“Good Bones” Art Exhibition by Isabel Hermano
In an era saturated with curated perfection and digital gloss, artist Isabel Hermano invites us to confront a foundational, heartbreaking truth- the beautiful, necessary lie we tell to protect the ones we love. Her new exhibition, “Good Bones” (an interpretation), is not merely a collection of images; it is a profound visual meditation on hope, dread, and the profound conflict of parenthood in a “terrible” world.
Mark your calendars: the exhibition opens on Thursday, November 20th, at 1 pm SLT at the venerable Kondor Art Club.
Isabel Hermano’s inspiration began, as so many deep thoughts do, with a moment of recognition. She encountered Maggie Smith’s viral poem, “Good Bones,” and was immediately struck by its brutal honesty and maternal conflict:
The world is at least fifty percent terrible… though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.
As Isabel herself explains, the poem speaks not just to mothers, but to all of us who want to protect our loved ones. How do we acknowledge the world’s sadness, its dangers and brokenness, without shattering the fragile, essential hope of the next generation? It is a challenge that feels, by its very nature, unsolvable. And yet, millions face it daily.
Isabel’s genius lies in transforming this raw, poetic text into a striking visual experience. This show is explicitly an interpretation, a dialogue between the artist and the poet’s words. Every piece in “Good Bones” (an interpretation) is a direct conversation with the poem, correlating with a specific line or statement.
Imagine walking through the gallery: you are not just viewing static art, but solving a powerful, emotional puzzle. Each image acts as a corresponding piece, compelling you to recall the original line—the bird and the stone, the loved child and the broken one, the kind stranger and the one who would break you. The artwork becomes a mirror reflecting the delicate balance we maintain between the darkness we know and the light we desperately try to project.
Isabel’s creative process is as layered as her subject matter. She utilizes AI as a fundamental creative partner, sharing her specific vision and textual prompts with the artificial intelligence. This initial creation is then brought back into the human realm through extensive post-processing and fine-tuning using photo-editing programs.
This method is fascinating: The artist uses the hyper-modern tools of the digital age to offer a deeply personal interpretation of one of modern poetry’s most human and timeless conflicts. It’s an act of profound interpretation—not just of the poem, but of the very nature of digital art and human emotion.
A deeply moving exhibition requires a carefully curated atmosphere. Providing the perfect soundtrack to this contemplation of light and shadow will be DJ NIKOPOL, co-owner of The Midnight Cabaret. Known for his unique ability to weave a narrative through sound, DJ NIKOPOL’s music promises to enhance the emotional texture of Isabel’s work, guiding visitors through the delicate, complex moods of the “Good Bones” experience.
Do not miss this opportunity to immerse yourself in an exhibition that goes beyond aesthetics to touch the very core of what it means to live, love, and hope in a flawed world.
Will you join Isabel Hermano on November 20th and discover her unique interpretation of the “Good Bones” she sees?