Vida Loca de Cocaina (2024) Painting by Milo Abadilla

Lush and lyrical, this confluence of the abstract and fantasy is a visual feast for the senses that elevates Abadilla’s painting of oil on canvas into a hard-wired dialogue on the role of drugs in our society. This piece is in some ways reflective of the process of sculpting, in that Abadilla conceives his figures in an intuitive way that sees each new brush stroke responding to the one that came before. The vivid and vibrantly green leaves lead one to think of nature, and all the magic and beauty that it encompasses. The central image of the drug cocaine affecting all aspects of a community – from elders to children to pets and animals – raises the issue of access and choice. Is the central figure inviting or trying to prevent and protect others from an addiction. Vida Loca de Cocaina depicts the end of life suffering from the ill effects of the menace of the Coca Tree, the leaves of which are the source of the drug cocaine. But what happens when someone is invited into its world, and whether innocently or knowingly becomes a believer?

The term la vida loca (“the crazy life”) does have positive connotations. But what happens when la vida loca spirals out of control into a kind of fever dream of constant chaos and often personal devastation? This is what the painting challenges us to distinguish between. Do we dare to explore the subliminal secrets and mind-altering substances found in nature or do we aim to provide a shield for ourselves and others so as not to fall sway to the deceptively mind-altering journey that it can promise. The work is a sustained reflection on the intersection of appearance with physical fact. In this way, Abadilla’s work constantly transcends clichés and challenges expectations.