THE GALLERY IS UP!

I just launched the SAVAGE MUSE gallery, where I will be posting the illustrations, paintings, and lifestyle merchandise I have been creating over the past year of my SAVAGE SABBATICAL. 

Please note: I have the capacity to print any of these illustrations/paintings onto canvas, pillows, mugs, tshirts and many other types of products, so contact me here if you're interested to find out more!

CELIA CRUZ: THE Savage Queen of Salsa

Until a few months ago, the most I knew about Celia Cruz, other than being familiar with a couple of her songs, was that she had an iconic sense of style and that her wigs were next level in their colors and designs.

Then, I stumbled upon the Netflix "Bio-Drama" loosely based on her life, and I fell in love with that woman and her story. I actually really enjoyed learning more about her younger years in Cuba, both the storylines around how she was discovered as a star, as well as her fateful romance that led to her marriage to the one and only lover in her life, Pedro Knight.

I related to her experience as a late teen/young adult who had been raised in a strict family with a rather religious and controlling father who was a bit wary of the moral implications of the budding fierceness that was arising within their daughters' young, ambitious and creative spirits.  I also related to how Celia was viewed as unattractive and not the right aesthetic for the career she wanted to pursue as a singer.  The racism within not just Cuban society but in the record industry was touched on quite a bit throughout the 80-episode series about Celia.  Her dark skin and wide nose were seen as signs of undesirability at first and would have been a huge deterrence in her career, had it not been for the sheer magnificence and uniqueness of her voice and her exquisite talent as a singer and performer.

Images of Celia Cruz from the early years of her career.

Everything about Celia's physical appearance that made her seem like an unsuitable candidate to be the face and voice of one of Cuba's premiere big bands "Sonora Mantancera", is exactly what I find so refreshingly unique and stunningly beautiful about her.  I mean look at these pictures from her early years as a performer.  All I see is a young goddess who is redefining beauty and talent.  Her early career was especially challenging, since she was being considered by the Sonora band as a replacement to a much beloved Puerto Rican singer, Myrta Silva, who had finer, more European features and lighter skin.  But the band leader gave her a chance and with that chance, Celia went on to break boundaries and be an innovator as a musician, social activist and bring back pride in the Afro-Cubano roots of both the music and the culture of Cuba.

Here she is, later in life, performing one of my favorite of her hits "Quimbara" live.  This woman is one hell of a Savage Muse.........Azucar!!!!