"Mis Mentiras" - Andres Martinez de Velasco & Loretta Lopez

10-05-2011

Statement of Purpose

Mis Mentiras is a colaborative project built upon communication. Loretta wrote the poem in Spanish and as she searched for an accurate English version of her words, Andrés composed music for the Spanish version. Andrés’ music does not explain the poem, it investigates its core and expresses it as a reaction. His work captures the sentiment of Loretta ?s. It is not a translation but an invention in itself.

In the English translation of the poem, the words wrap the core predecessor. Like Andres’ music, Loretta ?s translation prioritizes the preservation of sentiment . It does not work on an entirely factual level, it chooses to understand a meaning and preserves the truth through further invention.

Mis Mentiras works on a principle of risk and creation. When we voice truth through art we engage in a simultaneous act of creation and loss because the accuracy of any medium is limiting and the extent of understanding indefinitely variable. Different understandings become part of the artwork, part of the truth, or a new truth.

-Andrés and Loretta

Song:  Mis Mentiras  mis+mentiras+mp3-2.mp3
Excerpt of score:

Lyrics in Spanish:

Mis Mentiras

He decido decir la verdad a través de metáfora.

Mis mentiras son de leopardo,

mi lengua es de colibrí,

se extiende hacia flores y agua de azucares para que los niños se asomen de sus balcones.

Me he abierto y cerrado tres veces pero no es ahí donde uno encuentra el misterio.

Ayer en sueños, nos sentamos en el piso azul de la cocina agachados enfrente del goteo,

me dijiste que solo me entenderías hasta el final, esto nunca fue un cuento, pero siempre lo será. Entiendo que recordarme es mentir. Derive un color del color original, agregando el blanco, seguí este movimiento y cada color nuevo se convirtió en el original. No hay un ancestro, mis hijas de amapola son los ancestros.

Las semillas muertas dan flor.

Somos abuelas sin nietos y líneas rectas desvaneciendo a la ausencia de oscuridad.

Hablemos ahorita para representar el olvido,

para impregnar estos cielos de montaña,

las estrellas siempre han sido la mas grande distracción al verdadero negro.

Realmente es el vacío que se refleja en esta laguna.

Construí mis propias lagunas donde se reflejan las caras de vírgenes adornadas en piedras falsas y chucherías de hogar,

tengo la adicción de representarme con estos objetos. Reconozco la inmoralidad de una mentira y lo tristemente ordinario de la verdad.

 

Lyrics translated into English:

My Lies

I will tell the truth through metaphor,

through leopard lies,

and my hummingbird tongue

that reaches into opening flowers and sugar water so children lean out their balconies.

I opened and closed myself three times but that is not where we find the mystery. Yesterday, in dreams, we sat on the blue kitchen tiles in front of a leak, you said you would only understand me at the end but this wasn’t a story—though it always will be.

Recalling myself is also a lie.

I painted you

deriving a color from the original color by adding white,

following this movement every new color became the original.

There are no ancestors, my amapola daughters are the ancestors and

dead seeds flower

we are the grandmothers without children and straight lines fading into the lack of darkness.

Let’s talk now to show our forgetfulness

and impregnate these mountain skies with this conversation.

Stars distract us from true blackness,

really it’s the void reflected upon the lagoon.

I built my own lagoon, it reflects the faces of virgins adorned in false gems and the knick knacks of a home.

Addicted to representing myself with these objects, I recognize the immortality of a lie and the commonplace sadness of the truth.