Artist Statement
Each drawing and painting shows my mistakes, failures, struggles and above all my successes; each is a reflection, a reflection that I can change, one which I am creating, and for this reason the strokes, lines and values show who I am, what I could be and how much I could achieve. Creating something then becomes a process or dialogue to transform each line, value and form into what I want it to be. It is in this process of drawing where I confront my limitations until I can break them. It is, in other words, a transformation from what I am not to a chosen future, therefore it is an effort to make a future in the present and an ideal certain. It becomes in fact a dialogue where new possibilities are born, and with these, through denials, confrontations and corrections, new goals, new meanings and new perspectives are born as well; it becomes a new future where the doors once closed open up, so through them I can grow to reach new obstacles; it is overall a rebirth and the realization of new horizons, and most importantly it is a way to give birth to myself.
It is in this rebirth that all my goals and hopes rest and I strive to reach the point where I will create an image that not only signifies a new future and new meanings for me, but for those who look at my work as well, where hopefully they will encounter a similar dialogue; where they will discover new meanings, recognize themselves, and transform to the point of a rebirth. Further on, I hope to progress to the point where this process goes beyond individual experiences and individual identities, and it will reach groups of individuals, and the identity they share; the identity I share with them; exactly there where the individual connects with the collective; where a simple story connects with what is universal, and help it to reach a new future.
I am talking about groups of individuals and identities such as in Colombia, my country, where I know art could help us to see ourselves and be born again. And it is because I know all these processes go beyond frontiers, because there is a place inside the Colombian identity where it connects with the rest, in other words where Colombia touches the world, the human and all its dialogues and conflicts, and because the recognition of these connections that we all have and the importance that art could have on these connections, it is for these reasons that I want to dedicate my life to it. For all these reasons art has became vital for me, since it is a space that goes beyond the mere creation of something and my individual need to express myself, it is a place that has the power and space in which I could continuously in new futures be born again.
