Moments

Argentines

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:54:00 -0400

Here are some of my observations about the people of Argentina. I love Argentina and miss the lovable quirks of its citizens. Of course, these are just for fun and are not completely generalizable. : ) Let me know if you have something to add..

1) They will constantly surprise you with their energy. Studies are in progress to find out if and when Argentines actually sleep.

2) They are always late, without exception, and are truly puzzled if you hint that you are slightly annoyed by their lateness.

3) Friend groups are some of the strongest in the world. They tend to stay the same from primary or secondary school until adulthood. Argentines are some of the most loyal and dedicated friends.

4) They love making lines, for everything. They make lines to have the privilege of getting into the real line (actually). I once saw a guy with a portable TV at Disco (a grocery store). Just chillinnn.

5) In said line they will stand as close to you as possible because obviously that will get them to the front faster.

6) They love order and assigned seats. Even movie theaters have assigned seats.

7) If you take a city bus past 11pm on a weekend, it will be filled with 15-17 year olds chugging cheap vodka and blasting the most annoying cumbia remix in the world on their cool smartphone.

8) They treat anyone pregnant like royalty. Don’t bother counting the number of times a skinny woman with no bump passes you in the grocery store line or asks for a seat on the bus because she’s “embarazada”.

9) They love complimenting food. All the time, no matter how it tastes. Every single food, even if it is the blandest dish to ever hit your taste buds, will be raved about as “tan rico”.

10) They have no problem littering or letting their dogs do their business on the streets without picking it up. This has made the Argentines experts at dodging sidewalk bullets; studies show they have the best peripheral vision in the world.

11) If you are American, don’t refer to yourself as “American” or you will inevitably get provoked into a huge fight by some Argentine who also considers themselves to be ‘American’ (Even though Brasil calls themselves Brasil when they are in fact the United States of Brasil, and Mexico the United States of Mexico, etc etc…). We are all yanquis down here, especially insulting to those of us from south of the Mason-Dixon line… or worse ‘norteamericanos’ which doesn’t even distinguish us from Canada or Mexico, hello geography 101!? A warning, if you enter this fight you will never change a single opinion.

12) They are very cognizant of who owes whom money and exactly how much, down to the last peso (could be because the peso used to be worth a lot more and it’s a habit).

13) They will constantly mention the superiority of Fernet Branca over 1882.

14) They will constantly mention the superiority of Fernet over any other liquid. (+20 points if you are foreign and enjoy this liquor. -40 points if you drink it with Diet instead of regular Coke).

15) They will complain about the cold when it gets below 65 degrees; fur jackets will be donned by 96% of female Recoleta residents over the age of 55 when the temperature drops below this threshold.

16) If you are American (see observation #10), you will constantly disappoint Argentines if you are not from Miami or Nueva York. But you will get a “que lindo!” and blank stare when you say you are from somewhere else.

17) Going to a psychologist is not taboo. Rather, it is chic. And don’t act surprised when an Argentine begins to talk about his or her latest therapy sessions… in fact, you’re weird and repressed if you DON’T go.

18) They love the U.S. (aka Miami) for buying shit like cheap iPhones and clothes from Forever 21 but definitely view the States as Europe’s bastard child. The really classy people travel to the Old Continent.

19) Argentine women take a lot of pride in how they look. They are thin and beautiful and frequently go to get their hair and nails done.

20) Argentine women also love being on top of the latest fashion trends, so much so that it often clouds their vision and no one realizes how silly they all look, a la “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. Case in point, one day these shoes just appeared ubiquitously on the streets on 78% of females under age 35.

21) They love to party, and it starts late. Don’t think about arriving before 2am. You are an ‘abuelo/a’ (grandparent) if you go home before 6am on a weekend night (see observation number 7)

22) They love celebration in all its incarnations. They throw eggs at each other during graduation and have the most fun weddings on earth.

23) They love to celebrate each other’s successes.

24) They don’t tolerate really drunk people. Send those vomiting Americans back where they came from and leave the real drinking to those who can handle it. Argentines are all about partying with composure and class.

25) They are more than content with a surprisingly unvaried diet.

26) They are hesitant to leave any sort of electronic trail. They prefer to keep cash rather than a bank account and always prefer to order food by phone than online.

27) Delivery EVERYTHING is where it’s at.

28) They think speaking English with no accent is not cool and also could be considered pretentious (for native Argentines).

29) They love to use accented English words in unconventional ways (for instance, instead of calling a mall a mall, they call it a ‘shopping’)

30) They love to complain about the prices of taxis but seem to be resignedly content with the absurd clothing and appliance prices.

31) They love getting paid in US dollars.

32) Argentine men are extremely forward and always want to know a reason why if you decide to reject an advance.

33) They love their dogs. Argentine perros are the most well-behaved, immaculately-groomed canines on the planet.

34) They have absolutely NO hesitations with throwing away bottles, cans, plastic, newspapers, and any other recyclable product in the trash can. Shudder….

35) Boca or River = life.

36) They do not embrace the concept of buying in bulk and love to fill up their grocery carts with 200 individual yogurt cups and somehow always manage to get ahead of you in the check-out line.

37) There is no such thing as an asado (bbq with friends and/or family) lasting too long. These affairs can last the whole day and into the night.

38) They are obsessed with getting receipts for everything.

39) They are extremely impatient while driving a car. For instance, all the drivers start to honk if there is a delay in paying at a toll-booth, in hopes that the toll operators raise the bars to let the cars pass without paying.

40) Pedestrians are the scum of the Earth. All Argentines obey the hierarchy of auto before man. There is no such thing as a pedestrian right-of-way.

41) A “tranqui” (calm) night would be getting to sleep before 5am.

42) Blackberrys are still awesome, no matter what anyone says.

43) They call each other things like “huge balls” (boludo) as a term of affection.

New paintings!

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:17:49 -0400

New paintings!

Tute riding his bike in Salta, Argentina (the sky actually...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:05:34 -0400

Tute riding his bike in Salta, Argentina (the sky actually looked like that… and therefore I had to make an exception to my rule of never painting too-perfect sunsets that can often look really cheesy)

Oil on canvas 50x60cm

Plaza España, Mendoza PATTERNS

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:42:15 -0400

Plaza España, Mendoza

PATTERNS

Playa de estacionamiento

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:55:38 -0400

Playa de estacionamiento

Top: Train in Buenos Aires (Honduras y Juan B Justo) Bottom:...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:18:40 -0400

Top: Train in Buenos Aires (Honduras y Juan B Justo)

Bottom: Girl playing in fountain in Mendoza (I think it is pink because of the Mendoza Harvest Festival last week or perhaps for International Women’s Day)

I have been enjoying taking and learning about how to take good photos this year, but I still feel that my true passion is painting. Needless to say, it takes me a lot longer to do a painting than to take and process a photo. So that I don’t have an empty blog for a week, I love updating it with interesting photos that capture life in Buenos Aires in between the paintings. Truly great photos don’t come along so often, but when they do it seems that they always involve a bit of luck (and obviously the skill and eye of the photographer; I am not trying to slight this genre at all. I love it!). Painting is much less stressful to me - you never have just a millisecond to capture the perfect lighting or expression with a brush and canvas.

I am hoping to create an artist website but I know nothing about platforms or e-commerce or web creation/design. If anyone has any recommendations please send them my way. I don’t mind paying a small fee for a quality website without ads.

Besos

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond..."

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 09:07:12 -0400

““Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is
that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our
darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not
to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the
world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people
won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the
glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in
all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our
own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.””

- Nelson Mandela, 1994 inaugural speech

Finished today! So happy taller has started again =) oil on...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:39:33 -0500

Finished today! So happy taller has started again =)

oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm

Possibly the most Argentine meal possible: empanadas de carne...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:35:59 -0500

Possibly the most Argentine meal possible: empanadas de carne cortada al cuchillo + Quilmes (@Costumbres Criollas en Retiro, Esmeralda 1392, highly recommend!)

Today I was buying art supplies on LaValle (where I paid 32...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:29:00 -0500

Today I was buying art supplies on LaValle (where I paid 32 pesos or nearly $8 for a pack of safety pins grrr) and decided to take a quick stroll to Congreso. I love playing with the reflections in the puddles!

Portrait oil on canvas

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:35:36 -0500

Portrait oil on canvas

A Sunday Feriado: Late afternoon with golden light in the...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:18:00 -0500

A Sunday Feriado: Late afternoon with golden light in the Rosadal park in Buenos Aires. These photos I took in about a 1.5 hour time span and I couldn’t believe the variety of activities I was able to capture. The images really capture how Argentines use their leisure time to the fullest. They love their holidays as well - while many leave to the beach towns, it seemed that everyone who stayed was in the Palermo parks (as I could barely avoid getting run down by skateboarders and rollerbladers every few seconds).

"Absence diminishes small loves & increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles &..."

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:38:29 -0500

““Absence diminishes small loves & increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles & fans fires.””

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Friday night in Buenos Aires! Photos taken in a pool hall in...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 07:45:00 -0500

Friday night in Buenos Aires! Photos taken in a pool hall in Avenida de Mayo.

It is incredible how uncomfortable I felt first walking into this place. Unbeknownst to my knowledge, pool halls in Argentina are pretty much only frequented by older men. We were actually the only 3 females in the entire basement of 20 full pool tables. The other two girls were writing an article and photographing the place for their online newspaper (www.ArgentinaIndependent.com). I guess as reporters/photographers they must have been used to walking into strange situations as they did not seem to notice the serious gender imbalance or the 40 sets of eyes that followed us for a while. At first I didn’t think women were allowed, but then I was reassured to just ‘be cool’ by my way cooler friends. I was pleasantly surprised at how polite the men of the pool hall were. Normally in a male-dominated environment (or even a neutral environment like the street), woman are constantly being bombarded with sexual or flirtatious comments such as “oooh una muñeca” o “que diosa, que piernas!” or perhaps more vulgar things (translated, oh what a doll! what a goddess! what legs!) Not once did anyone comment on my body or hair color, which was so refreshing. I guess we finally found one thing Argentine men love more than woman - a good game of pool with the bros.

The men of the pool hall loved being photographed and now I must send off a few of the photos to the players that can’t resist a shot of themselves sinking that 8 ball.

Photos of my friend Lili done by my production group at...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 07:16:00 -0500

Photos of my friend Lili done by my production group at Motivarte. It was the first time we’d ever used a studio flash. Very fun!!

Painting of an old train in Buenos Aires. I started this...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:40:00 -0500

Painting of an old train in Buenos Aires.

I started this painting 2 days before a tragic train accident occurred in Once, with 50 deaths and over 700 injured. The city hasn’t restored their trains in decades.

The chicas from ‘Nuestro Espacio’ - a group for...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0500

The chicas from ‘Nuestro Espacio’ - a group for adolescent girls/women that Lauren Thams and I organized for Sundays at Congregación el Santo Sacremento. This past week we talked about our gifts & talents and made flowers to decorate our homes and to remind us daily of our positive qualities.

walking home at night experimenting with rain and light

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:15:00 -0500

walking home at night experimenting with rain and light

Sucking on things near Miguelites station on the J.L. Suarez...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:41:00 -0500

Sucking on things

near Miguelites station on the J.L. Suarez line, Buenos Aires province

Camila in front of the church in Villa Ballester. She was eating...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:12:00 -0500

Camila in front of the church in Villa Ballester. She was eating one of the flowers we were making with the teenage girls!