cave paintings

akin to a waterfall 😭

Ramblings

Juan A. Franco Ricardo, Window Sighting, 2025. digital photograph. [an awkward angle for sure. a view from below where the perspective reaches for the ceiling and beyond, like tentacles around a boat at sea. the sterile white walls of an office space dance dully around a window with an embedded beehive pattern. the blue sky is overexposed by the sun bleaching a rectangle at the bottom edge of the frame. the blues, yellow and reds from the panel leaning against the window stagger like the buildings they are depicting. they mimic the building behind them and their upward reach].

i believe this was an accidental picture, it wouldn’t make sense for me to take this. it’s the office, but not where i sit. i was socializing, wasting time, asking for help or standing my ground. the sun shining through the tinted material alongside the cloudless sky indicate a seasonal shift. as if the window and the material sample mitigated the light passing through. a certain understanding and recognition. days with sun, blue days with sin, makes work seem even more [blank]. like a thread mending the hole of your socks, the sun reminds us of our own value. of the ways in which our brokenness, our transparencies, our rough edges, become a way to betterment. our labor exemplifies the ability to transform references to materials. how do we then codify our efforts? make them unique to ourselves, yet in relationship to each other? A way to mend and join what may seem separate at first. or even something that may not seemingly work anymore. tonight, the moon’s horns touch upon the reflected light. resting in the sky after last night’s storms. its points angling upwars (in my perception). wishing to fly higher. a wish for elegance glowing in a cloudless sky.

 an imagined conversation,
an impossible intersection in time-distance,

                                          a literary invention,
                                          a tool for slumber.

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Studio

Juan A. Franco Ricardo, Study for SRP (Crowd Pleaser), 2025. scanned objects. [a red waterfall made of paper folds itself down the frame. it ziz-zags from its vertical limit, swimming slightly to the right caressing the right side of the image, like an accident. upon this realization, it continues its journey downwards, turning into a murky, but still red, puddle. underneath all these aquatic acrobatics, a shy but sturdy blue figure seems to be sheltering. the paper waterfall almost forms a cave, an opening in the logic of this work. perhaps a need to gather becomes inevitable underneath the paper waterfall].

the destruction of an image. its waves reflected and choreographed across capture time. in some ways, resembling a painting practice where pigments remind us of the time in takes to create a masterpiece. and by that, i mean the arrangement of color in space. what compels our need to translate our environment into sometimes static and sterile things. to capture and frame, is a miracle in itself. the idea that our existence can be literally frozen on a surface. to be displayed, and recognized, and passed around. hands on the cave walls made portable, no longer tied to a particular land feature, but tied to paper, to pixels, to earthy materials, on vellum and other surfaces. the cave as paper. a home that surrounds and protects us. rippling from a center and breathing with the masses. an attempt at a dinner party and dance party. how do we call upon each other to feed our hungry selves, to wash each other’s feet in a water basin?

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Scraps

1. new [living] arrangements with all that green. 2. choosing a color has never been so difficult. 3. when your friends make you a rest for your utensils, please excuse the mess. 5. table table table! 6. what's in a wood grain and its measurements 7. wow already cried/laugh in the subway reaing this 8. when you have to bring the tulip festival into the city [the washington version is better, at least they are planted in the ground0. 9. ominous greetings

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