For all of my Design-Obsessed Peeps -- Day 2/TEXT + IMAGE (Reinaldo Arenas)

Exiled/LuisCruzAzaceta
courtesyTumiamiblog

Peeps,

Today, the peep-show dedicated to text + image continues with a painting entitled Exiled by Luiz Cruz Azaceta paired with Cuban writer extraordinaire Reinaldo Arenas, who wrote:

One of the first things that I ever did in life was to eat dirt.  My first crib was a hole in the dirt, dug by my grandmother.  In that hole, which was waist-deep, I learned to stand up.  My grandmother had used the same technique with all her children; stuck in that hole, I would crawl around on the dirt floor.  Later I would throw dirt against the wall, and one of my solitary diversions was to build mud castles.  I would mix dirt with water that I had fetched from the distant well.  A favorite game for me and my cousins was to throw dirt at one another.  To dig out the earth was to discover unusual treasures like pieces of colored glass, snail shells, and shards of pottery.  To water the earth and see how it absorbs the water we provide is also a unique experience.  To  walk on the earth after a rainstorm is to be in touch with absolute fulfillment; the earth, satisfied, floods us with its well being, while its many aromas saturate the air and fill us with life-creating impulses.

Before Night Falls (a memoir)