Sitting Down in a Virtual Swamp With Sheila Fraga
Sheila Fraga's works, "Florida,""Tobacco," and "Tia in Miami," are featured in Saw Palm 11.
What’s your connection to Florida? What most compels you about America’s Australia?
Why my interest in Florida? — because I am from Cuba and living in Miami is the place that most resembles my native country, where I have my family and the tropical climate that I am accustomed to living.
Tell us a little about your piece in Saw Palm. What inspired it?
The painting titled" Florida "is my interpretation of what it means of my present place where I live and the relation with the past where I lived. Where the cathedral of Havana and the cut-out of a typical Cuban woman with the rollers on her head symbolized my past and the present with the map of Florida.
The other work titled" Tobacco" is a collage of tobacco leaves that are above a nude drawing of a woman who is at the same time a cut-out, creating a three-dimensional effect. Here I combine the techniques of drawing, collage, and cut-out with a more concept toward the subject of tobacco as a Cuban-American symbol.
"Tia in Miami "represents a woman who leaves a few buildings in Miami, as a public intervention between the female nude and the city.
These pieces together represent my current place and circumstances where I live and develop.
What do you hope people come away from your work thinking or feeling?
I intend that people think and reflect when they approach my work on the feelings of nostalgia, distance, love of their cultural roots, and their family.
Describe your artistic process.
My artistic process is my personal trajectory that is represented in the artistic expression. It is the process of thinking and the union between the hand and the spirit embodied in a material support.
What advice would you give to beginning artists reading this spotlight?
My advice to those who start in the art world is that they be sincere with their artistic proposal even if it is different from the criteria of their environment. Follow their impulses and instincts without losing their common sense.
What is the most surprising piece of art you’ve come across recently?
The surprising work that I have been able to interpret recently is the work of the artist Colin Davidson .
Is there a certain artist whose work you find yourself returning to again and again?
William-Adolphe Bouguereau is the artist whose work I find returning to again and again.
Where can we find out more about you? Social media, website?
You can find my web site at: https://facebook.com/SHEILAFRAGAARTTAST
What’s your connection to Florida? What most compels you about America’s Australia?
Why my interest in Florida? — because I am from Cuba and living in Miami is the place that most resembles my native country, where I have my family and the tropical climate that I am accustomed to living.
Tell us a little about your piece in Saw Palm. What inspired it?
The painting titled" Florida "is my interpretation of what it means of my present place where I live and the relation with the past where I lived. Where the cathedral of Havana and the cut-out of a typical Cuban woman with the rollers on her head symbolized my past and the present with the map of Florida.
The other work titled" Tobacco" is a collage of tobacco leaves that are above a nude drawing of a woman who is at the same time a cut-out, creating a three-dimensional effect. Here I combine the techniques of drawing, collage, and cut-out with a more concept toward the subject of tobacco as a Cuban-American symbol.
"Tia in Miami "represents a woman who leaves a few buildings in Miami, as a public intervention between the female nude and the city.
These pieces together represent my current place and circumstances where I live and develop.
What do you hope people come away from your work thinking or feeling?
I intend that people think and reflect when they approach my work on the feelings of nostalgia, distance, love of their cultural roots, and their family.
Describe your artistic process.
My artistic process is my personal trajectory that is represented in the artistic expression. It is the process of thinking and the union between the hand and the spirit embodied in a material support.
What advice would you give to beginning artists reading this spotlight?
My advice to those who start in the art world is that they be sincere with their artistic proposal even if it is different from the criteria of their environment. Follow their impulses and instincts without losing their common sense.
What is the most surprising piece of art you’ve come across recently?
The surprising work that I have been able to interpret recently is the work of the artist Colin Davidson .
Is there a certain artist whose work you find yourself returning to again and again?
William-Adolphe Bouguereau is the artist whose work I find returning to again and again.
Where can we find out more about you? Social media, website?
You can find my web site at: https://facebook.com/SHEILAFRAGAARTTAST
Sheila Fraga is a Cuban-born artist based in Miami. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro in 1999. Her painting and drawing is focused on the female figure and personal life. Fraga’s work can be found in permanent collections at St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral, Italy, The University of Aveiro Portugal, and Sacramento Contemporary Art Gallery. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions and events such as Art Takes Miami and Scope Art. Her artwork illustrated the cover of La Voz magazine in May 2016.
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