Welcome to Amarettogirl's portfolio!
This is an attempt to finally get some of my most recent work and exhibit information up for some digital display...beyond that of my flash website, which I cannot seem to manage for the life of me (even with help!) You can still visit the older portfolio site, especially if you want to see my children's book illustrations and oil paintings at: www.amarettogirl.com (I will post the link up in my favorite sites) I hope you enjoy checking out my newest body of artwork and photographs.
I have included the images that were featured last September in the Alianza Hispanica gallery in Madrid, Spain. These images were a response to a call for portraits of Ibero-Americanos in New York. I was one of nine photographers chosen for the show. By the wonderful support of my employer, The Dwight-Englewood School, I was able to attend the opening!
In the Recuentos portfolio:
I am showing images from my current art exhibit (until Feb.17th 2008) at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas. With this work I am responding to fellow artist Nova Gutierrez's work on her Aunt Lisa who was murdered by her spouse thirty years ago. With these paintings and illustrations, I'm exploring the way human life leaves stains, both metaphorically and literally. This is a concept that I have been working with a lot lately in my paintings, illustrations and photographs. Through using fluid liquid acrylics and walnut ink stains, the figurative, self-exploratory art reflects on issues of human resiliency and physical indelibility. By touching on issues of survival from childhood sexual abuse and loss, I am able to respond to Nova's work on domestic violence.
The 'On Dying' series portfolio:
Is a body of photographs in which I am looking at how nature begins her subtle decomposition and the inherent beauty that I find in that process. After all, the bright, discoloration of the Fall leaves we love so much is simply the death of a leaf.
However, in my Glasswork portfolio:
I have been exploring something else all together. By using powdered glass to draw illustrations onto a clear glass (Painting with Light), I have been processing the shift into my current life in suburbia from my past life in NYC with black birds. The majority of my family still resides in NYC and Puerto Rico. Birds migrate and move habitually, yet they often function within a community, most of which I am currently missing. Artistically, I am entranced still by the composition of black birds on telephone lines.
Then I have the Herstory project:
A visual art project designed and constructed around fostering self-esteem in young women of color through photography and painting. For this body of work, I have young women pose in iconic compositions from art history in their contemporary guises inorder to take the place of the White European women who historically hold that image hostage. I am passionate about being an active force in changing the images our children see and the non-verbal cues they receive about self-worth and value in such a media-saturated world.
This you tube video is Hijas Americanas book trailer by Rosie Molinary. Many of my black and white photos are on it and many images of my family!!! This is a powerful video that all of our daughters (literal and metaphorical) should see.