Changes

About my university program of studies, I would change several things if it was about that, although I believe that the problems are in chain or effect I dominate, the decisions with respect to the branches that should or not have perhaps do not contemplate the plane or social context in which we are inserted like artists, it is the root of the problem and the as it is seen the art and the culture in Chile what must change. Taking into account that there is hope that this changes and of course from my own practice (visual arts) and from the arts in general can be achieved. The career that takes as academic degree Bachelor of Visual Arts with duration of eight academic semesters, daytime. Five years counting the year of thesis and memory. In the beginning I had more general branches of art, aspects that cover all artistic branches such as volume or color. After the semesters I became more specific in my search for knowledge and my own area of interest, choosing a workshop and an artistic specialty to achieve a consistent body of work, but this is where I think the branches that are in my net fall short in literary tools, autonomous work forms and branches that give us basic knowledge to apply for works to calls, more direction regarding international scholarships, exchanges or residencies to which you can apply. At least in everything I have participated externally in the artistic field has been own search, not with a guide from the university or teachers who dominate the field and practices or management to be exercised to emerge as an artist.

¡LEGALIZATION!

My opinion about marijuana and other drugs, talking about how behaviors and laws should be implemented in my territory, Chile. This considering that I am active consumer of the cannabis and I do not believe that this is a drug, but a plant with different properties, which I assimilate but to a healing plant, that does not make me dependent on her, nor it has addictive factors related to the consumption. Something that the society usually relates between the marijuana and other "hard" drugs is that they have a conductive thread, in the sense that it is believed that the marijuana takes to you to consume synthetic and strong drugs but in effect as they are it the cocaine and the ecstasy. In Chile these drugs are consumed commonly, but well it is known that in his majority they are addictive and by ignorance or badly management of consumption they arrive at excesses nonwished and often until the death. I believe that it is necessary to separate the drugs and his specific aims, the marijuana by its side would have to be legal for a long time since it is a natural resource but, and when implementing laws that endorse what the consumer puts to his body, mediating the consumption and the relation of quality v/s prices, would be everything seen from another point of view, with a vision that is based on the contemporaneousness and new forms to see something that before was taboo. Regarding synthetic drugs and their legalization, I believe that it should be carried out for various reasons, one of these is that consumption will continue to exist but in a clandestine manner and not in moderation, on the other hand, if safe consumption practices are implemented and more informed, many misfortunes will be avoided. *Last Wednesday the ONU recognized the medicinal properties of cannabis in a vote in Vienna of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the executive body on drug policy of the United Nations.

My ideal jobs

In this post I will talk about my dreams and longings in the short and long term, since my career has no assigned jobs, on the contrary, it is a career that is made from time and work. If we talk about an ideal, I would like to work outdoors, being able to have contact with the land and nature is something fundamental for me. I would like to travel the world doing what I like, to know different cultures, people, places... at the same time that I work and I continue consecrating my knowledge and learning. Ideally I would like to be in constant learning throughout my life, I think that one never stops knowing new things in various aspects of life. I would say that I don't care about the salary, since I don't care how much I earn if I am leading the life I want and I am happy with what I do, but something has to be lived, so I think I would like to work in something that would give me enough money to lead a simple but autonomous life. In the first place, after finishing my current career (Visual Arts) I would like to leave the country, learn from other territories the ways of seeing art. Doing a postgraduate degree abroad while working for a living, what I have in mind and the fields that interest me most are, on the one hand, the restoration and conservation of pre-Columbian textiles specifically, and on the other hand, art direction and/or photography. I would also like to learn more about the fields of botany, architecture, design, adventure tourism and many more!

Black Mirror: Criticizes technology and the human.

Black Mirror is that mirror in which we look at ourselves obsessively and compulsively every day. Charlie Brooker(Director) is aware of the abuses of a technology that seems to have no limits and that, added to the human evil and the ironic sadism of the author, leads us to this corrosive satire of modernity. This series has five seasons of three and six self-concluding chapters of between 40 minutes and one hour approximately, episodes without a plot continuity that are enjoyed as much separately as in a serious marathon. With respect to the plot of the series, it stresses and puts on the table common themes, conflicts that are usually lived, taken to a futuristic context, to which I at least, do not see so far... Showing each story with a different aesthetic, which carried out with digital media is visualized closer to reality. But stories full of tension, anguish, doubts, fear and reflection. A series that definitely has to be seen and questioned different aspects of the life in which we are inserted and to which we go as a society in a global environment.

Travel through Southeast Asia; Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore.

The experience of having known the Southeast Asia was unique! and I would do it a thousand and one more time, this vacation was in March of last year (2019), we went for a month with my parents to travel and meet new cultures in Asia. At the beginning we were in Thailand; we visited the market, we took public transportation with the intention of getting to know how life really was there, palaces, culture in its museums and streets. After that we were in Cambodia; place used as a set in several movies in order to show ruins and "uninhabited or recondite" spaces. Then we were on Redang Island in Malaysia, an island paradise where there was nothing but the huts where we slept and the general dining room, to eat and share with other tourists or to keep out of the rain in a group. Later we went to Singupur; a modern city where we lived the bohemian life and got to know more contemporary architecture. At the end of the trip we returned to Thailand but in the south of the country, visiting the paradisiacal beaches and the most exploited part of the tourism in that area (Pucket). This trip meant a lot to me, because it allowed me to meet myself and my relationship with my parents, to be the three of us as a family, alone in a part of the world so far away from ours, with another language, other ways of life... it was a challenge! but we had a great time! and having the possibility of knowing a culture so different from your own makes you see everything differently.

Next trip: Greece(Athens, Santorini, Mykonos)

The truth is that I like to travel a lot, I always have new destinations in mind. One place that I have wanted to visit for a long time is Greece, I have always liked the language and it surprises me that it is the oldest language that is still used, another factor that interests me is the history, since Athens is one of the oldest cities in Europe, also democracy, philosophy, political science, western literature or mathematical principles were born there among many other disciplines. Added to the natural ruins found in beautiful landscapes of the country, with a unique aesthetic that is not based only on beauty, but on superstition, since the famous blue roofs and white houses are thought from the thought that "Blue brings out evil". I would like very much to travel there and stay there for a long time, to do artistic internships in the country, learning and understanding the Greek language, investigating about its history and learning about a culture that has been before us for more than 7000 years. I hope to be able to do it and to know new places always, I believe that all cultural, aesthetic and historical diversity is nourishing for our life!

My blog experience

The truth is that I'm not a lover of technology, so it's very difficult for me to understand how this kind of things work, not from now on but from always, only in this case the blog was my challenge. I never thought I would have one in my life hahaha I've always refused a lot when learning about technology, sometimes I feel half technofob, but being mandatory and part of the industry I had to learn how to use it and write post weekly, at first it was very frustrating because I did not understand much how it worked, but thanks to my colleagues in the same industry I could have a tidy and nicer blog. After a while and having uploaded a couple of posts to the blog, I got used to the mode and I think it was a plus for the course, since the English evaluations are always the same and the use of the blog made the branch more fun! I've always had a hard time with English and this way of learning it was different and I'll always be grateful for the changes in paradigms and ways of teaching that are different to the common and more formal ways of teaching. It was a good experience in general and I liked being part of this course.

Restoration - Love of heritage

How can we talk about a topic we have liked this semester in a specific field. This semester I got into the field of Restoration as a complementary workshop in my curriculum, although with the quarantine and confinement I regretted having enrolled in this branch because it is very presential, with the arrangement of ceramic pieces or supports and more complex materials, but theoretically the development of the course surprised me a lot over time, I have learned many things that I did not know about the restoration and conservation of works of art, knowledge that will serve me in the future for the care of the pieces that I will be creating throughout my career. My titular professor in the field is part of UNESCO and has made me very aware of the care that must be taken with heritage and love for our memory and the elements that were part of our history. In the end these are the only things left from the past, and they must be contemplated and respected in a proper way.

Master of textile and color

Last year I had the opportunity and the honor to participate in an artistic residency in Peru, with the Peruvian textile artist Maximo Laura. Apart from being very humble and simple, he gave his knowledge of textiles and the theory of color, openly showing his cosmovision of the world and how he sees life through his art. Maximo Laura is recognized for being one of the most influential artists within the American and world scene, in the world of textiles and large scale tapestries. In 2016 I went to Machu Picchu and one day to get to know Lima we went downtown to visit an art gallery. I was amazed and I commented openly that I loved textiles and that I had never seen anything like it, and he was next to me and asked me which was my favorite. He invited me to his artistic residency, giving me the information to apply for the next year so that I could meet him more last year during my stay in Peru. This was one of the most beautiful experiences I've had in every sense! I consider my teacher to be the best and a fundamental part of the love I have for the textile art.

Quarantine Specialty

I'm not a fan of food in general, since I was a child I never liked white or red meat, so I've been a vegetarian for nine years, eating lots of vegetables, legumes and fruits. I never liked cooking so my vegetarianism forced me to learn how to cook "special" foods. Nowadays, since I was in my forties, I am a vegan and physically I feel much better than before! What I like to cook and eat the most, is desserts or anything sweet! and in this quarantine inventing new recipes, I managed to cook some wonderful vegan cinnamon rolls! I have made them for all my family and friends, they have been very enjoyable and are definitely one of the best things out there! Although I have noticed that cinnamon is not a popular taste): I love it! and I hope that if you haven't tried it, you will. I can give you the recipe if you want it! Greetings

Favourite photo

This photo, which is one of my favorite photos, in which I appear at the age of two with my mom and dad, we were sitting on a bench in the plaza de armas in Temuco. The photo was taken on March 2, 2001, by a cousin of my father's since the trip was a family visit. 

This is one of my favorite pictures since it shows my family nucleus until today, the two most important people in my life, who besides being my parents are my friends too and I like to see myself so attached to them since I was a little girl, since I still am and a lot! I like this picture since I was very little, since I had it hidden under the mattress of my bed and I always looked at it! 

Pictures have always been part of my life, it's my dad's hobby so I've also taken a liking to them, and I feel that they have a lot of symbolic load in them and make us feel sometimes inexplicable things.

One of my favorites

Personally I love art cinema and watching movies of all kinds, so it is very difficult to choose a specific movie I like, I have many! 

The film I chose is based on Patricia Bosworth's biography of Diane Arbus: A Biography as a source. The plot of the film is a fiction that focuses on a specific period of the artist's life, which takes place in New York, 1958, where Diane Arbus is a housewife who works as an assistant to her husband, who is a fashion and advertising photographer. Her life is comfortable and quiet, until a new neighbor moves into the neighborhood and captures Diane's attention. The arrival of this man leads her to discover her own talent in photography and to transgress the customs of the time. I highly recommend this film, apart from being about one of my favorite photographs, the art direction is beautiful and matches the same mixed fiction story.

Favorite technological object

My favorite technological article, I would always say, is the photographic camera, since I was a little girl the photos and videos were always in my life, my parents love the photography and to keep memories through this one, I find wonderful the analogous process of the cameras, how the impression of the photo in the roll works, thanks to the amount of light that enters to the camera, the possibilities of photography that there are with different lenses, angles, illumination and how the process of impression of the negative to the photographic paper is carried out. I love the idea of being able to stop time and capture a specific moment with the camera, and when you see the image you are transported to that moment.

Because I chose the art

When I was little I always wanted to be a veterinarian, I remember that until I was 8-9 years old I didn't talk about anything else I wanted to be when I grew up, I also danced since I was 4 years old, so I imagined being a dancer at some point, especially when I started to be very interested in art in general, theater, painting and music, but I never saw it as a real option because of the situation of art in Chile. I was always good at math so architecture was my first option until I decided to do the basic cycle of my career while finishing high school average, it was in this instance that I fell in love with art, seeing other branches outside of painting, which is the most common and recognized as "art" I realized that I wanted to learn everything and decided to take the exam to enter the career, I have been 6 years in the career counting the basic stage and I still think it was the best decision. In the future I would like to work in various areas experimenting with art in different ways, for example restoring pre-Columbian textiles, art direction, curating in museums, being an independent artist and at the same time teaching what I know, being a teacher.

Hello, everybody!

My name is Catalina Odette León Vidal (caodlevi), I was born on February 12th in Santiago, Chile.
I am Aquarius ascendant sagittarius moon in virgo. I live in Florida since always, with my mom and dad, I am an only child but my family in general is very big, I am the oldest of 16 cousins and we are all very close. I love my cat (tahiel), riding my bike, dancing, photography, architecture, botany, animals, traveling and getting to know new cultures, music and art in general.
I am currently in my 4th year of Visual Arts, specializing in textiles.