GIOCONDA - Limited Edition of 25 Print

The name my parents gave me when I was born in 1978 is Ester, but I sign my artwork with the name Lola Menta, and here I'll tell you how Lola Menta came to be and what her name means. Everything began on the summer vacation in 2009 when I decided to walk a good part of the Camino de Santiago, with the intention of being alone with myself and to charge of my life. It didn't take me long for me to find myself and realize that I was a complete stranger with whom i was not very satisfied. every day while walking I was acknowledging, accepting my mistakes and with a sweet wink i said goodbye. That new me was Lola, although i didn't know it at the time. On my return, I felt the need to confess and i did it on a canvas with some old dried-up oil paints. I paint ed an ode to forgiveness dedicated to my sister; with that painting, I confessed that I had been the one who tattooed, shaved and hid her dolls. There was so much left to express that I had to buy more canvases and more paints. The painting became a therapy that fascinated me, that devoured my available hours and inspired those ours that I couldn't dedicate to it. In a few months later they offered me my first exhibition and it was at that moment that I felt that it wasn't Ester who had painted those pictures, and it was necessary for a good friend to be inspired to invent the name: Lola Menta, a spicy name with a double meaning. In Spanish if it's spelled "lo lamenta" it means "she regrets it" so it was perfect because Lola did not regret anything, instead Ester used to regret everything. For the first time that something I created was appreciated by others and I received very good reviews.In three years I painted more than 100 paintings and sold almost all of them. As of 2012, the frequency of exhibitions and the number of works produced was reduced, because, due to professional issues, I couldn't dedicate the necessary time, which caused me concern. But in 2019 the universe challenged me to fulfill my dream, and since then I paint daily and dedicate myself fully to painting and other artistic projects. My work reflects time, thoughts and longings, and sometimes I try to express the feelings and the life of those who commission them from me, but always in "lowbrow" style with naive touches. My recipe calls for a pinch of naivety and a few drops os mischief. In my works, there are all kinds of animals and there are dancers who dance on books with butterflies fluttering around.