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This new work is very elegant.  The images and the alpha transparency
technique is very well executed.  The user interface works well and is
attractive and does not overwhelm the art.  The music (who composed it?  is
very emotionally affecting.  The theme was moving and well communicated.  I
did find the image of the boy to be painful to look at.

The work made me wonder if it is fair to make beautiful art out of such
suffering.  But your work is firmly directed towards fighting that suffering
(at least as much as art can fight real problems like poverty and hunger.)
In your personal life, I know you rescued the ducks who feature in the work
to stop them from suffering.  It is not in your power (or mine) to stop the
children of the world from starving.

I think your work is very relevant to current events, specifically to the
current United Nations Summit in which the United States (my country
unfortunately) made the UN weaken its commitment to the Millennium
Development Goals, which the UN countries had previously agreed to.  (The
goals were to halve poverty, send as many girls as boys to primary school,
and reduce infant mortality by (I think, someone can correct me) 2018.  This
was supposed to be funded by a commitment from all rich countries to donate
0.7 % (which is so little!) of their GDP to foreign aid.)  I think your art
work shows vividly the reason why governments need to fight poverty, in
their country and in other countries.  The reason is not political, it is
not economic, it is not strategic.  It is the dryness of that one boy's
skin, so tight on his body which has no flesh.  It is the dying bird the boy
is reaching toward -- a bird whose own starvation means it cannot feed the
boy.  It is also the kindness of people like you, who take in sick birds,
which makes it so necessary that our leaders help people in need.  Your
kindness can save two birds, the kindness of all citizens individually can
save a flock of birds and a crowd of children, but it is nations which must
take the lead in solving the really huge problems of development.

I wish your art could be displayed (with art of others which deals with
hunger) where our leaders have to see it, are forced to stare at the
ugliness of suffering.  But I fear they are blind to the pain and the
hunger.  Our president just made a speech full of lies and false promises
about helping the victims of the New Orleans hurricane.  He made it sound
like he would help the people and at the same time is making plans to only
pay for health care for a very small portion of the hurricane victims who
need it in only one state.

What is the project of Isabel Aranda that you did this work for?  Is she
looking for new works?

Millie Niss
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "arteonline" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 9:29 AM
Subject: [WDL] off topic - Two "Ugly" Ducklings - my new work.


Dear all

I would like to invite you to visit - Two "Ugly" Ducklings - at

 http://arteonline.arq.br/ducks/ .

It is my new work for a project by Isabel Aranda  - "pulses del hambre"
(press of hunger) - (http://www.pulses.yto.cl ).

'Two "Ugly" Ducklings'   is a portion of a true history that I will tell you
completely in my next electronic artist's book.
For now it is a small and interactive narrative that has only one sentence.
It happens because images are language that everybody understands.
The effect "alpha" (that one that makes an image become transparent)  was
used to build the narrative.
Maybe you remember that the ducks have been characters of my last works.
They appeared in  "Alice in the Wonderbalcony"
( http://arteonline.arq.br/alice/  ) and in "Many Faces of Eva"
(http://arteonline.arq.br/eva/  ), in this last one through Marcelo Frazão's
image.  I hope  you appreciate to see them again in my new work. There you
will know a little bit more of their history.

All the best,

Regina Célia Pinto

http://arteonline.arq.br
http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm
http://bigsheep.blogspot.com

New Works:
http://arteonline.arq.br/ducks/
http://arteonline.arq.br/eva/

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