Susana Castillo "Bolivia"
March 2 - April 2, 2004
Reception: March 5, 2004, 6-8 pm
A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Art and Interior Design, Susana Castillo specialized in the genre of portraiture under the tutelage of Eduardo Peña at the Artium Art Academy in Madrid, and subsequently under pastel portraitist Harley Brown at the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Arizona. Her bilingual exhibition at La Peña during March will highlight Bolivian people, historical and tourist places, native costumes and folklore.
In regards to portraiture and sculpture, the artist states: “With the intent of achieving a realistic, humanistic portrait, it is necessary to know and conquer the technique that will grant the liberty to create. Portraiture requires academic training; tidiness, true likeness, correction, and above all, the final result must be a work of art. I respect the clothing designs and all the details in their outfits like I do the surroundings of the characters I portray and sculpt”.
“It is more important to think than to know, but even
more important is to see”.
-Miguel de Montaigne
The collection consists also of more than 40 photographs from different latitudes of the Bolivian territory. Among the photographs, there are three that show a very uncommon geological site showing over five thousand dinosaur footprints that date back 68 million years in the Cretaceous era. In regards to this artistic genre, Susana comments: “History is generally accompanied by visual images that are an undeniable reflection of the day’s reality, of the moment, the place the time, and the facts. It is not necessary to possess a vast array of photographic equipment, but instead have a well-trained eye and favorable conditions. I choose to shoot artistic photographs under the sunlight.”
“We photographers are an assortment of historians.”
-S. Castillo
Since 1996, Susana gave herself the opportunity to expand and investigate diverse forms of artistic expressions, to explore her work on different media such as tin, wood, glass, ceramic and also by combining techniques. When it comes to art on embossed tin, Susana works on a flat tin-plate, completely flat but malleable, to which she gradually applies frontal pressure and then outlines from behind, thus creating the various designs.
“
Life is brief, art is long” “Ars longa, vita brevis”
-Hipocrates
About ceramic work, the artist states: “The medium, be it wood, paper, canvas, white or red clay, is not really that important. What in fact really matters is to live to paint and to paint to live.
“
It is fascinating to find the form that develops while one lives”.
Goethe
To compliment the Bolivian environment of the exhibit, Bolivian
piano player Gilka Cespedes and her Piano Andino will be performing during
the
reception
on Friday, March 5th. Also, Susana will be working on commissioned portraits
during the month of March.