CHAPTER 1 : MOTIVATION

Nostalgia (nóstos, “a return home”, álgos, “pain”): The painful longing for an absent home.

I don’t think I am sick with Nostalgia anymore. (it can be a disease)

Home is a roof under a kind piece of sky where you try to enjoy life.

But I have missed colours. Still do.

My office, where I have spent most of my hours for the last 9 years, used to look like this:

My old office

My backyard fence was grey, and I thought my whole life, even my thoughts were turning grey.  (I corrected this by painting a mural on my fence) Not sure if my neighbours appreciated it.

My old house: painted the whole thing grey when we left

When we moved to Calgary, we brought with us our modest Venezuelan art collection: Turrillo, Nieves, Borjas, Cavallieri, Baroni, Merchan, Alamo, Duro’. ( see Private Collection  www.verartgallery.com)

Without being real connoisseurs, with a very naïve approach really, we love art, as, under the same premise, we love wine.  

Basically, we know if we like it or not, and at the end, art and wine, in their own way, have a similar effect:

It finds you. It touches you. It enraptures you. It makes you happy.

Our Venezuelan art helped the new sky, become a home. Also, we noticed, our pictures, were usually admired by our Canadian visitors and friends.

This might have given us the first clue. The light, theme and character of the Latin American art (Venezuelan in this case) were well appreciated in this latitude, at least in our house.

We would have never thought this would become a bigger challenge: to captivate a bigger audience.

Behind a new door, there is always a new uncertainty, a fascinating uncertainty. The start of an extravagance: An art gallery.

In my husband’s words, “nobody regrets an extravagance”, and, also his words, worst case scenario, nothing happens, we will find ourselves with a house full of art, and a heart full happiness.

So in March 2014 we started our Latin American Art collection in Calgary. Alberta.

Slowly, month after month, pictures started arriving and with each of them, a thrill, a feeling of excitement, a spark.

Colour, colour, colour, so desperately needed; brushstrokes of the tropical nights; the vibrant imagery and soul of southern latitudes; childhood dreams, lost places,  knocked our doors wrapped in tubes and DHL  boxes.

This is what we intend to share.

In summary, I think we have finally identified our main motivation:

Love of art.  

This is how our art gallery project started.

Ars longa, vita brevis

Hippocrates

Next:  Chapter 2:  From dark to light: A space of serenity