What piqued your interest in arts, and when did you know this was the career path for you?
My parents were academics who loved art, they always had musician and painter friends over who would perform and live paint during their dinner parties. My dad retired during my childhood and he’d take me to rag doll workshops, puppet theatres, and the circus often. My mother taught me how to embroider and those early teachings and interests remain. I have always known that this was the career path for me, it’s just taken me what seems to be a lifetime to get over my fears and truly embrace art as life.
Could you tell us about the process of creation? How long does it take to move from an idea to a realization?
It depends on the medium and my energy levels. My poetry happens fast, takes no prisoners, it is raw and unedited. My photographic work is also unedited and instant. My drawings are seemingly raw but take longer to happen. My embroidery and most of my textile work are slow and some of it has taken years to complete. At the moment, my focus is on exploring multimedia and fabric dyes, both slow processes that require attention to detail. I find a lot of comfort in taking things slowly and experiencing time and creation at my own pace.
What are you trying to communicate with your art?
My healing journey, my anxieties as a racialized woman, my hopes for the Venezuelan diaspora, the brilliance of my ancestors, and contributing towards creating a softer world with safer spaces for all.
To what extent does the pandemic influence your depiction of art? Does it generate new inspiration?
The pandemic came to me as a realization that there was always a pandemic, and that the gaps of inequality were much bigger than what previous distractions allowed us to see. In that regard, survival is now my main inspiration.
How do you feel about being involved in an online residency program? How important is it to stay connected with the international art community?
I am afraid of planes yet I love to travel. Every meeting is a new holiday. Being in touch with the international art community is vital for me, I recently finished Cyber Fellows by Younger than Beyonce Gallery (Toronto, Canada), and currently, I’m an MBA candidate at The Global Leaders Program (Washington, DC). Sharing knowledge, best practices, and stories with other artists and innovators without borders is something I had been dreaming of since the early days of the internet, seeing it happening and being part of the conversation has given me fresh and refreshed ideas of art and the world we share. It has also proven that some of our struggles are the same and that we need to create and work towards those solutions together.
What are your thoughts about the theme ‘artist on standby’? Tell us a bit more about your project…
Initially, I was going to retake/rework a few two-dimensional projects that I had on standby. However, my shift changed focus after Jean Claire Dy’s visit to the residence. It was empowering to see her video work, so political, sublime, and intimate – her presentation sent me in that direction. So currently, I am developing a short film on self-image, capitalism, lack of access, and the anxious need of waiting for the right moment while being on standby.
What do you want to achieve before things return to normal if it is to happen? Any future plans/projects?
Finishing my MBA in Arts Innovation is my number one goal at the moment. Beyond that, I am interested in developing more social art projects, participating in online residencies, and exploring ways of collaborating and consulting internationally, especially when it comes to issues of accessibility, disability justice, and creative justice for marginalized artists worldwide. When it comes to normal, I have stopped dreaming of normal as it was and instead have been trying to redo/rethink ways of living life under this new construct.