Today we’d like to introduce you to Marianela de la Hoz.
Marianela , can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Marianela de la Hoz; I was born and raised in Mexico City. Ever since I can recall, I have always loved to draw and paint. With clarity, I can imagine myself as a little girl of maybe three years of age, depicting the themes I had just read about with my Grandfather. With a pencil in one hand and a piece of cardboard in the other. I drew everything in order to explain the world to myself, and that has been a constant in my life ever since. Painting is my mother’s tongue
Since I was a small child, I loved to draw what people considered “strong “themes. I remember that while my peers at school were drawing cute flowers and writing papers about spring, I was already drawing a femme fatale, witches, vampires and two-headed boys. I used to read a lot of stories with my grandfather: the tales of Hoffman, Andersen, Perrault and Grim, along with Colonial Mexican legends. There were many sad endings, cruel characters and conclusions, I illustrated those tales and gave each a descriptive phrase; making them my own. I still do the same; everything that I read, hear, dream or imagine can be worth painting.
When I started my “Official” career as a visual artist, 25 years ago, and I say “official” because that is when Marianela de la Hoz convinced herself that she could, in fact, devote her life to painting. I began this adventure I guess like everyone else; trying to find a place, a door, a style, and language of my own. When I started my career as a painter I experimented with the techniques I had learned at my Graphic Design studies. I began my practice by using oil colors, acrylics and watercolors. A peer of mine suggested – based on my inclination for the obsessive details and brush strokes in my work- to try egg tempera, a perfect media that could help me achieve those characteristics; for that reason he recommend me to read and study “Il Libro dell’arte” by Cennino Cenninni, a 15th century Italian painter. In this amazing book, I found step by step the detailed instructions for painting using egg tempera, as well as information about pigments, brushes, panel preparation and much more.
The 15th-century author became my best teacher; egg tempera has been my preferred technique for the last 20 years.
I prepare my own colors and the idea of using something as perfect as an egg yolk gives me the illusion I am using a mixture of genetic matter that will add life to my paintings. It becomes magic when an egg yolk, pigments of all colors and water can produce a painting Egg tempera is not a very popular media nowadays as it takes time to prepare the paintings and requires precision and dedication; it is not suitable for immediate results. Painting with egg tempera becomes a challenge every time you use it, it is a painstaking process and almost impossible to erase a mistake, you have to add egg tempera paint layer by layer, as it is a transparent media, it is almost as if you were “weaving” a painting, until you know you have reached the result you were looking for; a velvety rich colored surface For me using this ancient technique allows me to conjugate the teachings of the past masters adding contemporary themes.
As egg tempera requires being patient and adding layers and layers of paint, it gives me the opportunity to indulge myself in having a conversation with the characters I am creating and in deep thoughts about what they are saying. Just like egg tempera has to be applied in several thin layers of paint to achieve the final result, in my paintings, I add many layers of content and significance. In my creative process, I immediately recognize the subject matter that attracts my imagination, It can come from any place, a book, an image, a dream, a person, an animal, a piece of music…. I usually begin to draw images and write thoughts about that theme, images and words are always interconnected in my work. When I feel it is time and the ideas are hatching, then I take my time to reflect on them, to read, to investigate, to make a self-analysis of my own experience about the things I want to say through painting. Reflecting in a deep manner enriches both my knowledge and creativity.
The main goal of my work is to reach people’s consciousness by provoking in those viewers a critical thinking process. I don’t pretend to tell the whole story in each painting; I want the viewer to participate in it, to identify himself or herself with life and the characteristics of being human. I search for reactions; I dig for feelings, hopes, anxieties and secrets, provoking the viewers as a total being- neither pure sensibility nor pure reason. My paintings are intimate like those lockets in which they used to keep the portrait of the loved one, a lock of hair, a love letter; the elements that appear in my work are searching to dialogue with the symbols of our collective unconscious The intention of my work is to make the observer come closer to discover the fine details and once he or she is near he or she will remain captive, lighting the mechanisms of their consciousness, giving him or her opportunity to fix their eyes on those details we often leave unnoticed.
The contents, the formats, the technique, the texts (written thoughts), all conform to a different work of art and invite the observer to approach, to get closer and closer, thinking perhaps that by being small, the paintings are harmless; and once he or she is close enough, he or she will be trapped in the spider web. Size is not what really matters in a work of art, what really matters is the scale of the impact or the impression left on the observers. I express violence through fantasy, black humor and sarcasm. I call it “White Violence”, i.e. small format paintings depicting characters nicely groomed, with combed hair and perfect teeth, with only a small drop of blood when necessary, all representing extreme situations. I call them tragicomic paintings in which I search for the blood ligatures among human beings, for their same weaknesses, addictions and worries.
The duality in my painting is always present, the eternal combination of good and bad in each and every one, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde within ourselves. I am always searching for that bond located inside us, in our blood and in our consciousness Even though you will find many references about the Mexican heritage in my work, the real essence of the themes I depict are inherent to human nature, they become universal. The content of my work is based on reality and the paintings confront today’s troubled and incredible times. These Complicated Times. I talk about politics, violence, racism, injustice, corruption life and death, virtue and vice, love and hate, religion, discrimination, solitude, identity, sexuality.
Has it been a smooth road?
I had always wanted to be an artist but after finishing High school, I surrendered to external pressures and chose instead to be a Graphic Designer, a fine job which made good money. I devoted my time to the book design industry and I did many illustrations. And yet, I was not happy, something was missing.
When my second child was born and I had to stay at home to take care of him, something inside told me that it was the right time to pursue my dream, I hid myself to work on my first painting; I worked when nobody was looking, keeping the painting beneath my bed. It took a year to finish my first painting. I had decided that if this experiment did not satisfy my exigent opinion I would have to return to the anonymity of my work as a graphic designer.
I am a shy and introverted person and even with the closest members of my family, it used to be difficult to say many things that worried or annoyed me. My first painting was based on a Colonial legend. Titled La Leyenda de Don Juan Manuel, it talks about jealousy, losing one’s soul to the devil and about redemption In my painting, I talked about the legend as I interpreted it, but at the same time, I was telling members of my family my opinions and feelings about family politics. I used the faces of some of my family members as models for the characters depicted.
Maybe none of the family members in question understood the discourse, but I learned that being an artist was a cathartic experience that would allow me, from that day on, to say with images and symbols everything I wanted and needed to say, changing the way I communicated with the external world and with my own soul. Finally, when the paint was finished, I realized that my life had been changed forever and from that day on I have never left the brushes and colors, feeling the passion and commitment to my life companion: art… Many years of therapy helped me take the step and decide to be what I always wanted to be a visual artist
My family and I came to the United States 15 years ago beginning an adventure that has not end yet. It was very difficult for me at the beginning to cope with the unknown, everything seemed to be scary and different, the language, the culture, the food. I felt lonely and desperate. I had to begin from zero. Little by little I met people, wonderful human beings, and little by little I and my paintings felt that home is here in San Diego.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
San Diego is a beautiful city, everything here will be wonderful or not depending on your personal view, your story, your experiences and of course in your will to make it the place you want to call home.
Contact Info:
- Website: marianeladelahoz.com
- Email: marianeladelahoz@gmail.com
- Instagram: marianeladelahoz
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