Jan 2010, Vol: 3, Issue: 1
Urhalpool
EBook
Store






ROOTS - Painting by Monica Araoz

Monica Araoz is a contemporary abstract artist from Mexico. In 1997, Araoz and her husband moved to a small town in Northeast Tennessee, both accepting positions in Information Systems. After working full-time at her profession for six years, Araoz began longing for a deeper, more creative expression of her thoughts and ideas. Enrolling in drawing and painting classes marked the beginning of an exciting experimental journey through a variety of mediums and themes. Through her search, Araoz concentrated on realistic portraits and figure painting and found several collectors interested in her work. In 2000, she and her family moved to Austin, Texas, where a stronger artistic community exists. In 2002 Araoz began painting contemporary abstract pieces that received greater acceptance and interest than her first realist pieces. Her work is in public and private collections in United States, Mexico, Venezuela and Norway; and has been selected for publication in the “American Art Collector – Juried Competition of New Work” for three consecutive years. Monica started teaching art in 2008 after thinking that she had to share knowledge to grow. The experience filled her soul with pride and satisfaction and now she considers teaching vital part of her development and owns an Art Academy.

Artist statement
The beauty I see in the texture of objects is what inspired me to create the abstract paintings in my series "Touch." To me, it is very appealing to see how a myriad of forms are created inside the texture, and how these forms, which are created between the volumes of the peaks and valleys on the surface, play together to build patterns that unify all the different forms. Through my work, I aim to make the beauty of the "texture" obvious by using it as the main subject of the painting and to provoke not only the sense of sight, but also the sense of touch. I want to provoke that extra sensation that makes you want to touch what the eye is seeing. To create my artwork and to avoid the flatness of 2D media (as in a canvas painting), I use a mixture of clay dust, sand, glass beads and acrylic polymers. When mixed together in different proportions and applied with knife on a flat canvas, I can create endless variations of textures and 3D finishes. On top of the texture, I like to add a calligraphy element to my paintings. This could be paint lines poured directly on the canvas, or signs carved on the fresh texture mixture on the canvas. I believe that a final calligraphy touch is an open invitation to the observer to translate this element into something that she or he can understand or relate to. This interpretation opens up a door to take the observer into a whole new dimension to appreciate my art and its texture in the 3D level.