Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carolina Amarillo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Carolina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Thinking about a “regular job” is like thinking about another life, as another version of myself. For example, I started my undergrad in Visual Arts from 18 until I was 24; then, from my 24rs until 26s (which is the present), I did a Master in Fine Arts, which I recently graduated. And every day for the last seven years, I have been thinking, “what keeps me here?” Because I have doubted so much about myself that I honestly think this question comes from insecurity. And I would ask it myself out of insecurity, anxiety, and comparison with others.

After my graduation, I was offered a part-time position as an administrative assistant in an office that I took. I took it because I respect that institution and the money. I have student loans. And remember crying myself to sleep on the first day of my job because I said: “This is it… Seven years of Art School for ending up in an office.” And I talked with one friend, and he said: “Why is this bad?”

He helped me understand that we can live many lives in this life. But, that is okay because we are not linear. It has been seven years since I started art school; therefore, I have been an artist for the last seven years. However, I have lived many different lives; and many different versions of myself have gotten me here.

What keeps me here is that even after those years, and after all those lives, I am still considering myself an artist, and my mindset is still the one of an artist. And every single one of those lives has enriched my Artistic Life. And because without my artistic life, the rest of my lives would go outbalanced. Not only because it nourishes itself from the others, but also because it is the main one.

I am an artist before being whatever else. But despite being an artist, I am also whatever.

Carolina, 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?

My name is Carolina Amarillo, and yes, my last name means yellow in Spanish. I am a Visual Artist from Bogota, Colombia.

I received my Bachelor in Fine Arts in Colombia, and I moved to New York City to get a Master’s in Fine Arts.

My artist statement is:

“We are born dying, yet I don’t want to die. For that reason, I balance my fear of death with its counterpart, love.

I have witnessed loved ones die. It terrifies me. Death wilts the essence of a person until they are no longer here. However, other than their silence, what presence inhabits the room once occupied by those departed?

My current body of work uses absence as the entry point. My family members and I built memories in these rooms. Our home always had flowers, these spaces too. I remember watching them fade like a mirror of our time together. The light source in my oil paintings comes from the Barrigón tree of my home country, Colombia. I paint its interior as an open human heart. It is the palpitating essence of those who were dear to me. It is an embrace that lingers as we dissolve into oblivion.”

I perceive my paintings as a negotiation process.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

To make people feel something with my paintings. The reaction toward a painting is essential.

One day, a professor said in class: “The worst thing you can do to an artist is to ignore them” And I agree; at the end of the day, an Artistic Life is a life of expression and not listening to whoever is trying to say something is the cruelest act.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

As an immigrant, at the beginning of my journey in New York, I thought I could negate my Latinx background, and Colombian culture is already very rich, especially in its literature. And I never felt more at home than when I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Mario Mendoza, and our Spanish literature made more sense in my mind than English literature.

Therefore, the books I always try to return to are the ones that make me feel at home because they generate an atmosphere that I know: Cien años de Soledad – GGM. Akelarre – MM.

Also, there is this book, which I think is just gold! It is like a dictionary of Bogotan slag and sayings; It is called: Bogotálogo because it gives me back the language I no longer use since I moved to New York.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @amarillo_carolina
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carito.amarillo

Image Credits
All these pieces are my body of work, all rights reserved: Carolina Amarillo