Karen Lorena Parker Art Blog — BremerPark.com

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;
but remember that what you now have
was once among the things you only hoped for.”
—Epicurus (341 BC – 270 BC)

We will be visiting Vancouver this spring, a year since we moved to Dubai. I am nostalgic about Canadian values of equality, education, respect for differences and a stabilized honest life. (Even the banks don’t require assistance in this financial crisis). I am proud to have grown up in crisp, conservative, considerate, coniferous Canadian.

Canadian life is full of chores and activities. Busy multi-tasked lives with little disposable income, but surrounded by the luxury of good citizens that respect great friends, and natural beauty. We take care of the Canadian environment.

I anticipate seeing a fresh perspective. Enjoying the culture shock of returning to something so familiar as my skin. Not realizing what has changed in myself — until I’m surrounded by my old habits. I can’t wait to see everyone.

Surviving the stress of immigrating to a new country was easy knowing my parents did it with so much less. No job offer waiting, polite interviewers wouldn’t tell them their education was not valid in Canada. My sister and I were two small babies, and my parents had no network of people to rely on. No ‘personal days’ back then when your children were sick.

Acclimatized in Dubai one year later, my News Years’ goal to fit in my husbands’ jeans can’t compare. (My mom certainly wasn’t getting her nails done.) My parents were not looking for charity, just an opportunity to prove themselves. Just a chance. Canada gave them that, and a future for their children. I can see Dubai as a bridge for some.

Exposed to so many cultures, we enjoy each other, learning so much. I joke how at a Dutch party I was kissing everyone three times on the cheek. Now when I see my friends in Dubai I kiss them three times. “If I can kiss a room full of men I don’t know, at least my friends should have a kiss three times!”

“Working as a foreign correspondent, we were trained to read through the competitor’s headlines before your second cup of coffee.” Says my good friend. The Dubai newspaper hints at Canada amongst international headlines. (Pickton’s family is suing the police for destroying their pig farm?) Dubai international headlines are graphic, touching and political issues are never black and white. (How could school have made Social Studies so boring and insensitive?) I feel closer to the political strife here amongst Dubai’s demographic mixture of 1st and 3rd world. I realize to some degree what my family left behind in Chile.

The financial crisis has affected Dubai. The mood is grim at times, projects have been cut, families leaving. People leave their life in a glove box, their keys in abandoned cars at the airport. There is cautiousness here, a worry of the economic future. Cost of living is high, stocks are down, school fees are high. Rent is dropping from 320,000dhs a year, but it is still high at 200,000dhs ($4500/month). — And here, rent is paid in full for the entire year.

My husband and I have a lovely safe home, family, two wonderful children and a relationship that has grown over 17 years. We are rewarded in our highly competitive careers and have friends from all over the world. What else could I have ever hoped for?

When some days are overwhelmed by disappointments and minor frustrations, life is full of so many more significant things to remember. It is best to keep the right photos, the good thoughts. Like a library of memories, it is worth investing in the right literature.

We have had the success of knowing what we wanted in life. Taking the steps to get there, then the hard part… remembering to take the care to maintain everything we could have hoped for.

The Picasso Exibit at Emirates Palace was as incredible as the hotel. In Canada it is rare to see Picasso’s paintings. The last “big” Picasso show at the Vancouver Art Gallery had primarily sketches and rough drawings of his work. 186 Paintings from neo classical to cubist, sculptures in bronze and sheet metal, the show was so inspiring as the collection came from successive studios. Blending his art and his life, arranged chronologically by themes or settings, I will be going back to Abu Dhabi often.

We were fortunate enough to have a tour from one of the managers of the hotel. He took us through the ballrooms and corridors and giving us insightful details of the beautiful building. Gallery One had the Picasso Exhibit, and Saadiyat Island featured at Barakat Gallery the history of Abu Dhabi and the future plans for the Louvre, Guggenheim Museum, which will cover 30,000 square metres devoted to modern and contemporary art. Incredible displays of what is being built and projected. Walking through the halls, they had a photographic display “Abu Dhabi Through Your Eyes” branding the capital of the Emirates.

Gugghenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi

Louvre In Abu Dhabi

Incredible intricate patterns, detail after detail; online has a beautiful gallery, virtual tours of the suites.. Designed for VIP’s, GGC’s, celebrities: the door handles are worth 5000$ dollars, 20,000 gallons of water a day are used for the plants, 100,000$/ month is spent on flowers, they sponsor Lashings the international cricket team. During George Bush’s recent stay, his IT department contacted Discovery Channel to do a documentary on the technology of this hotel.

Picasso Quotes from the Exhibit
“Painting is not meant to decorate apartments. It is a weapon and we must use it.” – a bronze skull with clenched jaw, frightening in it’s worn polish, with no trace of humanity. Picasso defended Republican Spain, and the allegory of Spain’s suffering, misfortune

“I couldn’t see her, imagine her, except crying.” Picasso speaking of Dorema. Over 60 variations on the theme of women weeping, grief. In Guernica, grief dominated his proprietary sketches, but did not appear in the final painting. His figurative portraits of sexual tension, devouring each other, anger, weeping, expressive outbursts. He was deeply influenced by African masks that focused on gaze and sexual descriptions. Iberian Art that influenced the importance of sculptural volume, stylizing his work into structure, linear details, geometric forms and a fixed deep gaze.

Plato’s Origin of Love: the myth that man had 4 arms, and 4 legs. When man opposed the gods, man was severed to produce two separate beings, always trying to find the other half. Love is finding unity, and completing your appearance.

***
Silicon Oasis
Thank you to all that could make my show at Silicon Oasis! I really appreciated you coming and hope to have another exhibit of Dubai inspired work soon.

New York is incredible in it’s grime and grit surrounding the high fashion and glamour of the shops. The huge MAC store open 24 hours, the beauty of Central Park, and of course the performances everywhere. You could go every night to the theatre.

We enjoyed a 10 dollar show in some old makeshift stagehouse, “Ten Tablespoons of Crazy” was so well written and beautifully performed. I absolutely loved “Hairspray”, the cast was incredible and did justice to John Waters Film. I asked the girls sitting next to me if they had seen the original film, and they replied, “Yes, we saw it yesterday!”

Had mixed feelings about “Rent” — maybe i’m just not a New Yorker! Didn’t like the stereotype of artists can’t be professionals, and professionals can’t be artists. “Leave your conscience at the door” when we are all doing our best to balance our ethics, and make our world a better place. But Angel character was absolutely Incredible giving out so much energy to the show. Maybe it was just the hard rocker musical score that rubbed my ears raw.

Another play about a boy at 9 who witnesses an argument over a parking spot that ends in a homicide. He realizes that the murderer “capo di tutti capi” is well aware he witnessed the whole event. His father tells the 9 year old who gets rewarded for his silence, “You think they’re tough guys? I’m the tough guy. The working man is the tough guy.” Chazz Palminteri writes an autobiographical play inspired by his father’s quote. “Always remember what i’m saying to you. The saddest thing in this world is wasted talent”. A quote he has kept in his back pocket, even at 55. It’s unfortunate I won’t see that one.

Stood in line for the Daily Show, after stopping by the gallery to see my work. Bought myself some flowers for the hotel room, and had the vendors singing Happy Birthday to me down the street. A sales clerk is talking to herself, “Get an Office!” as the man that stopped inside to take a message from his caller has already left. It’s Monday and I had to put the sad book down that I was reading. There is too much life here to enjoy.

Enjoyed Caffe Linda, and the recently opened Casellula. The “little hut” cheese bar, great food, ambiance, my ideal studio. I’m looking forward enjoying all the local businesses… no Starbucks in my 10 days.

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New York
September 22nd, 2007

Getting excited about my New York show. I went in ‘94, when I graduated from art school; to make the decision if I would pursue the arts after college. Every minute in that city I felt so alive, and woke up with energy. Hours at the gallery in the morning, then distracted by the colorful characters, the amount of people walking by, and of course the shopping, and back to the galleries… The decision was easy enough, I knew I had to persevere.

It will be nice to meet the other artists from Canada in the “Beyond Borders” exhibition. But I hope to have a solo show one day in New York. That will be the next goal.

I wonder how it will change my work. Coming home from a polluted Taiwan inspired the clean westcoast landscapes. I see the New York work as very bold, colourful, plastic and edgy. I can’t wait. Hopefully I can put it into words daily, on my blog.

The harder i work. The luckier I get. — Samuel goldwyn.

“Your memory is a monster; you forget – it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you – and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you.” John Irving