Dora Espinoza Fine Art

Ricardo León Peña Villa

Ricardo in his apartment in Manhattan

D.O.B.: 7/4/1962

P.O.B.: Medellín, Colombia

Residence: Loisaida, New York

Occupation: Poeta, activista, escritor, ex periodista

What is your view of women?

Woman is in life to give life. Woman is the port I'm always seeking; she's the school of life, from her very tenderness, which is stronger than force.

What type of woman do you most appreciate?

I like the most beautiful one, the one who's at my side.

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Dora

I have to be kissed by the muse, and when I am kissed, I am in loved with my new project. The project can be of any kind, not necessarily Photography, Painting, Jewelry, Drawing, Video or Curating.

When it comes to photography my favorite subject are people, in painting, Geometric Abstraction, but not always.

I do to many things at he same time.

I feel, life is to short to dedicated my self to do one thing.

I also love stones and crystals that's why my last body of work is jewelry.

I also like to travel, meditate, and swim.

MALE 2000

MALE 2000, is a personal exploration of men's views on women. It contains about 100 photographs and interviews of man born in each year of the 20th century. The subjects range in age from fifteen to 104. The interviews should allow you to learn and evaluate the ways in which these men think and perceive themselves in relation to how they think about women. This diverse group of men represents different cultures, races, occupations, religions and sexual orientation. I selected this group of men because of their dedication to their professions or simply their way of life.
I also asked the subjects to pose for the photographs the way they wanted, preferably in their favorite place or environment, some preferred to pose in the nude. The project took over 7 years for its completion, during this time I had the opportunity to exhibit the MALE 2000, in various sites New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Easton, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, California, Lima, Perú and Barcelona, Spain.
The project was translated to the Spanish language for the exhibit in Lima Perú, by Alicia Morales, Director of El Centro Cultural de la Universidad Pontificia Católica del Perú.

One of the challenges of this project was to find men born in the early 1900s. After searching for some time, I found, Mr. Abe Goldstein,born in 1898, the eldest of my subjects. It was rare to find a 104-year-old man, still working as a professor of law at a school in New York. I was also curious to know the secret of his longevity and good memory. During the interview, Mr. Goldstein was very suspicious about me, perhaps because I had insisted for so long, to get his interview. Mr. Goldstein expressed his suspicion by asking me, Are you looking for a husband?"... He was not the only one who questioned my motives.

At the other end of the age spectrum my youngest subject, Miguel Ruiz Planella, was born in 1990 in Barcelona, Spain. As you can see in his interview, his view of women has been shaped by his immediate family which is dominated by females: his mother, aunt, and sisters.

The teenagers were simple and honest, full of energy, they’re usually self-centered and want to do everything at once. They didn’t try to impress or look good. When it comes to women they are very insecure and shy; one day they like one, the next day, they are not so sure about their feelings.

Men in their twenties admire an independent, strong and confident woman. A woman’s appearance matters a great deal to them. They are very curious about sex and like to sexually experiment with whomever gives them the chance. Most men at this age also would like to have an affair with older women.

During the fall of 1993, I met Norman Ohler. At the time he was working on a novel, witch he later published on the Internet -- the first novel ever published on the net. In his interview Norman says that he appreciated women who are killers. In his opinion we all have to liberate ourselves from the patterns of the past. When a woman is able to break free of the constraints of society and the expectations of family, she becomes infinitely beautiful in Norman’s eyes. Like Norman, most men in their thirties are focused on their careers and projects. When it comes to women, they feel threatened because of women’s liberation. Dating is big part of their lives.

I think men in their forties are going through the most difficult time of their lives because they have many decisions to make. Marriage and a family are usually a priority. If they are not married by forty the search for a mate becomes unrelenting; they feel that they don’t have much time to lose to find the future mother of their children. But of course, it can’t be just any woman; she should be perfect! By perfect they mean independent, educated, pretty and sexy.

I noticed that the most complicated men are in their fifties. At that age men start to get wise, they are still strong, experienced, and proud of their masculinity since they’ve had to handle a great many responsibilities, but they also know that the party is going to be over soon. I guess they are trying to live it up before it’s too late. There are a large number of them who are having extramarital affairs, or else are trying to get out of one.

Males in their sixties are less complicated; they feel more comfortable with themselves and with women, they are trying to simplify their lives, in every respect.

As they grow older and reach the seventies and up, they just don’t really care about competing or trying to impress woman; they feel more comfortable with themselves. Most of them are already grandfathers anyway so they don’t see women the way they use to see them before, but rather as mothers, daughters or granddaughters. Moreover, they feel proud of them. At least in the group of men I was fortunate enough to meet, they are accepting or even welcoming of all the opportunities women now enjoy that they never had before. They feel that women finally have achieved their independence, and while they cannot live without them, the men also realize that women are stronger than they are. Sometimes they don’t come right out and admit it, but deep inside they know it.

The interviews varied in length. Many of the subjects were eager to talk about their lives, loves, projects, jobs, adventures, frustrations and accomplishments; others, however, didn’t have much to say at all. The longest interview was with Dietrich Loerzer. I call him the last romantic. I met him while traveling in Spain. We sat at the same table of Juanito's Bar in Cancurro, Ibiza, for three consecutive days same time. He would order a cognac and light a cigarette and then share with me the love stories of his life… During the last years of World War II, he said, he was a young German soldier, shy, naive, good-looking and a romantic. He used to dream that one day when the war ended, he would find the most beautiful girl and marry her. When the war finally did end, he returned to his hometown to make his dream come true. What he found there was not only one girl, but many -- all kinds of women: single, married, widows, young and old, but they all had one thing in common: they wanted him. All he wanted, though, was to find one girl, so he kept moving from job to job, from place to place, escaping from all these women. His story was sometimes funny, sometimes sad. Eventually, he succeeded and found the right girl though it took him a long time; he had to travel around the world, but he finally found her.

Two of the most influential people in my artistic carrier are Ed Clark and Steve Cannon. They helped me introduce to a part of the New York art scene I would otherwise not have known. Ed is a first generation abstract-expressionist painter. His abstract paintings are large and sensual in my opinion. He had a unique way of working; he used brooms to apply paint on the canvas. Ed shared with me his knowledge and views about art.

I met Steve Cannon, several years ago in a party at the home of the painter Gerald Jackson on the Bowery, during the party I noticed a young crowd gathered around one of the guests as if he were a messiah. Everyone was listening to this man, asking questions, and taking care of him. He looked full of life. After making some inquiries, I found out that Steve was a retired English professor. At first I didn’t realize that he was blind. A few days later I visited him at his East Village apartment, which was also the home of his organization, A Gathering of the Tribes. He had a strange couple for roommates: a junkie-poet from California and a beautiful, tall, skinny blond blue-eyed prostitute. The place was crazy: cluttered with useless memorabilia, worthless objects, junk mail, newspapers, magazines, records, cassettes, videos, an excessive amount of books strewn all over the place, plus a piano. It was obvious that Steve needed someone's help. After a long conversation, I persuaded Steve to open an art gallery in the front room where the piano sat. Of course, I also urged Steve to get rid of his roommates. Two weeks later the roommates left... A few months later, after an extensive renovation, the apartment -- always a gathering place -- had acquired a new ambience. In 1993, Norman Ohler and Mica D’Orleans, a, photographer from New York, and I opened Tribes Gallery with a group show called Manipulated Photography. Steve is an intellectual, immersed in contemporary literature and the art movement in New York. Steve’s problem is that he falls in love every two minutes; I guess it’s because he is always surrounded by young, smart and beautiful women.

I must say that I enjoyed working on this project; all of these new experiences changed my views about men. I learned to see them as equals and unique rather that as members of the opposite sex. I also learned is that man is definitely a less complicated than women.

New York, New York

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