Nomination for the San Diego Art Prize 2009

in the studio (aka my garage)

I am very glad to be nominated for the San Diego Art Prize 2009 with 12 other artists:
David Adey (his show just opened at Seminal Projects, see the post below), Tania Alcala, Keikichi Honna, Omar Pimienta, Daniel Ruanova, Marisol Rendon, Tara Smith, Matt Stallings, K.V. Tomney, Jen Trute, Gustabo Velasquez, Yuransky.

What a nice surprise! We will all participate in a group show at Noel-Baza Fine Art in February. Two or three artists will be selected in the end. But being nominated is already great! It means some interesting opportunities in the San Diego art community could come along with this nomination.

During the past two years (I believe the prize was created two years ago) I went to see several exhibitions organized by the San Diego Art Prize, specially at L Street Fine Art and The California Center for the Arts. I was very often interested by what I was seeing. I discovered artists like like Iana Quesnell, Yvonne Venegas and Lael Corbin (who were all selected in the end).

So now I am even more excited and motivated to work on the new series of paintings I started - although I can feel some pressure!

For this new series, I spent a lot of time mixing images on the computer, trying different combinations of layers and looking for texts on the internet and in the newspapers. The photos I take every day are the base of my work.

I work mostly when the children are not home. Usually, I can dedicate around 6 hours per day to my work. It is an amazing luxury and I take advantage of it the best I can. I also try to go see exhibitions in the evening when I can. I think this is an important aspect of the art community's life. And sometimes, yes, it requires an effort. But it is almost always worth it. I appreciate that a lot of the people I know came to my show at the SDAI, I am thankful for that and I want to do the same for the artists I know - and also for the artists I don't -, as much as possible.

Since my children are not babies anymore, I work a lot. And I still spend a lot of time with them. Years before I had my children I did not want to have some because I thought I would never have enough time to do my work. But I work even more today. And my children are part of my inspiration. The energy they give to me is amazing: the way they do things, the things I see when I watch them, what they say.

Although the San Diego Art Prize is a competition - and I do not like competitions too much -, I think the experience will be very positive and I am looking forward to participate in the group show with some of the new pieces I am working on.