I am a visual artist, I was born in the sixties in Caracas, Venezuela.

I studied elementary and high school between Caracas and the United States; then I graduated as a dentist from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV).
 

 

I was always passionate about art but I didn't see myself as an artist, I considered it something somewhat unattainable.


More than a decade ago, I moved with my family to Buenos Aires, Argentina and started to approach in a definitive way and with exclusive dedication to my true love, painting.


It was a one-way trip, I have trained mostly in a self-taught way and guided by the workshops of Juan Astica who I consider my master. I also studied art at the Fundación de Amigos del Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires.


My life since then has been a great search to find my place, I have gone from the geometric to the figurative and to the abstract expressionism with free strokes, gestural  in search of freedom.


I need to feel and express what I have inside.


Freedom is what motivates my work. I believe in a freedom to express oneself beyond classical composition, color theories and respect for the use of materials the way they were designed.


I believe in the unexpected mix of colors and materials, in surprise.


I think the subject is not important but the way to approach it from many different angles is.


I am greatly influenced by mid-20th century American abstract expressionism.


I need a free stroke, a liberating stroke. Sometimes it's very energetic, using the whole body, and other times more relaxed depending on the medium and materials used.


I am very curious, and I keep experimenting but I always come back to this kind of paintings.


I don't like representation, I don't want to represent familiar things.


I have asked myself why I paint, and I conclude that I am a free soul who could not be caught. I was always close to art, to the study and the observation, but I was terrified to pretend being an artist, something I considered only for geniuses.


Starting to paint and showing it has been my greatest act of defiance, the feeling of freedom that the painting process produces in me; the challenge, the fear I feel in front of the canvas or the blank paper I wouldn't exchange it for anything, I compare it to the feeling of skiing on a difficult slope.


Art gave me the ability to enjoy, fear, love, doubt and to suffer all at the same time and above all the freedom to create without thinking about anything else and without fear of rejection. I want to create without thinking about the spectator.


The artist's communion with the empty canvas and the final result is spectacular whether I like it or not when I see it finished. Always the surprise factor.


My work is energetic, colorful, gestural, expressive, emotional, curious, I work several series at the same time. I am inspired by nature; I like abstraction, want color, planes and forms to be the protagonists.


Paper is my great love although I also work on canvas and I like to work on medium to large formats.


I hope that after reading this, you will know a little more about me and my work.



Thais.