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Yemaya
enamel on masonite, 1991
Three paintings from the seven of the Heart Imagining Itself series,enamel on masonite, 1992
(Click on each image to view)
La mano todopoderosa/
The all-powerful hand
enamel on masonite, 1993
Piña, Platano, Papaya
Enamel on masonite, 1993
Babalu Ayé
digital print, 1998
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Esperando a Carmen Luisa
Prismacolor pencil on Canson paper, 1987
Permanent Collection of the Museo de Arte
Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico
Art History
My
history as an artist is an interweaving of commercial and
fine art. Sometimes it is hard to say where one leaves off
and the other begins.
I
was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved with my parents to New
York City when I was almost 8. I began art lessons at the
age of 10, being trained in traditional oil painting and
drawing.
I attended the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse
University on full scholarship, majoring first in painting
and later in printmaking techniques -- especially intaglio.
During my time there I also received a small Ford Foundation
grant for painting.
I lived in Syracuse for 10 years, mostly playing rock-and-roll
and Latin jazz in all-women bands, with brief forays into
the world of art galleries,and therapeutic work with schizophrenic
or developmentally disabled persons. Then I decided to return
full-time to a visual art career. I chose to move to San Juan
to begin doing so seriously in the very vibrant and rich artistic
atmosphere of Puerto Rico's capital.
During
my first year in San Juan I prepared a one-woman show at the
Art Students' League. "Los Colores de Tiempo" (the
colors of time) is a series of pastel studies of the island
in its many moods.
Sunblindness, pastel 1984 from the exhibition Los Colores del tiempo. Collection of Guillermo J. Rámiz.
To support my art habit I sought work in the island's advertising
world, most notably working as art director for Peter Fenn
Advertising, a small but very creative agency with top-notch
clients such as Plaza de las Americas, Absolut Vodka, Alfa
Romeo, Banco Financiero, Isuzu, Saab, Porsche, Caribe Hilton,
and Hotel Condado Beach.
In
the late 1980s I was hired as an illustrator and product designer
for a New York studio backed by Puerto Rican venture capital,
whose mission it was to hire and train some of the island's
abundant artistic talent. In 1991 the studio needed to move
to New York City to be nearer to its client base, and I was
asked to make the move with them.
Throughout
this period of successful commercial work in Puerto Rico,
I continued to have a very active fine art career that fed
off the techniques and visual stimulation provided by the
commercial work that kept food on the table and art materials
in the bins.
I was deeply involved in Mujeres Artistas de Puerto Rico
from almost its beginning, and owe a lot to this group for
artistic stimulation, exposure, and growth, most notably to
close friends such as Nora Rodriguez, Margarita Fernandez
and Maria Antonia Ordoñez, and others met later such
as Rosa Irigoyen and Marimater O'Neill.
Maria
Emilia Somoza, also a member of this group, was particularly
supportive and encouraging offering me many important opportunities,
such as being commissioned to design the original logo of
the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, and the entire
printed program for its inaugural festivities.
But
above all, Dr. Somoza was instrumental in offering the opportunity
of a show at the museum, with the express purpose of exhibiting
the work I had been doing mixing traditional painting techniques
and new technologies. In addition, she asked me to suggest
other artists that in my estimation would be compatible for
such a show notably: Nelson Sambolín and Antonio Martorell.
I was furthered honored by this institution through its acquisition
of "Esperando a Carmen Luisa," a Prismacolor
self-portrait, for the museum's permanent collection.
Shortly after this show came the time to make the final move
to New York City. This move brought new realities that deeply
influenced my fine art. Most significant among these was the
reduction of physical work space (a crowded East Village 5th-floor
walk-up) which resulted in a shift to small-format paintings.
The immense shock of finding myself back in a northern climate
and in one of the culturally densest metropolises of the world
brought about the most profound change in the style of my
work.
These
small paintings quickly became my spiritual and emotional
refuge, and I became throughthem
more an islander and more Latina than I had ever imagined
myself. In other words, I had to dig down to the "exotic"
within myself for refuge. Life is Art, a small East Village
cafe a block from home and run by two Brazilian women, became
the gallery out of which I sold the occasional painting and
met other local artists, and the source of at least one inexpensive
home-cooked meal a day. Gone was the urban veneer of the previous
decade's work, ironically developed on the very "exotic"
island of Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile
my commercial work life had turned dramatic and tumultuous.
I experienced a rollercoaster
of financial high and lows. Ileft the design studio with
which I had originally moved to the city, and experienced
during the 1990s a varied freelance career. For a period of
5 years I managed to create a design studio offering surface
and 3-dimensional product design, including textiles and toys.
It
was during these exciting New York City years that I made
the final decision to become totally digital in terms of my
fine art production. The decision was fueled mainly by the
reduction of physical space,and the need not to be tied to
a specific place to do my art work.
I
had been an early adopter of the MacIntosh computer (in the
early 1980s) as my graphic tool of choice, but it was only
in the late 1990s that I felt that the technology and my access
to it were getting to the point of allowing me to work as
I was accustomed to in my painting and printmaking life. I
had made a brief attempt with heat-transfertechnology through
a color copier onto traditional printmaking paper, which was
graciously accepted by the Bienal del Grabado de San Juan
for exhibition.
I
had also done some photosilkscreening with a colleague, but
both methods had not felt hands-on or finely controllable
enough to satisfy me. For awhile I abandoned the idea of producing
physical prints, and confined all my efforts to perfecting
and developing a virtual portfolio of images and digital techniques
while waiting for the technology to catch up to my needs and
desires.
Self Portrait with Nikon Coolpix, digital photography, 2000
It was only near the year 2000 that both the MacIntosh, Epson
ink-jet printer, and Nikon digital-photography technology
were developed to the point where I could imagine being able
to produce fine-art-edition prints on archival-quality paper
and with archival-quality inks in my own home. By 2003 the
last piece of the puzzle was in place: an affordable archival-quality
printer. Finally I could see a way back to the fine-art world
that suited both my temperament and my needs.
In the year 2004, Dr. Somoza again proved herself an indefatigable source of support by offering me a a one-woman show at the newly reinaugurated Museum of Contemporary Art titled: Toward a Digital Aesthetic: the Art of Yolanda V. Fundora.
Presently I have the good fortune of working at my art full-time out of my own studio at home. I spend my hours happily divided between digital printmaking, illustration, textile and product design.
Perhaps more importantly, I have the love and companionship
of an intensely loving, dynamic, scientifically and artistically
creative life partner.
Yolanda V. Fundora, April 2006
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