THE SUN & THE SAND & THE SKY (2023)

THIS MONTH MARKS

two years full-time in the desert and three years part-time, but who is counting, and how does that compare to the innumerable lifetimes I’ve spent here, in the past?

The longer I live here, the more deeply I miss it when I’m away. The sun & the sand & the sky and the way the three merge.

I used to think finding yourself was about creating boundaries, distinction: I am here and you are there, I am this and I am therefore not that.

But now I find truth is quite the opposite: it is the dissolving of barriers, not knowing where I end and you begin. What is the sun and what is the sand and what is the sky?

The desert is a study in opposites.

Especially in a winter full of rainstorms. During a desert rainstorm, skin that is used to dryness feels moisture in the air. There is a coolness. The blue grey seeps into the sand’s muted ochres and you almost hear the long-dormant seeds of wildflowers sing, calling forth a super bloom.

The desert speaks in color: in reds and browns and blues and greens and yellows, if only you could open your eyes to see it. Even in the winter, the desert speaks in color. And then it speaks again.

I found myself in the jungle, seeking a spirit I did not yet know. La sirenita (bobinsana), the color of prickly pear — the color of a desert dream.

Night after night, she gifted me dreams. I dreamed of a rainstorm, I dreamed of a sunset. I dreamed of the desert, of my many lifetimes in the desert.

Dreams of the sun & the sand & the sky.

alex maceda, joshua tree, ca - may 2023

originally published on substack

about ‘the sun & the sand & the sky’

“Light is the keynote of these pictures. Not as it plays on objects in the natural world, but through the space and forms, seen on the inner world of vision.

Art should not only deal with appearance but capture the ‘Inside,’ the deeper resonance beneath the visible world.” — Agnes Pelton

I increasingly believe abstraction is the truest form of seeing: a seeing beyond seeing, an expression of Pelton’s ‘Inside,’ that which is visible beneath the ‘visible’ world. Our eyes often deceive us; they keep us slave to form and line, when really, everything is made of light and values and color. I see this over and over again in the desert: the swirling sand makes it hard to determine where ground ends and sky begins, the sun reflects off drops of moisture or leaves of creosote in a way that explodes it into rays of a million subtle colors.

The apparent simplicity of the landscape allows the complexity of spirit to arise — what is it about vast expanse that resonates with us? Why do we dream of the sun and the sand and the sky?

This collection of paintings explores this question and is set against the backdrop of an historical rainy desert winter and a formative two weeks of early spring spent in the jungles of Peru. If it was not already clear, my work is explicitly spiritual.

But, it is also practical: I continue to be motivated by the reality that most of my paintings end up at home with you, dear one, in The City. As such, I am increasingly devoted to capturing the spirit and essence of the natural expanse that is my everyday in order to create a moment that transports you from there, to here: a moment of peace, so you may continue to exist, despite it all.

AVAILABLE WORK FROM THE COLLECTION