What is duende?

The great Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca described duende as "a mysterious power that all may feel and no philosophy can explain."

This mysterious force is an inexplicable power of attraction that charges the creative process with emotion, struggle and a miraculous enthusiasm.  People recognize it with unfailing instinct when it appears.  It drives an artist’s inspiration.

Lorca spoke of duende, saying … "Thus duende is a power and not a behavior, it is a struggle and not a concept.  Duende comes to life in the nethermost recesses of the blood; duende surges up from the soles of the feet. The arrival of the Duende gives a sense of refreshment unknown until then, together with that quality of the miraculous, which comes and instills an almost religious transport.”

Carried on the insistent winds of duende, the spirit of the work by Pernie Fallon and Guy Giersch transcends the visual realm of expression.