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Friday, February 25, 2011

Roberto Estopiñán/ARS Magazine Homage...click!


ARS Magazine pays tribute to one of Cuba's greatest artists, master sculptor, draftsman and engraver Roberto Estopiñán. His life and career through photographs and texts by Dr. Alejandro Anreus, José Gomes Sicre, Gustavo Valdés & Zoé Valdés.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Cuban Flag

Cepp Selgas / Deshecha en menudos pedazos / Técnica mixta / 30X40in. / 2001.

Esta imagen formó parte de un grupo de ilustraciones en el articulo por Raúl Dopico / Apuntes para una estética del Castrismo / ARS Magazine / Invierno / 2010 / http://arsatelier.magcloud.com

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

AKC Gazette / Final...click!


By the time I left the AKC Gazette in 1995, I already was a "Maxwell" medalist. The Dog Writer's Association of America honored me with the "Best Illustration" prize of 1991. Being also an acknowledgement for my work trajectory in the pure bred dog field' art related.


Every time I stop to think, that the government in my native Cuba regardless my talent wanted me beheaded, I say to myself...God! I really have to LOVE this country.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

AKC Gazette / My Mailbag Logo


The image above is from 1986, and just came out of my scanner few minutes ago. It it was taken directly from it's old original artwork, the way we use to do it in the world of yesterday. Even though we had the earliest Macintosh at the Gazette Art Department since 1984.
As a fact, it wasn't until 1995, with Windows-95 that the "digital-new way" begun to takeover the graphic world. Same year I left the graphic design field. Eleven years after in 2006, I had my first own laptop computer. Now, I'm back to this ever-changing technology and still repeating to myself...I'm too old for this!.
Anyway, thanks to this new technology I have been able to publish my "selgasArt-portfolio" so far.
Now, talking about the image above. It seems to be (from the apreciation of others and mine), one of my stronger graphic piece among many I produced in my eleven years working for the AKC Gazette. Prove of it is it's ever lasting permanence as the logo for the section Mailbag up today.
Through all these years this logo (my "Mona Lisa" design) it's being used as a subjet for a rich variation of colors, as we can see in the two sample images below.


At least for this, it looks like somethig appears "permanent' in this ever-changing world of us.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Filler AD For The AKC Gazette

My first AKC Gazette illustration ever / Circa 1984.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

What a Bitch!

Cepp Selgas / What a Bitch / AKC Gazette / Circa 1989.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bad Reputation

Cepp Selgas / Bad Reputation / AKC Gazette / Circa 1988.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Give Me Shelter

Cepp Selgas / Shelter / AKC Gazette / 1987.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Kid and Pet / Right for Each Other

Cepp Selgas / Right for Each Other / AKC Gazette / 1986.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Stopping a Dog from Jumping

Cepp Selgas / No Jumping / AKC Gazette / Circa 1986.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Right House Pet / A Matter of Size

Cepp Selgas / A Matter of Size / AKC Gazette / Circa 1986.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Provocative Behavior

Cepp Selgas / Accepting Strangers/ AKC Gazette / Circa 1987.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Macho Myth

Cepp Selgas / The Macho Myth / AKC Gazette / Circa 1987.


This illustration was also relate to hierarchy, but this time it's more about the human miss perception of it.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Hierarchy

Cepp Selgas / Hierarchy / AKC Gazette / Circa 1986.

I've got kind of a funny story about this illustration. It happens that it was easier for me to come up with this idea for an article about "the Alpha Dog" and the "Underdogs", than to be able to pronounce the word "hierarchy". My boss Tom Carling, the Art Director of the AKC Gazette at the time, couldn't give it a rest until he finally found a solution, by showing me two keys, then by leaving one on the desktop and holding the other one, while rising an arm over his head. He goes saying...you see the one up is a "higher key"...say it!
So, I've for ever learned it. And will be for ever grateful to him and all the AKC Gazette team for all the support they gave me since the first day. Thanks to my all-American friends.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show...

...Is coming to town!

Cepp Selgas / Borzois / Acrylic on canvas / Circa 1988.

This announcement takes me back to great memories, when I used to work for the AKC Gazette magazine. And actually it's a good remainder, because I have a pending portion of dog related artworks yet to come in future posts.
"Borzois" and another piece called "Puddle", were about the only two "paintings" I produced beside my graphic corpus of work for The American Kennel Club. I painted them for an special art show at the AKC Library, sponsored by The Dog Museum of America.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Revista contratiempo...click!


¡Muchas gracias al grupo editorial de contratiempo, por el obsequio del magnifico ejemplar de su revista impresa!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Testimonio de presencia No. 1


El primer día de este primer mes del año, corriente y reciente, decidí hacer cambios estéticos a mi blog. Lo mas importante del caso es que todo el ajetreo de bajar diferentes propuestas de "Blogger Buzz" pude realizarlo en solitario. Lo cuento como hazaña porque en mis comienzos “cero” de septiembre del 2009, sólo gracias a la ayuda de otros y el impulso de Zoé, fue que pude iniciar un tambaleante “Blog portafolio-selgasart”.
Con el cambio he sustituido la foto de mi Perfil biográfico por una de cuando yo tenía 10 años en 1961. Y esta, será sustituida por próximas de edades mayores en los meses venideros. En la de este mes tengo 12 años.
Con excepción de la foto del 61, este conjunto de fotos fue ideado por mí a partir de la “Crisis de octubre” del 62.
El pánico a los ataques nucleares, los ficticios anuncios de la “Invasión Yankee”, la bota militar interna, los campos de concentración UMAP, los CDRs, y la escasez creciente de las cosas más elementales crearon una muy pesimista expectativa a la sobrevivencia mía en aquel país, donde hasta el común acceso a la fotografía cotidiana iba desapareciendo vertiginosamente.
Sobrevivían los estudios fotográficos para fotos de carnet. Lógico pues teníamos que cargar con, al menos, cinco diferentes identificaciones para mostrar a la policía que a diario nos paraba.
Hoy día, en el 2011 de mi 60 cumpleaños y gracias a mi blog puedo publicar este “statement” del sobreviviente através de mi “Testimonio de presencia”.