By Roland Salazar Rose

Adios, San Miguel; I’m soon on my way, returning to Maine, after over twenty years. Well not really “twenty years” as I was a “snowbird” until 2007, when I stayed fulltime here.

As you can imagine I have seen and personally experienced many changes since 1989, when I brought my aging father here to live out his remaining octogenarian days. The list of changes San Miguel has experienced is too long to unfold in this brief adios. Even if I was to be bold and list the top ten changes I have seen they are mere historical notes on the pathway all cities take as they mature.

Right now there is debate about the pending location of a McDonald’s on Canal. Some ex-pats and Sanmiguelenes have banded together to express there displeasure in this proposed development; and they hope to stem the tide; saying: that a McDonald’s on Canal will ruin the city center’s historical character and many tourists will cease to want to come here for the charm of San Miguel.

While my adios is not directed at the possible good or bad in this pending development on Canal, I do want to say that a McDonald’s, or any other sort of “unwanted” commercial incursion is not of itself going to have any devastating effect on the City’s nucleus. Yes, it does matter on the surface what sort of commercial enterprises are in a city’s core and likely will be a force in how a city is perceived and treasured;  but what really matters over time is how a city conducts itself;  and presents its “heart”; and how it shares it with all. The “heart” of San Miguel is the warmth one feels as one moves about: walking, looking hearing, smelling and how that warmth emanates. Sure, it helps that the climate here is great and the Mexican people are the caring wonderful people they are, but overall the ooze that comes from the “heart” can only be lost when a city like San Miguel loses its magic. Magic in a city has nothing to do with the type of businesses it hosts or what kind of a face it displays, for magic is unexplained, fairylike, charming, and wonderful.

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to live and paint here and I thank the Sanmiguelesnes for this opportunity. I will take my paintings done in San Miguel back to Maine, and leave other works done in Mexico in the hands of those who like my painting, and represent me in the art marketplace.

To document my visual journey of twenty years I have published and consolidated my nine e-art books in the e-book, My Mexican Years; and you can download this on your computer:  free: www.salazargallery.com  My last e-art book in Mexico is San Miguel de Allende: A Magical Place. This e-art book is available free on my website; and is, as Lulu Torbet writes in her Foreword, “Roland Salazar Rose’s personal tribute to San Miguel, in words and in pictures.”

Adios, San Miguel de Allende

Politics in 1776 and 2011

In A Great Improvisation, the author Stacy Schiff writes of Benjamin Franklin’s mission in France—devoting eight years of his life at the age of seventy, and his crowning achievements in the best interest of the newly formed American Republic, now at war with England, across the Ocean. He sets the tome for one of his chapters in this portrayal of Franklin by quoting Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro:

It’s easy. Pretend to know what you don’t, and pretend not to know what you do. Hear what you don’t understand and don’t hear what you do. Promise what you can’t deliver, what you have no intention of delivering. Make a great secret of hiding what isn’t there. Plead your busy as you spend your time sharpening pencils. Speak profoundly to cover up emptiness, encourage spies, reward traitors, tamper with seals, intercept letters, hide the ineptitude of your goals by speaking of them glowingly—that’s all there is to politics, I swear.

Tell me dear reader if you find much better description of the current plight on democracy in America today and in today’s politics, especially?

By Roland Salazar Rose

Adios, San Miguel; I’m soon on my way, returning to Maine, after over twenty years. Well not really “twenty years” as I was a “snowbird” until 2007, when I stayed fulltime here.

As you can imagine I have seen and personally experienced many changes since 1989, when I brought my aging father here to live out his remaining octogenarian days. The list of changes San Miguel has experienced is too long to unfold in this brief adios. Even if I was to be bold and list the top ten changes I have seen they are mere historical notes on the pathway all cities take as they mature.

Right now there is debate about the pending location of a McDonalds on Canal. Some ex-pats and Sanmiguelenes have banded together to express there displeasure in this proposed development; and they hope to stem the tide; saying: that a McDonalds on Canal will ruin the city center’s historical character and many tourists will cease to want to come here for the charm of San Miguel.

While my adios is not directed at the possible good or bad in this pending development on Canal, I do want to say that a McDonalds, or any other sort of “unwanted” commercial incursion is not of itself going to have any devastating effect on the City’s nucleus. Yes, it does matter on the surface what sort of commercial enterprises are in a city’s core and likely will be a force in how a city is perceived and treasured;  but what really matters over time is how a city conducts itself;  and presents its “heart”; and how it shares it with all. The “heart” of San Miguel is the warmth one feels as one moves about: walking, looking hearing, smelling and how that warmth emanates. Sure, it helps that the climate here is great and the Mexican people are the caring wonderful people they are, but overall the ooze that comes from the “heart” can only be lost when a city like San Miguel loses its magic. Magic in a city has nothing to do with the type of businesses it hosts or what kind of a face it displays, for magic is unexplained, fairylike, charming, and wonderful.

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to live and paint here and I thank the Sanmiguelesnes for this opportunity. I will take my paintings done in San Miguel back to Maine, and leave other works done in Mexico in the hands of those who like my painting, and represent me in the art marketplace.

To document my visual journey of twenty years I have published and consolidated my nine e-art books in the e-book, My Mexican Years; and you can download this on your computer:  free: www.salazargallery.com  My last e-art book in Mexico is San Miguel de Allende: A Magical Place. This e-art book is available free on my website; and is, as Lulu Torbet writes in her Foreword, “Roland Salazar Rose’s personal tribute to San Miguel, in words and in pictures.”

Adios, San Miguel de Allende

Any attempt I might like to take to writing a novel would fail. I’m not any good in that genre and I am a novice in writing personal essays, too.  I’m certainly  in no position to judge the worth of what I am doing.

If writing was the same as painting I might be able to have a way of judging what I am committing to paper. I know that I should stay with my painting. I know I am secure in this genre. Whereas writing is something I come to with no training and no heated want as I have in painting. But still I persist in rambling on in my essays  and in these posts, confirming when I do so, how poorly I am doing in the writing area and how I am possibly wasting time that should be  devoted to my painting.

On the writing front: My major effort  this year has been consolidating  my nine e-art books (www.e-artbooks.com) into one e-book. This is available  should you wish to take a plunge, by going to my website: www.salazargallery.com and become a Member (free no strings attached); after which you may download the chapters in the e-book (My Mexican Years) and tag along with me as I show both images and words from my twenty year residency painting my heart out in Mexico. I believe that this e-book is worthwhile. Difficult to print because of the cost in printing color images and the book is almost 200 pages.

Soon my residency here in Mexico ends, in less than three weeks I leave for Maine; there to set up a new studio for myself and pick up brushes and strike out on  a new body of work. No easy task for an older painter. Furthermore, like many others, I struggle to get a market for my work. However, I will seek out several venues to have a show of select paintings  from my Mexican years; and I will push my work into the New York marketplace: would love to have help in this area as I am no good at selling anything;  least of all art.

Well anyway, as I wrote I’ve been thinking!

By Roland Salazar Rose

Gotcha! I knew that if I titled this essay “Sex,” you would at least read the first paragraph; I’m right, you are with me thus far anyway.

You see, what I want to try and answer for my self and for you, now that you are my reader, is this question that poses many possible answers. When sex is under discussion, verbal, written, movies or a screen play, it sure the hell grabs you and commands that you go along and see what is to unfold. It may result in delight—maybe? And then again, it may leave you as cold as a well-told old nun’s story. .

Still with me? Am I trying to have foreplay here with the reader? Why not! The amount of attention given to sex in America is most often brought before the public by the media. No fault of the media in this case, as they are interested in getting paid by their advertisers. They can only act in this manner if they have a subject that is of great interest to the general public—and that subject is sex.  Are there societies that do not have a high degree of interest in sex? I don’t believe it will do much good to name them anyway. Who really cares about some arcane culture hidden in the jungle ofBorneo that demonstrates no interest in sex?  I don’t care. I can’t speak for you.  Remember, you don’t have to have “interest” in sex necessarily to procreate. Genetic researchers recently determined that “Stick Insects” have lived and reproduced for one million years without having sex. Where does that grab you?

Psychology Today states “Sex is the most profound and intimate way to express your love for someone.”  I think the subject is open for discussion but you know these psychologists once they have come to terms with a subject and establish a definition that suits them,  there is no way to change their position. However, you can express your opinion:  Tweet Psychology Today.

There are a plethora of sex blogs you can search for an answer on the variables that attend the subject sex. For example, “All About Sex”; “As You Like it”; that blog would get Shakespeare upset—perhaps? Then you have “Sex at Dawn”; I haven’t ever experienced that; I better check that blog out! It is understandable that you may feel unsure what blogs are best for you. Easy to answer that problem, as you can find out, there is a published list of the “top 50 blogs” at your disposal. Use Google search. You may want to start your own blog: go for it! You better take sufficient time in getting a title for your blog. How else will you be able to compete with such winners as: “Between the Sheets”; “Having My Cake and Eating It Too”; and “Kinky Stick Figure”?

You are probably an intellectual. You must be one as you have read this much. If so, you will likely shun such blogs and seek a high-brow discussion on sex. Remember, you can’t say “sex” is a dirty word; it isn’t a “four letter” word you know! There are Internet forums available for you “intellectuals” and discussion groups, too. Dr. Phi has a message board (not intellectual in content) available.

You do have to watch what you click on when using the Internet and searching the sex topic. Most of the searches will be by males. I can’t prove that but I do believe that generally women prefer talk about sex, one-to-one. You shouldn’t be surprised that “sex’ is so often the center of so much discussion and of great interest to every one.  

“Anybody who believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach flunked geography,”…Robert Byrne.

For Several Months Now

By Roland Salazar Rose

I stopped making art several months ago. I don’t think I’m done with it, only for now.

I believe I know the reasons why I have put aside my painting. No, it isn’t “painting block!” It seems that over the past few years my sales record has been so bad that it best said to be—non-existent. In fact, historically sales have never been any good. I do think that you will want some proof. Do you? That’s easy enough, as I can tell you about it in such detail that you will run off and scream Basta! That’s Spanish for Enough!

Oh, I forgot to tell you, I live in Mexico. I’ve been painting in Mexico, a gringo resident artist, for over twenty-years. Not every minute of every year of course, since I used to go back and forth to the states—pre-divorce, that is—actually to Maine. Some people don’t see Maine to be an integral part of the United States. Of Maine, I once loved to say: “Do you know that if Maniacs, that is what people who live in Maine are called, decided to construct a moat around its border it could do so; and then Maniacs could build a bridge over the moat, and select who they wanted to enter. Massachusetts drivers (some call “Massholes”) would no doubt have to take a driver’s test or they couldn’t drive in Maine. A moat is possible because everyone entering Maine, by vehicle or on foot, have to pass thru only one other state, New Hampshire. No other “lower forty-eight” state has the distinction of only one border with another state. Yes, Maine borders Canada, but Canada isn’t a state and any mention on my part to suggest that Canada become a state would bring a maelstrom of commentary by the good people of Canada here. Did you suggest to me you can fly over the border? Yes, I know that. I’m referring to ground transport here.

Where was I? I remember, I was writing about my not making art anymore. Well, that is true. As to one solitary sufficient reason to explain why this is so; I really can’t do that. What I can illustrate by one example is how my Mexican dealer has never sold any of my work. This gives me an opportunity to claim a listing in the Guinness’s Book of Record for the greatest length of time for “no sales” by a living artist in theUnited States: might even be a world-wide listing. Add to this claim is my unique “artist-dealer” relationship. We have maintained this “artist-dealer” relationship without any sales; for let me think here, some twenty-five years. It continues for some unexplained reason up to this very moment! Got to be something amiss in this business relationship …must be 1) him or 2) me. Then again it could be 3) both of us, who knows!

I can hear your comments as if you were sitting next to me right now: “Give it up, all of it: The painting, the selling, the relationship, everything! Get real, move on with your life and take up some other source of income and creative undertaking. By the way, don’t try to write either. You haven’t shown much talent in this genre either.”

I taught myself art, I took only a few studio classes very early on in my art-making career. You bet I wanted to go to art school after my military service. I had access to the GI Bill. Instead of researching in depth for possible art schools, I went off to a regular college for general studies. Here I am, living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, painting away, and if I only had done my homework better when I was deciding on what to do with my life after military service, I would have located the  art school here in San Miguel, that was just getting started. It would have enrolled me, for it did so for hundreds of others, without an art portfolio. I’m sure of that.  The GI Bill provided plenty of hope-full artist applicants from the U.S. with an opportunity that Mexican artists never had. And what a life it could have been since a government student allowance provided one to party all you wanted in San Miguel in the Forty’s; rents were dirt cheap, cheaper too—bar bills. Another lost opportunity on my part!

One other reason to support my bleak track record in sales is the manner in which I acted, in the cut-throat painting profession. I didn’t have a social network—still don’t—and I isolated myself from the dynamic art scene inNew York Cityby living in Maine. Pretty state Maineand it has a respectful group of artists living there now. When I was beginning my painting career it had no art scene; I stumbled along, something I continue to do, an ingrained failure on my part to establish a goal and develop a strategy to accomplish it.

Yet, I have done good work! I’m sure my art has sustainable value, even if it isn’t a hot ticket item. I have come to understand that I must live with the fact of “no sales.” If you are still good at what you do, what the hell, it matters little what the market does because it is as fickle as Madonna. I’ve got to forget my foibles and simply understand my dismal sales record, take it as it is: Who said that? My left side of the brain, I guess; my creative side says—why should I?

By Roland Salazar Rose

I hate it whenever I hear someone pronounce: “That’s my bottom line!”

I don’t remember the date that President Obama said it, or when, Nancy Pelosi exclaimed it, on some rudimentary commentary she gave to hopefully throttle Congressman Ron Paul when he  blurts out his mantra: “You can’t do that, it’s not in the Constitution!.” And, then you have, some pundit sport person who reports that this or that team’s “bottom line” has been “reached or breached.”

What if you were a bank robber and you came into my bank, the Midland Southern in Greenville,South   Carolina, presented a note and it said: “Hand me all your cash, no funny stuff; this is a stick up!” And I said, “Do you want all the change, too?” Would you say? “I said, all the cash, that’s my bottom line!”

In the business world the bottom line refers to the last line on the company business statement and for those interested, you want to see this improving, not going south. Yet, bottom line is also referred to otherwise. How about your personal bottom line; your health bottom line; or if you like, natural health bottom line; then there is retirement bottom line; oh yes—don’t forget—wealth bottom line. BBC has a radio program “The Bottom Line”; CNN TV hosts “Your Bottom Line”; “The Bottom Line” is said to be Sri Lanka’s “best business newspaper”; or you can have a beer at “Bottom Line” nightclub; prefer to go fishing, then charter “The Bottom Line”; still want to find out more, well Google will direct you to over one-hundred-thousand entries. It appears endless. No bottom for the bottom line.

You know, I shouldn’t be uptight about the bottom line. I should just pass it by, as just one more saying, amongst the many today, that are weakened by over use and passed on—a mere tag-on to the conversation—that might have allowed the conversation to progress to a satisfactory conclusion. Since we have become embroiled in the Middle Eastthe “bottom line” has become a “line in the sand”. It has gotten a lot of play today, now that we are in the Arab sandbox, playing a game of “gotcha.” Well, what the hell, I might as well just say, that when global warming gets around being finally acceptable as inevitable by everyone, it will be all over for our bottom, if not also for the bottom line.

Now that I think of it, will you agree with me that there really is no actual bottom line; but just a line that keeps getting lower and lower, as we dribble along as humans, attempting in our inept way to resolve the on-going human debates?

I know, I’ve wandered off again, “What is all this about ‘bottom line’ anyway?” You ask of me. “It’s just another saying and has some meaning but appears best understood as merely loose as a goose commentary. So, why get uptight, cool it!”

I don’t know precisely why it makes me edgy and moves me to write about the bottom line. I know that I have not received, either by self promotion, or world-wide recognition, a privileged position of authority here; if I had, I could declare, “I don’t want to ever hear it again…

—that’s my bottom line.”—

I will be departing Mexico soon, returning to the USA, to Maine, to a new live/work studio, I have rented in Biddeford Maine. There, I will continue painting and re-establish myself in the art scene locally, as well as make contacts in NYC, to help me promote my art. As I have produced a broad body of work over the years in Mexico and also in Maine I have shied away from the commercialization of these, but now I will show some attention to the probems in marketing my art work to dealers and the general public.