Artist Statement

Mystical ideas ground my work in several ways, including the processes, materials and forms I employ. I have been drawn to investigate the interstitial shapes of Hebrew letters, which, in Jewish thought, are primordial spiritual forces, and Divinity’s building blocks of Creation— indeed, of reality as we know it.

 

I enjoy repurposing fragments from my own paintings, drawings, fabrics, handmade paper, and photographs, arranging them in compositions, sometimes intervening digitally. Through this process, I showcase an evolution of original materials to something newly beautiful. The materials, subject matter, and presentation of my work in interaction with its setting suggest continual physical and spiritual transmutations. 

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My various media, symbols, and ethereal themes, serve as a format for meditating on the Bible and its depths, celebrating its stories and my cultural heritage. My arts practice connects me to my Sephardic heritage, and to the complexity of my identity as a member of an exiled people, whose survival has depended in keeping their traditions alive. Simultaneously, through my pieces I explore my latinidad, as an immigrant from Venezuela, and as the granddaughter of Peruvian grandparents, one of them specifically from the Amazon.

 

The overlapping of textures of diverse media, evokes history, land, and time, and seeks a union of such overlays (detectable or otherwise), gesturing toward the mystical. Through using primal lines and shapes, I seek to capture the ineffable and pursue a dialogue with great abstract artists before me. By incorporating such imagery, I attempt to draw upon sacred forces, and perhaps partake in the process of Creation.

 

Some of the symbols and shapes I have been using lately are derived from the sculptural Pan de los Siete Cielos (Bread of the Seven Heavens) which contains illustrations related to the handing down of the Bible, to Moses and his people. The origins of this bread dates to the early eighth-century period known as “the coexistence,” a golden age for the Iberian Peninsula, when Jews, Christians, and Muslims coexisted harmoniously propelling great advances and cultural interchange. It is not coincidental that Sephardic Jews found inspiration in the richly molded Christian Easter breads and started baking the Pan de los Siete Cielos. This tradition was interrupted in the 1940s, when the Nazis invaded Greece and deported the 56,000 Jews of Salonika to Auschwitz.  Only 1,100 of them survived the Holocaust. By remembering and keeping the tradition of the Pan de los Siete Cielos alive, I feel like I get to honor the reminiscence of this community, which in turn connects me to my roots. Through working with these images, and artistically making my own Pan de los Siete Cielos, I delve into my intersectional identity as a Jewish Latina woman and feel the possibility to continue with a great spiritual and cultural chain which has made great contributions to humanity.