Between earth and the skies
Coming back to painting, I spent a lot of time in the studio experimenting, having fun and exploring new trajectories. It was so important for me to take the time to just enjoy the process, to really connect with the medium again, to play and to get in touch with my intuition.
At some point though, I started to ask myself a lot of questions, like: What matters to me? What do I keep coming back to (thematically, stylistically, visually)? Why? What is important for me to share with the world? These questions were crucial to deepen my understanding of my art journey (maybe I’ll make a blogpost about it), and as they got answered, I started paying attention to a more significant question: who am I today? Who am I as a painter?
I became obsessed with discovering a new language of form. It all started with clouds. I was drawn to clouds because of their constant state of change. They form and lose their boundaries ad infinitum, constantly creating new shapes, new moments, new narratives. I’ve spent a lot of time just looking at clouds in the sky, taking inspiration.
These were the first paintings.
This exploration of ephemeral forms was what led me to this new series. The human body has always been central to my work, and thanks to the clouds, I started to look at bodies differently - seeing how I could reinterpret them in a way I hadn’t done before.
I looked at artists that had had interesting explorations of the body in the past: Hans Bellmer with his photographs of puppets, Francis Bacon with his deconstruction of form and his obsession in capturing psychology in painting, and Jenny Saville for her exploration of the flesh and portrayal of humanity in its rawest form, without fearing the morbid or the grotesque.
If you are not familiar with them, here are some examples of their work.
And here are some of my first studies
During this research, I started testing shapes, breaking them down, pushing and pulling them…failing and trying again, in hopes that the next time I painted I would discover new words in this language of form. And that in the process, I would find a new way to think of bodies— through contortion, distortion and exaggeration — pushing them to be much more than what I could perceive. Because in order to grow, you have to change shape, to transform. While I was painting, I was also working through a period of my own deconstruction - my habits, conditionings, ideals of the body and aesthetics. This continuous process is a big topic that I am planning to share more about in the future. These paintings honor the flesh, this vessel we inhabit, and the complex journey of our physical experience - its struggles, stories, memories, traumas and imperfections. I am calling this series Between the Earth and the Skies.
I poured my heart into each one of these paintings. Here are just a couple of my favorites.
