What Inspires Me
Family is the center of my daily life. Not a day goes by where I don’t speak to or have some form of contact with a relative. Even more so, in my Ecuadorian-American background, I am greatly impacted by the wide variety of personalities that make up my community. The spectrum spans from very passive and cool tempers to active and passionate heat, yet all of them together creates a well balanced family picture. Similarly, in my work I like to incorporate a wide range of colors and values in order to imitate the varying social aspects of my family tree. Another aspect that is intertwined in my familiar fabric is my traditional, Hispanic culture, which in and of itself gives me a rich amount of morals and customs that translates onto my work. In reality, many of my concepts for art come from what I take from my family and the cultural values that they raised me on.
My favorite style of art is modern impressionism. Of all the art styles that are out there, it is the one that strikes me as most “alive.” Its characteristically small and numerous brushstrokes, emphasis on the changing qualities of light, and exaggeration of the human perception and experience of colors are just some of modern impressionism’s beauties. Originating from the initial Impressionist movement of the 1800s, modern impressionism has evolved from artists like Georges Seurat and Paul Signac to Daniel Wall and Iris Scott. It still draws original scenes of the ordinary lifestyle but with vivacity in its colors and movement both in concept and execution of the brushstrokes. Thus, my art makes an effort to reflect the movement and life in its colors, especially in my paintings.
There is something to nature that with just a glance can fill someone like me with inspiration. Coming from a Catholic background, in which nature is held as part of the beautiful complexity that God created, I appreciate nature as I do art; for, in essence that’s what it is. It is a divinely crafted masterpiece. The abundance of depth in its many colors, the organic movement of animals and plants alike, the profound and abstract interpretation, and the cohesiveness of it all together. These characteristics consist in the “style” of nature, which is what I try to reflect in my own work. Like in nature, I strive to incorporate that certain kind of fluidity that connects one thing to another.
While I may not know much about special effects or makeup, film has had a huge impact on me as an artist nonetheless. From a very young age to now, I have always loved watching movies with my family. The ability to escape into a visually different reality or fantasy was something that enticed me to watch movie after movie and still does today; whether or not that's a good thing is debatable. Whatever the answer may be, movies to me are jump starters to my creativity and imagination, especially when it comes to art. The visual effects in movies today can just be absolutely stunning, and even though they're aided mostly by computer software that doesn't mean they cannot be replicated greatly by an artist. I try to be that artist when I try to make my art look more realistic and use concepts that are different from my own surroundings and reality.