IB Visual Arts LINCOLN SCHOOL Costa Rica: GLORIANA MONTEALEGRE IB Visual Arts Lincoln School Costa Rica 2015

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

GLORIANA MONTEALEGRE IB Visual Arts Lincoln School Costa Rica 2015

Artist Statement

by Gloriana Montealegre

I entered the IB art course as a way of expressing how I felt. I’ve always had a very hard time talking about my worries or my feelings. I tend to keep everything for myself and art is the only way I can comfortably let everything out. From the very beginning I started expressing the pressures that society places on the individual. I then found out that my main concern was that society is becoming a homogeneous mass that is consuming everyone, and individuality is being lost.

At first I started off very restricted because as a perfectionist I expected all my paintings to look as realistic and controlled as possible. I discovered that painting with acrylics is my strength. However, my style suddenly started changing. When I saw Salvador Dalí’s “Galatea of the Spheres,” I was completely astonished. He portrays his wife with something so abstract as the atomic theory. So I realized that things did not have to be always literal and realistic. From that moment on I started to become freer. I experimented with tools other than brushes to get out of my comfort zone. I achieved interesting results with palette knives and with linocut as well. Probably the main achievement was creating free strokes and movement. In addition, I started to worry less about the direction of my art and let the materials guide me.

Wabi Sabi philosophy influenced me in this matter as I learned to admire the materials and imperfections in my works. I had to face an internal struggle with my perfectionist self, which I am still fighting. However, the palette knives helped me get out of my comfort zone and experience a freedom I had never felt before.

My style drifted from realist to impressionist, and I learned to use a variety of media and materials such as batik, candles, linocut, photography, and wire sculpting which all revolve around Wabi Sabi.