We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maria Hoyos Hannigan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Maria, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
As a child my first affinity with art was through the piano. In our home we had an old German, wooden piano with ivory keys (something fortunately unthinkable in these times, poor elephants). I learned to play it by myself – by ear, because as a child I never had the opportunity to go to school and my dream was to be a great soloist. Almost at the same time I started drawing little dolls in a big notebook that my mother bought me. And there I had a collection with all the poses. I especially loved doing the faces. I also really liked to sing. When I was 10 years old, I realized that my path could be art. I was so determined that later I stopped studying high school to dedicate myself full time to the theater. I had a wonderful and intense training, both physical and intellectual. At 17 the world opened up to me like a Pandora’s box, it was a time in which I read a lot, listened to music from all corners of the planet, went to the movies and to the theater as part of mytraining. I designed costumes and scenery at the same time I sang and acted on stage as an actress. Unfortunately, at the age of 18, a terrible accident cut short all my claims to be a true artist and after that I had several years of confinement, I resumed cultural activity later, but I definitely lost my momentum.
Maria, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Well, it’s difficult for me to talk about myself, I can give some general lines… Woman, Venezuelan immigrant and now American citizen, mother, grandmother, wife and daughter, but none of these clues can define me. I think what defines us the most is what we express and how we do it. If there is something that can speak about me, it is my work, there you can see directly inside me, there are my fears, my scars, my greatest fantasies, my vision of beauty and harmony and many other emotions… As I said, I loved to draw and later, when I studied fashion design I focused on theatrical costumes, I learned some techniques that I apply today in my paintings, but I never took painting classes.
Actually, I never thought about developing as a painter until I came to the United States in 2016, but in the 2019 having left behind everything I had done professionally. I began to be interested in, and more than anything the need to channel my melancholy, inspired me to paint directly on a canvas. From there, I began to do it almost as a routine, but with some obstacles, I began to suffer from the retina in both eyes that led to two surgeries that have taken away my time and vision. But thanks to the difficulties of driving and thus normally working outside the home, I dedicated myself to learning through essay and independent study, with the firm idea of finding a way to be productive.
The proposal with which I have been working is a frontal look at nature and all its strength associated with the feminine. The mosaic or squares is a constant element, it tries to play with color and its possibilities but beyond this it also has a meaning for me, it is difficult to express it but I have always felt that there are gates or windows that separate us from other planes for me it is the window that opens when dying. I am not religious, it is a perception that I always had, my other inspiration is color, I love to combine them with each other, sometimes I want to make paintings with neutral colors, I start well… but without realizing it, the strong colors are there again. I started to paint the wooden boxes as a result of the exhibitions at art and artisan fairs, it seemed convenient to bring optional products that were a little cheaper for sale, but I have enjoyed painting them so much that now they are part of my proposal!
Honestly, I don’t paint as part of a plan, it was born alone and gradually became a discipline out of the purest need to express my concerns. I paint from the emotional point of view and I am absolutely happy to do it and leave a mark through these creations, after all, as the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw once said “Without art, the harshness of reality would make the world unbearable”
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
It would be ideal to promote the arts from the primary education system. Children have a natural gift for creativity. I feel that the new technologies of intelligent equipment can to some extent reduce the ability to dream, visualize and to imagine from within oneself. There are many ways to support artists. For example, the initiative of magazines like CanvasRebel, which shares our motivations with the public, and support us in the difficult path of getting our labors of artistic love and our perceptions to your leisure attention. I think that promoting more art fairs and connecting like minded people contributes to making a strong creative community, and the byproduct will be a more profitable – that is our works are valued and bring a fair price.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Actually, there have been quite a few! It is in the educational environment where concepts that must be questioned are most manifested. It is necessary to give free rein to critical thinking. Focusing on myself for a few years now, it has become vital to follow my own ideas. It is precisely, in the midst of crises, that unlearning old patterns has helped me find new positive experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website:
hoyoshannigan.com
www.etsy.com/shop/HoyosHannigan - Instagram: @maria_hoyoshannigan
Image Credits
Maria Hoyos Hannigan