THE I IN THE EYE
After Initiation, with The I in the Eye, I allow myself.
The entoptic paintings series started with the intention of depicting the blurred and uncertain reality we experience. The softness of the atmospheres from afar contrasted with the crisp multicoloured grain the paintings have when inspected up close.
I tried to make myself invisible in the process, I wanted to interfere as little as possible with the nature of the paintings, I was at service. I experienced the paintings as nebulous portals, undefined as life itself.
The spray gun, as I was using it at the time was the perfect tool to hide my strokes. With this way of painting I muted my gesture, took the human hand to a secondary plane and concentrated on working with light instead of paint.
Last year, for over four months was presented at OMR gallery (Mexico City) Initiation, a three part exhibition/self-initiatory project. The intention behind this project was to take both myself, my ideas, my technique and take them all to the limit. It was a process of intensive self-inquiry and transformation that is still being processed as I write this.
Initiation relocated me from backstage to front and center stage. Opening the creative process and producing the artworks in the gallery, showing them side-by-side with the by product all-over paint in the space dissolved the illusion I had from the beginning of myself as an almost invisible entity, at the service of the artworks.
Our role in perceiving, in channeling, in creating or just plain witnessing, is incredibly active. Any illusion of pasivity is just a mirage. The I in the Eye is the natural evolution of the entoptic painting series, The I in the Eye is a reflection on the inherent human imprint in all experiences. We acting more than we may think, the interference of intention, perception or action is permanently there.
Ana Montiel, 2023
I tried to make myself invisible in the process, I wanted to interfere as little as possible with the nature of the paintings, I was at service. I experienced the paintings as nebulous portals, undefined as life itself.
The spray gun, as I was using it at the time was the perfect tool to hide my strokes. With this way of painting I muted my gesture, took the human hand to a secondary plane and concentrated on working with light instead of paint.
Last year, for over four months was presented at OMR gallery (Mexico City) Initiation, a three part exhibition/self-initiatory project. The intention behind this project was to take both myself, my ideas, my technique and take them all to the limit. It was a process of intensive self-inquiry and transformation that is still being processed as I write this.
Initiation relocated me from backstage to front and center stage. Opening the creative process and producing the artworks in the gallery, showing them side-by-side with the by product all-over paint in the space dissolved the illusion I had from the beginning of myself as an almost invisible entity, at the service of the artworks.
Our role in perceiving, in channeling, in creating or just plain witnessing, is incredibly active. Any illusion of pasivity is just a mirage. The I in the Eye is the natural evolution of the entoptic painting series, The I in the Eye is a reflection on the inherent human imprint in all experiences. We acting more than we may think, the interference of intention, perception or action is permanently there.
Ana Montiel, 2023
THE I IN THE EYE (2), 2023
Acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencils on canvas, protected with matt UV varnish
190 x 225 cm — 74 3/4 x 88 5/8 in
THE I IN THE EYE (1), 2023
Acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencils on canvas, protected with matt UV varnish
190 x 160 cm — 74 3/4 x 63 in
THE I IN THE EYE (6), 2023
170 x 130 cm — 66 7/8 x 51 1/8 in
Acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencils on canvas, protected with matt UV varnish
THE I IN THE EYE (8), 2023
150 x 200 cm — 59 x 78 3/4 in
Acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencils on canvas, protected with matt UV varnish
THE I IN THE EYE (4), 2023
Acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencils on canvas, protected with matt UV varnish
190 x 225 cm — 74 3/4 x 88 5/8 in
ECHO
Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit
Time no longer flows. It gushes out.
from Gaston Bachelard's “Poetic Instant and Metaphysical Instant”, 1932.
ECHO: Psychical Continuity Is Not a Given but Something Constructed, 2021
150 x 230 cm — 59 x 99,5 in
Acrylic on canvas
ECHO: Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit (25/9), 2020
200 x 140 cm — 78,74 x 55,1 in
Acrylic on canvas
ECHO: Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit (15), 2020
200 x 140 cm — 78,74 x 55,1 in
Acrylic on canvas
ECHO: Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit (7), 2020
140 x 200 cm — 55,1 x 78,74in
Acrylic on canvas
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
—Carl Sandburg
—Carl Sandburg
ECHO: Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit (1), 2020
120 x 100 cm — 47 1/5 × 39 2/5 in
Acrylic on canvas
ECHO: Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit (6), 2020
120 x 200 cm — 47 1/5 × 78 7/10
Acrylic on canvas
ECHO: Le temps ne coule plus. Il jaillit (30), 2020
190 x 250 cm — 74,8 x 98,4 in
Acrylic on canvas
These Days of Fiction
( 2019, Mexico City )
”Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (80)” being installed at joségarcía ,mx for the “Some works I want to show you” group show of the Summer of 2019 in Mexico City.
This Human Experience We Share (These Days of Fiction)
A tidal lock showing us only our own version of reality. Us and our experience candidly gazing at each other, we can only see our faces, our backs will always remain unseen.
This is a phenomenological orbit behaving as a mechanical choreography.
We are in a constant altered state of consciousness… but which state is not altered consciousness?
Perception untamed — distorted and subjective in its depths, while sensible and thorough in its surface. An involuntary irreality, automatic. We are in a romance with the opaque in this shared fiction that brings us together.
Ana Montiel, 2019
close up photograph from two paintings in progress
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (81), 2019
270 x 220 cm — 106,3 x 86,6 in
Acrylic on canvas
270 x 220 cm — 106,3 x 86,6 in
Acrylic on canvas
Detail
This Human Experience We Share (These Days of Fiction) 7, 2019
250 x 190 cm — 98,4 x 74,8 in
Acrylic on canvas
ESTA EXPERIENCIA HUMANA QUE COMPARTIMOS (estos días de ficción)
Una rotación sincrónica que solo nos muestra una versión de las cosas. Nosotros y nuestras experiencias con miradas fijas entrelazadas, solo nos miramos a los ojos, nunca nos veremos las espaldas. Esta es una órbita fenomenológica a modo de danza automática.
Un estado alterado de conciencia constante... ¿pero qué estado no es conciencia alterada?
Percepción indómita; distorsionada y subjetiva en su fondo, cabal y acertada en su superficie. Una irrealidad involuntaria, automática. Vivimos en un romance con lo opaco, en esta ficción colectiva que nos une.
Ana Montiel, 2019
⠀
This Human Experience We Share (These Days of Fiction) 4, 2019
150 x 230 cm — 59 x 90,5 in
Acrylic on canvas
Detail
With my entoptic paintings—entos (inside) and opsis (seeing)—I meditate on the undefined and subjective nature of the human experience.
Ana Montiel, 2019
Paintings in progress in the studio during the Autumn of 2019
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (81), 2019150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (81), 2019
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Light Within Darkness (epilogue) 90, 2019
170 x 240 cm — 66,9 x 94,5 in (two panels)
Acrylic on canvas
Detail
Us as a Poem of Delusion (1), 2019
190 x 250 cm — 74,8 x 98,4 in
Acrylic on canvas
Detail photographs from “Us as a Poem of Delusion, 1”
Paintings in progress in the studio during the Autumn of 2019 (Mexico City)
Polyphonies of Perception
(the things we thought we saw together)
at joségarcía ,mx gallery ( 2019, Mexico City )
The
Things
We
Thought
We
Saw
Together
Witnessing as a creative act. Here we are, looking through a window only to find our reflection on the glass. The I in the eye. An analogy for our embodied consciousness co-creating all that we perceive. The realm of experience is the realm of illusion. This, our reality, is nothing but an illusion we share. Isn’t it romantic?
Scenes from the interior. What is the nature of the things we perceive? If we process our whole embodied experience internally, how can we even expect objectivity from them? Wouldn’t the internal processing turn them into intimate or even subjective input? Perception is always biased, how can I know if these colours that I’m seeing in front of me are as I see them, or completely different?
Altered states of openness. Inner music. Transmissions from the interior. Look at us, creating a symphony inside ourselves putting together the unison of stimuli coming in and the ones we make up. Perception as creation. A polyphony of sorts.
But what is consciousness? A light within that illuminates the shape of things and creates meaning? Conjectures, conjectures... knowing is impossible, we only think we know. The pillars of knowledge are built on conjectures. The realm of uncertainty. Can we transcend thought and dive together into the vast amount of silence we all share while we go within? Opening ourselves to the dimension of the undefined. What can’t be named, explained, defined with the language tools that are available. Elation in the shape of not-knowing. A liberation from suppositions. A restriction that in reality never was.
A magnetic field becoming visible. Echoes from the other side. We are tearing the veil. A glitch in perception is like a glimpse into otherness. A gleam of understanding. The idea of reality is not relevant anymore. Perception disincarnate. A coda into the unknown.
Ana Montiel, 2019
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (17), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in Acrylic on canvas
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (26), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (8), 2018150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Songs to Be Played Backwards (14), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Light Within Darkness (Epilogue) 2, 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Songs to Be Played Backwards (6), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Songs to Be Played Backwards (5), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (18), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Verses of Light, Colour and Uncertainty (27), 2018
150 x 120 cm — 59 x 47,24 in
Acrylic on canvas
Painting detail
