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Patricia Ariel
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Biography
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I was born in a working class area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where I have lived for over 30 years until moving to the United States. I've been drawing since early childhood, and since my teenage years I've explored a large range of artistical modalities: dance, drama, music, design and literature. I worked for several years as a web and graphic designer, as both freelance and employee in communication companies, and also teaching drama and body expression as a parallel activity. I graduated in Fashion Design, and years later I got a bachelor degree in Art Education with a specialization in Art History from the Rio de Janeiro State University, starting off my career as an Art Educator in regular schools and art courses. But, even though I had never stopped drawing, It was just after leaving Brazil that I began to think more seriously in a career on the fine arts. I began to paint using mostly watercolors and currently I've been consistently building a body of work based on my passion for the figurative art combined with ornamental abstracts.
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Statement
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I see Art as something sacred, intrinsically bonded to the spiritual. The artist should be an instrument to unveil what is occult from the ordinary eye, to bring out the freedom of understanding. The artist is a worker for the Universe. My work explores metaphysical concepts and the human mind and soul in an archetypal, symbolical form. My work deals with themes like life and its cycles, the unconscious, the sacred feminine, transformation and spiritual evolution and the connections of man with Nature and the Universe. Myths and folklore are frequently portrayed since they contain important keys for the understanding of the human psyche. My aesthetic references come from several sources, from music and the performing arts to Folk and Oriental painting, from the Art Nouveau and Jugendstil to the Surrealism and Pop art. Stylistically I use a combination of ornamental abstractionism and figurativeness. Organic shapes and nature elements, such as animals and plants, are integrated to the human form as one only thing. Figures are merged in a colorful, abstract environment to express a reality that is not palpable or concrete - the reality of the dreams, abstract perceptions and intuition. Since I see my work mainly as a celebration of life, the female figure is frequently the center of the piece, not only for its aesthetic power as an atemporal theme but also as its universal symbolism as a generator of life. Although they have an intrinsic erotic power, my women are not "femme fatales", but goddesses, creators and sorceresses. I am passionate about how the body can "talk" through moves and gestures, and I bring out the same eloquence to my work. The gesture is a significant part of the picture's symbolism and language.
Material-wise, I've been always enjoyed to work with graphite not only for its texture and simplicity, but also for the energy that it transfers to the work. I see the enhancement of the graphite drawing as a way to preserve the drawing's primeval strength and freshness. Watercolors were chosen mostly for their ethereal quality and for the way they mix creating unexpected effects, which in my view is one of the ways to bring a little more "magic" to the process.
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Exhibitions
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2007 - Pagan Art - Unitarian Universalist Church, Lexington, KY
2008 - Pagan Art - Unitarian Universalist Church, Lexington, KY
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