Hebe Garcia-Benitez

Since I was a child, I had two passions: painting and ballet. Drawing and painting came as natural to me as breathing, and were always a favorite pass time of mine. Ballet required classes which I was not able to take properly until my teen years. In College, I enrolled in the Fine Arts Department excited to have drawing and painting formal training for the first time and, I must admit, enjoying my art classes so much that I never thought of the assignments as work or homework. I also managed to be part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Ballet Company for a year, were I realized I was a much better painter than a dancer. Still, ballet was and always is a part of my dreams.

I start my work by looking at many ballet poses until my imagination is piqued. A series of sketches follows in which I transform that real figure pose into part of an imaginary mysterious world where it seems to be trapped while mutating into something else. Using acrylic paint and mediums, I work my sketched result on canvas making it come to life with color and creating a new fantastic image.

Education

2006-2009
Liga Estudiantes de Arte de San Juan. San Juan, PR.
Sculptors Ceramic Workshop. Professor: Hiram Rosado Poupart.

2003-2007
Liga Estudiantes de Arte de San Juan. San Juan, PR.
Painting Workshop. Professor: Nora Quintero García

1982-1986
University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
Bachelor of Fine Arts