Behind the Painting: La Poema

Get to know a little more about the background and inspiration of this new piece La Poema del Paraiso Tropical!

La Poema Del Paraiso Tropical, Fior De La Cruz, 2022

ANNOUNCEMENT

Before we get started, I want to announce that this piece will be placed in a group exhibit at PVD ART CLUB, in the Dodge House Gallery located in downtown Providence. It will be part of the community invitational exhibit, featuring local artists of immense talent. Curated by the gallery manager, Michael Rose, the exhibit will be on display for almost the whole month - from August 2nd to August 25th. There will be a reception on August 21st from 2pm to 4pm. Feel free to stop by and take a look of the art anytime between this period. Take pics and tag any of the artists you enjoy seeing!!! Words cannot express how excited I am to see all the cool artwork 🤩

PROCESS

First, I need to reveal that this piece is yet again another cover up...

Originally, it was supposed to be to a painting for a galactic collection that is currently in (SLOW) progress. Turns out, I was trying too hard to replicate another piece of mine and the flow of it just didn't seem quite right. So, I decided to spray paint over the canvas with the purple hue you see towards the top of the painting. I thought to myself, "hmm I don't really want the background to be one color. Which colors look good together"? I had made a piece a while back that was purple and orange but the tone was a little bit different. I liked that combination and decided to go with that again. Then, I sprayed orange in a circular motion. I thought it kind of looked like a rainbow, so I added fluorescent orange on top of the other orange to make it pop. After deciding on doing a simple background, I decided to go in with my fluid acrylics.

I found that I enjoyed creating these underwater paintings. From there, I made different forms and shapes and went in with water and a paintbrush to get the desired "coral reef" effect. I layered different textures of paint varying between the 3-d sculptural acrylics, fluid acrylics, heavy body acrylics, spray paints, acrylic marker, metallic modeling paste, scrap dried acrylic scraps, and more. These different paint layers gave the "reef" some depth. Towards the bottom of the painting there are pieces or "coral" that pop out of the canvas. Using scraps of my dried acrylic paint that I've scraped off of my palette, I used different pieces and formed a coral and secured it onto the canvas. From there, I went in with my paintbrush and markers to add details to the painting. Lastly, I wrote in a poem on top and in between sections of the piece.

INSPIRATION

I absolutely love being by the water (I was born in the summer and it is my favorite season) whether its a pool or ocean, I am feeling both relaxed and refreshed. Which is why I decided to go with an abstract approach of the coral reefs. Recently, my family and I had a planned trip to go to our family's homeland of Dominican Republic. While starting the piece, I was excited that I was getting to know more of where my family grew up, and seeing how they lived/currently live. I've only been able to visit the country once when I was a baby...

For this piece, I was inspired by my ethnic homeland, as I decided to go with another abstract approach of coral reefs. To further connect to my roots, I decided to write the poem in Spanish in loose and playful handwriting. The poem reads,

"Abajo del mar se pone frio...pero si flotas arriba se pone tibia. Cuando llegas al superficie, suelta tu aliento. El dia viene manana"

translation: under the sea it becomes cold, but if you float on top the water gets warm. When you get to the surface, let go of your breath. The day comes tomorrow.

I really enjoy writing text into paintings because not only does the artwork convey a message, but adding text gives the painting a bit more context. The final line "el dia viene manana" is inspired by a saying that my mom used to say to me when I was younger, in order to ease my worries. I would hear her say in Spanish "pienselo manana" or "manana es un dia nuevo". I know in the moment she probably may have not meant much by it, but it stuck with me. At least its something I occasionally tell myself now. I thought that by saying this phrase to me, she was trying to let me know that whatever I was feeling in the moment was temporary. I would feel something immensely one moment but when I slept on it and the next day came, I would either let it go or my feelings towards the situation would change. I chose this phrase because it was something that subconsciously helped bring me more peace internally. By adding it to the painting, I wanted it to give the audience the same effect it had on me. I would like to let them know that feelings are temporary and you can move on from them with time. Just like when the waves flow in the ocean, each wave disappears when it flattens at shore.

I just wanted to give a quick summary on this piece! If you have any specific questions about the piece or need me to elaborate anything within the article, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll respond :)