Contemporary figurative paintings that spark conversations and spread positiveness
My love for arts and in particular painting, has always been there. My dad was a painter, so from a very early age I witnessed the creative process and was exposed to color and forms. Also, in Medellin, where I’m from, storytelling is part of our culture, and I love it! I used to beg my mom and aunts to tell me all kinds of stories when I was a kid, and as a teenager I enjoyed very much reading short stories, essays, tales, fiction, and in particular books that fell into the magical realism genre. Now as an adult, when I look at my paintings, I do see they have a strong narrative aspect component.
I love images. I collect lots of them. Whenever I find an image that speaks to me, I keep it. It might not show up in one of my paintings right away, but eventually it will make its way to my work. I draw inspiration from many other sources like stories, memories, movies, fashion, all that feeds my imagination and my visual vocabulary, but once I start painting the work reaches a moment where it takes off on its own and separates from the story or image that inspired it and becomes a separate individual with its own demands, and it is then that a conversation w/ the paintings starts. It is like a dance, and sometimes like a battle. The painting starts asking for balance, for things to be added or subtracted, for places on tha panel to visually rest -that’s why many times I leave lots of white in the space, because I feel the need of a place on the surface for the eye to rest and take off again. Sometimes I have some idea of what I’m doing, but most of the time that idea shifts and the ending painting is always a surprise. Even though my work has a narrative component, it doesn’t always come after the story, in many cases the painting is first, and then it inspires a story.
