One of the up and coming artists in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex is Oak Cliff artist Patricia Rodriguez. I had a chance to ask her a few questions and see what makes her tick.
By Miguel Aguilar
1. What made you want to become an artist? I knew from a young age that I liked drawing, creating and working with my hands. I also wanted to dabble in music so both visual art and music have gotten their turn having a spotlight in my life.
2. Is there anyone in your family that helped you in your interest in art? Both my parents fully supported and appreciated my talents and nurtured my leanings towards the arts. Either by funding my flute classes, buying me art supplies and taking me to auditions- they never dissuaded my dreams. My older sister was also an artist so she was my first role model.
3. Who are your favorite artists that have influenced your work? This changes with the years but at the moment Matthew Ritchie, Murakami, Martin Sharp, Frida Kahlo, Andrew Goldsworthy and a lot of anonymous graffiti and street artists.
4. Is there any art movement you feel associated with or kind of art? I’m really pulled to contemporary art and also the art of Nature, especially if done in a non traditional way. I’m very much inspired by graffiti and street art and use certain elements of those kinds of art in my work but in a more refined way and aesthetic.
5. Do you think being a Latina/Mexican-American has had any effect on the way you make your art? I think it does in the sense that I am here to break stereo types of what Latina/Mexican-American art is going to look like. After my formative art years painting towards the stereotype themes. i.e. “la virgin”, Frida style self portraiture, etc. I really strive to have my own unique voice and style in the Latina platform. I very much love Mexican art and the bright vivid colors I use are a subconscious homage to that I’m sure.
6. From looking at your work it seems you are very interested in nature, both animals and flora.What has drawn you to this subject matter? I have always felt a connection to Nature and being outside in it. I feel small in a big world and that is a very inspiring and freeing feeling. I feel like everything is so mysterious and yet we are all connected in so many ways. The colors, the shapes, the light and strange formations of things really move me to capture some of those things on canvas. I feel like Nature is very therapeutic to be out in and I want people to feel that in my work as well. Like they received some form of therapy from seeing it.
7. Where would you like to see your work progress in the future? I would like to just keep getting better, build up a body of work and hopefully do some more shows when things clear up. I was able to show my work in New York and California as well as here in Dallas and just want to keep getting my work out there in front of more people. Personally, just being able to keep getting better with each new piece is my main goal.
"I feel like Nature is very therapeutic to be out in and I want people to feel that in my work as well. Like they received some form of therapy from seeing it."
Mission accomplished! I don’t see how she could get any better. Truly. My new favorite artist.