Laughing River / Ríe Río Painting

I was born in 1980 in the Peruvian Amazon city of Pucallpa, at the age of five my family traveled to Ames Iowa, USA (Dad was doing a Doctorate in Agricultural Economics) we lived in university housing surrounded by international families and nature. I returned to a very conflicted Peru, for the first time to live in Lima in the year 1990 were the city was chaos, little green and terrorist attacks was something you heard of every day. Every year we would visit the Amazon region where I was born, terrorism had impoverished the country and Pucallpa was not the exception, forcing migration to big cities and in some cases out of the country. We had hardly any relatives living there anymore but in the country side nature was as beautiful as ever. I started studying paint in high school but have always had multidisciplinary interest. I continued studying drawing in the local national museum, then entered the Pontificia Universidad Catolica of Peru University to study a BFA with specialization in painting in there six year program. After this I did vast investigation for my Bachelor thesis on the art, history and influences of the Shipibo Conibo Amazon native community this toke me to visit several native communities and to have a more intense encounter with the Amazon region. After I presented this thesis I decided to go to Sweden (were many of my relatives live because my grandfather was Swedish) to do a MFA with specialization on digital media, this helped me work more on documentary art related to family migration issues and identity, the program was very open and multidisciplinary this gave me the starting ideas to mix all my previous knowledge to create the Cultural Association Centro Selva Arte y Ciencia were we develop a residency program were national and international artists live a personal experience with the culture and community of the Amazon region in Peru. I live now in Lima but I am constantly traveling to the jungle areas of Peru.