"Vivas en su Jardín"

"Vivas en su Jardín" by Angely Martinez (me), 2014.

Today is International Women's Day, but March is Women's History Month.  To celebrate this beautiful day and this month, I want to dedicate this post to Las Hermanas Mirabal.  Las Hermanas Mirabal were four sisters that fought and died to liberate Dominican Republic from the tyranny of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. Three of the sisters, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa were killed on November 25th, 1961, but the government tried to deceive it as an accident. The UN declared November 25th as "International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women."   There was only was sister that survived: Dedé.  She lived her whole life to tell the stories of "Las Mariposas" (The Butterflies) and how they fought for the freedom we have today. Las Hemanas Mirabal also Dedé passed away earlier this year. 

I made the piece above "Vivas en su Jardín" ("Alive in their Garden") as a tribute to Las Hermanas Mirabal, which  is named after Dedé's 2009 book of the same title.  The butterflies hanging in the tree branch by each flower represent all four sisters.

Note: When sharing the artwork, please be kind to give credit.

"5 Days of Artistic Works:" A Short Summary

A Visual Summary of the Artwork I created as part of this series.

Last week, I spent 5 Days finally publishing a whole body of artwork that I created this year, specifically during the Fall.  As I mentioned on the post "The Process of Letting go: The "5 Days of Artistic Works by Angely Martinez" Series", this was a creative period about letting go. Creating all these pieces was a liberating process and publishing them on my blog was liberating as well.  As I mentioned in one of the posts, I am still creating and I continue to do so as much as possible.  It is definitely a never ending process. Although only 9 projects were part of this series, I decided that I will continue publishing my artwork in 2014 and in the future on this platform that I have created for myself.

If you missed any post from my series "5 Days of Artistic Works by Angely Martinez," here are the links below.

Day 1: The Explosion of Ideas and Thoughts and A Shoe (Miniature)
Day 2:  A Collage
Day 3:  Bead Work
Day 4:  The Transformation of a Petal
Day 5:  Rojo Como La Rosa

For now, until next year on A+F by AM.

An Art Workshop to Remember Our Love Ones and The Ones We Admire

This is the mini Altar I made! Photo by Mia Roman.

© 2013. Angely Martinez. All Rights Reserved.

This year's life and career explorations have allowed me to do things that I never thought I would do. However, I miss doing visually artistic work.  So the minute I heard about the Adult Mini Altar Workshop with Mia Roman, which took place on November 2nd, 2013, I could not wait to go and see what I would end up creating.

The Workshop was part of  the "Día de Los Muertos: El Barrio" presented by Viajero Borish at the Julia De Burgos Cultural Center.  This art installation's mission is to bring the community together to honor the love ones that are no longer in this world by adding objects to the altar.  This is the third workshop I attended with Mia Roman,  who is a fantastic artist, Frida Kahlo fan, and very proud of her Latin American roots.

When I first got to the workshop, which ironically was at the same building I went to high school years ago, I did not know exactly how I would decorate my box. I started with glittering a white plastic flower, then drawing wavy lines, and then adding more things.  It was a colorful journey of transforming a plain white box into a fun, complicated, and overly crazy piece that I never thought I would do.

At some point, it was as if all my creative thoughts exploded in the class.  At some point, I could not stop adding more and more objects, and transforming those small objects into something else.  I added more and more until I could not add anymore. Everything combined, turned the small white box into a beautiful altar. 

Everyone created beautiful boxes, some of them of their grandmothers and others of family members.  It was a collective environment in which everyone brought their own identity into what they did.  I had never done an art class about El Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Once again, I stepped out of my comfort zone.

To find out more information about Art by Mia Roman, you can check her website, and to purchase her work, you can check her Etsy Shop.

To find out more information on "Día De Los Muertos: El Barrio," check out Dia De Los Muertos Collective. This art installation/ exhibition will be opened until November 15th at the Julia De Burgos Cultural Center, 1680 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.

Check out more photos below of the workshop! You can also check my Pinterest Board as well. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Until Next Time. A+F by AM.

All photos by Mia Roman