Portfolio
The style of art nouveau has been around for centuries — the same way Spanish idioms have been a part of the long history of Mexican culture. What you will see in the following is my version of this iconic style of art being used to personify three Spanish idioms of my choice to better understand this part of my culture which many new generations are starting to forget.
"Encontrar mi media naranja", or "to find the other half of my orange" is the idiom that inspired my very first piece. The subject is a girl with a sliced orange for a head. She is standing under an orange tree, holding a sliced orange with a small human girl in it. She just found her other half.
"El nopal solo se le arriman cuando tiene tunas", which roughly translates to, "they only go near the cactus when it has fruit", is the second idiom I chose to investigate. There are three figures with cacti at the top of their heads are in view. Only the center character is in color, as she is the only one with fruit, and the only one receiving attention for her last fruit.
"Meter la pata" is the last idiom I chose to focus on. This one would translate to, "to put your foot in. The girl in the photo is dipping her foot into a body of water that is home to an alligator, blissfully unaware of the mistake she made.
In this piece we see my orange characters strengthening their bond and witnessing their importance to each other by getting out of the suffocating fruit bowl hand in hand.
For my second cactus piece I wanted to give a better look at the powerlessness forming in the character. Her expressions show the way her energy is being sucked away by the person using her for what it is that they want. The hands are trapping her in a toxic cycle of this person leaving and coming back only when they want something from her.
This new subject is actually the hidden person who I have only showed through the use of hands. She is completely unfazed by the horrible things she does to her victim. Arrogantly running her hand through the water coming down from the fountain, she could care less about the pain she has caused.