Some few words on the subject

Pale Moon is a playful piece that revisits aesthetic subjects long present in my work. Unlike other pieces, Pale Moon's aim was not to elicit strong reactions and the dissonance of erotic attraction and rejection, but to convey pleasure and calm. This piece is, in a way, an iteration of the many dancers I have drawn and sculpted in the past, a piece that takes the long-loved subject of beautiful ballerinas to a new level.

Pale Moon is thus a piece that was born as the product of the purest joy of aesthetical pleasures. The main subject of this piece could be translated as: The dancer and her robe.

The Process

Talking about the process of this piece is to talk about the long journey that has been making art for me. It's no secret that my art is heavily influenced by the dancers of the likes of Antonio Canova, Edgar Degas, Alphons Mucha and Démetre Chiparus. This wild mixture of styles arises a conflict itself: How to create something among these so different lines and achieve something that both, resembles the inspirations and has a unique and harmonious identity? This question is the driver that inspired this mixed-media piece that draws inspiration of different sources for different fields.

For the robe I drew inspiration of previous projects, like Stabat Mater Dolorosa's original chiton, and the poncho-like Words to Learn to Hide. The attire is, in its own way, a playful experiment with materials, lines and styles: While the chiton was managed to become the prototype of greek robes in pop culture, the poncho is more associated with latin american cultures. This attire as a whole plays with wavy airy froms that underline the dancing feet of the dancer. While in the beginning the dancer leaned more towards the neoclassisitical lines of the beautiful chiton-wearing dancers of Antonio Canova, the piece developed into a less dynamic and more balanced subject as if the dancer was caught in the exact moment before the execution of a dance. Her face is serene with determination, while her body tilts forward, her feet tense, ready to start a wild tarantela.

The zen you can read in the Pale Moon's body language was inspired by the less dynamic works by Alphons Mucha and Démetre Chiparus. When we talk about the latter, we can not ignore the eclecticness of his danseuses' attires. This I aspect I took and expanded on it for Pale Moon.

Why Princess Mononoke, you might ask

and you would be rightfully do so. The answer is quite simple, but in needs some context. Princess Mononoke, yes the magical film by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, tells (also) the story of San, a human girl who was abandoned by her parents at early age for the wolf Godess Moro to rise. Growing up among wolves, in the purity of the forest of the Deer God, San is dragged into a war against humans, who in their predatory thirst seek to kill the Deer God and its forest. At a point, San is trapped in the conflict, of belonging to two worlds, the human and the animal.

Pale Moon is, in a way, a representation of the answer to this conflict, it is a bridge between the American and the European, between the maneuristic dancer and the pre-raphaelite icon, between the roughness of concrete and the lightness of a full moon. Pale Moon embodies the tranquility and zen found in the forest of the Deer God the night before the clash of war, it is that fragile moment before the leap, before the thunder and roar, a distant light surrounded by darkness. Pale Moon is a beautiful and hauting, sharp and sweet, but foremost: hermetic, unreachable, ethereal.