SHOUTOUT LA INTERVIEW (2021)
Hi Felicidad, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Ever since I was very young I’ve been looking for autonomy. I’ve always disliked being told what to do and how to do it, even at school. Plus, I was influenced by watching my mum who has always been her own boss.
As an adult, I knew that starting my own business/es could be risky. But deciding what I work on and how I work, is important to me.
Alright, so let’s move on to what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve always been interested in photography and creativity, but I started to shoot more when I moved from Madrid to California in 2009. The cultural and lifestyle change inspired me a lot and I used photography as a story-telling tool for my day-to-day and my travels.
As I got more comfortable behind the lens, I began to shoot portraits, essays, and editorials, which eventually led to working with magazines, campaign shoots, model agencies, and private commissions. I began traveling for work to places like Paris, NY, Italy, and more.
I was going to take all opportunities that life sent me to keep growing as a person and as an artist. I learned so much about myself.
Over the years, I’ve grown more and more interested in the elements of Nature, mundane objects and installation in my photos because it helps me communicate the message better. I like a sense of surrealness. And I like the many possibilities that come from juxtaposing elements.
Continue reading the interview HERE.
SAATCHI ART - WOMEN IN ART SPECIAL FEATURE
6 Saatchi Art artists reflect on how their art is an expression of their personal voice.
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote.
But while women have attained a more equal voice in American democracy, they still don’t have parity when it comes to the arts; only 14% of living artists represented by galleries in Europe and North America are women.
Like the vote, we see art as a powerful means of expressing one’s voice and vision. In recognition of this landmark centennial, Saatchi Art is celebrating 100 of our most talented women artists.
100 VOICES, 100 ARTISTS - March 2020 Special Edition Printed Catalog
LADYGUNN / MEDIUM (2020)
“The Next Frontier For Women: The Art World”
Written by Rebecca Wilson - Chief Curator and VP, Art Advisory at Saatchi Art. Formerly a Director at the Saatchi Gallery, London and art magazine publisher.
Just like the media, entertainment, political, and technology industries, the art world of 2020 is undergoing a massive transformation as it strives to be a more welcoming, inclusive place for people who have traditionally been excluded from it. Women have benefitted from this evolution, earning greater recognition for their artistic contributions and more respect from audiences and curators alike. Despite the positive momentum, however, the gap between the vision and the reality remains significant. [FULL ARTICLE: LADYGUNN, MEDIUM]
“We are making progress towards creating an art world that is a more welcoming, transparent, and inclusive place. Though that progress may seem slow at times, new avenues of access like online galleries and artist-led fairs provide much-needed boosts for the underrepresented. Achieving gender parity among artists and equal visibility for underrepresented groups, including artists of color and those from non-traditional markets, will ensure a more equitable and exciting art world for all.” — Rebecca Wilson
ARTISTS TO WATCH IN 2020
VOYAGE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW (2020)
Felicidad, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I spent most of my childhood in Madrid, Spain. Growing up, both my parents were film directors and loved visual arts, literature, and music, which influenced my passion for all kinds of art. They were also bohemians, travelers, and from different countries, and I became familiar with the road and curious about exploring other cultures very early on.
My mum gave me my first camera, her old Polaroid when I was 6 or 7 years old, and it quickly became my favorite toy. I would pretend to shoot even when I had no film to load, which was most of the time, of course.
But it wasn’t until I was preparing to enroll in a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Madrid, at age 18, that I realized how much interest I had in photography. As I was drawing live models, I couldn’t stop imagining that I was photographing them instead. Suddenly, my sketchbooks felt limiting. I decided to keep my drawing and painting as a hobby and enroll in the closest thing I found to a photography school; an Advertising and Communications bachelor’s degree in Madrid.
Madrid is a big city with busy streets, far from the ocean. It is fun, and even though I love it there and it has one of the best cultural offers on the planet, I never stopped yearning for a life closer to nature; My mum is Cuban, and I always felt most inspired whenever we spent time in the island.
Continue reading the interview HERE
WHAT ARTISTS ARE LISTENING TO (PODCAST EPISODE)
Listen to the podcast Episode HERE.
COLLECTEURS INTERVIEW (2019)
Your work interrogates what human beings feel in the face of a changing environment, and you are answering this question with your conceptual photo-project. Can we say that your motivation is to capture the moment and feeling which are also imminently changing in sync with the environment?
Absolutely. I am interested in the concept of Eco-psychology, which defines people's relationship with the Earth as crucial to our physical and emotional well-being. The Earth and humanity are entwined; as the planet suffers, so does the human collective. The disruption in this relationship can cause many negative emotions. With "How Soon Is Now," I aim to illustrate part that disruption and to possibly start a meaningful conversation.
How does Anthropocene as discursive and conceptual ground feed your work as contemporary artist? How visible the relationship between earth, humans, other living and non-living existences in your work? How they are coming together?
The concept of Anthropocene is very significant to me and greatly influences my work. It's the base for my interest in psychology and environmental activism. I'm intrigued by the mental processes that bond us with or separate us from nature and how it relates to a particular moment in time. These sentiments naturally transfer to my lifestyle and my work. This photo project is an interpretation of these mental bonds and alienations.
The reason I chose plastic as a link between our natural habitat and our emotions, is to help to identify the collective paradox of the emotional suffocation that plastic waste creates, yet being massively dependent on it as a society.
Continue reading the interview HERE