We were lucky to catch up with Osmeli Delgado recently and have shared our conversation below.
Osmeli , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I was born in Venezuela and at the age of 5 I used to spend the day with my mother in her art gallery, surrounded by artists and where my toys were canvases and brushes. This was a blessing for my mother because as a a little girl, I was restless and very curious. It was difficult for me to stay put and the only way to do so was by having me sit down and paint, I could spend hours doing it. At that moment, my deep love for art began.
Osmeli , 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?
I had the opportunity to study architecture in my home country. After working in that field for 4 years, I decided to study art in New York City and pursue a career as an artist. Since arriving here 12 years ago, the experiences and reflections that have helped me gradually adapt and grow in a new country have inspired me along the way.
Now, I have an art studio at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. In the past 2 years, the Cardiothoracic Surgery Departments at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, NJ and the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ have commissioned several of my pieces for their permanent art collections. These opportunities have been aligned with what I feel my mission as an artist is, to bring light to those places where we need to reconnect with hope and love.
The way I approach an art project is totally influenced by my former experience as an architect and project manager. Before developing a proposal; I like to visit the place, listen to the needs of my clients, take measurements of the space and see the colors and lighting that exist in the area. All of these observations lead me to propose artwork which I consider can provide the best visual and emotional experience for that place. Once the work is finished and delivered, I like to be actively involved in the installation process to make sure that the smallest details are addressed. This approach has helped build trusting relationships with my clients.
I think one’s work will be seriously considered based on how one offers their work. Many times, it is thought that an artist is only the passionate creative person who creates without a vision. However, if the objective is to make a living from it, then some other roles must be assumed from the onset.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Personally, the most gratifying aspect about being an artist is having the need to create the habit of listening to that inner voice that we all have but so often is ignored and replaced by those of others. This comes from embracing that we are unique beings and that it is not about seeking anyone’s approval but being authentic and loyal to ourselves. It is a daily task, but without that task all that one can create would be hollow and voiceless.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
During my art studies at the National Academy of Art in New York City between 2014-2015, I developed a series related to the human heart in which I dealt with the power of emotions; specially the changes we experience when we immigrate and how becoming observers of our own emotions makes us owners of them rather than prisoners.
As part of my capstone, and with the guidance of my instructor/mentor, I set out to create a large-scale plaster anatomical heart sculpture. The initial step in the building process was forming the internal structure with metal, followed by sculpting the piece in clay and then making the plaster mold from which I would cast the final piece.
After approximately 5 months of working on the piece and almost finishing the mold, disaster struck. As I was moving the 3-foot base on which the sculpture of almost 140 lbs was placed on, to clean up for the day, it got stuck on a small gap on the floor and tipped over causing the fragile piece to crash into the concrete. Part of the sculpture shattered and most of it had cracks.
It was a very tough blow, but after a few days my mentor told me that he had hope and that the piece could be saved. I worked on rebuilding it for a few more months but when the final product was ready, it still had cracks all over it.
What was originally to be, in my mind, a shiny and perfectly finished heart sculpture was nothing but that. After weeks of looking at the piece I thought: “What if the work is telling me something? What if the work has a different message?”. That’s when I realized that the work made more sense as it was, imperfect, because that is exactly what we are. We are full of internal emotional scars and that is when I decided to cover some parts of the piece with leather as representative of our skin, because it is the organ that we expose the most to the world. As a result, the title of this piece became “Resilient”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://osmelidelgado.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/osmelianais/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/osmelidelgado