Nayma Carballo

"Más que un deporte"

My work in this exhibition centers around sports. Sports are activities involving physical demands which require skills, endurance, or strength. Sports are an important part of human life as they can develop values and a sense of responsibility, teamwork, discipline, among others. Sports are a representation of some cultures as they depict honor culture in some regions and generational traditions. Such activities are said to be autotelic, where people find intrinsic motivation to participate in them. In other words, sports are an important part of many people’s lives including mine, not only for practicing them from a young age but, it is something I intend to pursue in the future by uniting my passions for science and sports as a profession. One of the things that I am fascinated about is embracing the highest human abilities and enhancing sports performance, as I try to motivate people to become better versions of themselves. 

My initial inspiration comes from my childhood experiences with the class of physical education, where in my elementary school we studied human anatomy and performed exercises and drills to tackle specific muscles to be able to enhance certain skills. Apart from that, my mom as an adapted physical education teacher has instilled in me from a young age the idea of providing resources for individuals with different physical abilities. As a result, I am inspired to promote the practice of sports to everyone.  

Nonetheless, my work is also highly inspired by artists such as LeRoy Neiman who was an official artist of the Olympics, Edgad Brown and Mark Trubisky both recognized for their ability to capture not only a sport, but the nature of movement. All these artists have a particular signature brushstroke technique that makes their individual works unique. Within these unique elements the impasto brush stroke is a technique that I applied in some of my artworks such as “The Runner” and the most recent one, “The Journey ''. Impasto is a painting technique of incorporating thick layers of paint into the surfaces to provide a sense of texture and movement, highlighting the concept behind my exhibition.

The artworks I have developed for this exposition center around different important aspects of sports, including physiological and anatomical levels to emotional attachments that sports can develop over time. My initial and overall vision for presenting these body of works was to create appreciation towards physical activities and the nature of sports. I intend to cherish the beauty within the human ability to exceed physical limits, challenging the human body and mind. Through these works I intend to inspire people to practice physical activity, find interest in the subject and try to perform such activities for themselves.