Original Mixed Media artwork - 'Cocoi Libre' by Jay Taylor
Acrylics, acrylic inks, UniPin fineliner pens and collaged objects on 10″ × 12″ canvas-covered board
ART WITH A DIFFERENCE...
A defining characteristic of most of my artwork is that I paint entirely spontaneously. There's not a thought or a concept in my head when I pick up a brush and pick out my paints. I'm simply called to express the pure energy of 'whatever's going on within me' by the creative urge itself.
So 'Cocoi Libre', my translation of Jason Weigner ’s photograph 'Bolivian Monkey Tree Frog', is something of an anomaly. It's also one of my most popular artworks in terms of numbers of views and sales across the various platforms I exhibit on.
Whilst a personal and 'fan' favourite, the process by which it came to be is very different than anything else in my portfolio. The story of its unfolding is therefore almost as remarkable to my mind as the finished painting itself...
RISING TO A CHALLENGE
Part of the reason I'm sharing this piece on Steemit is as an example of pushing past one's usual boundaries and leaping into uncharted territory - an important challenge to undertake from time to time as an artist; and perhaps also as a challenge to the stultifying notion of oneself as a finite, predictable thing with parameters set in stone...
'Cocoi Libre' ('Free-living Frog', roughly translated) was created as part of a photographer/artist collaboration project on a website called redbubble.com. I'd entered a photograph of my own into the project to be translated by another artist into a painting. The organiser extracted a promise from me that I'd also choose a photo to translate into a painting, and the rather reluctant journey into the jungle of 'having a remit' began...!
Choosing Jason's photograph was as much of a surprise to me as to anyone else - I usually shy away from figurative work, and there were several abstract photographs in the selection on offer which I could have picked instead. But when I saw The Frog, it was love at first sight. I fell for the Little Green One immediately and asked Jason's permission to proceed. He gave me the go-ahead to create an interpretation of his work, and... the panic set in!
Why, oh why, oh WHY had I chosen a photograph which required figurative work? Well, for the love of Frog, of course! See Frog. Love Frog. Paint Frog...Meep!
WORK IT, GIRLFRIEND!
After several days of wrestling with the foolhardiness of my choice, I decided to stop prevaricating and force myself to get on with it. I printed out copies of The Frog and stuck them on the wall, on my desk, in the bathroom...
I started researching The Bolivian Monkey Tree Frog online. I asked Jason to tell me about The Frog, and Frog's neighbours, the Ayore people. I fell in love with Bolivia from faraway England. I immersed myself in images of Bolivia. I dreamed of Bolivia. But I still hadn't painted anything!
Eventually, I gave up wrestling with the panic and sat down with a canvas. Not the biggest canvas in the world - just a little 10″ × 12″ piece of canvas-covered board. I cleared my mind, opened my heart and connected with The Frog, letting the process and the images and understanding I'd absorbed about his cultural and natural surroundings be my guide...
FORMS BEGIN TO MANIFEST...
The first 'Work in Progress' (WIP) shot shows the background developing, and the second and third show a rough 'prototype' Froggie which I then used as a ‘placeholder’ to help decide upon the composition of the piece:
Once I'd settled into the idea of producing what felt like a ‘commission piece’ (i.e. a work with a deadline and expectations attached, rather than painted from my usual spontaneous creative approach), I was able to relax and have fun, and what do you know - the thought and panic stopped, the expectations fell away, and the spontaneity happened anyway! I soon discovered that The Frog was guiding me to a place of creative freedom, even within a framework of 'restrictions'...
The next stage involved research into Bolivian traditional crafts and Bolivian heritage. I felt called to introduce elements into the piece that would ground the frog in his new environment, and hopefully leave him feeling a little less homesick.
Jason told me that, “Most places I've been they have local names for everything. But here they (frogs) are all "ranas". All the birds are either "little parrots" or "big parrots". Every snake is a "viper". The Bolivians I have shown this frog to never knew this frog even lived here in Bolivia. They are rarely seen since they live so high in the trees and only come down at night to breed.”
(All frogs in this area of Bolivia are known to the locals simply as ‘Rana’ – the Spanish word for frog. ‘Cocoi’ is the Ayoreo word for frog, the Ayore being the indigenous people with whom Jason Weigner was working at the time the original photograph was taken…)
I was now utterly captivated, and absolutely sure that this little one watches the Ayore from his home up on high, regardless of whether they know they are being observed...
INFLUENCED BY BEAUTIFUL BOLIVIA
My research into Bolivia revealed a country rich in indigenous cultures and awash with beautiful green wildness. I fell even more in love with The Frog at this point than I was before I discovered the wonders of his environment...
And so in crept Bolivian-influenced elements: Ayore basket-weaving patterns, a rare Chiquitano orchid, the colours of the Bolivian flag (which manifested before I even knew what they were!), Quecha folk-art figurines, a Diablada mask, not to mention lots of dots and stripes...!
POSTER-FROG FOR FREEDOM
The Bolivian Monkey Tree Frog at centre stage is a sort of 'living mascot', wearing the colours of the Bolivian flag and meandering through the wilderness, free and unfettered, just as it should be. And this little wanderer is not just a Bolivian mascot, but also a mascot for individual freedom. It breaks my heart to see beautiful creatures such as this in captivity: even the most cursory glance at the caged cousins of this splendid, vibrant creature will illustrate how sad and limited their lives are by comparison.
This artwork celebrates the magic and wonder of freedom in nature. In reaching out and connecting with The Frog in that spirit of freedom, I tapped into a vibrant, living symbol of all that is right and natural and good on this earth. Every moment I spent working on this artwork was invested with that energy of connection and kinship, and it is this that I feel alive and resonating within me to this day, every time I look upon it.
Be The Frog 'alive' or 'dead' today, I obviously do not know. But we live within each other nonetheless and in my heart and soul, I feel the wildness, and the nearness, of that relationship.
In many ways, this work is a homage to (in solidarity with) the fate of the Ayore and other indigenous peoples, as the World encroaches upon their freedoms and seeks to take away their rights to live and move freely upon the landbase into which they were born. I feel their pain and their love of the land. I feel for them, as the world approaches, intent upon dispossessing them of that freedom...
Unlike the Ayore, and unlike The Frog, I have no idea what it is like to be free to roam upon the land without hindrance from 'the State'. These rights were lost to me and my own ancestors long, long ago, before I was even born... Is it too much to hope for that these last vestiges of freedom, these last truly wild places, might be able to live on - to inspire us to reclaim our own freedoms before it is too late and before they are lost forever...?
I have no doubt that this message of freedom is an integral part of the reason I resonate so strongly with this painting, and with Jason Weigner's original photograph. It is obvious in retrospect that this is the reason I chose to paint it, and challenged myself subconsciously to bring the message of The Frog (and of freedom) into my life, and the lives of you who are reading this today...
'Cocoi Libre' ... (Frog, be Free!)
Although the original artwork 'Cocoi Libre' was sold to a collector before it was even finished, you can still purchase this painting across a wide range of print-on-demand products via my online print shop at redbubble.com.
With love,
Jay
Photo - standing at the entrance to Deepdale, Derbyshire, UK, amid the remains of a Neolithic settlement. Lest we forget, there WAS a time when the people of the British isles were also wild and free to roam - to gather and settle wherever they pleased - free from the then non-existent State...
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