moving bones

akin to grinning 😬

Ramblings

Juan A. Franco Ricardo. Pattern (Failed), 2025. charcoal on paper. [there are three closed shapes with four points of intersections. the attempt at some radial symmetry is there, but it’s hand-drawn, so play along. the outer shape has no intersection points, it’s an amoeba of a closed convex to concave rotation, a diamond with curves. the inner shapes create those intersection points, two ellipses intersecting at a perpendicular angle, creating a soft square in the middle. the paper is made visible by rubbing of the charcoal].

it was a story about a horse, each of its vertebrae in motion, and ultimately, a skeletal and gravitational kryptonite for its rider. the way the cold felt running down the back of my neck as words voiced from the written. the magic of prose. feeling inspired in our humility to share what hurts, what lingers at the back of our necks. holding the weight of our world. calls slipping past the curves of the ear, marching across already travelled distances. there is something about remembering something i never knew i had forgotten. a melody that touches the invisible spaces between those bones. it wraps and protects everything that makes us quiver, or laugh, or tingle, or cry. the electricity shocks the system. a removed sweetness of withholding suddenly made saccharine after a long pause. a memory made through the current passing through wet and fleshy parts of our bodies. linking and storing. linking and storing. linking and storing. a repetition of building again on top of a foundation towering one section over another. each step closer to the collection of the whole. a vertebrae in motion suddenly stops, a severance.

a stack of cards and a stack of bones,
futures broken at the shuffling of the stacks,
pegasus flies, pick up those cards. 

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Studio

Juan A. Franco Ricardo, Reading, February 2025, photograph of card reading. [three cards lay face up, they are black and white with images on the top and a phrase at the bottom. there are three piles of face down cards, placed above the three cards. the pattern is abstract like different sized paint brushes coloring a surface. the first card reads “the needed” depicting a figure formerly crying. the second, “shell,” is an uncomfortable grinning mask hanging in front of a tree. the last card, “gemini,” close around a glowing and moon-like face, soft reflected light catches its ridges].

we ended the meeting with a card reading. spring is coming and our curiosity points towards the inner renewals in the making. this is especially true as i am approaching a ritual step towards a renewed sense of self, an effervescent and lingering growth. the past, here the needed, shows a face with dried tears, a longing subsided, but fresh. In this retrospection, the gaze looks towards up an over the rest the reading, as if the horizon lies on the other side. a light source drying the crying eyes, reflecting the sheen. in the present, the shell, eerily hangs with no sight. grinning, it falsely creates security. in the act of removal, the body is invisible. no longer in this form. finally, the future, the gemini, closes on a stoic face. cropped in a way that feels like its pulling on the skin. while tearless, there are these glows around the eyes. Soft and perhaps, like the moon, shifting throughout a cycle. a duality of self is promised. as lights rotate, seasons change in their pattern. as i imagine a future, it’s framed tight.

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Scraps

1. testing testing, yes they work. 2. 550 of something in boxes 3. bust shelter with "my mother and eye" by carmen winant 4. read me to filth, partial chart reveal. 5. another shabbat 6. awww aren't you the sweetest 7. let's get out of here on this mobile darkroom with bed and kitchen 8. moonlight with flowers. 9. same boxes, but now at the conf room and library.

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