1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7Rafael Cardenas
Hey everyone. Rafael Cardenas here. Taking it day by day. As.we.always.do. I am grateful to have been asked to create a post for VPAM’s #WellnessWednesday.
Listen, that mind+body+spirit connection is vibrating, transmitting, and receiving at all times. Put yourself in a place where tons of goodness can flow through you. Find a place to sit for 20 minutes and close your eyes. Meditate if you're comfortable with it, but if not just close your eyes and rest your being from head to toe. Do that at least once a day with the intent to give yourself inner peace. I also find peace and meditation in the process of creating my work. Picking up a camera and walking the streets gives me a small sense of purpose daily. Then the editing of photos to find a narrative is a second meditation. It never comes easy. There is an inner ebb and flow that helps me make my image choices while tossing me around mentally. Thanks to social media I get to share this work every single day. Once it’s posted I get to get out of my own head as I sit back and observe reactions to my posts. It’s such a simple cycle. What you don’t see is my inner struggle with finding and selecting an image that conveys what I am feeling every 24 hours. I’ve included a few images from this year in this post. Also, on occasion I connect with friends and draw them through video while catching up. Drawing is what I call my line therapy. If I’m not drawing a person I’m drawing anything around the house. I’ve included two drawings here. I hope you are staying busy.
For a more in-depth look at Rafa Cardenas' practice during the pandemic check out his feature in the Los Angeles Times by Carolina A. Miranda titled “Rafael Cardenas set out to capture L.A. in a photo a day. He ended up recording a pandemic”.
Artist Bio:
Rafael Cardenas was born in Jalisco, Mexico and raised in East Los Angeles. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Eastside Luv and Espacio 1839, and in group exhibitions at Avenue 50 Studio, La Bodega Gallery, Self Help Graphics & Art, and the Vincent Price Art Museum. Cardenas is a self-taught photographer who has been practicing since 2010. A publication of his works, MAS ACA: Further Here, was released in 2016.
Rafael Cardenas presented his first Los Angeles solo museum exhibition “Rafael Cardenas: Backyard Tableaux” at VPAM, which featured vivid color images that offer intimate moments in private, yet social spaces and reveal stories of the contemporary Angeleno experience.