I grew up watching my father draw famous cartoon characters for me, hanging the resulting posters on the wall near my cot. He would have then explained who the characters were and taught me how to draw or create things with my hands. Spent my whole childhood in a remote mountain village, surrounded by nature and all its splendor. As a little girl, my main activity was going out in the wild with my friends, by foot or by bike, hiking on the surrounding mountains. This allowed me to savor every color nature has to offer.
Spring showed me shades of light brown, pale beige, with the bright greens, everything in-between orange and reds, peachy pinks, the white of the cherry flowers. Summer showed me the bright yellows, mid pinks, shades of blue ranging from denim to deep-sky, and the beautiful blue-grays, the turquoise of the stream falling from the mountain heights meters away from my garden; the deep grape and aubergine shades, bold pinky reds, and the darkest and brightest summer blues of the wildflowers. Sage greens, pale old goldish, warm grays, oyster whites, rust reds, and mustard yellows, medium olive greens, mid-browns, and camels were Autumn’s poems, forever anchored in my heart. Then, there was the Winter, with all the high contrasts of emerald greens and holly-berry reds, stark blacks and whites, cobalt blues, sapphire, bright navy, silver, icy grays, or hot pink, iced aqua.
I always had all these colors tattooed in the deepest parts of my subconscious, but I was too scared to use that knowledge on a canvas. Yes, I’ve always loved drawing, and I did a pretty good job at it, but I had a block in using colors.
Only after digging deep inside my memories, feelings, and fears and becoming conscious and in peace with myself and the world around me, through years of meditation, have I finally been able to express my vocation.
Meditation and self-awareness brought me to mandala dot-painting. I now wish to set an example, offering the same self-knowledge to everyone choosing one of my colorful paintings to decorate a bedroom hallway, a kitchen, a living room, even the office.