Taking a look through my eyes, wooden pillars are highways of infinite roads. Oceans are blankets over the cold tides of stingrays. there are many vivid, bold, and delightful colors. It's impossible not to be immersed into the depths of our world's colors, but it also comes to the fact that the world finds it impossible to not be immersed into our hearts. I am a strong example of this relationship, because my everyday environment is astonishing to me with its colors of luscious green palms, traditional blue beach, and mystical white fog. I moved to Bluffton, South Carolina when I am only 7 or 8 years-old, terrified to what life would be like without the snowy times and noisy enjoyments of Ohio. Then... I explored to Hilton Head beaches, caught a stingray along Pinckney Island, and boated with my family to Daufuskie Island. Catching the stingray as a kid was both horrifying.... and exhilarating. My heart pumped. The fishing pole almost took me down the depths of dolphin territory; it was awesome! I even got the chance to express my new home's natural beauty by painting not one, not two, but three murals for my community. They sit in my neighborhood as pillars of forest green, wooden brown, ocean blue, and luminous white! Painting with the colors of my home gave me a full appreciation of my environment. My community inspires the heart of my artwork, helping me in every art piece I create through the emphasis of home and color. The artwork below particularly displays my journey into exploring my personal colors, from the rainy nights of Latin culture to the pillars of European heritage, along with the oyster beds of Bluffton South Carolina. The best part about finding inspiration is finding love in my own colors.

As an artist, I find inspiration with every glance. Whether it be from a desert found in an autumn leaf, or from an ocean resting in a rain puddle. With so much to discover, with many possible inspirations I can bring into my art, I am enthusiastic to find my passion in all of those discoveries. This particular artwork came from the core of my cultural identity, taking inspiration from my family and from my spontaneous mind of imagination & creativity. From my family's blended culture of European Heritage and South American Background, I composed this inspired by the art styles of Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo; it's a fantasizing combination of two worlds I am deeply rooted to. As a mixed child of Ecuadorian, Italian, and Chinese background, its difficult for me to identify myself to one culture. But this artwork is my way of displaying the beauty of all of my passion, all of my culture, all of me. I was uninhibited in creating this, spiraling with my markers in hand, releasing my fire unto to paper, and truly, having fun doing it. I sketched the design with vibrant colors of alcohol marker and defined its form with black pen and ink. Blue is represented as my Latin identity and Yellow is represented as my Italian identity. I composed my color of black and white because out of my colorful background, I wanted to display the best part of my masterpiece; my creativity within myself, branching out in vibrance and exploding with detailed chaos. I believe this ties into the MASHUP theme because of its creative blend of very distant worlds that find a connection through me, and through one surface. I AM a creative blend of very distant worlds, finding a connection to them through one medium to many. That's why this art piece is so diverse in chaotic beauty and passion to exploding colors; it is ME. The MASHUP theme's message is that "unexpected blends display genius creativity." These worlds collide unto my paper through the will of my hand and marker. A world of European mass -- medieval castles and the Italian sunflower-- mixed with a world of Latin Flair -- flamenco dances and sapphire crystals -- memorizes the surface with an explosion of color and culture. This is what I recognize as genius creativity. In the not so distant future, I want to pursue this message of mixed cultural art, mashed-up creativity. It's an inspiration I find so much passion in. I thank you for letting me share my process and share my mixed-up culture. I hope to share this chaos very soon.