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Loretta Medellin
I grew up in San Antonio during a time of expansion for the city. We take pride in the fact that although we are a geographically large city, we like to think of ourselves as a small town. We are still geographically segregated but like to think of ourselves as a more liberal city in a conservative state. Like our city, our artists are all over the place. We have Latinx art but also bluebonnets. Our city is rich with layers of traditions that recall our German settlers but also our Mexican roots. I am a product of a generation that dealt with civil rights issues and working women reaching for the glass ceiling. I was the first of my family to graduate from college, earning a B.A. and M.A. from Trinity University. As the product of a single parent household, there was no way I would pursue a profession in the arts. As a child, I was always interested in the visual arts but knew that this was not something you could make a living at so I chose a path that would eventually lead to me becoming a lawyer. Life pulled me in a different direction. Soon after my graduation I met my husband and moved to Ohio to begin my career as a civil servant. Within the next couple of years, I became married, earned a B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and gave birth to my first son. We moved to California, and I gave birth to my second son, who today has a degree from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and is a sculptor working in museum administration. My father-in-law was an abs ... view more »
MORE ABOUT THIS ARTIST
Artist Style: Teaching Artist/Instructor: Group Instruction, Guest Speaker, Instruction for Adults, Instruction for Children, Instruction for Seniors, Workshop Presenter; Visual Art: Abstract, Collage, Contemporary, Dream Imagery/Ethereal, Focus on Color/Light/Movement, Impressionistic, Landscape/Cityscape
Artist Medium: Acrylic; Collage; Colored Pencil; Drawing Media; Oil; Watercolor
Artist Statement of Work
Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):
My work is very much about layering. Layering colors, layering actual torn pieces of prior watercolors and magazine clippings, or layering media to create a visual texture. Though my imagery generally includes landscapes and/or environments, my landscapes are always inventions from my imagination and not from observation. My artwork usually includes trees with limbs stretching out as if to each other or maybe included roots that might suggest the tree is walking through the picture plain. I usually have coiling or spiraling lengths that recall snakes or vines. I draw open window structures that recall high rise buildings and often have ovals that remind one of smooth stones in a riverbed. When a person comes to my work, I would like them to imagine that they are like Alice taking a bite of the proverbial cookie that shrinks her down in size so that they might enter the landscapes of my invention maybe sliding down the coil like vines or swinging from the limbs of my trees to land in the smooth and colorful ovals of my landscape grounds.
