artists

VIVA PAREDES
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Ever since I can remember, I was told not to be what I am, Chicana. Discouraged from speaking my mother tongue and encouraged to pass, by the age of six I stopped speaking altogether. Language has always been central to my artistic and life observations. It wasn't until I was in my 40s that I discovered that I was dyslexic. With this new understanding it became clear to me why my disenfranchisement with written language was so profound. I returned to school and formally began to study art. I found my voice in organic materials and the creation of three dimensional forms. "The silence in art allows me to think; it's a place where objects become words and process becomes the dialogue." I live in a state of Nepantla, the world in-between. Between memory and longing, and that is where my art resides.

-Viviana “Viva” Paredes, 2005

Reviews/Essays/Articles
Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez, Beyond Form and Beauty, the art of Viva Paredes