A House of God

Snapshot of Episcopalian St. Luke’s Cathedral built in 1922 in the former Panama Canal Zone. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Yesterday morning, my wife and I drove over to the former Panama Canal Zone to hunt for subjects to capture with our cameras.  We were short of pictures and we needed a refill badly.  There were three subjects I was interested in shooting.  The first one was a rotunda being built on Avenida de los Mártires with a four-lane tunnel; the second was a majestic building which will house el Tribunal Electoral and third one is the building that houses the Panama Supreme Court.  All three subjects are impressive sites and depict the flourishing modernization of the city.

Even though a church was not on my schedule, as soon as I laid my eyes on this enticing building, I knew it had to be captured with my Birthday Camera (Canon PowerShot A720 IS).  It is a building that seemed to be extracted from the Florence of the XV century during the splendor of the de’ Medici’s dynasty (Giovanni Medici, Cosimo Medici, and Lorenzo Medici “il Magnífico”).  Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages.

In the picture above, you can enjoy the beauty of the Renaissance by observing the eight Roman columns at the entrance of the edifice and the splendid tower of  toward your left.

When I studied art and history in college in Costa Rica, I was infatuated with the dome of Florence’s cathedral.  The man who would build the elusive structure was Fillipo Brunelleschi.  He based his work on Ancient Rome—The Pantheon.  It was one of the most fascinating buildings in the collective imagination of the Western world for a long time.  In 1436 the dome was finally completed.  The greatest architectural feat of the Western world.

The cathedral, topped by Brunelleschi’s dome, dominates the Florentine skyline. The Florentines decided to start building it— late in the 13th century, without a design for the dome. The project proposed by Brunelleschi in the 14th century was the largest ever built at the time, and the first major dome built in Europe since the two great domes of Roman times—the Pantheon in Rome, and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

Orbiting like planets around the sun, inside my head, were the grandiose sculptures and paintings of Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, and  Botticelli.  The compositions and music of Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin, and Heinrich Isaac added to my recollections of the Renaissance in Flornce.

Snapshot of the entire building including the magnificent tower on your left. When I was there they were celebrating a Sunday service at the church. Even though it was built in 1922, the building is extremely well preserved. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

The area of the former Panama Canal Zone is home to many beautiful churches on both the Pacific and Atlantic Side.  All of them are in top shape and in full operation to serve our Lord.

During the upcoming days I’ll include pictures of my sojourn to the sites mentioned in preceding paragraphs.  Keep your eyes open. Good Day.

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Exhibition of Paul Gauguin’s Paintings in Panama

Snapshot of a street promotion poster announcing an art exhibition of Paul Gauguin’s paintings, “The Dream of Panama”, at Museo del Canal Interoceánico de Panamá during December 7, 2012-March 10, 2013. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist who was not well appreciated until after his death.  His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Gauguin’s art became popular after his death and many of his paintings were in the possession of Russian collector Sergei Shchukin.

Paul Gauguin experienced many bouts of depression and at one time attempted suicide. He traveled to Martinique in search of an idyllic landscape and worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal construction; he was dismissed from his job after only two weeks.  He also stayed in Taboga Island on the Pacific side of Panama where he painted for a short time. In 1891, Gauguin sailed to French Polynesia to escape European civilization and “everything that is artificial and conventional”.

Paul Gauguin lived on Taboga Island twice when he was out of money working for the French attempt of the Panama Canal. When Gauguin moved on to French Martinique and then Tahiti, most feel that his work was a result of his time spent on Taboga.  Painter Charles Laval lived in Taboga (the island of flowers) as well.

Photograph of El Museo del Canal Interoceánico de Panamá located inside the Old Shell of Panama City (Casco Antiguo, San Felipe). Photograph courtesy of http://www.viajes.net.

The Inter-Oceanic Panama Canal Museum is housed in a fine antique building that was once the Gran Hotel and later the French canal headquarters. This is the best museum in Panama City and a mandatory stop for every traveler. The museum is a study of the Panama isthmus—from pre-Columbian times, to the arrival of the Spanish, to the French and the American canal-building efforts, through the present day.

The museum gives you a good understanding of the Isthmus of Panama as the center of world trade.  It also provides (somewhat subjectively) an explanation of the effect of the isthmus and the canal on the Panamanian idiosyncrasy. Historical documents here include the Torrijos-Carter Treaty that turned over control of the international waterway to Panama, multimedia and interactive exhibits, mock-household exhibits of everyday life during the history of the canal, a register of the U.S. Senate votes approving the canal, and a floor of old coins and stamps, including the famous Nicaragua stamp with an erupting volcano that was sent to senators to sway them from choosing that country to build a canal. There are no earthquakes in this area of the country.

This is an impeccable museum, with interpretive information in both Spanish and English and on-site guides who provide excellent bilingual tours. The museum is wheelchair accessible. You can easily spend a full hour here.

• Visiting Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
• Location:     Avenida Central at Plaza Independencia, Casco Viejo, San Felipe
• Phone:  228-6231
• Web site:     http://www.sinfo.net/pcmuseum
• Admission Prices:  $2.00 (£1.00) for adults
• Closed:     Closed on national holidays

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Introduction to a Genius: Pablo Picasso

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into a sun.”—Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Côte d’ Azur, 1949.  – Credit:  Gjon Mili – Times & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Many experts in art agree that Pablo Picasso is the most famous artist of the past 100 years. For well over seven decades, right up until his death in 1973 at the age of 91, he created thousands of works, many of them instantly recognizable masterpieces, in a dizzying array of media and in seemingly countless styles that he himself either pioneered or perfected.

Meeting Picasso could be an overwhelming experience, as LIFE’s managing editor George P. Hunt wrote in a 1968 special issue of the magazine devoted entirely to the artist:

“To see Picasso for the first time is to see, under that bald brow and pate, two extraordinary deep-brown eyes. They are strangely big for the face. And they change as you watch him talk and listen, so noticeably changing with the reflections of what passes through his mind, perhaps racing back into experience to enrich the present. They brood. They make mischief, they are friendly, offended, hostile, arrogant, bored, then suddenly interested. Mostly, during our visit, they laughed.”

Pablo Picasso, Vallauris, France, 1949.  Gjon Mili – Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso had an unusual long name not known by many people.  To the world, his name name was Picasso, but he was baptized  Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad, a series of names honoring various saints and relatives.  Added to these were Ruiz and Picasso, for his father and mother, respectively, as per Spanish law.  The latter stuck and the rest is history.

Arguably Picasso’s most famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War—Guernica. This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Asked to explain its symbolism, Picasso said, “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.”

This blog post would not be complete if I don’t add more quotations about the one-of-a-kind genius of modern times.

—”Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

—“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

—“It takes a very long time to become young.”

As of 2004, Picasso remains the top ranked artist (based on sales of his works at auctions) according to the Art Market Trends report. More of his paintings have been stolen than those by any other artist; the Art Loss Register has 550 of his works listed as missing.  I wonder why anybody would like to steal a work of Pablo Picasso?  Good Day.

Source:  Wikipedia Encyclopedia

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Quotation: Originality

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring two pence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”

C. S. Lewis

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Sunflowers

Yesterday afternoon I drove over to El Rey Supermarket at El Dorado to buy my monthly allotment of medicines for my high blood pressure hindrance.  As I walked through the aisles of the venue, I passed the flower section, and there on one corner, my eyes captured a group of gorgeous bright yellow sunflowers.  I knew then and there, these flowers would be my next subject for Lingua Franca.

Without wasting much time, I purchased a bunch of them, dashed over to the pharmacy to get my medicines and speeded home to take the shots.  This is what came out of my compact Canon PowerShot A720 IS.  It was a dark day with ash clouds, which made it difficult to concentrate enough light.  However, in my opinion, the pictures look quite decent after all.  Sunflowers always remind me of Dutch post-impressionist painter,  Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflower paintings have been duplicated many times by various artists (although never reaching the vivacity and intensity of Van Gogh’s) and displayed everywhere; from households to art expos.  Van Gogh began painting sunflowers after he left Holland for France in pursuit of creating an artistic community. The firsts were created to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin’s bedroom.

The majority of Van Gogh’s sunflowers in vases were created in Arles, France during 1888-1889. Van Gogh did create some sunflower paintings prior to this time though in Paris, France around the time of 1887.

Snapshot of a bunch of sunflowers in the living room of our house in Panama City, Panama. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Learning About Science and Art

It’s sad to see how are classrooms are slowly moving backwards as far as learning centers are concerned.  They’ve become centers where teachers press their students to avoid using their brains.  Knowledge is erroneously taught by our outdated educators by memorization instead of associating concepts.  Our students are like storage silos where information is stuffed into their heads until they burst.

When I was a college professor of Business Administration at a local university in Panama City, I was startled to find out how confused the students were when I asked them questions which could not be found in a textbook.  They continually asked, “Professor, can you please tell me the page number where we can find the answer to your question?”   We all know that in real life questions aren’t written in a textbook; what you find are situations which need practical solutions.  You have to think about different options on how to solve these situations.  In other words, you have to think critically.

Studying science is an excellent way to teach our children how to think.  The same holds true for mathematics and art.  Every time I have an opportunity, I take “The Twisters” out to see the real world and learn, instead of watching boring trash television shows.  We have the responsibility to encourage our kids to get out the couch and start exploring the world.  In my dictionary, the classroom should have no walls and all questions should be encouraged.  There are no stupid questions, and of course no stupid answers.  Learning is all about asking questions and trying to find out the proper answers.  That is how Sir Isaac Newton discovered the Universal Law of Gravitation; just to point out one classical example of intellectual curiosity.

Recently my wife and I visited Explora with Abdiel, the oldest of the “Twisters”.  The place was absolutely terrific, full of scientific machines that explain basic science to young children, and adults as well.  Abdiel absorbed all he could like a sponge.  I could see the faces of the young children totally concentrated on the instructors listening to explanations about complicated subjects such as the gravitational laws of Newton, the formation of tornadoes, life in a tropical rainforest, the formation of sound and light waves, the characteristics of dark holes in the Universe, and how to prevent cavities, just to name a few.  Even though I’ve read a lot, I learned several facts which I had never heard before.

Below are several pictures of our visit to Explora, a classroom every kid should visit to satisfy their curiosity.  Here we go.

Snapshot of Abdiel, the oldest of the “Twisters” and my wife Aura, at the entrance of Explora, a center for sciences and art. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of Abdiel and my wife Aura posing for the camera at the entrance of Explora, a learning venue to learn about science and art. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of a young kid and his mother learning about the characteristics of dark holes in the Universe. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of Vladimir, one of the instructors of Explora, explaining the general principles of the laws of universal gravitation discovered by Isaac Newton. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of a site where the children are learning about the formation of tornadoes.  You can see the model twister in the middle of the picture. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of a huge model mouth with teeth at Explora to explain to the children on how to avoid cavities. They also displayed excellent videos about the proper use of toothpaste and how to brush your teeth. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of several children playing and learning about science and art at Explora, while an instructor stands by to answer their questions. Notice how concentrated the kids are. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of an instructor at Explora posing for the camera. Her knowledge about planets, stars, constellations, comets, moons, and other heavenly bodies was encyclopedic. She also had the patience of Job while dealing with the children. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Abdiel says goodbye to his new friend at Explorer after the show was over. A colorful map of Panama is on the background. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Best Spanish Writer Ever Visits Panama

Snapshot of a statue of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra located up on the hill of the University of Panama. The picture was edited using Pic Monkey to create the fabric touch on the image. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Cinemagraphs: The Art of the Animated GIF

A cinemagraph, a.k.a. cinegraphs is a still image that moves, developed by photographer Jamie Beck and visual graphics artist Kevin Burg.  The idea for cinegraphs came up when the pair was preparing for Fashion Week. They wanted to tell more of a story than a single frame but didn’t want the hassle of creating a video.

These two outstanding artists have may have finally found a way to elevate the animated GIF to a level approaching fine art, with their “cinemagraphs”—elegant, subtly animated creations that are “something more than a photo but less than a video.”

Credit: Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg.

A cinegraph that pretends to be a video, looped footage endlessly repeating, is somewhat less interesting.  However, this image of New York City subway cars continuously passing through a station; a train that never ends is absolutely mesmerizing.  I had never seen anything like it before.  For more awesome images of cinegraphs, please click here. 

Good Day and remember that you should never go out without your camera tied up to your waist.

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The Inspirational Commencement Speech of Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, English author. Credit: the age.com.au – Justin Mcmanus

Surfing the web in my quest to improve my skills in the proper use of the English language, I happened into an inspirational speech addressed to the 2012 graduating class of the Philadelphia’s University of the Arts on May 17, 2012 by Neil Gaiman.  Everything he said made perfect sense to me.  It was not only what he said what struck me, but the suave way he said it with an exquisite British pronunciation.  The eloquent speech reminded me of the famous lecture given by Steve Jobs to the students of the University of Stanford in 2005.  Both are extraordinary pieces of oral communication with very deep thoughts to mediate upon.

Neil Richard Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theater and films.  His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels such as Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.

In the speech, he discussed the value of ignorance stating, “If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do.”  He also stated there there was nothing wrong with making mistakes.  Instead he said, “Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes make glorious and fantastic mistakes.  Break rules.  Leave the world more interesting for your being here.  Make.  Good.  Art.”

Perhaps most importantly, Gaiman reiterates the importance of simply making good art:

“When things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician—make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor—make good art. IRS on your trail— make good art. Cat exploded— make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before —make good art.”

For your ready reference, below is the commencement speech which I found at YouTube.  Its duration is 19 minutes and 55 second, but every second is worth its price in gold.  I strongly recommend viewing it, if you are interested in squeezing the juice out of life.  This is it.  Good Day and Best of Luck.

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Explorer of Light: Klara Yoon

Credit: Klara Yoon author of Klara's Street photo blog.

“Life is like a good black and white photograph, there’s black, there’s white, and lots of shades in between.”—Karl Heiner

As I dig deeper and deeper into the magical world of photography, I begin to detect refreshing and inspiring discoveries.  One of them is the stunning work of Klara Yoon who authors a photo blog called, Klara’s Street.  Ms. Yoon lives in Berlin, but has made photographic excursions in several European sites such as Frankfurt, Hamburg, Austria, Latvia and Riga.  Her main focus is the street captured in black and white and all the zillion shades in between.

She introduces herself in her blog this way:

“Hello, I’m Klara, I live in Berlin, I love shooting the streets and I carry a camera with me all the time. After having neglected film for a long time, I’ve recently fallen in love with film and the smell of fixer again.

I love to capture people and their interactions and I do not want to hurt anybody by taking their picture. I have great respect for my subjects, still, if you recognize yourself in one of my photos and you don’t want it to be published, let me know and I will take it down. If you recognize yourself and you do like what you see, let me know I will send you a digital file or a print.”

The following paragraph pretty much summarizes her work:

“I really believe that photography is about light, shapes, colors and feelings.  But more than that, it’s about words.  Like an unspoken story about beauty, confusion, hate and love, the photographer has to tell his or her feelings with no one being around, and to choose a way to give to the people a piece of the world reflected in his or her eyes.”

In her blog she wrote; “I discovered that I loved harsh contrast and shooting around midday.”  This a characteristic of her photographic style which I have learned to appreciate and cherish.  Her style reminds me of the nanny turned street photographer—Vivian Maier.  In fact, Ms. Yoon mentions her name in her blog.

I have been blown away by her barrage of razor-sharp black and white pictures and her minimalistic narrative.  A blog post which I particularly love is called, The Year in Street Photography posted on December 26, 2011.  This is how she describes this specific post:

“2011 was the year I carried my camera almost everywhere, the year the camera became an extension of my right arm, the year I found myself on the streets over and over again, the year the streets accompanied me through my highs and lows. This post is not a personal best-of, but rather a selection of how I saw and felt about street photography in 2011.”

Photography is the art of drawing with light, and certainly Klara Yoon is a magnificent explorer of light.  I encourage you to invest quality time in appreciating her art by clicking this link.  You will thank me forever.  Good Day.

Source:  Klara’s Street

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