Shadows and depth added on characters.

Its coming along. Click on image to see it bigger.

-Vico

ticho kanih "We are crying"

The Mexica held a ritual in which group/communities of people would cry together as a way of group therapy. They would use this ritual as a way to bring themselves to a holistic balance. I found it important to communicate this message in relation to our current condition. It is important to see how other cultures use a natural bodily/spiritual function to reach a balance after traumatic/stressful/exciting experiences.

The western idea of crying is much more tainted by being associated with weakness and the feminine.

In this scene we see a group of men and women equally expressing an emotion that is as real and essential as laughing, and loving. Crying is not always bad but is sometimes essential to the cleansing of our inner selves.

-Vico

Crying Ritual Stage 2

Aztec Crying Ritual work in progress.

Work in progress.

It might be ready for the Accident Gallery… Hopefully

-Vico

Life & Death Aztec Gods Revival Illustration

Well Step 1 done. I have appropriated this Aztec image and in doing so have transferred it into a new and contemporary medium. Next step is to bring it to life and Animate it with Flash.

It has been a very powerful experience to carry on the Mexica tradition of scribing their Codices so that future generations can share in the knowledge and the traditions their obscure ancestors practiced. The more I think about the cause the more I am compelled to continue this body of work of saving an entire culture’s History from disappearing from the face of this earth. I see the tremendous value of converting many of these powerful images into a contemporary medium like digital illustration and animation in order to make these images even more accessible to younger generations that have only experienced living in a world that is over saturated with mass media, computers, and internet. The afore mentioned media will be vital to be able to deliver the message to younger generations who are now inevitably connected to each other globally through this new wave of Social Media sites that have been a great vehicle for the spreading of information around the world.

-Vico

Tonalpohualli Aztec Life & Death Diety

Work in Progress. Here you can see the Left character of this dualistic diety in its colored stage while the right character is still in only line work stage. These characters are being constructed in pieces in order to animate them in the future. More coming soon.

-Vico

Inspired by the Jambalaya Logo Design Idea.

This piece was inspired by the Jambalaya Restaurant Logo I am currently designing. This should get updated in the near future but I think this came out just beautiful. What do you think?

-Vico

“For Derrida, language or ‘texts’ are not a natural reflection of the world. Text structures our interpretation of the world. Following Heidegger, Derrida thinks that language shapes us: texts create a clearing that we understand as reality. Derrida sees the history of western thought as based on opposition: good vs. evil mind vs. matter, man vs. woman, speech vs. writing. These oppositions are defined hierarchically: the second term is seen as a corruption of the first, the terms are not equal opposites.

Derrida thought that all text contained a legacy of these assumptions, and as a result of this, these texts could be re-interpreted with an awareness of the hierarchies implicit in language. Derrida does not think that we can reach an end point of interpretation, a truth. For Derrida all text s exhibit ‘differance’: they allow multiple interpretations. Meaning is diffuse, not settled. Textuality always gives us a surplus of possibilities, yet we cannot stand outside of textuality in an attempt to find objectivity.

One consequence of deconstruction is that certainty in textual analyses becomes impossible. There may be competing interpretations, but there is no uninterpreted way one could assess the validity of these competing interpretations. Rather than basing our philosophical understanding on undeniable truths, the deconstructionist turns the settled bedrock of rationalism into the shifting sands of a multiplicity of interpretations.”

Language is the key to our understanding of the world. From knowing two languages I can clearly see the capping of our brain through the use of language. I can express myself in different ways depending on which language I am speaking (Spanish, English). I could only imagine the possibilities of thoughts if I knew more languages…