"Art is an Expression of Life" -Rolando Diaz

Rolando Diaz is a local artist in Dallas as well as internationally known for his cubist style. I first encountered his series of work called Vagabonds at South Side on Lamar's Janette Kennedy Gallery. The idea for this series came in part by Rolando's own personal experiences. 

Rolando Diaz in front of a painting in his series Vagabonds

The Communist spread in Cuba, where Rolando is originally from, inspired his family to leave their country when he was 8 years old. This created a shift between the comfortable life he knew in his home country to an impoverished state of being. After losing his father not long after, he learned how to adapt to life as a refugee and became ingrained with a sense of compassion to those living in poverty--an idea that is very intrinsic and motivational to his work. 

Vagabonds which was featured at the JK Gallery, is a powerful collection of works portraying the beauty of holding someone's gaze, someone who may go unnoticed. It's the separation of social classes looking at each other in the eyes and seeing them as a work of art.

I was fortunate enough to interview the artist about this series and discussed the eyes as a main feature of the portraits:

“When you spend time with people who have been in tough situations...the eyes tell you a lot. Some are very angry, some are very tender, some are hurt, there are all kinds of expressions that come when you spend time with a person in the streets from their eyes”

Ahora que

Recently, Rolando has spent less time showing his work in galleries and has been more involved in performance art. Alongside musicians, he has created many paintings that are auctioned, with 50% of the proceeds going to a non-profit that helps keep art in school.

 On June 13, 2008,  he was the topic of a documentary called Recapturing Cuba featured on Art and Seek. The film captures the artist as he returns to Havana since he and his family left. Though, he may have physically moved from his home country, he has never forsaken the culture's influence on his art, nor forgotten those who he paints for.

If you would like to get more involved with the same charitable initiative Rolando has undertaken, visit http://www.citysquare.org/

A+ for this Science Project

Would you like to experience what it's like to walk through a 180,000 square foot science project? Good news, I bring to you! The Perot Museum of Nature and Science opened its doors to Dallas in December 2012 with interactive exhibits and a ton of amazing, wonderful, science facts. As a visitor of the museum, you can tell that an immense amount of thought and creativity went into, not only the architecture, but also the artistic presentation of science. 

You don't spend nearly $100 million (construction alone) on a building without it being pretty much one of the most beautiful additions to the Dallas architectural landscape.

My fusband (fake/future-husband) and I went to visit the museum last weekend and, oh boy; we felt right at home with all the kiddies running around from exhibit to exhibit. I felt like I had traveled back in time to when I presented a science project at my school's science fair; except this time I wasn't nervous and my palms were less sweaty.  

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is unique in that it offers its visitor's an interactive experience with science and encourages the museum goers to explore and absorb everything around them. They even welcome photography. Let me tell you, my inner nerd and photographer (however amateur) went ballistic in this place. 

As I walked through the museum I realized how important art is for science and vice versa. They have both taken a few pages out of each other's book for their own use and purpose. Without casting, as we can see in the two images above, where would sculpture be? Without architecture, how would we house knowledge, just as the Perot is doing?

This massive building encompasses every branch of natural science that you can think of, covering all the bases of curiosity. There is no need for parents to worry about their children being too rowdy, or boyfriends worrying about their girlfriends being too rambunctious (I wasn't lying about inner nerd). Virtually everything in the museum is meant to be touched and experimented with. 

This museum is definitely fun for kids and adults. It does a great job of getting the visitors excited about science and exploring the expanse of knowledge provided. This "science project" as I've described it is not only interactive, but thoughtfully structured and wonderful to look at. So, well done and A+ to all of those who envisioned The Perot.

Did The Perot get a passing grade from my readers? I would like to know how you all rated the Museum and others like it around the city. What other science centers don't we know about?