Life on the Island Painting

Layers of acrylics and oil are used in this painting depicting a prototypical, joyful island, where numerous lives and events are interconnected and chained in a busy space recalling a pier on a crowded touristic island. My work is inspired by botanical illustrations, surrealist paintings, cartoons and ink comics. I need to connect, explore and map social meanings, and cultural symbols. I often use and recombine essential symbols, used and understood by many cultures around the world over time. The four natural elements (fire, water, wind, earth), the cosmos and stars, time and space, the sun and moon, different types of landscapes (the desert, the jungle, the forest, the grassland), and animals, especially the ones with a strong symbolic meaning (e.g. snails, snakes, toads, etc). I play with these symbols sometimes interpreting and recombining them in a surrealistic way.