The child…

I am not pretty sure how Mamut came to me or if it was me, looking for something, that found it on my way. We are alway so busy trying to get somewhere, trying to achieve something, trying to force our limits, that we get no time to realize what we are or, maybe the most important thing, what we really want. This is the trickiest question of all times. What do you want? And it is so simple and so difficult at the same time..

On the other side we are not the same person we looked at the mirror ten or fifteen years ago. And for sure that person wanted something different at that time. I have been always interested in colors, painting and drawing. I have also admired those people capable to do things with their knowledge and their own hands, using simple tools, as patience, time and effort…

Red Gloves ©Photo by Alain Bañon, Mamut Pastels, 2021

I grew up admiring artisans that took a life to master their craft, suddenly becoming “Unnecessary”, lost, or replaced by machines, and third quality products... Maybe I am a frustrated painter that has been looking to create art all my life using different supports. The last one that kept me busy in my quest for many many years was photography. But things changed so much the last decades! One day I realized that the idea I had about photography did´nt exist anymore and I felt obligated to look at the mirror again, and look deep inside for myself. Again.

I found a very young person, almost a child, anxious for playing! As Jean Piaget, (a psychologist best known for Piaget's Theory of Learning or “Piaget's theory”) used to say, children are little explorers and scientists who seek to make sense of the world around them. And don´t feel as fitting in this world of grownup people. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry also said; “All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.”.

Pigment residue used in color tests. ©Photo by Alain Bañon, Mamut Pastels

Red Pastel dough drying ©Photo by Alain Bañon, Mamut Pastels, 2021

As many of you that are reading this, I am that child… That child still looking for discovering… “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”