Aragon Ballroom Drawing

I am a Venezuelan-born artist. I grew up in Valencia, the third-largest city in Venezuela, where my Italian parents had immigrated after World War II. Upon graduation from high school in 1989, I had the opportunity to come to the United States and experience life as an exchange student in Tucson, Ariz. A year later, I received a full tennis scholarship and moved to Atlanta to study marketing at Georgia State University and Graphic Design at the Portfolio Center. I went on to earn bachelor’s degrees in both fields. It was during my time in Atlanta that I discovered my love for drawing, painting, and photography. Needing extra money to pay for Graphic Design School, I began painting large acrylic paintings and sold them to friends and co-workers. Over the years, however, my pens and brushes got pushed aside by the time demands of my graphic design career. Until, around 2010, when I reconnected with them while searching for something to help me cope with life stresses. The creative process and the media were, for me, a balm for the soul, much like meditation. When I draw and paint, I am relaxed—and free. Free of rules and deadlines, free of what others might think, free of problems and stress. I think of nothing but capturing what I am seeing in front of me. When my work is completed, I feel accomplished, proud, positive and more knowledgeable about the object or person I have drawn or painted. I love all media. Whatever the medium, my goal is to create art that makes the viewer feel something—sadness, happiness, love, rage, longing. Something.