Luciana Mariano

Old Times
Good old days - 30x40 - 2023

Often we meet and greet people on automatic gear. There is no eye contact, no hugs, not even a hand shake. We talk but it’s all rhetorical speech, we have no intention to really know how the person is doing, what is making him/her happy or miserable. We blame it on our scarsety of time, not without it being true; the age of information has sucked our lifes to the scary times described by the genius Charles Chaplin on Modern Times. We live mechanically, working to surviving and surviving to work. Social Media have very little to do with socializing and even less on being a media, it is more like a dead end burden we feel obliged to attend and respond to. We are being slaved by our cepllphones. Special moments have been neglected to second or third priority, if at all a priority. We now get emotional by watching tiny videos on tiny screens, just before continuing all the meaningless compulsory activities that took over our days and lifes. It feels like we have no choice. We are exhausted and it feels like everyone else is living a better life that the one we are. It is difficult to choose what we want when we have to do what we must. The new phone, the new car, the new next thing that will grant us the new debt, but not the peace we should be gaining. Most of us are not even struggling about the fancy things, the majority of humanity is still trying to figure out where they will sleep tonight or what their next meal will be, if it will at all be. Where did we go wrong?
And how to step out of this madness?
Few of us have the luxury to plan ahead. Only for today I know what to do: I will paint. And tonight, for sure, I will watch Modern Times. It seems that the fella knew what he was playing about. Art has the answer, and hopefully it will redeem us.

Art: Goof old days – 30×40 – 2023 – In exhibition at Naivistit Iittalassa.

Luciana Mariano ©

Lysice Castle

The cat in the room – Lysice Castle Collection – 2023

Another beautiful week at the wonderful Lysice Castle, in the Czech Republic. Institutions that appreciate naive art and want to compose their collection with quality and respect for the art and the artists. A week to be remembered, painting in the beautiful castle, among an amazing group of naive artists, being cared and pampered by the association with lovely outings, delicious food, fun gatherings. Thank you to the organisers, the sponsors, the members of the association, the artists and friends that we meet there and keep in the heart forever. Děkuji, kiitos, thank you, grazie, mercì.

Humanity?

I am not sure where we went wrong.

We see people but not all are humane.

What happened to peace, to harmony, to respect, to solidarity, to empathy? What happened to love?

There is injustice in each and every country, continent. Events so bizzarre that we doubt not only our capacity to love, but the human capacity to think.

We must re-think and re-evaluate our human attitudes towards the planet and towards each other. We are walking away from the humane society we should be evolving to be. We are becoming something else and it doesn´t look good.

We should be more like nature, more like the ecossistems that surrounding us, because there we can see that what doesnt comply to the laws of life and love, is doomed to extintion.

………….

Não tenho certeza de onde erramos.

Vemos pessoas, mas nem todas são humanas.

O que aconteceu com a paz, com a harmonia, com o respeito, com a solidariedade, com a empatia? O que aconteceu com o amor?

Há injustiça em cada país, continente. Acontecimentos tão bizarros que duvidamos não só da nossa capacidade de amar, mas da capacidade humana de pensar.

Devemos repensar e reavaliar nossas atitudes humanas em relação ao planeta e uns aos outros. Estamos nos afastando da sociedade humana que deveríamos estar evoluindo para ser. Estamos nos tornando outra coisa e isso não parece bom.

Devemos ser mais como a natureza, mais como os ecossistemas que nos rodeiam, porque ali podemos ver que o que não obedece às leis da vida e do amor, está fadado à extinção.

Luciana Mariano ©

©Art: When it starts to rain I – acrylics on canvas – 50×70 cm – 2022.

O[d]d | arts.
©Odd flowers, 2022 -work in exhibition and sale at Naivistit Ittalassa / Finland

O[d]d | aRt.

Odd flowers

for odd times

The oddity of perceptions

Who watches, who is watched?

When, How, Why?

Who?

For whom?

What’s new, what is old

What’s odd?

Color or shape?

Reality or invention?

Art or work?

Lost or found?

Who plays?

Who’s played?

O

D

d

Ends.

All arts are political acts.

🥕

Luciana Mariano ©

Listen to the music and see.

A dinner out of this world

The flawless setting. Table is immaculately set, candles are lit, the wine is just at the perfect temperature, prize winning harvest, bold and tasty!

The house is clean and cozy, the exquisite cuisine spreads its scents through the dining room, enhancing the appetite, inviting for the amazing meal about to be devoured.

Comfortable chairs and the the freshly pressed linen table cloth invites the guests to the feast. Shiny delicate china, silver services and cutlery, everything set and served with dedicated good taste. 

The walls display, on warm and welcoming wallpapers, the art and the time that are suspended in thought for this special occasion.

Transparent curtains fall gracefully all the way to the floor.

A red chrystal steals the impressive view. The pendulus of the clock, also static, dare not to disturb the moment. Everything is ready, silent, awaits.

Except the tail of the interesting blue beast under the table.

It anxiously swings, awaiting.

As the planet behind the curtain, never stops rotating.

This work currently been exhibited at Naivistit Iittalassa, in Iittala, Finland.

Happy holidays. Whatever that means.

The woman and the goose.
Woman and Goose – 25×30 – AoC – 2022 – Luciana Mariano (c)

We are moved by our passions.
But we must make sure our passions also hold some humanistic, altruistic values, otherwise it’s all about our egoic instincts. Building ourselves requires a myriad of chemicals, combined in such a way that we become the best version of what this existence allows us to be. We are a rare combination of beauty and disgrace, knowledge and despise, kindness and monstersities. And we have to struggle to accept the ugly and let prevail the good in us. We disguise well and most times not. We are demonic angels of ourselves and what we give to the world is never enough, compared with what we get. There is no balance… and yet, that´s all we need.

The woman and the goose.

They both seem defenseless, harmless, beautiful.

And they are.

Until we aren´t.
We are just art.

Utopia

This work is called ”Together we can reach the stars”.
It is about the wishful thinking of a society where people, helping each other, could reach higher goals for humanity. It is about, hand by hand, making something better which everyone could benefit from. Not a polarized world of opposites, but a world where everyone counts and matters, above profit and interests.

The world is killing itself based on division. There is not them and us, its all we. Greed, territorialism and insanity is rulling and everyone is loosing. There are wars everywhere, at this very moment, but some wars attain out mercy, while others are completely ignored. Why? Is it because one could kill you and the other presents no risk to you? If that is the case, I bring sad news: you are already dead inside.

The world, from this naive artist’s perspective, looks like this: The planet is a big beautiful school and some kids are not allowed to learn, play and eat there. Other kids are grounded during recession but they didn’t do any wrong. Some kids are overfed, overdressed, over indulged and even given free grades and stars, while others are starving, cold, being bullied and punished without any reason. Some kids are better than others because of their surnames, skin color, the amount of money their parents hold in their bank accounts. Would you like your kid to attend that school? Would he be bullying or bullied?

Stop insanity.

Stop allowing the bullies to decide who thrives and who perishes.

If you can’t see the whole picture, or if you cant see both sides, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Together we can reach the stars, but against each other we are doomed, collectively, to fail.

Luciana Mariano, March 2022.

Meditation
Storytelling

There is a place, in the deep, vast blue planet, where we can always meet and rest.

Where we can just be and listen to each others breaths, hearts, voices, silences and stories.

There we know we are safe. Turbulences do not affect us when we are in there.

It perhaps lasts a few seconds or undisturbed hours and days, but we know,

that in there, we don’t need to be cautious, worried, afraid, alert, defended.

We share in silence whatever goes through our souls, with no fear of mistaking

no doubt nor disapproval, no chance of rejection. An ephemeral taste of peace and freedom we lack.

There we can be tenderly preserved from tempests, turmoils, gales, jumbles and storms.

It’s there where we take shelter in our darkest and coldest nights.

A place to be nurtured and lovingly accepted. Generously allowed to exist, heal and thrive, despite our human imperfections, our flaws and limitations. There we are perfectly broken (and loved) for the whole context and perspectives of our existence. No words needed, you just know. There we play, sit, rest, are.

Its the chance to recompose and re-align. Re-find our purposes and allow ourselves to continue, despite the noise, rage and friction of the waters that never cease. Feeling comfortable even for a tiny fraction of time may be the glimpse of hope we long for. Having our feet dry and warm, for a while, gives us strength to stay afloat a little longer and perhaps, make it safe to shore, find home.

There you are the home.

Absenc/s/es
hdr

We are all there and yet, no one is present. Life can be just like that; we think we exist, but we are ever desappearing, from the very moment we started.

Estamos todos lá e, no entanto, ninguém está presente. A vida pode ser assim; pensamos que existimos, mas estamos desaparecendo, desde o momento em que começamos.

Januária


Her name is Januária. 

She might look fragile but she is a beautiful, bold and fearless girl.

She carries a soul full of dreams and a heart full of love.

(Here starts a series of 3D works)
*****
Januária pode parecer frágil mas é na verdade muito valente.

Ela carrega consigo uma mala cheia de sonhos e tem a alma, o coração, os braços e os olhos repletos de amor.

( Escultura em massa de secagem a frio e pintura acrílica)