#meritorio

[dustedmagazine]

Laughing — Because It’s True (Celluloid Lunch/Meritorio)

“Will She Ever Be a Friend of Mine” jangles like a long-lost Byrds tune, or maybe an out-of-print single by the Jayhawks. The Sadies, at their least bluegrassy, could sometimes pull off a similar trick, putting a psychedelic shimmer on exuberant country rock, and they’re certainly not alone. Big Star, certain iterations of R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock and the Minus Five all come to mind as Laughing’s first LP spins. Still, to my mind, the touchstone above all others is Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend, the most effortless and heartbreaking of the genre, full of yearning harmonies and indelible hooks and some mighty fine guitar work from one Richard Lloyd. Like Sweet more than a generation ago, Laughing nails power pop’s ease and inevitability, and that’s impressive. It’s one of music’s most difficult forms, not least because it should never look like you’re trying.

This is the first album from Montreal-based Laughing though its members are mostly veterans of other bands. Notably Josh Salter, one of three guitar/bass/singers, plays bass in Nap Eyes. Cole Woods led Winnipeg’s Human Music. Laura Jeffery, the drummer, was in Fountain. André Charles Thériault, the lone exception, hadn’t been in a band for over a decade when he joined.  What brought the four together was power pop and nailing its sweet but rowdy jangle-i-ness.

Well, mission achieved. Consider, for example, the single “Bruised,” with its yearning vocals (“When you said you didn’t care/I felt something inside me tear”), its rough slashes of guitar, its battering drum line, its seething harmonies, its spiraling licks. The song is nearly perfect in its roughed-up, cowlick-sticking-straight-up messiness. Barbs of dissonance jut out from its breezy choruses, like rusty wires in cotton candy; not too sweet, not too rough.

“Secret” is slower and more vulnerable—and it’ll give you a powerful jolt of Sweet-ish-ness, “You Don’t Love Me,” maybe or “Nothing Lasts.” The guitar rings like bells, the bass buzzes underneath, the drums shimmer and pulse. “Won’t you tell me something/no one else knows/let’s get as close as we can and put on one another’s clothes,” the singer intimates, echoing Girlfriend’s exuberant, “You can wear my clothes.”

That’s the final song, a silky comedown from bangers like “Easier Said” and “Sour Note.” It’s a nice ending to a near perfect summer album, which rocks and jangles and keens, balancing on a knife edge of hard and soft, joy and sadness, as all summer albums should.

Jennifer Kelly

[bandcampsnoop]

1/8/25.

Interesting that the new Exploding Flowers album "Watermelon/Peacock" came across my radar while I was listening to Club 8. That was one of my easiest transitions between snooping listens I can recall.

This is our 3rd Exploding Flowers post in the past 5 years. There is only one song currently available for listen. The first half has a Club 8 (from the new release) vibe, while the instrumental outro recalls the finest work of Yo La Tengo, or David Kilgour. This song has fuller sound, less power poppy sound, than earlier Exploding Flowers (Los Angeles, California) releases.

The Bandcamp write-up gives a good summary of the bands background:

Led by Sharif Dumani who has worked with a variety of artists which include Alice Bag, Cody Chesnutt, Sex Stains, the Moon Upstairs, Classics Of Love, Nick Garrie, Jowe Head, Nikki Sudden, Silver Apples and many more, the quartet is comprised of members Josh Mancell (the Moon Upstairs, Cell\Borg), Happy Tsugawa-Banta (Lassie Foundation, Ray Barbee), and Mark Sogomian (the Moon Upstairs).

"Watermelon/Peacock" will be released by Meritorio Records, but U.S. orders will ship, as usual, from Jigsaw Records.

[verytinysongs]

10 Songs I Hate About You by Dancer

Band Name: Dancer Label: Meritorio Records Location: Glasgow, Scotland Release Date: March 15, 2024 Tags: alternative, indie rock, post punk Recommended Tune: Bluetooth Hell

[daggerzine]

MY FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2024!

MY FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2024 (in no particular order)

Chime School- The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel (Slumberland)

Mary Timony- Untame the Tiger (Merge)

Weak Signal- fine (12XU)

Dummy- Free Energy (Trouble in Mind)

The Softies- The Bed I Made (Father Daughter)

The Tyde- Season 5 (Spiritual Pajamas)

Best Bets- The Hollow Husk of Feeling (Meritorio)

Jessica Pratt- Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)

Ducks Ltd- Harms Way (Carpark)

Peter Perrett- The Cleansing (Domino)

The Sharp Pins- Radio DDR (self released)

Lightheaded- Combustible Gems (Slumberland)

Beachwood Sparks- Across the River of Stars (Curation)

The Reds, Pinks and Purples- Unwishing Well (Slumberland)

The Infinites- Archetypes (Meritorio)

The Lemon Twigs- A Dream is All We Know (Captured Tracks)

Redd Kross- S/T (in the Red)

Yea-Ming and the Rumors- I Can't Have it All (Dandy Boy)

Humdrum- Every Heaven (Slumberland)

Jim Nothing- Grey Eyes Grey Lynn (Meritorio)

WAIT HERE'S 20 MORE!

Lovejoy- ..and it's love! (Shelflife/Spinout Nuggets)

Class - A Healthy Alternative (Feel It Records)

Bloodstains- S/T (self released)

The Hard Quartet- S/T (Matador)

Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band- Loophole (Modern Sky)

The Resonars- Electricity Plus (self released)

Mythical Motors- Seven is Circular (self released)

Sad Eyed Beatniks- Ten Brocades (Meritorio)

Club 8- A Year with Club 8 (self released)

Torrey- S/T (Slumberland)

Pale Lights- Waverly Place Jigsaw)

The BVs- Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures (Shelflife)

Deep Tunnel Project- S/T (Comedy Minus One)

Mt.Misery- Love In Mind (Prefect)

Winged Wheel- Big Hotel (12XU)

Lunchbox- Pop and Circumstance (Slumberland)

Tears Run Rings- Everything in the End (Shelflife)

Nada Surf- Moon Mirror (New West)

Savak- Flavors of Paradise (Ernest Jenning)

Kevin Robertson- The Call of the Sea (Futureman)

AAAAAAND....HERE'S 10 MORE!

Steve Wynn- Make It Right (Fire)

Pernice Brothers- Who Will You Believe (New West)

Laughing- Because It's Better (Celluloid Lunch)

Outer World- Who Does the Music Love? (HHBTM)

Rachel Love-  Lyra (The Cat Collects)

Wussy- Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It)

The Armoires- Octoberland (Big Stir Records)

Boyracer- Seaside Riot (Emotional Response

Being Dead- Eels (Bayonet)

Quivers- Oyster Cuts (Merge)

I ALSO REALLY LIKED RECORDS BY:  2nd Grade, Mo Dotti, Water Damage, The Folk Implosion, The Umbrellas, Laughing, Lupe Citta, Feeling Figures, Flowertown, Trust Fund, Chimers, Smashing Times, Ned Collette, Kim Deal, Metz, Sleveens, Cathedral Ceilings, Soup Activists, Bill Ryder-Jones, Neutrals, Pete Astor, Buffalo Tom, GospelBeach, The Shop Window, Lions of the Interstate,  The Caraway, Extra Arms, J. Robbins,  The Grain Hoppers, The Yellow Melodies, Mark Bacino, The Proctors, Penny Arcade, Magic Fig, Seasonal Falls, The Reflectors, Chanel Beads, etc. 

MY 15 FAVORITE REISSUES/COLLECTIONS OF 2O24

The Saints- I'm Stranded box set (In the Red)

Galaxie 500- Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90 (20/20/20)

Shop Assistants- S/T (Chrysalis)

Birdie- Some Dusty (Slumberland)

The Rain Parade- Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (Label 51)

The Ladybug Transistor- Albermarle Sound (Merge)

Love Child-Never Meant To Be (1988-1993) (12XU)

Velocity Girl- Ultracopacetic (Sub Pop)

East Village- Drop Out (Heavenly)

A Girl Called Eddy- S/T (Last Night From Glasgow)

David Kilgour- A Feather in the Engine (Merge)

Linda Smith- Nothin Else Matters (Captured Tracks)

The Fluid- Clear Black Paper (Sub Pop)

Drop 19's- Delaware (Wharf Cat)

High Llamas- Hawaii (Drag City)

MY 5 FAVORITE EPS OF 2024!

R.E. Seraphin- Fool's Mate (Safe Suburban Home/ Take a Turn) 

Finnogun's Wake- Stay Young (What's Your Rupture)

Cori Elba- Full Stop (self released)

Slack Times- Gone Things (Meritorio)

Surfing Pointers- S/T (BirthDIY)

[capricorn-season]

[esuemmanuel]

Una sonrisa pequeña, casi imperceptible, llena de timidez y candor, de ligera esperanza y cariño. Una sonrisa dibujada en el rostro de un recién nacido o la de aquel anciano caminante que se encuentra contigo en la acera del porvenir. Una sonrisa breve en los labios pequeños de una mujer enamorada del amor, esa que baila y canta al roce de la vida y la luz del sol; hermosa y carismática, entregada al verso meritorio de la plenitud. Una mujer dada a la poesía, a las voces perennes del alma despierta, al fuego y al agua que arde y bulle en su centro; ahí, entre el sacro y el plexo. Una sonrisa animada, abierta al viento, entregada a la algarabía de la alegría que es existir, esa nacida de la boca de un hombre entregado a las experiencias de la carne, a las verdades de su oficio, a la complejidad de sus reflexiones y de sus acciones apegadas al corazón de su prosa. Una sonrisa, una sola, caminando por las calles de una ciudad en penumbras, iluminando cada rincón de sus calles, cada recoveco de sus callejones, de esos espacios vacíos y lúgubres que nadie se atreve a pisar y, no obstante, están llenos de seres humanos perdidos en el temor de ser alguien. Una sonrisa como luz del cielo, como la caricia de una nube, como el recordatorio que obliga a nuestras almas a continuar en este camino que hemos elegido para madurar como el espíritu colectivo del Universo.

A small, almost imperceptible smile, full of shyness and candor, of light hope and affection. A smile drawn on the face of a newborn or that of that old walker who meets you on the sidewalk of the future. A brief smile on the small lips of a woman in love with love, that one who dances and sings to the touch of life and sunlight; beautiful and charismatic, given to the meritorious verse of fullness. A woman given to poetry, to the perennial voices of the awakened soul, to the fire and water that burns and bubbles in her center; there, between the sacrum and the plexus. A lively smile, open to the wind, given to the joy that is to exist, born from the mouth of a man devoted to the experiences of the flesh, to the truths of his craft, to the complexity of his reflections and his actions attached to the heart of his prose. A smile, a single one, walking through the streets of a city in twilight, illuminating every corner of its streets, every nook and cranny of its alleys, those empty and gloomy spaces that no one dares to step on and yet are full of human beings lost in the fear of being someone. A smile like light from the sky, like the caress of a cloud, like the reminder that forces our souls to continue on this path we have chosen to mature as the collective spirit of the Universe.

[javier-carrasco]

Está muy generalizada la creencia de que sólo lo que se consigue con gran esfuerzo es meritorio. Error. O mentira, como se prefiera. A mí me parece que lo que sale fácilmente, con soltura, con alegría, tiene mucho más valor. Porque produce felicidad. Y no sufrimiento. Que de eso ya hay suficiente en la vida. Sin necesidad de buscarlo.

[2as2gs]

Poema de noche nueva

Hoy quería que el estruendo de medianoche me pillara escribiendo un poema.

No sé cuantos poemas se escriben la medianoche del comienzo de año nuevo, supongo que no muchos, espero tener compañía selecta.

Dediqué todo el día a ese poema, busqué dentro de mi, busqué fuera.

Rememoré las nuevas noches de mesas macizas circulares y juegos de mesa; de comedia televisada, empanadillas quemadas y confeti.

Recordé las nuevas malas noches de pacharán y borracheras, de arrastrarte a casa bebida, de abrazarte bajo sábanas vomitadas.

Evoqué las nuevas noches huésped de melancolías emigrantes, bailes de tacón marcando tarimas de madera, y brindis en veinte idiomas.

Recordé las nuevas noches de exótico invitado, blancura de nieve polaca y vidrioso vodka endulzado.

Añoré las cercanas noches nuevas de esperanza, vividas a través de la risa e ilusión de mis hijos.

Esperaba tener algo meritorio que escribir, pero estoy triste y solo, tengo ausencias pesadas y a la vez demasiado ruido e imposibilitante silencio.

Ya ves, escribí un poema a duras penas, para ser olvidado junto a todas mis nuevas noches pasadas.

[coochiequeens]

This guy is in the news again........

By Eva Kurilova. December 21, 2023

Canadian women are expressing outrage after a trans-identified male who campaigned to defund a rape crisis shelter was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada. Morgane Oger, a trans activist from Vancouver, was honored at a ceremony in Ottawa last week.

On December 16, Oger took to X (formerly Twitter) to boast of his receipt of the award, claiming he had been selected because of his work with “2SLGBTQ+ persons” and trans rights.

“Feeling so grateful, recieving [sic] the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General of Canada Mary Simon last week for supporting 2SLGBTQ+ persons and furthering the legal protections of Transgender Canadians.”

In Canada, the Governor General is the federal representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III. According to the website for the Governor General of Canada, the Meritorious Service Medal is a civil award that recognizes “great Canadians for exceptional deeds” such as tackling poverty or improving educational opportunities for children.

In the list of recipients for the awards that were distributed on December 7, Oger is described as a “champion of diversity who has changed perceptions around 2SLGBTQI+ rights and has worked tirelessly to see those rights enshrined in law.”

Continuing, the office of the Governor General states that Oger has “forged alliances across party lines that propelled changes to provincial and federal legislation protecting individuals against discrimination based on gender identity or expression.” The short biography concludes by lauding Oger for his “courage, vision and perseverance have helped redefine the fundamental issue of equality and have advanced inclusiveness for gender-diverse Canadians.”

But the news of Oger’s top-level commendation did not sit well with Canadian women’s rights advocates, who noted that Oger has a long and disturbing history of actively fighting against women’s rights.

Canadian journalist and Feminist Current founder Meghan Murphy called out the Governor General, writing that Oger had once stalked her through her neighborhood in apparent retaliation for her views on gender ideology.

“Morgane Oger, whose career has involved harassing and vilifying feminists who defend women-only spaces, including fighting to defund Canada’s longest-standing rape crisis centre and transition house, @VanRapeRelief, stalked me around my neighborhood one day. Just one more reason I left Vancouver,” Murphy wrote. “Are these the ‘exceptional deeds’ bringing honor to Canada, @GGCanada? Making women feel unsafe and ensuring that when they are targeted by male violence they have nowhere safe to go?”

Murphy, like many others, was calling attention to an incident in 2019 where Oger successfully campaigned to strip Canada’s oldest rape crisis center, Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter, of its city funding due to its female-only policy. In comments made before the city committee meeting, Oger called the shelter “non-compliant with Canadian law.

Prior to losing its city funding, Vancouver Rape Relief had been through a 12-year legal battle where its policies of only serving females and only allowing female peer rape counselors had been tested and held up in court. The Supreme Court of British Columbia and the British Columbia Court of Appeal both ruled that the facility was allowed to maintain a female-only space.

But despite the legal precedent, the City of Vancouver agreed with Oger and pulled the funding it had previously provided the shelter for its educational outreach programs despite the fact that the outreach programs were accessible to all, even transgender people.

While in the throes of defending its funding, Vancouver Rape Relief was targeted by a sickening harassment campaign from trans activists. Dead rats were nailed to the door and messages like “KILL TERFS” and “trans women are women” were written on the windows of its charity storefront.

Oger dismissed the abuse the rape shelter was receiving in a blasé statement he gave to press at the time.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, when Vancouver Rape Relief’s policies hit mainstream media and when their discriminatory conduct hits the light of day some people overreact,” he said of the vandalism and threats.

But just prior to the incident with the shelter, Oger had already attracted the ire of Canadian women’s rights advocates for his initial support of vexatious litigant Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.

Yaniv, a trans-identified male, made international headlines after filing a series of complaints with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against female aestheticians who refused to perform waxing services on his male genitals. During a lengthy proceeding, it was alleged that Yaniv had deliberately targeted salon workers who were Sikh or Muslim in an effort to force women with religious restrictions on male-female contact to serve him.

On X (then known as Twitter) Oger referred to the women’s refusal to touch genitals on demand as “prohibited discrimination” and said that there was “no entitlement in Canada to refuse the performing of a service” on the basis of gender identity.

“Estheticians should take this up with their training providers. It wasn’t that long ago some service providers ‘weren’t trained’ to work on Black women or serve foreigners, either,” he said. “The law’s changed. Move on, get the training you need.”

When asked directly about his personal involvement with Yaniv, Oger was non-committal in his comments but admitted that he had spoken to Yaniv on the phone and that he had previously encouraged “trans women” to “complain to their human rights tribunal about prohibited discrimination.”

Eventually, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled that estheticians were, in fact, able to refuse services that they were not trained to perform, such as waxing a scrotum.

This is not the first time Oger has received a Meritorious Service Medal. In 2018, he was given the award by then-Governor General Julie Payette for, according to City News, “her [sic] work advocating for LGBTQ rights.”

Speaking to Reduxx, journalist Meghan Murphy condemned the Governor General for providing Oger one of the most respected civilian awards in the country.

“Morgane Oger’s legacy is fighting against women’s rights, safety, and free speech,” she said. “Anyone who focuses so much effort on defunding one of the few rape crisis lines and transition houses in Canada is not someone who deserves to be celebrated.”

Murphy continued by noting that Oger had made her feel “unsafe” in her own home, prompting her to file a police report on him in 2020.

“This is a man who has gone out of his way to ensure that women don’t have safe places to go when escaping male violence. That the Canadian government has supported and celebrated him in these efforts is horrendous and shameful.”

[jungleindierock]

Red Pants - On a Wire

On a Wire is taken from the album Not Quite There Yet, which was released in October 2023 on Meritorio Records. Red Pants is the solo project of Jason Lambeth: curator and owner behind Painted Blonde Tapes, avid 4-track cassette user, father (the subjects in most of his music videos are his two daughters), and all-around supporter of independent & DIY music-makers. Jason is joined by longtime collaborator Elsa Nekola on drums and vocals to complete their most spacious sounding album yet.

[dustedmagazine]

Prism Shores — Out from Underneath (Meritorio)

Prism Shores shrouds indie rock vulnerability in shimmering washes of guitar noise. A flickering confession erupts into grand romantic gestures, as radiant jangle shimmers and dissolves into dissonance. This is the second full-length album for this Montreal-based foursome, following 2022’s Inside my Diving Bell, and they have considerably cleaned up their sound in the interim. Tight harmonies, clear lines of melodic arc and sharp interplay between the instruments bring their heartsore firestorm into focus.

“Overplayed My Hand,” for instance, rambles into the frame on a Sadies-esque psychedelic jangle, then veers off into keening, caroming romantic longing, in the bittersweet chorus. Like a lot of their songs, it is sweet and sad at the same time. Its bubbly rhythms pulse energetically in the moment but step back and they are tinged by retrospective angst.

The band fluctuates between the individual-focused self-revelation of indie pop and the more communal textures of all-hands guitar noise. The main singer, Jack MacKenzie, pulls you in with soft rumination, but he’ll be swamped before the end of the song but flaring, distorting walls of guitar. Prism Shores likes to say that they split the difference between C86 pop and shoegaze, and indeed you can hear bits of the agitated jangle of bands like Bogshed, Close Lobsters and the Pastels in their strummy flights of romance. The churn and drone of MBV rises out of cuts like “Tourniquet,” too, putting meat and dissonance under its feathery melody.  

It's fun to pick influences out, but mainly Out from Underneath is a remarkably enjoyable bit of guitar pop, twee but with some muscle, bright but with shadowy undertones. A lot of bands are working this vein — most of the Slumberland roster, for instance — but Prism Shores is unusually good at it. If you ever loved that first Pains of Being Pure at Heart record, give yourself a treat. Try this one.

Jennifer Kelly

[bandcampsnoop]

12/14/24.

Prism Shores are a four-piece band from Montreal, Quebec. "Out From Underneath" is their new LP due early next year on Meritorio Records. The two songs available sound like a great mix of early Teenage Fanclub and The Shins.

Their earlier releases don't have a lot of the loud guitars heard on "Tourniquet". Rather, their earlier work sounds more like Milk Teddy or Band of Horses (sound of vocals). And the Bandcamp page mentions their "indebtedness" to the C86 sound.

[noloveforned]

we're wrapping up the week with four hours of no love for ned on wlur from 8pm until midnight tonight. if you can't join live, catch up with last week's show on mixcloud on your walk this weekend!

no love for ned on wlur – february 16th, 2024 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label hootie and the blowfish // only wanna be with you // cracked rear view // atlantic dumb things // self help // self help digital single // coolin' by sound the bv's // i can't stand the rain // taking pictures of taking pictures // shelflife savage mansion // total columbia // the shakes // lost map la la delivery // lax-a-daisy freaks // (bandcamp mp3) // (unreleased) omni // pg // souvenir // sub pop brittany howard // power to undo // what now // island split system // the wheel // volume two // goner wussy // new american standard // split 7" w/ the paranoid style // bar/none lower plenty // land lovers // no poets // bedroom suck david nance featuring pearl lovejoy boyd // tumbleweed // david nance and mowed sound // third man katy kirby // cubic zirconia // blue raspberry // anti- the american analog set // too tired to shine i // new drifters // numero group grandaddy // you're going to be fine and i'm going to hell // blu wav // dangerbird el perro del mar // between you and me nothing // big anonymous // city slang yirinda // dhangalim (fly) // yirinda // chapter music joel ross // nublues // nublues // blue note cassie kinoshi and seed ensemble featuring xana // afronaut // driftglass // jazz re:freshed elza soares // vejam só // sambas e mais sambas // odeon ed crook // that's alright // eccentric northern soul compilation // numero group david porter // thirty days // into a real thing // stax crimeapple and preservation // quanto te quiero // el león // rrc music co. they hate change featuring charlie // biscuits // wish you were here... cassette // Jagjaguwar angélica garcia // juanita //gemelo // partisan beyoncé // texas hold 'em // cowboy carter // parkwood entertainment crushed // respawn // extra life ep // funeral party aka jk // olive juice // olive juice cassingle // teenbeat the infinites // the ghost // archetypes // meritorio

[daggerzine]

Exploding Flowers- "Crowded Streets" single (Meritorio)

Oh, heck, yeah! This LA indie rock/pop band released a fantastic LP in 2020 (Stumbling Blocks) that ended up on many folks' year-end lists, and then... nothing. 

Well, they are back with a fab new single and an album out on the Meritorio label in March. 

"Crowded Streets" yips, jumps, and chimes in all the right places while the rhythm section has a real snap to it (as do the vocals). This is a helluva way to start 2025!

www.explodingflowers.bandcamp.com

[bocadosdefilosofia]

«SÓCRATES: Y el arte de la mayéutica, ¿no nos está diciendo que todo esto ha nacido como algo vano y que no vale la pena nuestro cuidado?

TEETETO: Sí, sin duda.

SÓCRATES: Pues bien, Teeteto, si después de esto intentas quedar encinto de otras cosas, si logras hacerlo, estarás lleno de cosas mejores gracias al examen que hemos llevado a cabo ahora; si quedas estéril, serás menos pesado y más amable para los que se relacionan contigo, pues con sensatez no creerás saber lo que no sabes. Tanto —y nada más— es lo único que mi arte puede hacer, y no sé nada de lo que los demás —cuantos son y han sido hombres grandes y admirables— saben. Pero este arte de dar a luz lo recibimos en suerte mi madre y yo de un dios; ella lo pone en práctica entre las mujeres; yo, en cambio, entre los  jóvenes que revelan nobleza y son meritorios. Y bien, ahora debo comparecer ante el Pórtico del Rey para hacer frente a la acusación que Meleto ha presentado contra mí. Sin embargo, mañana temprano, Teodoro, regresaremos de nuevo aquí».

Platón: Teeteto. Editorial Losada, pág. 247. Buenos Aires, 2006.

TGO

@bocadosdefilosofia

@dias-de-la-ira-1

[naran-blr]

Margarita Pertejo Seseña (1922-2017) pintora española.

Nació en Zamora. Fue la pequeña de once hermanos, criada en una familia humilde pero con una madre librepensadora, con muchos arrestos, donde la joven pintora entendió muy pronto la prioridad de la formación en un expuesto oficio para vivir de él.

Con apenas 20 años acude al estudio que el profesor, Manuel Gracia, tenía en Salamanca. Un profesional que tocó todos los géneros: bodegón, paisaje, desnudo, retratos y vistas urbanas.

En ese ambiente creativo sobresalió pronto su impulso artístico y un año después de su incorporación al taller del pintor cartelista salmantino, obtuvo un accésit en la exposición de Pintura Regional de Salamanca.

Uno de sus hermanos, médico, estaba destinado en la ciudad alicantina de Elda, esto le permitió a Margarita Pertejo pasar temporadas en aquella ciudad levantada sobre una terraza inclinada y rodeada de un circo de montañas. Se da la circunstancia de que este hermano, José, conoció al poeta Miguel Hernández en la cárcel y que, incluso, le trató de tuberculosis en un estado ya muy avanzado.

La joven acudió allí al estudio de los pintores Melchor Aracil Gallego, muy implicado con su ciudad y las costumbres de sus gentes, y Gastón Castelló, seguramente el creador alicantino más conocido y emblemático.

Con 22 años, Margarita Pertejo obtiene el segundo premio con Autorretrato en la Exposición de Arte Provincial de Alicante. Más tarde, recibe otra distinción por el óleo Claveles en la I Exposición de Amigos del Arte de Elda que se mostraba al público en el Casino de esta ciudad.

En 1945, acude al Salón de Otoño de la Asociación de la Prensa de Zamora con cuatro obras y es en esta fecha cuando su amigo, el pintor y grabador, José María García Fernández, Castilviejo, le presenta al maestro imaginero y pintor, Ricardo Segundo ya que este se había interesado por un bodegón que firmaba el supuesto nombre masculino de Gari, aunque en realidad la rúbrica correspondía al seudónimo femenino de Margarita Pertejo Seseña.

Diez años después de este encuentro casual, se casarían Ricardo Segundo y Margarita.

A partir de este momento, la pintora se convierte en alumna de Ricardo Segundo en el taller que tiene este reconocido autor en una céntrica calle de Zamora. La afición a la pintura de la joven veinteañera sigue en aumento y en la temporada de verano, sale a pintar al campo. En ocasiones, se traslada a localidades como Villalcampo, Ribadelago en la alta Sanabria o pueblos alistanos como Viñas o Rábano para plasmar al aire libre el vestuario de lugareños de las comarcas elegidas con modelos que posaban para ella.

Tanto en esta época como en otras posteriores desarrolla también su universo pictórico en visitas a lugares como Nava en Asturias o Candelario y La Alberca en la provincia cercana de Salamanca en donde los habitantes de esos pueblos posaban para ella luciendo sus trajes típicos.

Se trataba, lógicamente, de un ejercicio de entrenamiento para adiestrar la mano y la mente en el ámbito artístico, “siempre dirigido por mi padre, incluso por carta”, como ha recordado su hija, Gloria García Pertejo.

Los reconocimientos en favor de Margarita continúan en el ámbito local de Zamora hasta que decide trasladarse a Madrid para seguir su formación en dibujo en el Casón del Buen Retiro e, incluso, como copista del Museo del Prado, un selecto y centenario club de meritorios que reciben la autorización para aprender de los grandes maestros en la mayor pinacoteca española.

La pintora decide desplazarse a Barcelona para ampliar sus conocimientos artísticos en el estudio que Ricardo Segundo, donde impartía clases como profesor.

Durante esos años, combina su etapa formativa con exposiciones.

Abrió la que se puede considerar primera academia de arte en Zamora a la que acuden chicas jóvenes interesadas en introducirse en el campo de la pintura en un ámbito donde apenas había oportunidades para ellas.

La actividad artística de Margarita, se detuvo con motivo de su casamiento. Era difícil ser artista y madre a la vez.

Entonces Pintaba en el interior o en los alrededores de la casa: cuadros de flores, autorretratos o sus propios retoños como modelos de urgencia y más próximos.

Murió en Valladolid a los 94 años.

Le ponemos cara con su Autorretrato.

Y en fotografía.