Hi everyone! I am writing to you in very late Fall! We are just 16 days away from the Winter solstice in fact. This Fall has been a little bit quiet but full of change. I spent most of September in Colombia with my Dad, October I was in Portland, and then I moved home to the Snoqualmie Valley in November.
Metamorphosis
Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting
This piece is a meditation on the love between relatives. These relationships share a deep love and understanding of each other throughout life and across generations. Their shared survival and care for one another heals generational trauma.
This month I finished up my artist residency with Centro Cultural in Cornelius. We had the showcase on the 2nd where I presented all of the work that I created! The showcase featured two other creators, Dez Ramirez and Juma DeJesus. Please check them out! Dez wrote some beautiful and honest poems and Juma did a live performance of their healing movement in collaboration with performance artist Yaara Valey.
The residency showcase was such a wonderful night of love, community, and vulnerability. It was such an honor to hold space for art with Dez and Juma who created art on subjects similar to my own project.
Meditation Candelabra
Medium: Ceramic Sculpture
The two figures seated embracing each other are a reflection of the self. On the top of the figures heads and in their hands are candle holders. When the candles are lit, the candelabra becomes a venerated object. It is a reminder to treat yourself as worthy of reverence.
Being an artist in residency with Centro Cultural this year was an incredible learning experience for me. I learned more avenues for economic growth for my business, held community events in collaboration with Centro, and created new work that expanded my practice and artistic theory. Centro Cultural is a vibrant center for the arts and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it.
Libertad
Medium: Cut-Paper, Dried Grass, Twine
This mobile of a flock of birds is a depiction of freedom. It is a hope that with enough time and healing, mental freedom can be achieved.
The exhibit of work that I made for the showcase featured work on the subject of personal and communal healing. I drew upon my own experience, to expresses how in life we all experience many wounds and we may feel the need to resist them, however only by surrendering to being with our suffering can we heal. I captured small reprieves of beauty within deep pain, and illustrated objects of significance, metaphors, and mutually beneficial relationships. My multimedia sculptural work celebrated the act of turning inwards to achieve liberation from suffering.
Mending
Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting
This piece is about how healing takes a whole community, it cannot be achieved alone.
I called my exhibit of work “From the Weeds Came Flowers.” “From the Weeds Came Flowers” is a sentence that came to me in the middle of the night while I was in my bed ruminating over my past mistakes, my hurt, and my regret. I was fed up with how much I let my past dominate my present and how much I let it destroy my peace. I thought of the past negative experiences in my life as weeds: dead, dry, and unwanted things, and I imagined a beautiful flower rising from within those weeds. The weeds remained in a circle around the flower but the flower opened and bloomed. Likewise, healing does not come from the eradication of our problems but from accepting our suffering and working towards growth. That visualization gave me the insight to make work for this residency.
I Will Love You Throughout All Of My Life
Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting
This piece explores how death does not separate loving souls. Our loved ones guide us and we enshrine them in gratitude.
I was very ambitious with this project as it was my first residency and my first public showcase of work. I had proposed to do just three illustrations and ended up making six ink paintings, a ceramic sculpture, and a mobile.
Embracing the Weeds
Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting
The piece Embracing the Weeds features the subject hugging a Dahlia, however the intention was to have the subject hugging a Dandelion. To embrace your weeds is to love the parts of yourself that are undesired. The replacement of a Dandelion with a Dahlia is a hope that one day a flower will bloom from within those weeds.
I experimented with different mediums such as using woven dry grass as a hanging device for my mobile. I also experimented with creating a ceramic sculpture. I have taken two ceramics classes in the past but I have never made a sculpture in either of the classes.
Dahlia and Colombian Hot Chocolate
Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting
The geometric patterning of the flower represents introspection and the warmth and smell of hot chocolate represents comfort. The mesmerizing geometric perfection of Dahlia flowers is a wish painted. Colombian hot chocolate is an invitation to be soothed.
I love the work that I created for this program and I am so proud of what I have done! I think my trip to Colombia really inspired me and so did my own healing journey.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a Happy Holidays and welcome in this new year with grace and light.
Olivia