ARTIST STATEMENT
I challenge world views categorizing art, women artists and underrepresented artists.
I challenge fate through color.
I paint to music, and I also paint what I feel or see around me. Sounds become intertwined with the visual realm and as I paint, energetic
movement and color come forth onto the canvas to create a rhythmic language dancing within the pictorial space.
I paint the unseen, so the viewer can see what I think is worth considering.
I urge the audience to observe the work and consider how it impacts them and not rely on my intention only. If an image creates an emotion
for the viewer, if it leaves the viewer thinking or looking within and at the world, then my work is complete and has communicated effectively.
I paint in the public space because it is where I feel like my most authentic self, it is where I meet the public and where the public meets me
and my work. It is where I take up space to say 'I am here.' It is where I feel seen, visible, included and sharing art and my unique
vision of what I believe art means.
I invented this space in the public realm while I was still invisible to most of the people writing the dominant narratives of the art world.
I am indeed visible to the public, and to some I am the artist who brings joy to a random corner of the city.
Abstractly, I am music. I use my abstract work to create rhythmic and linear compositions.
Figuratively, my work relies on ancient art and the female figures, it embodies spirituality, intention, while highlighting
issues related the spiritual and occult, to challenge societal expectations in general as well as they relate to gender roles, grit and
empowerment. They derive into eerie compositions that are driven by color, symbolism and simplicity.
My approach challenges expectations and reminds the viewer that empowerment is mindset in action.
My work in public bridges the juxtaposition of street art and fine art.
I go out into the world without fear of the labels, of my invisibility, of what anyone will think of me for painting, or for asserting that I
am someone who does things differently.
My work considers most interactions and most perceptions to fuel inspiration...the love, the hate, and the labels.
Yet, I oppose hate and labels and I invite anyone who comes to know me and my work to do the same.
I use "what is said or thought of with certainty" as intentional fuel that continuously reminds me to be me.
There is power in creating and in living and how I wear that power matters. I proudly wear who I am and this mindset
directly impacts the work I do.
I am a woman and an artist, pushing the boundaries of what I'm supposed to do and how.
I am the artist who paints in the street: invisible to most, occasionally visible to some.
I engage with that state of invisibility and sense of unfrequent recognition to highlight my journey as well as those of others who are
overlooked and underrepresented.
I dare to be who I am while shedding labels and expectations, challenging the dominant narratives that intend to choose who is visible and
who is not. I choose not to wear that invisible identity that is imposed on a majority of artists, and I choose to defy where and how art can be
made and displayed.
My work is about all of what I've mentioned here and more, and it is not just about my own experience.
As an artist, I am one of many, and yet, I am not.
Different (Los Distintos) by Juan Ramon Jimenez
They wanted to kill him
(those who want everyone to be like them)
they wanted to kill him because he was different.
If you see a different bird,
Make it come down,
if you see a different mountain,
tear it down;
If you see a different road,
destroy it,
If you see a different tree, cut it down;
If you see a different rose,
pluck it petal by petal;
If you see a different river,
blind it, so it can't see where it flows
If you see a different man,
kill him...
And the sun and the moon
aren't they different?
Height, smell, length, freshness, song, living,
They are all different…
They are different;
Whatever it is that you are, whoever you are,
how different you are
(mountain, road, rose, river, bird, man):
if they discover you, the ones that want you to be like them:
flee to me, come to my being, to my battleground, to my different heart.
A poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez (Spanish, Famous Poet 1881-1958)