I believe creative energy or grace pours from within when we struggle. This
force is light, genuine and to me uncontainable. If one lets it out, uses it to make
things, miracles happen.

As a self-taught artist, who grew up in Peru during an era of unimaginable
violence, art and color became a respite. I hoped to leave those painful memories behind when I went to college and later moved to the United States, but bouts of depression and anxiety flared up well into adulthood. Determined not to become another victim of the Shining Path and their terrors, I worked to assimilate those early memories and free myself from them I found that creating—painting, sculpting and now working with mosaic— eased my heart and mind and allowed me to dissolve my grief in art.

My first artistic adventures were colorless, black and white images expressing difficult
themes and memories. Once those darker experiences were out and processed, happy
colors took over my work. Materials, natural and man-made, seemed to pulse with
possibilities, and once again I found hope in color. Today, I want my work to convey the infinite healing power of art and color, and the interdependent relationships between past and future, despair and hope, sadness and joy.

Owning my story through my creative process has freed me again and again, kept me from becoming a lifelong victim of the violence I experienced as a child, and brought me tremendous peace.

Artist Bio: