Featured Artist Cecilia Calderon

Artist Cecilia Calderon works with various mediums and copper to create beautiful patinas in her mixed media tapestries. Visit her website to see more of her work.

 

 

I have always been fascinated by color. The best gift I received in my life was a big box of Crayola Crayons brought to me by an aunt from the United States when I was about seven years old. I couldn’t believe so many colors existed. I almost wanted to eat them.

 

 

Since then, I became obsessed by color and started really paying attention to my surroundings. I was born and raised in Mexico, and coming from a culture with so much color, I started trying different mediums to satisfy my creative hunger.

 

 

I discovered stained glass and loved the variety of color and textures of the art glass and how I could “paint with light.”

 

 

After many years of working with glass a new obsession was born—texture. I found myself adding all kinds of different materials to my pieces to make them feel more organic. In my search, I eventually discovered copper.

 

 

I was very attracted to the whole process of working with copper. I shape it and use different substances to create incredible patinas. Nature, temperature, and humidity play a big part in its outcome.

 

 

After being an artist for most of my life, I have accepted the fact that my journey is to keep experimenting and trusting that by introducing new mediums into my pieces they become more interesting.

 

 

This also better reflects my voice as I keep evolving as a person and discovering new aspects of myself.

 

 

My latest creations are tapestries made of a combination of fabric, rope, oil paint, copper, gemstones, beads and other natural materials. They have an ancient quality, abstract, but at the same time represent animals which reflects my concern and love of nature and our deepest roots.

 

 

On my quest to add more and more texture, I feel my own yearning to understand and work with the infinite complexities of nature and my own psyche.

 

 

It is exciting to start a new piece with a basic idea and then just watch as it develops and takes a life of its own. I work on it and trust that if I just let it flow, in the end it will be better than what I had imagined.

 

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