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Comments by Ana Pardo
This is the second picture in
the series
My life and in it, as in the first picture, I continue to
develop the ambivalent effect of fantasy and reality on human behaviour.
What is fantasy? Where is it to be found?
All who belong to the world of art and who have a gift for words could
fill hundreds of pages surrounding the concept of fantasy in a silk
bubble; they are keen to safeguard the radiance of its magic and to
protect it from a reality which they all see as dehumanizing. The words
would flow like satin onto the sheets of paper, some adorned with
ingenuity, others intoxicating our will with seductive descriptions, all
with that sweetness which puts the mind to one side. They could not find
any legitimate, secret resting place since fantasy is capricious and wanders like a
free spirit, landing briefly only in those intelligences which are eager
to strip off the mourning imposed on us by modern life, so implacably
pragmatic.
For those who are more practical, the universe of fantasy is closely
linked to an excess of imagination, a whirlpool of desires, plans,
ambitions, fancies, dreams and utopias which appear in no order,
contradict each other and are typical of youth. Fantasy is an
intellectual flu, typical of youth and lessened by maturity.
These attitudes are more
commonplace, but what is the true structure that supports each of
these positions? Have they been formulated correctly? If the spectator
had to identify with one of them, which would they choose?
True, we can find people from all walks of life on both sides of the
threshold, yet the vast majority of readers who pay attention to these
suggestions will respond as they desire, and because they do not
understand the reason for their desire, they will be wrong twice. As I
follow this approach, many will believe that I am only trying to produce
an illusion by playing with words, but let us not forget that although in
the world of fantasy not all is as it seems, reality can contain
fantastic secrets which may confuse less prepared minds. So let’s develop
both positions and see where they lead.
For the first group, those on the side of Fantasy, the picture seems to describe itself
since I set it in a hollow in a wood, a place of withdrawal, a secret
place, the home of little animals, where an evocative figure emerges to
guide our plans. For these who are open-minded and receptive, the metaphorical lyricism found in these corners has always
been a source of inspiration; the smallest, most hidden things contain
greater, more trustworthy realities because although reality splits into
countless winding paths, these all lead towards the same end, the light
of understanding. The poet can locate a strange phenomenon under the
roots of trees and the mathematician a strange number, but if we look
carefully at their essential nature and at the content of what they say
we will discover a greater reality where there is room for us all.
For the second, those addicted to common sense, fantasy lives in a tangle of fictions
fed by the avidity of youth, preventing individuals from realizing what
mechanisms really control their lives. Fantasy develops with models of
freaks, spirits, and fairies, all in magic scenarios, majestic towers and
sinister roots. If these people had to attribute any metaphorical
element, such as hollowness, to the picture, they would present it as the
narrow space in which so much subjectivity is elaborated, or as a well,
the prison of those minds that cannot break away from the seductive song
of the mermaid that bewitches our reason.
For the first group, the fantasy is always elaborated
in warm shades, dabbling in reds and yellows, radiating their warmth to
fill the rest of the chromatic palette used in the work. The invention is
transformed and takes on a real body.
For the others, the absence of reality is blurred in cold colours. White
and blue become the true rulers and spread their icy halo over the rest
of the scene: greens and violets always wander, confused, trying to elude
their primary reality.
In short:
In the minds of visionaries the imagination fights to rebuild an
alternative reality; for the others, fantasy is a way of evading reality.
The spectator may still hold to the initial decision, or may perhaps
notice a certain weakening of their convictions. In
Revelation, the girl
shows her surprise at a truth that has been revealed to her and that is
far removed from what she had imagined. As the daughter of a king, she
felt like a princess abandoning her castle, her only desire to know a
part of external reality; she would never for a moment have suspected her
origin, her virtue or her destiny. But as the Roman proverb says, we make
mistakes through ignorance and we learn through our mistakes; and the
girl learnt that reality was none other than the dark hole, for as the
daughter of a gardener, she herself was just an illusion, and the world
that was opening up before her eyes was an illusion.
Revelation plays on perceptions, it is a paradox that dissents from
popular feeling. In spite of what everybody thinks, it is the more
correct people, those we call sceptics and realists, who have formed all
the paradise of images that our intellect uses when we half-close our
eyes and wish, for a moment, to be filled with the magic of fantasy.
Leaving aside the exceptions that are an obligatory part of every
hypothesis and going against the world, I do not believe in the
romanticism of artists, in the loyalty of politicians or in the mysticism
of prelates; these characteristics are ways of life to be found only in
those who are unconnected with the composition and narration of fictions.
The writer and painter, who belong to the first group, are not the ones
who believe in spirits although they bring them to life; the politicians
and statespeople are not the ones who believe in the stability of a legal
system although they decree it, the theologian and priest are not the ones
who believe in the God who lays down our moral code, although they teach it.
The believers, the sensitive ones, the mystics, the romantics who I
described in the first group are the people who nurture, worship, reverence,
struggle and die to make something real out of the fiction of more cautious
people. One set is no better than the other, they complement and need each
other. One set creates an empty, cold, insubstantial fiction; the other
gives it reality and spirit.
Creation and recreation, two aspects
of the imagination, two pillars of humanity.
Revelation considers these two visions from both perspectives, and
although human imagination is formed of many facets and can develop
itself in any field, I aim to make the subject less ambiguous by giving
the picture a classical finish; in other words I use a universal language
which all people can understand. All will catch the significance of the picture’s atmosphere and
will be able to take the values they find in it and apply them to their
own world.
The picture does not seem to reflect antagonistic positions; quite the
reverse, it expresses a balanced perspective. The young woman on the
threshold perceives both natures. The painting does not lose its balance
because nothing that is around the figure of the young woman has become
unnatural. The picture could well have been made longer, more oblong,
saturating these ideas on both sides, but
Revelation has a message for
us about proportion, the harmony we must find on the tracks of this
duality. The picture has completed its work when it has given its
message.
Revelation aims to encourage the spectator to become aware of
themselves and their surroundings for a few moments. You may discover
that some mystery is being revealed to you, as I did when I was painting
it:
“Human Fantasy will always try to find a reality because the true essence
of a human being is to live a fantasy eternally.”
Ana Pardo
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