Author Archives: Richard A. Peña

Antonio Gil Y’Barbo – Pioneer, Dealmaker, and Father of Nacogdoches

Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, known as the Father of Nacogdoches, Texas, was born in 1729 at the Presidio of  Los Adaes, New Spain.  His parents, Spanish colonists, Matheo Antonio Y’Barbo (b. 1698) and Juana Luzgarda Hernandez (b.1705) both born in Spain, were early arrivals to the Los Adaes Presidio, located on the northeastern frontier of New […]

Genetic Genealogy: Children of the Sun

In the night sky, the stars form patterns of mythical shapes and twisting outlines, like a jeweled crown of thorns, with points of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Sirius, and Venus.  As the stars and constellations move across the night sky’s darkness, the starry crown twists and turn and forms a ladder leading us into the depths […]

Elegy: Children of the Sun

In the night sky, the stars form patterns of mythical shapes, and twisting outlines, like a jeweled crown of thorns, with points of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Sirius, and Venus, that shine beyond the horn of the imagination.  The stars and constellations move across the darkness of the night, the starry crown twists and turns, forming […]

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes: Looking through the darkly painted mirror; Disasters of War, Witches’ Sabbath, and the Colossus

Madrid, Spain 1793:                 The chill of the night air was thick with the sweet smell of burning wood, smoky leaves, and the familiar aroma of roasted vegetables, black pork, and paella, which hung in the air like a veiled fog in the Spanish autumn evening.  The stars cut through the night sky, revealed their beauty, not […]

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Gentle Genius of 20th Century British Classical Music

Northern France, World War I, 1917 Ralph Vaughan Williams finally woke up out of his early morning slumber after a restless night as it was the chill and the dampness of the place, along with the sounds of gunfire punctuating the French night that kept his body and soul at unease.  Vaughan Williams briskly stood […]

Theater: Reality, Rituals, and the Human Imagination

Altamira, Spain – Before the Common Era Perched high on the edge of the cave wall, small reddish-brown bird watches with curiosity from its nest and observes the outline of twelve silhouettes huddled around a smoky but tender fire.  The smoke from the fire rises, softens the angular light of the sun setting in the […]

Beethoven and the Revolution

It was time, not time kept by a clock or pocket watch, but time preserved for eternity. Vienna’s hills and valleys appeared like romanticized paintings with soft, vibrant greens, golden brownish reds, and bright beige hues underneath the landscape’s horizon line. Speckled bare trees were anticipating the touch of the sun. The stormy grey skies […]

Abstractions – Sketches in Organic Unity

Book Review: Title: Abstractions – Sketches in Organic Unity Book Release Date: July 2015. Dimensions: Large Format Landscape Book and eBook, 28 Plates, 58 Pages. The book entitled, Abstractions – Sketches in Organic Unity is a continuation and extension of the explorations and findings from the series Flora Nocturne.  Specifically, focusing on the abstract, unreal, […]

Digital Panopticon

Arestor looked down at his newly born son with wonder and fatherly pride, for his newborn son was beyond the size of any human baby imaginable. Arestor wiped all the tears from his son’s crying eyes, all one hundred of them, and decreed to all, from here forth; my son will be called Argus Panoptes. […]

The Rite of Spring 1913

The Adoration of the Earth: IntroductionAugurs of SpringRitual of AbductionSpring RoundsRitual of the Rival TribesProcession of the SageDance of the Earth The Sacrifice:IntroductionMystic Circles of the Young GirlsThe glorification of the Chosen OneAn evocation of the AncestorsRitual Action of the AncestorsSacrificial Dance It was a cool Parisian evening walk down the Avenue Montaigne to the […]

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