|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
  |
Lubbock Avalanche-JournalTuesday, September 2, 2003 Migraine MasterpiecesUnique use of colors adds appeal to artist's creationsby Shelly Funsch Family members fill the home of Stanley Bermúdez. His wife, Maria, appears as a fourth-grader. Their oldest daughter, 3-year-old Lucia, enjoys her first Halloween with her grandfather on the adjacent wall, and 11-month-old Aida decorates the home, too. The face of Stanley's brother shows in an image of Jesus. Shades of purple, pink, yellow and blue illuminate the characters in the artworks. "I love his use of color," Maria says. "It's really different that his shading is with color and not the gray scale."
Stanley, a full-time father and part-time art appreciation teacher at Texas Tech, has been creating artworks since he was a child. His piece called "Self My-Graine" was one of 25 in the country selected by the National Headache Foundation for the summer exhibit "Migraine Masterpieces" at the John Hancock Center in Chicago. "Migraine is something that is part of my life," Stanley says. "I can't get rid of them completely. Because it's part of my life, I created a self-portrait. There's a a little bird on top of my head. That represents the migraine. It's always there. You never know when it's going to appear. "The stripes represent the aura of the migraine. You get all these wiggly things and these blind spots and weird vision. The tape material is reflective. You can kind of see yourself. That represents the blind spots. And I put little squiggly spots that also show the aura." Dr. Russell Packard, professor of neurology and director of the Headache and Head Injury Clinic at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, describes migraines as severe headaches with pounding or throbbing qualities. "People have trouble functioning," he says. "They get light sensitive and noise sensitive and may have nausea or vomiting. "There are some people who have migraines who take two Excedrin and go on about their day, but it slows them down. They have trouble concentrating. "For some people, migraine is incapacitating," Packard says. "It knocks them into bed, and they miss work." Stanley used to be one of those people. "I started having them when I was 10 or 12," he says. "My mom told the school, 'If he gets one, just send him ' They were very debilitating. The pain was so unbearable, and all I could do was sleep it off. And I got nausea. "I used to be an elementary schoolteacher," Stanley says. "I missed a lot of work. I used my whole 10 days and more because the migraine wouldn't let me do anything." Packard says about 6 percent of men and 18 percent of women have migraines. For some sufferers, stress, red wine, aged cheese, champagne or menstrual periods can bring an attack. For Stanley, caffeine was a trigger.
"I eliminated caffeine from my diet about five years ago, and that has made a major difference," he says. "I still get the aura sometimes, and I take some ibuprofen and wait to see of the pain will come. Usually it doesn't." If a trigger isn't identified, prescription medicines often become treatments, Packard says. If migraines are occasional, the patient takes a drug in a class called triptans at the onset of the headaches. If the migraines are frequent or incapacitating, the patient may take a daily anti-seizure drug or anti-depressant to prevent an attack. "These medicines are specific," Packard says. "They do work at the level of the blood vessels. The way it works is if a migraine gets going, the blood vessels dilate open, which causes pain. The medicines prevent that." He says migraine tends to run in families. "People, we think, with migraine are born with the predisposition," Packard says. "They have a set of blood vessels in the brain that are more reactive." Stanley's migraines come from his mother, as does his artistic talent. During his childhood in Venezuela, art was entertainment: paper and crayons spread out, clay in his hands to be molded into the image of Popeye as Stanley watched cartoons. His projects continue to focus on characters: family, friends, faces from history and Catholic icons. Stanley starts with a photo or slide image, which he projects onto canvas and traces before painting. "The art part is that I put the lines where I think shadows and highlights should go," he says. "I figure out where they go. I never know what color I'll use until I paint it. If I don't like it , I can paint over it since it's acrylic. "Sometimes my wife says, 'I don't know if I like that color for the hair.' Then I get really mad, but I know she's right and I have to change it," Stanley says and smiles. "Sometimes I disagree and stand my ground, but she's usually right." In addition to the way he uses colors, Maria likes the personality her husband imparts to his paintings. "Another thing I love about his artwork is it's really fun and whimsical," she says. "Even when we lived in little rundown apartments in grad school, his artwork brightened our home. When he has shows, I get a little sad because some of our artwork goes." A current series, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," depicts famous mugs. After painting the faces, he applies strips of tape to the canvas before adding more colors. Removing the tape reveals a new look. "A lot of people tell me my work seems to be happy work," Stanley says. "I had a happy childhood. I have a great wife and two children. Life is happy, and I think I project that." A happy childhood filled with art may pass into the next generation. So may migraines, but the art has a head start. Stanley's oldest daughter works at her own desk in her father's studio. "I've got her set up," Stanley says. "I think she's going to be an artist. She's only 3, but she draws some interesting faces." MedicineSome pharmaceutical companies offer free migraine medicine to patients in need:
Source: National Headache Foundation's Web site at www.headaches.org Stanley Bermúdez creates his paintings in a studio attached to his house. The studio includes a desk for his 3-year-old daughter, Lucia, to develop her artistic abilities. Bermúdez is working on a series called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" that depicts the faces of President Bush, Osama bin Laden, the president of Venezuela and other famous people. "I just let the audience decide who's good, who's bad and who's ugly," he says. To view samples of his work online, visit www.stanleybermudez.com. |
||||||
|
Home | Exhibitions | Gallery | Links | Press | Sales | Contact | Resume | Biography © Stanley
Bermudez Moros Artwork Paintings, sculptures, fine art, portraits, art,
jewelry, modern art, commissions, artwork, folk art, and small altars
from Venezuelan artist Stanley Bermudez Moros. www.stanleybermudez.com
|
|||||||
|
|
|
||||||
