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

Alright, Gabriela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I’m sure I started my career at the right time. Despite being over 50 and having never painted before. It is a gift that saved my life. Art is an infinite space where one can submerge and express everything that the soul keeps. Discovering that place is magical, indescribable. It does good for oneself and it does good for those who appreciate it and feel it when they look at a work of art. After a period of great uncertainty in my life, 4 adolescent children, no formal job, no partner, and pre-menopause, I was not having a good time. I felt that I had achieved nothing in this life. I lived with that discomfort for a long time, wondering and blaming myself for not doing things differently, until one day I looked at the sky and asked God for a passion. And that’s how the right doors were opened for this wonderful experience that is painting to begin, never imagined by me. A long time passed and one day I remembered that request that I had forgotten. It was very moving to tears realizing that my request had been heard. My sensation was as if another person had taken over me because a hidden talent arose somewhere inside of me that surprised me day by day what my hands began to do. In addition, people really liked what I did and soon I began to sell my works, and to do exhibitions, they called me to exhibit my art and when I least imagined it, I was immersed in this wonderful world.
I never wanted to copy, I always felt that I wanted to express something without knowing what it was, but it had to be authentic. This is how I discovered that you can paint without thinking and let it flow in the present moment, whatever it has to come out of. That is why my works are unrepeatable, unique, I could never copy any of them, because I let myself be carried away by the present moment and that canvas and that oil that respond to my intuition.
For all this I live eternally grateful to life, art filled my days, I am entirely dedicated to painting. It gave me a purpose, which is to communicate my experience so that it may be of use to others who are going through something similar, and it gave me the chance to leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

MY STORY I started painting in 2012, I was 53 years old, I had never thought about doing something with my hands. At that time in my life, this activity that later became a passion covered a very important space that was empty. I attended various ateliers of local artists but could not find what my soul asked me to express. The copy was not what I was looking for. I soon realized that I had an urgent need to express myself with those brushes without thinking about what I was doing. Soon, I was dialoguing with my paintings and discovering myself. I realized that painting is like living. You feel joy, frustration, fear, pride, disappointment, emotion. You learn what your limits and challenges are and how to overcome them, you learn that something you like a lot must be released for the good of the rest, otherwise you condition yourself and lose spontaneity and freedom.
Painting helped me and taught me to live better. I was able to breathe through there.

Painting empowered me, it gave me tools to value myself, it gave me fullness, security, it gave me the possibility of leaving a legacy for my children and grandchildren. But most importantly it gave me my purpose in life. Transmit to those who are lost, that you never have to give up, to search inside because EVERYTHING is there for us, waiting for us.
Today my heart is full of gratitude.

In my beginnings I painted with acrylic and mixed techniques. Then I discovered oil and it was a one-way trip. I start my works generating a chaos of colors and shapes that my desire, intuition and my eye then order. And in that ordered chaos is that they are born.

I choose at that very moment the colors that I am going to use and I let myself be carried away by the brushes, enjoying every moment like a child, with my empty mind and my present state.

I always say that I paint and then I get inspired, because when I look at the finished work is when I hear its message. The title comes in that message for sure, or sometimes not so easy and I have to wait and keep watching to hear better. It is pure magic. My desire is to reach every soul and every heart, because I think and believe that art is transmitting from heart to heart.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

My point of view on NFTs is that I think it’s broadly positive for artists. It gives us the chance to reach the whole world with our work, not only to make it known but also to sell, all artists want to sell and the NFTs have arrived to make our way easier. It is the future, and what has already been installed, but what will never replace a work painted by the artist. The original work carries with it part of the artist’s energy, part of that moment of life when it was painted, and this is irreplaceable. In any case, they are two totally different things. I had the joy to sell my first NFT in 2022.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Painting left me a very important lesson. I shouldn’t mind the look of others. In my beginnings it was very common for comments about what I was doing to influence me, and so I found myself changing something about my painting that I liked. Little by little I realized that what I was doing was not my essence, I was literally doing what the other person saw and not what I felt. It was very revealing and not easy to carry out, it took time but I was able to achieve it. And this learning is so important because it is applied in life itself. In all things there is nothing more important to one than to be one hundred percent authentic whether the other likes it or not. It feels a great relief to finally be yourself. Having that security that no one can take away from you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gabrielacabezaart.myportfolio.com/gabriela-cabeza-art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabrielacabeza.art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GabrielaCabezaArte
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabrielacabeza
• Other: https://www.voice.com/gabrielacabeza https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1335265 https://opensea.io/gabrielacabeza