More than a simple painting, this artwork
represents a journey, an ancient living, when the artist returns to his
Atlantis. With a mixed technic, using Acrylic, oil, varnishes, china clay,
marble powder and incense, ‘Atlantis – Ogni Mod Seahorses’ tell us a story,
this story…
Return to Atlantis
It was the finest of all mornings and I was returning. Coming from other
places, brought by sunsets and moonlights, the body covered in salt and the
mouth full of sweetness of so many stories I had to tell. Today it was the day
of returning to my City of Water, the perpetual source of who I am.
As I approached, seen from afar, the Pillars of Hercules almost
discovered by dawn as a crystal clear body. It seemed as if mistakes and
certainties exchanged places and the doubt of so many questions that lived in me
all along, were answered right there, written there, in the magical speechless
towers. It was the return to the perfect curves, the centre, the road that ran towards
the sea in the map of the ancient kings of the seas.
The word 'Return' had brought me exaltation, I felt as a child who does
not know how to forget the promise, as a poet inspired by his Muse of the Water,
as a composer that adding some notes knows has set the perfect melody… I knew and
I could see a brand new line drawn in the palms of my hand, as if faith was
changing and I was but a spectator of myself.
From afar, the
city stood still. We followed the same road, she and I. The floor covered by cloth,
ice that the sun had melted, the centre of all wisdom and the light in my
heart… my ground. This is my home, my city, my return. My aquatic roots immersed
in pleasure, more than novels could tell or illusions could pretend, the bead
of silver that hold me since childhood, this is my logic.
It had been the largest crossing, my search of Midas and the ripening of
who I am from the inside out. I had promised my mentor to return when the sea
permitted the newborn horses’ ride… and so I did. I put together the clearest
and most meticulous plan, waiting to embrace this deep blue ocean, I felt as an
explorer, a lustful, violent demigod, who returns to Olympus, the Lord of all Causes,
man and fish in the same body, empowered by Poseidon.
Here, under these same eyes, her splendour was huge… The walls coated with gold shining down the
sun, mountains bright as fire, the architectural beauty radiated in the magical
city, an emotion sculpted through my chisel and memory. That desire to float as
a gondolieri
through the channels, crossing all the bridges, dispersed as a boy running to
become a river again... How small I felt before these white, black and red stones
that taught me everything!
Through the path
behind me I had left so many destinations, voices as echoes, stops and
constructions, people… Endless conversations about life, fights and peace,
money and smells, disputes without any purpose, endless hours… a force that led
me, the same strange force that was by my side in the song of return, the
voice of the city of thousand fountains, clean lines around my Quadrangle, the centre
of this circle.
In a single day, the morning was apotheosis, the stroke of a brush that
lead the mermaid into the Deep Blue. The day of my return was special to me and
to all of the atlantes, it was ‘Ogni Mod’ seahorses celebration. In our City of
Water we have festivals in honour of our marine brothers, all those who, like
us, live in harmony and love, the seed of Gods.
I approached one of the fountains and I touched the most precious of
liquids. In a smile I submerged my hands and washed my face, and my long hair.
That moment was eternal,I closed my eyes and was taken by imagination...
I imagined a canvas, neither large nor small. I imagined it in shades of
blue, as the sky, like the ocean, in its most perfect reflection. These blue
shades were more and less smooth, with greater and lesser depth, as the Lord of
the Seas had created. There were courses and pre-destinations for us, the ones always
leaving and arriving.
I imagined rain in a blue-gray to greenish sky. I imagined pearls at the
bottom of the sea and sea horses dancing. I imagined micro-islands and
whirlpools calling me. I imagined symbols and our writing completing them. I
imagined my face in harmony and love, here and now, in this magical place. And
finally, when I saw its whole in me, I promised that one day it would be
painted.
I opened my eyes and inhaled the fragrance of home, as a voice beside me
whispered ‘Atlantis, ogni mod seahorses’...
FSerrano
w/ poetry and translation by GM
