F. Michelle Santos

 

 

 

 

 

  

My artistic goals encompass the continuing process and exploration of my creative self in whatever forms it manifests, whether it is through materials, expression, subject matter or form. The forms are many whether it is through visual art, working large in murals to small for children’s books, teaching or learning; perhaps it is in writing or spoken word, or even physical movement through martial arts or yoga. Clarissa Pinkola Estes wrote in her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, “A woman’s creative ability is her most valuable asset, for it gives outwardly and it feeds her inwardly at every level: psychic, spiritual, mental, emotive, and economic.” I feel that is an ongoing truth in my artistic journey.

My recent body of work exemplifies this evolution and my search for the Divine in my Self, as Creator and Created, as Human, as Woman, as a Woman of Color, as Mother, as Child, as Spiritual Being. For this particular body of work, I worked in acrylic medium on large canvases, with myself as the model.

In my creative process of reclaiming and reconnecting to the diverse energies and rhythms present deep within our unconscious selves, female imagery of different cultures throughout human history serve as a source of inspiration and exploration. The goddess symbology reflects phases or levels of enlightenment, darkness, evolution and discovery. The figures echo the natural life and death cycles constantly working in our lives, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and creatively.

The physical manifestation of my art has evolved from sculptures and assemblages, to drawings and paintings. Currently, using my own form as figure, my work explores the Divine in the Self and the body as sacred, boundless, cyclic and connected. Body, housing mind and spirit, encompasses fertility, strength, power, healing, wisdom, beauty, freedom and transformation.