Decor-Magazine Mart-Nisan2019

Her production is completely artisanal and handmade by
using ancestral techniques, like latch hook, felt, knitting,
macramé and crochet, to create her artworks inspired by the
coral reefs.
The internet is an ever growing fixture in many artists’
lives and businesses, could you talk about the role the
internet plays in your artistic and professional life?
As you say, the internet is an enormous and diversified
universe. For me, I cannot say that is the best way to show
my art work, because I believe that being in the same
space and time of my work, being able to see, touch and
feel it, is the best way
to contemplate and
understand the vision
and message present in
art. Even so, I must admit
that the internet is a
faster way to promote my
work and myself as an
artist, and, besides that,
it’s the most efficient
way to do it on a large
scale, understanding
its power of reaching
thousands of different
people, all over the
world, in a short space of
time. As a verdict of my
experience, Instagram
was the “boom” for
my art disclosure, even
though I had started with
Pinterest and Facebook,
during my master degree
in Fashion Design in 2015.
I never expected to reach so many people and to spread my
work throughout the world, and when I sold my first piece of
art, on Instagram, I was shocked, in a good way, and that gave
me more reasons and will to keep going and keep working
hard for my purpose.
Where do you find inspiration for your work? In what
ways has the internet and/or social media impacted your
design process?
When I was younger, I used to travel with my family through
different countries and continents. Every time we visited
Caribbean countries or more exotics and natural places,
we always tried to dive into those beautiful waters full of
life and colors. And those memories are my biggest and
strongest inspiration. The feeling of being overwhelmed by
those creatures, being an unknown and small living being in
those universes, feeling the need to see those colors, finding
out more and being surrounded by that life, are some of the
feelings that I remember and that I keep in my memory and
heart.
But time flies really fast and my memories are not as clear as
they were back then, and that is where Internet comes into
my design process, since I can search and find out different
images of the deep sea. If I lived somewhere where I could
dive easily, it would be really amazing, but since that is
something really hard to do, diving into the internet is the
only way to revive those memories. Besides that, looking
through different photos and videos of complex structures
of coral reefs, different creatures, and different seas etc. has
helped me to get even more ideas!
How have you, as an artist, found your creative voice?
I use to say that I came from a family of artists: my
grandmothers are knitters and do a lot of crochet, my
maternal grandfather and my father are really skillful people
and wood artisans, my grandmother used to paint and she is
a knitter and a crochet maker too. So, since my childhood, I
was in contact with artisanal techniques and different types
of art work that helped my artistic abilities and influenced
me as an artist. Besides that, I always loved and cared a lot
about art and, since I always show that interest, my parents
always supported and motivated me to follow my dreams
and my artistic vain. After so many years of studies, so
many experimentations with different types of art, such as
painting and sculpture, in order to discover what I really like
to do, I finally found out my own way to express myself. I was
studying for my master’s degree in Fashion Design, when I met
and got in touch with the wool process and the art of making
textiles. And then, when I started to explore more about it, I
started to discover, at the same time, myself and my essence
as an artist, creating my own language, my creative voice.
Sites like Pinterest and Instagram are popular places for
artists’ to share their own work. Have you encountered
copies of your work online? If you see, what are your
strategies for dealing with it?
Those are some complicated and sad moments, and,
unfortunately it has already happened to me. In my opinion,
and being aware of human nature and the way we act and
feel, I believe that when someone tries to copy a piece of art,
the reason for that action is the need or desire to feel the
accomplishment of something wonderful. As an artist, I do my
art because it’s the right way to express my feelings and my
visions. If someone tries to copy one of my works, even if it
hurts me, I understand that it may have not been to cause me
harm, but maybe it was an attempt to admire my work or even
to try to see what I see. Even so, I believe that copying is not
an honored action, and each one of us must be able to create
our own unique artistic language in order to express ourselves
and be faithful to our own essence.
March - April 2019• 71 DECOR