“Server in Cartagena” Watercolor & Graphite pencil on. 7x10 - 140# paper.

Pencil preliminary sketch

It’s odd doing what I do: Traveling and painting. You can become so absorbed in what you are seeing, and you see so much, that you start not knowing how to handle it all. Even though I am in Medellin, I felt I had to do this watercolor of a server in Cartagena, while at the same time getting to know Medellin, and colating a mountain of accumlated photo reference, whilst creating more all the time.

I want to do at least a hundred paintings, but probably only have time for a dozen. My imagination and ambition outruns my reality. I start feeling stretched and a bit flusterd, but then….

PROBLEM TO THE RESCUE

Nothing squeezes the adrenals and brings you into the moment like an existential threat. In this case, my debit card was red-flagged and I had about $75 in cash. Also I have no cell service. My bank cannot be reached. I’m up shits creek.

After about an hour of trying to find some online solution, I decided to take to the streets in my running shorts and buttpack, asking around for sim cards and stores that sell them with my very limited Spanish.

I stuck out like a sore thumb, but oddly didn’t feel out of place at all. I think because I was no longer in voyuer mode, but in problem-that-needed-solving mode, and people were so willing to help:

Pointing and speaking while I nod and pretend to understand. They would use google translate, or draw directions on a napkin, that eventually led to the new mall, which was cell phone heaven. No, the sim card would not work in my Moto 5G phone. But another kiosk in the mall sold me a phone and 30 minutes US call time, but had no idea how to call the US, but another customer found out for me by calling the operator, who told her that you needed to dial 00444 then 1 then the phone number in order to dial to the US. Which I did, and got my card de-redflagged (it was my $4 bus ticket purchase that did it.)

I did the white guy high five thing with the cell phone salesman afterwards, and as I walked up the looong hill to El Poblado, getting drenched in the afternoon thunderstorm, I realized that I had had more genuine interaction today than I had had the two weeks prior.

I got this far drawing the Raphael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture in Plaza Botero… WHEN ALL OF SUDDEN!. ….(click on Video Link below drawing.)

That Cabeza Grande getting rained on in the video was done by the same artist that the plaza it is in is named after: Fernando Botero, the most famous Colombian artist. You may recognize his painting style, in that all of his figures are very volumetric. I was never a fan of his paintings, but his sculptures are fantastic. (click link for 7 other images)

Going from the sweltering Caribbean Coast to a comparatively cool valley in the Andes is quite a shift. Medellin is temperate, and called the City of Eternal Spring for a reason….as in, thunderstorms are scheduled for the next week. To be fair, I did come during Colombia’s rainy season. And it rains for an hour and stops…mostly.

Also, there is way more funk and historical mojo in Cartegena. Medellin is a modern city with a great transportation system, that even has cable cars into the mountains as an integral part of the network.

The view outside my apartmento in the upscale El Poblado neighborhood. Not all of Medellin is like this, as I elucidate on further down.

IMAGES FROM EL POBLADO

Global Notoriety

30 years ago, the drug lord Pablo Escobar was still alive and living in Medellin, which had one of the highest murder rates in the world. Now it is being featured in New York Times as being one of the top 6 cities in the world when it comes to reimagining civic planning, specifically the Metro transportation system, has cable cars as an integral part, which connects the rural communities at higher elevations, giving them access to the city. The residents are very proud of their Metro system.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/world/cities-urban-development-lisbon-paris-sydney-singapore-durban-medellin.html

That said, the taxi ride today to Plaza Botero today was eye opening:

A) All Medellin drivers seem to be very comfortable being very close to one another. Their safe braking distance is a few feet. {Stay relaxed and stop pressing your right foot down on the floor.)

B)The destiny of street commerce in some areas is more than I have ever seen in my life. As in, packed stores filling sidewalks with chairs, or appliances, or metal doors, or everyting…on a one lane street while pedestrians swarm between cars not moving.

C) Right in the middle of all that we passed a cross street that was literally filled with 6 foot piles of trash as far as I could see, that was swarming with the homeless. On another avenue, street vendors laying out every imaginable item on every square inch of free space. It sounds familiar, but the density and quantity is over the top.

D) The Taxi driver calls to a banana vendor, gets two , and offers me one. Very nice! Then he throws his banana peel outside into a pile of trash that a man is sitting in. Both see no irony in the occurance. My Taxi driver then hands me a flyer with bible verses and Jesus quotes. I see irony in that.

E) We arrive at the Plaza Botero, which is surrounded by police fencing, and has an entry tent with police on guard….I step inside the familiar tourist reality, which obviously needs poliing in order to exist.

The Raphael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture. We’ll see if I get to finishing the drawing…..Maybe this evening, in the comfort of my upscale existence.

“ Giacomo” Graphite on Paper

Yesterday I dropped Giacomo off at the Cartagena AIrport, and in about 15 minutes (21 hours and 3 planes later) he will be arriving in Seattle. I kind of choked up when he left.

I joke that Giacomo is my role model, but it’s not really a joke. He is one of the most cool headed, intelligent, relaxed, loving, with a keen sense of humor, comfortable in his own skin, genuine, not prone to fads or peer pressure people that I know. In other words, he is an awesome travel companion, and I feel so blessed to be have been able to spend this time with him on the cusp of college and him flying the coop.

We have had three amazing weeks discovering a new part of the world together. The last time I was in Mexico City was when I was 4, and we had both never been to Colombia. The mutual discovery of exploring a part of the world that is not usually in the Moody orbit was profound. It will have ramifications in both of our futures.

Last Day in Cartagena

“Giacomo” Graphite & waterfolor on regular ole drawing paper

Giacomo. Thanks For coming with me. It has been a huge gift! Here’s to many more! Love you mucho, Dad

Just waking up and walking outside everyday has been amazing. I could have spent all 7 days on the understory patio and been completely fascinated. Indeed, the two watercolors I did while here were done from there. I could spend another week just painting from the patio.

The small green parrots chortle in the morning sun, brisking about their big mud condo (like a bean bag built around a branch). Immense and tiny praying mantis jockey for position around the ktichen light. Doves coo and beat their wings against the ground in some mating ritual. Insects trumpet a poison harmonic at full blast. The hook billed hummingbirds are as numerous as the insects. I keep seeing new birds fly by. Stray dogs wonder through, more interested in handouts than a pat on the head.

The Plants exist in a whole different dimension here. The giant leaves make you feel small. They arc in all encompassing gestures: shading, swooping, pulling you in. Everything belongs here, whether it wants to or not. No austere nordic alienation can creep in as the humidity fills every pore of lonliness. People are more connected here. More familiar.

We saw a funeral procession go through the town of Guachaca. Lead by a phalanx of small honking motorcycles with two to three people on each one….Then the walkers, and in the middle of them the casket being carried on the shoulders of men, and then more honking motorcyles. Probably 500 people; not formally dressed. Just in attendance. Evidence of a connected community.

Being here has been, dare I say….“healing”. In this glamping situation there is no escaping the outdoors, the literal vibration it gives off. The saturation of greens and color. Having to speak more Spanish to get along, and I am not very good, but I am a good mime, and I can draw, and they are patient. We figure it out. The culture, the heat, the nature, the language; it puts you in an altered state. An immersive state.

I suppose that is what I seek: Immersion. Hard to do in a week, but lots of quiet time helps, and just looking. Looking at how miraculous everything is. I don’t just do this when I travel, but all the time, I mean, when I have time, to be still or on a walk. Ask my family : I am always lagging behind looking at something, A view, a fungus, the mixture of moss and dew, an extraordinary tree, a phenomenon of light, lizard, beetle, ant hive, stone, nurselog, building, alley, clerk at a counter, junk pile,

I don’t much go for gurus, but I heard one with a big social media presence say something that I agree with. Paraphrasing: “Do not focus on the purpose of your life, because there is none. Rather focus on the miraculous exhurberance of your existance.” Spot-On, Guru with a good P.R. dept., spot-on.

If you are into communing in the Jungle in Colombia, and getting moto-taxi rides into town, then I highly recommend the place that we stayed. It is SALVIA y MADRE near Guachaca. You can find them on AirBnB., and on Instagram. The host Paula, is fantastic.

“Julia” Watercolor and blue ink on 300lb paper

LAS PALENQUERAS

This is Julia, who posed for this picture after quickly carving up two giant bowls of fruit salad which I had unknowlingly ordered. She is known as one of the Palenqueras, and they sell frutas and pose for tourists with their brightly colored dresses and bowls of fruit balancing on their heads.

The Palenqueras came way before Carmen Miranda. They are from San Basilio de Palenque, which is a town about 50 Kms to the southeast of Cartagena. It was a town formed and administered by runaway slaves, and in 1691 they signed a royal decree that stated the town’s independence from Spanish colonial rule, thus becoming the first free town in the Americas.

That seems a worthy thing to remember, and their colorful presence ensures that we don’t forget.

LA HEROICA

La Heroica is the nickname for Cartgena. In 1815 they declared their Independence from Spain, and soon after endured a 105 day siege of the City by the Spanish forces. Many starved rather than surrendering. Spain did retake the City, but the effort has been memorialized by the Nickname.

I remembering marveling at the splendor of Madrid when I was there last summer. And then I read some of the history of Colombia, and realized that much of that splendor was robbed during the 400 year stranglehold that Spain had on much of South America.

Watercolor pencil, watercolor and Blue ink on 300lb paper

This is a view from our kitchen at our AirBnB….which is an open understory, with the screened bedroom above. The compound we are in is a beautifully currated junglescape, and I couldn’t concieve of greater lushness. The plant and insect energy is over the top. The birds, the sounds, the heavy fruits crashing down.

To go from urban Mexico City and tourist-centered Cartragena to the middle of the jungle is quite a shock. Suddenly nature is the main show and we are in it. You find yourself in the middle of a constant thrumming drone of lfe; day and night. Cradled by the biome.

Guachaca y Parque Tayrona

It takes awhile to adjust to a new place: The temperature, the bedding, finding ones way about, Figuring out the food, the new town. . Guachaca. is the name of the nearby town. It was weird to walk through and have no one try to sell us anything. Fruiterias, Panerias and every other shop seemed to be a Motorcycle Repair shop. No restaurants were noticeably open. So we went to a tiny supermercado and bought stuff to cook for dinner. Arepas are the Colombian version of Tortillas. They are thicker and quite a hearty meal when paired with melted cheese and cooked vegetables or chicken, or whatever.

We got a guide named Daniel to take us to the hidden waterfall further up in the mountains of Tayrona Park. It was a steep 3 kilometer hike in the hot sun (when not under jungle cover) and Daniel told us in broken english about the history of Colombia, Tayrona Park and the Indigenous people that still live here. They divide into three language groups and are distributed according to elevation (high, mid and low) Although the low is still up in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range. You pay entry to get into the park and supposedly the money goes to support the indigenous populations that live there.

We heard howler monkeys, which he said was a rarity (maybe he says that to all the tourists).

The Waterfall area was movie shot amazing. And felt sooooo good to swim in after the hot walk. If we didn’t have the guide with us, I probably would have hung out another couple hours…..although, the sun does disappear pretty quickly after 6:30pm.

That one photo of the river bed is actually just one of 20 glroious jungle shots! Click on the link to see.

And here is a video link of our kitchen mascot! (one of several)

Burro en la Calle - 8x11 watercolor on 300lb paper

I spotted this burro attached to a cart near a busy intersection in Cartagena. I did not paint this on site, but employed a deviced called a “camera”…to capture said image and work on painting it in the luxury of an air conditioned apartment . It’s not so much the heat, as the humidity that floors these Seattle natives. In a few days time we wil be in Guayacha, near Tayrona park, further east on the Caribbean coast, and there will be no air conditioning, just an idyllic palapa in the jungle. We will be spending a lot of time in the river.

Carts of all sorts, shapes and sizes are employed here, mostly driven by human power. (Tons of cars and motorbikes as well)

As we move about the city we are perpetually engaged by a plethora of hawkers selling everything from coral bracelets to trips to the Rosario islands, to massages, to Hats, Domino holders, lottery tickets, etc. One quickly realizes that we tourists are their livlihood, and that we are expected to fulfill that roll. But you can’t say yes to everyone, so you get really good at saying No a hundred different ways. You start feeling like “No’s” are powering you through the city. It’s not a rejection, but a means of propulsion.

We went to a beach on BocaGrande, which is the peninsula south of El Centro (The old Walled City) with lots of new high rise hotels , and most of the beach was closed off, with only a small section left open for use. WOW, was that crowded, and I have never said NO so fast and so frequently in my life. The expectation was intense. They pretty much leave Giacomo alone. BUt we did spent money, and body surfed in the waves, and got sunburned, so everyone was happy.

Cartagena is a visual feast, and I highly recommend coming here. Pretty much not to be missed, but it is also the center of tourism in Colombia. It will be good to see more of the country without the hard sell.

Above is some of my process with the “Burro en la Calle” watercolor. I actually started with a drawing done with a blue watercolor pencil (which bleeds when wetted). Notice how I am rigging my easel inorder for it to be more stable. Improvisation! Plein air painting! Life! …. Lo Mismo.

As I got off the plane at Midnight a wall of humidity hit me and said, “Relax white man, I’ve got you and everyone else in my embrace.”

Fruit Stand Man - Pencil on 98lb 6x8 paper

Cartgena is an incredible treasure trove of visual exhuberance. Click on “View Original Post” to see it.

Tamarin Monkeys in a Cartagena park. May box of macaroons had them mesmerized. (Click on link to view them in action).

My webiste is currently not working, but I am wondering if these Blog posts do. Lemme know ! We are off to enjoy the 2nd day.!

If you are getting this via email, be sure to click on the link at the bottom of the post inorder to see all the photos. Also, I love comments! If you wish to respond , you may via email, or by clicking on the title of the actual Blog post on my website.

Watercolor on 300 # paper

The above watercolor was done in two sittings at the central plaza of Parque Mexico,. An amazing hangout place, with Dogs, boxing sparrers, hiphop dancers, kids playing soccer, roller skaters, couple dancing lessons, yoga, handstands, Giacomo reading and me painting… All happening at the same time in and around the large ciruclar space surrounded by a colonade of magenta bougainvillea vines. Such good vibes.

My scale is a bit off with the painting… the guy with the blue shirt is mighty tiny. I could stick it in photoshop and correct the proportions….but let’s just call it part of this piece’s charm.

Watercolor: So tricky. Not really faster than oils for me, but one way or another I will get the hang of it, as it is all I have with me on this trip.

MURALS

Along a hiway in Mexico City

One of my reasons for coming to Mexico City was to see the murals of Diego Rivera, but the city was so interesting where ever I went, I didn’t wind up seeing any. Next time!

Luckily, there are plently of murals scattered about the city. Here are a few samples:

Pictured below are some impressive frescos in the Castillo de Chapultepec about the Mexican Revolution and the first Democratic election held in Mexico around 1911, which was won by Revolutionary leader Francisco Modero (he was assassinated two years later). The artist was Juan O’Gorman, and the frescos were completed in 1968.

“Fresco” means “fresh” in Italian and is a form of mural painting in which earth pigments are painted directly on fresh, wet, lime plaster. As the plaster dries, a chemical process bonds the pigment and plaster together. Frescos can last a long time! Basically as long as the plaster lasts. Longer than anything I have ever painted.

What I appreciate about the paintings are not only the satisfying internal composition, satisfying detail and nice colors, but the visual narrative that is being told. I did this with the mural that I did in Poulsbo, WA, telling the story of the Cod Fishing Schooners. It is a very satisfying form. The artist is there to tell a story, not just express themselves. Art in service of history. Images have a radiant impact. They make the story more real. Their permance is a legacy.

Powerful stuff.

Now here are more random shots of what we’ve seen in Mexico City,

Next post will be from Cartegena ,Colombia. We fly tomorrow. South America here we come!

Giacomo, somewhere in Mexico City. Click on the blog link below to see videos and photos of the days adventure.

It was the recommendation of my friend David Lynch that prompted me to stop in Mexico City for a week before continuing on to Colombia. This was his advice, “Don’t make plans. Just walk in any direction”.

We have mostly done that, and it is the way to go. I am not much of a planner anyway. I just like to stumble on things, and indeed we did yesterday when our one plan, visiting the Frida Khalo museum, fell through because (word to the wise) you have to buy tickets in advance. Doh! So we aimlessly wandered in a plant fair, then a larger arboretum park, and then over to the Teatro Nacionale, which didn’t seem to have much going on….and so down a beautiful old street that led us to a park FILLED with relaxed, joyous people and clowns and musicians and jugglers and traditional dancers, and a big wedding coming ouf of a cathedral and….it was amazing. The Mexican people really know how to hang on a Holiday….it was the 6th of May, so maybe it was a Cinco De Mayo celebration, or maybe it was just another Saturday. I don’t know.

The park was Jardín Centenario in the municipality of Coyoacán, an area known for cobblestone streets, colonial architecture and ….Frida Kahlo. We stopped at a FANTASTIC seafood place for dinner (yes, we have let loose our Vegan ways for this trip), made all the more fantastic with two shots of top shelf mescal. Then Churros at the corner stand, then….lighenting, then thunder, then RAIN! Unprepparred and without wifi for an Uber rescue (Mexcio CIty has free wifi almost everywhere,…. except when we get caught in the rain). So we begged wifi and shelter from a nearbye restaurant and got an Uber home.

Ubers are affordable and an easy way to get around, and again, wifi almost everywhere, so if you have no cell plan for Mexico (which we do not) you are not dead in the water.

Now we are off to Mexico Park so that I can finish a watercolor…..my daily painting thing is not in full swing yet, but next post I will show the result of today’s efforts, and show a bunch of pics of murals (ironically none of which are Diego Rivera).

I leave you with the life of the party.