Celestino Mesa at the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Cruz De Tenerife, 10 September to 14 October 2021

Celestino Mesa, painter, muralist, specialist in watercolor and portraiture, will exhibit his work from September 10 at the Municipal Museum of Fine Arts in the capital of Tenerife. It is a selection of his recent creations, out of pure realism. It is inspired by the tradition of the Canarian watercolorists, where light and color are the main reasons to bring the work to the support. The same in the portrait, where he follows the realistic trend. His work is a reflection of an intimate world, of a duality between reality and hope. All marked by decisive elegance, with balanced spaces to which it combines shape and color. In the figure he is cautious and precise in the similarities and when he breaks with that form, he does so with the landscape, where he gets rid of any pictorial pressure. He shapes the eternity of feelings, experiences that may have continuity or that may belong to the past. He is an outstanding draftsman, with an enviable mastery of color, a master in the art of transforming so that everything is a true reflection of reality. He knows how to see and believe, in a constant game in which the figure acquires prominence and quality. Celestino Mesa is a virtuoso of painting. He has exhibited in numerous European countries, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Spain. He has collaborated in multiple collectives and has exhibited in the main halls of this capital. His work is widespread and appears in multiple public and private collections.

Joaquin Castro San Luis. (Art Critic. Journalist).

The Not So Still Life by Celestino Mesa.

The interpretation of “loneliness” in Nature not so dead … and interpersonal relationships, through an artistic critical gaze where plants and inanimate objects converse on canvas or cardboard … or not …

The feeling of loneliness, as defined by Peplau and Perlman (1979), is the perception of the gap between what the person expects from interpersonal relationships and what he would have wanted. In the same vein, the psychologist Guy Winch emphasizes the subjectivity of loneliness, that feeling only depends on whether one feels emotionally or socially disconnected from those around him, regardless of whether he is surrounded by people, friends, family, etc.

The feeling of loneliness, therefore, is the product of the beliefs that the person has and the evaluations that they make about the emotional and / or social situation of it.

Loneliness affects us all at some point in our lives; Phrases such as “I am alone” or “I have no one” are often quite frequent.

Sometimes the person who says them may have family, friends, or even a large following on social media, but they don’t really feel in tune with anyone; And it is that what she, she really wants to convey, is that she feels alone.

It is a difficult feeling to explain, hence this personal interpretation with not-so-still-lives, it is a mixture of feelings of inadequacy, of lack, but above all of emptiness.

The WHO defines health as: “the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not only the absence of diseases or illnesses.” In that sense, the general well-being depends to a large extent on the quality of the bonds that we establish with others.

The feeling of loneliness is a detrimental factor for our health, even generating negative consequences on our emotional and psychological well-being, such as: sadness, stress, lack of motivation, hopelessness, anguish, fear …

Loneliness is a feeling that warns us of a lack of affective or social contact, a panorama that in this case Celestino Mesa recreates with the most neutral colors and gray environments, but, as almost always, the problem is not the sensation we feel, if not what we do with it and how we manage it.

This signal can be interpreted as an impulse to act and, consequently, to seek relationships more actively, or it may be the reason that leads us to isolate ourselves even more, in an attempt to protect ourselves so that others do not make us hurt.

A factor that seems to be related to the feeling of loneliness is social competence, that is, among other things, the ability of people to express their feelings and opinions. In this sense, distorted thoughts often appear in which the person is convinced that he is not friendly, interesting or worthy of being appreciated, and therefore rejects any type of potential friends in order to protect himself from possible rejection .

The basis that underlies this type of belief is usually the fear of sharing, of showing oneself as one is…; These types of fears make it very difficult to create strong interpersonal relationships. Loneliness not only has psychological consequences, but it also takes a toll on our physical health.

It is common for lonely people to fall into a vicious cycle: the person feels lonely, gets depressed, and then feels lonelier and more depressed. The result is a loss of interest in day-to-day life and in undertaking new activities that might help you meet other people with whom you could share tastes and values.

Just as loneliness does not always have to do with the presence or absence of other people, it does not always have to have a negative connotation or be harmful.

There is a time to communicate with others and another to establish contact with the deepest part of ourselves, in which solitude is essential. Periods of loneliness help us take a step back, look back at our lives, and plan for the future.

Being alone, without giving explanations to anyone, simply enjoying those things that we most want away from daily obligations can be highly therapeutic, and it is a highly recommended exercise, especially when our daily routine is very stressful.

Like Edward Hopper, a painter of the loneliness of isolation, in this series Celestino Mesa seeks a dialogue between gray or lost frames, on a black or discolored wall and inside the imprint of time, of a cross or a fork on the table , alone, on a crumpled tablecloth … or a wall forgotten in time, alone and waiting for the imprint of a new day. A right-angled vase that isolates and protects the skeleton … its Adam’s rib, monstera, alone with its lights and shadow before a white canvas; reflection before all that remains to come or live, each one of them submerged, isolated in their melancholy. A coffee waiting in the cup, the feminine footprint in it, the one that is no longer there, a particularity of this exhibition since Celestino Mesa leaves aside the human figure to focus on simple and unitary objects that make up those still lifes, each one in its solitude, minimal accessories that invite the viewer to seek that message, or the reason for the distribution of spaces.

Spaces, not so still lifes, tablecloths, ribs, shadows, lights, frames that dialogue with the wall between neutral tones, components that Celestino Mesa has used to characterize this particular message, of loneliness that many of us have had to live in these pandemic days.