Photo by Pia Wyer
Creativity has flowed through Emelina’s veins for as long as she can remember. Born Emelina M. Figueroa Symonds in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, she recalled being hospitalized when she was 6-years-old.
“When I was in the hospital and they removed my tonsils, I asked my dad for a pad and my drawing pencils—not a TV,” she said. “I was born to be an artist; to be creative. Art was not a decision for me, but a calling.”
Emelina’s artistic style is “urbanic (short for urban-organic) mixed-media.” She creates contemporary and abstract paintings. “The two styles are like two sides of me,” Emelina said. “The structured paintings are more like an inside force…I am bringing them out of me. The abstracts are like an outside force…I am submerged in the textures and colors.”
In both styles, Emelina uses acrylic and water-based art materials, along with organic elements such as coffee, sand, grains, wood, marble powder, seeds, fibers and other natural and recycled items.
“I am into self-development, psychology and suggestion,” she said. “I like working with the urbanic technique and process because I am able—through my art—to talk about my spiritual and emotional development. It becomes a symbol, a representation that you can hang on your wall and remind you of the goal you are seeking.” For example, her painting “Jazz It Up” features three instruments—a guitar, saxophone and piano.
“These three instruments work in harmony and are really representational of our mind, body and soul,” Emelina said. “The instruments represent us working in harmony and balance with ourselves.”
Urbanic mixed media
Emelina said that when she begins a contemporary painting, her goal is to capture emotions and moments.
“I feel influenced by a lot of the healing techniques that come from ancient wisdom,” Emelina said. “I think that the root of all this is the feeling of that ancient knowledge that we carry within ourselves and that is being passed on. It’s about respecting and celebrating our elders because they carry that information. We learn from the old to create something new.”
Emelina mentally categorizes her contemporary paintings into subject areas. She equates her “woven” works to frequencies.
“They represent the frequencies that happen in the air,” she said. “So much movement and so much is happening that we cannot see. The frequencies are circular.” In this subject area, she has “The Frequency of Sunset,” “The Frequency of a Hug,” “The Frequency of Restoration,” and “The Frequency of Glory,” among others.
“You see the aesthetic, visual geometric patterns in my work,” Emelina said. “Just like engineers or scientists, who take things apart and rebuild them with the intention to make it better, I have to figure out how to do that with my art and myself.”
Emelina said learning to work with organic textures is really a science because the finished artwork has to be archival.
“When it comes to a piece of fine art, you have to make sure it’s going to stay and not deteriorate,” she said. “It’s like a combination of technology and nature at the same time.”
Abstracts
While her contemporary paintings tend to incorporate circular motion, Emelina’s abstracts are linear. She begins an abstract painting with a feeling.
“I want to create something, say, to remind me of courage,” she said. “I want the courage to come out of that painting. I let my soul and subconscious work on it.”
Emelina said she lets the colors and the textures speak to her.
“I use water and let the paint and the media (sand, tissue, marble powder, etc.) react with each other,” she said. “They end up creating new things. It becomes layers and layers and is almost like a conversation. I tell it to do something and the painting responds and the materials react. And then I go back and it talks to me again and this continues until we are both comfortable with what we have going on.”
Many of her abstract paintings are waves. She has the “Wave of Breaking Through,” “The Wave of Courage,” and the “Wave of Wisdom.”
“They capture that wave division that goes through us,” she said.
One abstract, “Stopping Time,” is about freezing time. The droplets that penetrate the painting end with glass beads at the bottom of the teardrop.
“This is water that is falling and is freezing,” Emelina said. “The glass beads make the water look frozen. It represents the idea that we need to stop time and contemplate where we are. We need to slow time down.”
Influences
Emelina said she is very in tune with her emotions and her artwork is all about trying to find a way to harmonize the two sides of herself—the analytical thinking side and the emotional receptive side.
“It’s about my quest to harmonize,” she said. “It’s not about balance. Balance doesn’t move. It’s about harmony. Recognizing both sides and making them work together…having a wonderful relationship with both sides.”
Emelina grew up in Mexico surrounded by the vibrant colors and traditions of her culture. She drew and painted ever since she can remember and has always been interested in experimenting with textures in her work. She recalled using sand and tissue in her art projects back in middle school.
“It is something that I was attracted to do,” she said, adding that no one taught or influenced her to incorporate natural materials into her paintings.
When she began her formal education as an artist, she studied traditional European oil techniques.
“I was really limited,” she said. “I felt trapped.”
So, she resumed her exploring and experimenting. “I remember mixing oil paints with flax seeds and all kinds of different textures,” she said. “I painted on top of plaster and created three-dimensional pieces.”
Her art instructors encouraged her. “I have really been blessed in that most of my teachers have been supportive and encouraging,” she said.
Emelina made the switch from oils to acrylics when she learned, while in college, about the toxicity of oils when not used with proper ventilation.
“I have always been very health conscious, so switching to acrylics was something that was very easy for me to adopt. These values are just so a part of me.”
As a bonus, she discovered that acrylic paints created many new textures and materials with which she could work.
Emelina said her paintings bring her peace, serenity, happiness, celebration, strength and courage.
“When it is hanging in someone’s house, I know that it’s going to be a feeling that we want to last forever,” she said. “It’s like a reminder. Creativity begins with art and it extends to our everyday life. Experience it. It’s about choosing to create our lives.”
With Love,
EMELINA
