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Artist Statement 

Art synthesizes our possibility to create, to think, to feel, to perceive beauty or pain, to express, to change, to grow, to heal, to contribute, and to impact our societies. Through art I explore different themes, conflicts and life interests in a safe environment. Emotions, questions and dilemmas stay contained, yet not static, within my art pieces. My current explorations have to do with emotions and transformations. As humans, we are constantly feeling and changing throughout the different stages of our lives, either physically, psychologically, socio-politically, technologically, ad infinitum. Now that I just turned 18 years old, I can look back at my own transformations from childhood to a young adult from so many perspectives and hues.  

One of the major areas of transformation in my life is related to my immigration to the U.S. from Venezuela, when I was nine years old. More recently my family has been shattered and undergoing major changes since my father’s radical surgery, which was needed to fight against an aggressive diagnosed form of throat cancer. A new unnatural orifice at his throat and a tube to feed him through the stomach are just a few of his new challenges. His still young, rounded, smiley face is now that of an older weakened, serious man. He cannot eat, speak or much less work. Now we are told he needs a new surgery, even more drastic because his cancer came back.

My selection of theme and materials used for my latest portfolio has to do with this harsh reality. Suction catheters for a tracheostomy’s care, represent the new condition of my father and all the suffering he has been going through. The suction catheters are combined and treated in my pieces to represent the weight of life, the passing of time and the uncertain and unexpected modifications it can bring. Color and how it is used in each piece has a special meaning, as it represents the type of feelings present at each moment during this hard ordeal. The ups and downs, the twists and turns, happiness or sadness and a mixture of feelings too. To create the colorful parts of my artworks, I integrate bits, pieces, and fragments of different original materials of my own creation, like painted fabrics, paintings, drawings, mixtures of substances and photographs, to produce a new reality. I use a wide range of colors and materials, and mixtures, which I then aim at transforming. After I create a mixed media art piece, I photograph it and take it to the computer. Then, I intervene the piece, using computer art software, until I arrive to a final new composition that maintains unity and balance, while at the same time creating rhythms, movement and a strong sense of space.

After transforming my original artworks into digital new compositions, I then transform them again, bringing them back to the real world in the form of sculptures. Forms are another important part of my compositions. I emphasize the use of circles and straight lines. Circles, because they symbolize cycles, beginnings and endings, processes, constant change, evolution, continuous and infinite growth possibilities, life itself. Also currently they represent the new hole in my father’s throat which allows him to breathe and the new hole in his abdomen which allows him to be fed. I also use lines because they symbolize time and the transfigurations it brings. Also, with my use of materials I intend to transform a tough reality into something different, which helps me heal and ease the pain. . Like my art pieces, hopefully my family will evolve and recreate ourselves, based on the core values that guide us. The word processes comes to my mind. We grow, we evolve, we change, sometimes we regress, but hopefully like my art, we can transform into fuller, more conscious and connected individuals.