Maria Bonita Print

I come from a family of poets and artists. Art is something that fizzes in my blood, I felt this since my childhood. I remember the walks with my parents through the park "Los Caobos" in Caracas, Venezuela. There we also visited the National Art Gallery a couple of times. When I saw the paintings on the wall, I felt a weight on my heart and great respect. I had always been withdrawn, introverted, and alone, I enjoyed doing something. In my early youth I started to work with ceramics, I identified myself with mass/volume, but I always dreamed of painting to overcome the fear of a white canvas. Still, a lot of time passed before I started painting. For years I had a great passion for copperplate engraving, I remember coming to the workshop in the morning and leaving it in the evening. The workshop was in Caricuao and was an extension of the University "Simon Rodriguez" in Caracas. It was run by Consuelo Méndez, a graphic artist. In Mérida-Venezuela, where I now live, I make the engravings in my workshop and print them in the workshop of the art school, supported by professor Luis Matheus. At the same time as my visits to the workshop in Caricuao, I studied at the Graphic Design School Neumann. I have to say that the education at this school has helped me a lot in my process as an artist. I came to Mérida very young, I fell in love with the sensuality of the landscape, its rivers and forests. I was impressed by the "Cínaro" trees, I saw them as personalities, I was fascinated to draw them. I felt myself in a really "magic" world. Here I connected with the father of my three children, and I still live there today. I consider myself a privileged being, living in a small village not far from Tabay, a village outside of Mérida. It is a beautiful corner which is not very populated. I enjoy hiking in the mountains when I feel like it.   When I bathe in the stream that runs in front of my house, I feel the energy that renews me and gives me strength. I am thankful that I can admire the night sky without the light of the city toppling it. When I watch the sky and see the stars, I feel that we are all like stars, apart and yet together. This fills me with deep love. It touches me deeply what is happening worldwide. It is important at this time to make a daily prayer for world peace, that the rulers of the nations may be enlightened. The thought is creative.