Author: XYZadmin

My work is inspired by the observations of light, shadow and structure in nature. The practice of Chinese brush painting makes me obsessed with the combination of strokes, lines, and how they combine in an unexpected way. In my concept, all marks can be mountains, lakes and vegetation. I simplified and rearranged all elements to indicate my imitation of nature. The flowing of water, the swing of trees and the movement of light and shadow provide its principle, which allows me to create a magical world. I recreate the texture and pattern I captured from nature to depict a distillation of reflection: the movement of flowing, bending or framing the object in order to explore its relationship, external and internal, spatial and temporal, within the world.

The central theme of my works are the entwined positive and negative energies reflected in space. There is a window in front of every individual, which we will only share with a chosen few. Some people want to open their hearts to others, opening the window to release negative energy. Likewise, some people choose to restrain themselves, closing the window to disconnect themselves from receiving positive energy. I seek to break through, connect, deconstruct, and overlap the fixed sense of space with the use of lines and shapes that do not require precise measurement.

I believe that artworks are the shadows of the artists who made them. Those brush strokes, narratives, and blanks were only the traces of my shadow when I was passing. Artists express the message and perspective that they want to convey to the world through their works. Whether it is a word, a painting or a photograph, it seems to me that the only difference is the medium of expression. The work itself is my point of view, as for comprehension, it depends on the viewer.

I am a Mexican artist currently living in Vancouver.  I recently graduated as a Fine Art and Art Historian. In my work I have been exploring not only subjects like mental health, landscapes, and the female figure, but also I have been experimenting with the theme of abstraction with traditional and non –traditional materials, which I had not used before. These explorations have been documented through my paintings, prints, drawings and photographs.

I am exploring these themes, as I want to break stereotypes regarding mental health as I suffered depression myself. I see my work as joining the conversation as I want to defy social norms and challenge viewers with what should be considered taboo. Also, I am working with the female figure, as I want to defy woman’s fragility and role in society. Furthermore, my photographs intend to showcase admiration of neglected or overlooked aspects of nature.

As I continue to study art, my spectrum broadens into new creative possibilities.

I am interested in the power, diversity and complexity of language and its relationship with objective and subjective truth. And I am drawn to combining diverse materials and applying them in unexpected or sometimes humorous ways to construct new languages. My art practice reflects on memory, its stability, its mutability and its ephemerality while questioning notions of truth, falsehood, clear thinking, wishful thinking and silence.

I am compelled by the dialogue between the wildness of being and the narrowness of the mark on the page.  I work in nature-based narratives, while allowing magical realism to have space to exist. Invisible forces breathe life into my work as I seek to capture the fleetingness of imaginal realms from dreams and memories. Entwined and enmeshed in my work is the use of symbolic language, which I work with consciously. Most mysteriously, symbols and signs often appear at the very end of the making process, as though once the space was created, they simply emerged out of the no-place and onto the page. 

A principal theme in my work is the impermanency of reality. Also I believe the composition of aesthetics is the core of visual art, and even purely abstract art would still present artificial aesthetic standards. I try to express these elements through my work, and I find that flat medium surfaces are the ideal platforms to encode these concepts. I use both figurative and non-figurative approaches. I believe that visual elements are like code, and that our visual reality is encoded. I am looking forward to where these directions will take me.

I am cheap. When I see something I really like, it usually costs more than I want to pay. I then think, “how can I make it myself and make it as well as the artisan”? This led me to Langara to learn how to make my own work sing. 

I like to work outdoors from the real thing. I think Nature does it best. I like playing with colour while maintaining the proper values because things have to make sense to the viewer. I prefer to make art by my own hand. I like to find simple, eloquent examples of human activity and nature together and tell those stories. I try to choose a theme common to many people, keeping the details down, so that the viewer experiences the work in their own way and maybe even extrapolates their own story.

My practice in painting, drawing, and printmaking reflect on different concepts. Concepts such as the study of the human body; the perceptions of the male body looked through the male gaze and social media. Also, the construction of identity, the perception of the self, and the importance of mental health. On the other hand, my artwork on digital media focuses mainly on the perception of my inner world and the outer world. Lastly, my performance artworks revolve around the exploration of action and repetition, using language, writing, sculpture, and photography. These mediums allow me to explore my identity as an immigrant, Colombian, and witness of conflict.