If the romance that Belinda and Christian Nodal manifest is distinguished for something, it is for all the ways in which they capture it. And that is an art.
This time, to immortalize their connection, the singer gave her a special work, inspired by her love story, after commissioning one of the most important visual artists in Mexico: Gildo Medina.
For 25 years he has dedicated himself to portraying, around the world, individuals, moments, emotions and societies as a sensorial record of his own history, in which he explores the transition between banality and the depth of life, with a figurative language of surprising realism. In each work he integrates hidden messages, which are deciphered with the viewer’s intuition and their contexts.
In an interview, this 40-year-old plastic artist tells how he received the commission for the work, based on the love between singers and that already adorns Nodal’s house in Guadalajara.
It is a 1.6-meter high leather canvas, meticulously hand-painted, framed in a Venetian box covered in gold leaf and which took more than 300 hours to create, due to the delicate work involved in the technique used.
The great friendship between Belinda and Gildo, whom different academics and specialists consider one of the best portraitists on the planet, began a couple of years after she bought one of the iconic antique armchairs intervened by the artist, in 2011, and became in one of its main collectors.
“In 2013, thanks to a special complicity that was born between us, Belinda became my muse by immortalizing her naked on a leather canvas that I painted by hand and that was used on the cover of her album En el Amor Hay que Perdonar. Now, eight years later, he called me to create an adventure just as magical, but this time inspired by love. “
“He asked me to create a great work, the most incredible he had ever done, dedicated to his great love, Christian Nodal, and to be inspired by their history together, so that in this way he could share one of his greatest passions with him, art ”, relates the Mexican.
The visual artist, whose talent has led him to work for firms such as Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Moncler, Chanel and El Palacio de Hierro in various parts of the world, shared the significance for the interpreter of giving this gift to her fiancé.
“I have to say that Belinda and her family are passionate about art and have a large collection of works in their home in Mexico City. She has even declared that being captured on the canvas I made for her has been one of the best life experiences she has ever had, which is why giving Christian this gift was so meaningful. “
Gildo says that, as it would be a surprise, she arranged a chance meeting at the house of a mutual friend, also a collector of the artist’s work, where he and Nodal met, in order to gather more personal information about the musician. , get inspired and take photos. From that point on, he could get the job done without revealing what they had planned.
Once the work was finished, due to the excitement of giving the gift to her boyfriend, the delivery occurred in a hasty manner. Instead of doing it, as was the idea, at the intimate and special dinner that he had organized to surprise him, it ended up being Gildo who would personally unveil the work for Christian, Belinda and their families, to whom he explained every detail and anecdote of the creation, as well as the emotions that inspired him: passion, love, generosity, complicity, delicacy, strength and fusion, represented in the two bodies that become one.
“Christian loved the portrait and, above all, the level of realism with which it was made, and the life that emanates from the canvas, so much so that he told me openly and I could see tears in his eyes. We were all very moved and suddenly a great catharsis formed. We ended up sitting on the floor, toasting, sharing stories of life and love, and I was very satisfied to see what art does to the soul of the human being ”, adds Gildo.
“Art can bring something positive by making people vibrate high. Belinda wanted to give him something very precious. Not something simply material, but something deeper, almost invaluable for the personal meaning it holds.
GILDO MEDINA, PLASTIC ARTIST
Its meaning
Each part of the portrait contains symbols and codes related to the personal and love story between the two singers. As Nodal likes to smoke, Gildo came up with the work portraying the couple with their bodies fused in a surreal way, in which the smoke and the artist’s body become one.
Belinda’s eyes are tattooed on her fiancé’s chest and one of her hands comes out from the back to gently and sophisticatedly hold the cigar with her slender fingers, while he, hypnotized by the sensuality of the smoke, breathes and transforms it in beauty.
“Everything was to celebrate his love, his happiness with a touch of sensuality, passion and surrealism, the perfect mix in any love story,” says Gildo, whose works are priced in thousands of dollars.
The chair that Belinda acquired a few years ago, according to specialists, would be worth about 45 thousand dollars (900 thousand pesos) today.
