Gabriela shared with Mélange...
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Most people say that Saint Barth has a reputation for luxury tourism. However, there is another Saint Barth. It is a more authentic, sincere, earthy and natural. It is the Saint Barth of its native people and its exuberant nature.
- Gabriela
About her art beginnings I was very lucky to grow up in a family that was always interested in the arts and was a source of constant stimulation. José Cuneo, one of the few world renowned Uruguayan painters, was my adopted grandfather. He gave me support and guidance. He taught me how to paint while I watched in awe and dreamt about owning his box of 80 Van Gogh pastels.
José transmitted to me his love of painting and his curiosity while developing new techniques mixing different materials. I studied in private art schools and I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the school of Master painter Nelson Ramos. I graduated as a Doctor in Dental Surgery the same year that marked the end of a military dictatorship in our country. The Scholl of Fine Arts was finally able to reopen and I enrolled.
My life was divided between art and healing. I became interested in alternative therapies, at a time when only a very few people were interested. I became a yoga professor, and studied Traditional Chinese Medicine. I discovered the potential power of colors in healing. It was then that I realized that Art had a mission for me; that our planet needed a real change; a change beginning with a little act performed by each and every one of us every day.
It was then that I started to paint while being connected to the best of myself and the Universe. My creations are aimed to awaken consciousness, emotions, happiness, positivity, peace and love. Art teaches us to see the world excluding all that is superfluous, simply leaving just the essential. People are able to heal their damaged emotions through color. We unconsciously choose the colors that we need to heal. It is an expression that allows us to discover infinite universes and to write wonderful stories. It is a universal form of expression.
About her compositions I create my compositions beginning with colors and shapes. I like to work with acrylic, collages, drawing with paper and ink, and I do some digital paintings and“ digitalize” some of my work.
Inspiration comes by itself when one is connected with self and the universe. I have to make a conscious effort to keep going in one direction in order to finish one series. I would need several lives to be able to portray everything that comes to my mind in the form of artistic images.
Living in Saint Bart, surrounded by so much natural beauty, makes it easier. I get inspiration from the pigments of nature, the shapes and the light.
I enjoy photography using a macro-objective lens to discover the minuscule shapes that would elude the attention of a simple look. I often incorporate these shapes into my compositions.
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