Academia Cotopaxi I.B. Art: Cecilia 2010

Each painting has a selection of objects that represent memories from my childhood. All objects are meaningful to me because, after all, they remain intact in my mind. They remind me of different people, fears I had, and even of the activities I used to do. In order to keep these memories intact I decided to put them in a box, literally. Therefore, the memories remain untouched; no one can take them away from me.
In the paintings and the boxes, the objects are motionless; it seems as if someone has frozen them. For example, the water in “Missing” is frozen just like my memories are - clear and intact. Thus, by looking at my artworks, a feeling of absence is transmitted to the viewers. It almost seems as if a criminal has left these clues behind, and they are kept as evidence, for the purpose of later observing and analyzing them. Because of this the works seem quiet and mysterious.
The boxes contain the same objects as in the paintings, yet they are different. This is because the elements have different qualities, quantities and positions. The boxes represent the same ideas and memories seen from other perspectives.
Throughout the art pieces recurrent elements are used, such as barbed wire and mounds made using different materials. These are constant symbols that connect the works but also become different in juxtaposition with the variety of other symbolic objects.
My artworks can often be considered surreal because of a lack of true perspective, the juxtaposition of ‘unrelated’ objects and the awkwardness in the sizes of the objects. Yet for me, they seem real, they capture the essence of the mysteries of childhood.