About

Hello, and welcome to my portfolio website! Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Vanessa Quintana. I grew up in Hurley, Mississippi and attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile, and I have a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English and Art.

I live in Mobile, Alabama, and I build and paint Mardi Gras figures and floats at the Mirth Co. I also work part-time as a freelance artist, attending art walks, music festivals, and arts and crafts fairs. I am a member of the Mobile Arts Council, my artwork has been exhibited in local galleries, and I have had art and poetry published in the Oracle Fine Arts Review for 5 consecutive years. While I mostly do watercolor and marker illustrations, I am also a skilled ceramicist, and I love building, tinkering, and repairing things, landscaping, organizing, and decorating. My favorite materials are watercolor, gouache, acrylic paint, ink, colored pencil, and clay.

I have always been deeply fascinated by eyes. The incredible details and colorations, the idea of understanding through different perspectives, and everything in that bewildering space between awareness and transcendence, all greatly influence my work. The imagery of the third eye, disembodied yet conscious eyeballs, cyclops creatures, and deities surrounded by celestial and earthly elements commonly appear in my illustrations. I also enjoy painting in the style of scientific illustration, detailing the anatomy and variety of insects, fungi, and other natural life. In doing so, I am both studying these lifeforms and spotlighting their natural beauty so that others may enjoy it.

While some people consider daydreaming a distraction, I believe it is a worthy exercise of imagination, and I encourage its usefulness for self-discovery. A walk through the forest or day spent in my garden is time well spent on pondering my connection to the world around me. I draw inspiration from dreams and from music, film, philosophical conversations, psychological concepts, religious imagery, other artists and thinkers, and the amazing intricacies of the natural and synthetic world.

Through my art, I contemplate the cyclical nature of life and death and the separation from that cycle. I express that the human biology is rooted in the earth and thus kin to it. I observe the microcosm and macrocosm, I ponder its infinite and united nature, and I invite my audience to do the same. My goal is to live my best life and share my experiences and my ideas about the universe through my artwork. If I have some grand purpose, I believe it is to make the world around me a more beautiful, thoughtful, and honest place and to influence people to keep their eyes and minds open and question everything, including themselves.

Thank you for visiting my site! If you like what you see, be sure to visit my Etsy and Redbubble shops!