansion" series is Julian’s next step inviting the viewer to join him as he turns his art outward, involving the viewer and the art space in the subtext of creating original art based on ordinary objects with extraordinary color, design, and interpretation.

Visiting the art exhibit affords a special revelation offering you, the viewer, a key to the secrets of an expanded view of Julian’s art. The year 2008 was an exceptional year for Julian. He survived a life threatening illness and emerged with a strong and abiding vision of "Expansion." This life lesson has driven him to share his vision through his art. While 2009 has developed into a year we are all being asked to sacrifice for the greater good and be frugal with our funds, Julian's expanded vision offers you an opportunity to see beyond personal sacrifice and discover the profound in simple thing.

Julian’s childlike awe of everyday objects is untainted by the authoritative inner voice that leads many artists to color and design to fit a "norm" or a popularly identified "fad." In finding his own definition of beauty and substance in everyday objects he invites you to absorb the hidden meaning of "Expansion" in every aspect of your life and pursuit of happiness and beauty and he wishes you wonderful new experiences as you expand your vision and life lessons.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Holiday Celebration Tutubi Style - Dec 07 at the Oteyza Gallery/Studio

Guess whose hand?

Hand of a lawyer and a very realistic heart

It's in the way you hold the brush

A lefty

A neigbor among new friends

Queen Tutubi

Action!

Julian, Linda, Marvin,Mama Vin, Lola, Linda, Miriam, Mo, May, Minnie, Lito

"Circle" Quotes. What Do Circles Mean To You?

Kevin and Siobahn

Marvin Santos

Linda Explaining Julian's "Emerging Dimensions" Art

Group in action

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
- Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955

"A wheel or circle has been a sacred symbol to many cultures over time. It can be found in the temples of Egypt, in the land of the Incas, represented in the Celtic rites as in Stonehenge, and in countless other peoples. The Anasazi of the South Western United States built their temples, or Kivas, in circular form. Early Native Americans also used the circle for their teepees, their camps, and daily rituals. The importance is not the circle itself, but what it represented-change. The circle shown in the Medicine Wheel is used to represent the changing cycle of the seasons. This could literally mean the weather, the seasons of life (birth, mid-age, old age), or the changes surrounding the development of projects."- Mark Dodich
A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral. Maynard J. Keenan

"The circle is perhaps the most ancient of mystical symbols and the most universal of all dances. It is the earth and the sun in eternal movement, an unbroken, unbent line symbolizing continuity and eternity. The circle dance represents wholeness. The dance brings life full circle."- Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance

"A Sacred Circle is a group of people who sit in a circle, in the literal and relational sense, and honor the sacredness of their divine nature as individuals and as a group. Not only does each participant take guidance individually by listening to the “inner voice within”, but this guidance is offered to the center of the circle and comes back from it in an augmented resonant manner. Each guidance, each soul and life experience, when offered to the center, begins to resonate with one another and creates what we experience as a resonant field. The resonant field is the living whole that radiates back toward each of us. It operates as a source of light that illuminates our individual blind spots, makes us grow and find clarity. Then we are in the situation of being able to offer back more and more resonant experience to the Center, and so on. The resonant field works definitely like a complex dynamic system. It creates new layers of reality that transcend and include our individual reality. It offers us more freedom than ever, we are given the opportunity to perform our soul mission and honor the dharma."- The Transitioner: Sacred Circles

A circle may be small, yet it may be as mathematically beautiful and perfect as a large one. - Isaac D'Israeli, Miscellanies

The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays--Circles As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads. - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man

"The circle is celebrated in the form of the nimbus or halo depicted around the heads of saints. Ritual dance is invariably performed in a circle whether it be as a group or individually such as the sufi’s whirling dervish. The dwelling places of indigenous people were sacred habitats. From yurts to tipis to igloos to kivas, the circle formed the basis of their design. Sacred architecture from Stonehenge to the domes of cathedrals, temples and shrines and basilicas are testaments to the reverence and importance of the simplest of all geometric forms, the circle. Even the cosmic dance of the Hindu god, Shiva, is performed within a circle of flames.- Sacred Circle

As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes The sinking stone at first a circle makes; The trembling surface by the motion stirr'd, Spreads in a second circle, then a third; Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance, Fill all the watery plain, and to the margin dance. - Alexander Pope, Temple of Fame

To our way of thinking the Indians' symbol is the circle, the hoop. Nature wants to be round. The bodies of human beings and animals have no corners. With us, the circle stands for togetherness of people who sit with one another around the campfire, relatives and friends united in peace while the sacred pipe passes from hand to hand. To us this is beautiful and fitting, symbol and reality at the same time, expressing the harmony of life and nature."- John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes, Lame Deer Seeker of Visions

“The more I observed Washington, the more frequently I visited it, and the more people I interviewed there, the more I understood how prophetic L’Enfant was when he laid it out as a city that goes around in circles” - John Mason Brown – American literary critic, 1900 – 1969

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
- Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955

“Life becomes real only when we begin to face and solve our own problems. Until then we only swim in circles in a large fantasy world which tends to make us very tired of living. Don’t waste energy! Face life now!” - author unknown

“If you love someone, put their name in a circle; because hearts can be broken, but circles never end.” - Anonymous