Hi!
How are you? I’m doing well. I just wanted to show you my latest painting!
This piece is very important to me because of many reasons, for example this was the very first painting I started working on when I started working at my studio. At the time I was just starting learning how to use oil paints so for me was like an experimenting piece. It took me around 7 months to finish just because I was figuring things out all this time!
Also for me is very special because it represents a subject from my country Chile. This is a mask from the north of my country, you can find them there and also in Bolivia and Peru. This masks are used by dancers in religious carnivals. When I was a child I was very interested about this masks but I was also terrified by them! They are so joyful and colorful but also creepy at the same time. What was very interesting is that when I was in the process of painting this piece many people saw it when they came to my studio and almost everybody assumed that was an Asian mask so when I explained from where it really was people were very surprised.
I had this idea of painting a mask in my mind for years so when I decided I was gonna paint with oils I knew I wanted this one to be my first paint. The idea of having floating eyes came to me because of the riots in Chile in October 2019, police brutality against civilians was particularly wild during that time and many people lost their eyes by gunshots directed to their faces, it was a terrible time that I couldn’t and I will never take out of my mind.
One little detail: the mask’s eyes and the little yellow stars glow under UV light and they are particularly bright under normal light.
And that’s it for today! Take care!