What drew me to their work was its sense of improvisation and an emphasis on the painting process. Instead of using paint to carry out a visual idea, I was thrilled to discover the visual idea through the process of creating it. As a young girl in the 1990’s, I resented the limited role assigned to women, and sought to break away from it and didn’t paint myself. I wanted to act in this world of me
n by accomplishing significant things and therefore didn’t learn the joy of having a something I like to call a medium until I had left home and was forced to take care of myself, for myself. Thus, I used strong colors and gestures full of emotion in my painting, avoiding any effect that might be deemed as drawing. When I was a young girl and turning into a women, my grandmother and mother spent most days trying to teach me how to draw and speak other languages. Both are true artists, I resisted this “women’s craft,” and grew bored. My mother loved restoring art, and always painted in the studio, but I, again, resisted this path. It was only later in life that I could appreciate the lengthily process and the designs showed up in some pieces of my timeless art. As my personal history and culture are my life’s foundation, each stoke I paint on a canvas becomes the history of its emotion. These layers accumulate and influence, yet not always overtly. By mixing the acrylic paint with water and gloss medium to make a thin wash, the translucent quality of top layers reveal aspects of the painting’s history. At other times, a thick stroke hides the past to me. Yet it is there beneath the surface and has had its influence, my base coat. The series is about emotions, constantly moving things around by whisking, stroking, rearranging, adding and subtracting; the painting comes together after many layers have been placed. After all, it’s human nature to try to make sense of what we see.
