ANGELICA RAQUEL MARTINEZ
TEXTILES | MIXED MEDIA | DRAWING | PAINTING
ARTIST STATEMENT
“When I was young, my dreams mostly haunted me. The night was filled with the dread of ghosts and demons; my sleep was fearful, and metaphors I could not understand plagued me until young adulthood. Since my mid-twenties, after the loss of my grandfather who glued my extended family together, I have been combing through my past. Partly because I simply want to remember him and those experiences I won’t get to have again, but also partly to understand myself and how I’ve reached this point of my life. I think back, lovingly to honey dripped memories and a youth spent en el monte, but also to those dreams and night terrors and how they are so intertwined to my personal lore. I still dream, not of dread but of rest and light; these days the waking world is filled with so much fear and death that my mind does not need to play these unconscious hypotheticals to understand it. My hands instead thread it, weave it, and illustrate it; anxieties and lore and all that I devour.” —Angelica Raquel Martinez ARTIST BIO Born and raised in the border city of Laredo Texas, Angelica draws much of her inspiration from her upbringing and the unique culture she grew up in. Using narratives rooted in folklore, familial storytelling, and her personal experiences, her work acts as a conduit for her investigations into ideas of morality and the spiritual while often putting emphasis on relationships and their continued importance after death. Her use of animal imagery has a dual purpose of representing the animal itself and those she loves. Based in San Antonio, Angelica’s multidisciplinary studio practice utilizes mediums like watercolor, graphite, felting, and rug hooking which give an inherent softness to what are sometimes harsh and visceral subjects. The importance of this juxtaposition between the tender and the violent further underscores the relationship humanity has with storytelling. Relying on knowledge of the past while reinventing folklore to reflect on culture, societal, and human/animal relationships. Angelica earned a Masters in Fine Arts from The University of Texas at San Antonio and a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Texas State University. She teaches art at Incarnate Word High School in San Antonio. Purchase available artwork in Angelica's Shop www.angelicaraquelart.com |
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