We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Priscilla S. Flores a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Priscilla S., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew at a very young age that art was going to be in my life forever. As a kid I definitely was obsessed with drawing and my desire to pursue art as I got older made sense to me. I didn’t really imagine how serious it would get until I was at Fullerton College, which has a great art department by the way. I was inspired by my classes and with the support from the transfer center, I applied to Cal State Long Beach. It was the only school I applied to and I got in. My time at Long Beach was transitional, I had moved out of my hometown, I spent a lot of time by myself and my goal then was to master the fundamental skills of drawing and painting. It was not until after graduating and coming out of a slump with a fractured ankle (back in 2020) that the only thing I wanted to do to was draw and paint. I painted for a full year after that, taking on commissions, painting a lot of self-portraits and while selling work I was offered opportunities to show. The ball has been rolling ever since.

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

I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in a hilly unincorporated town within Los Angeles County. I’m first generation Mexican American and I grew up with old school parents so that had its own impact, as some can relate. My parents had a huge influence on me growing up, I paid attention to their role as parents and to the difference of culture we had as they navigated our life in this country. I was fortunate to have lived close enough to East LA, which was a place we would frequent and influence me too. I was always in a constant battle between what I was growing up with at home and what I was learning outside in the world. These experiences later informed my relationship with story telling in my work.

I was very privileged enough to have visited Mexico all throughout my childhood and I always felt I lived a different if not my most authentic life there (the 2 weeks out of the year that is!). These memories were what inspired my early work in college. I used a lot of old family photographs and stories shared with me to build vast narrative works. I worked with muted color palettes and painted oil on paper. I had long hair like Joan Baez and wore the same or similar clothing like a cartoon character, It was a different time haha. Being very much moved by my family’s resilience and chaotic good nature, I honored them in the best way I could have done at the time. I learned a lot about my work process and how important it was for each line/paint stroke to hold space for memory and emotion.

I slowly shifted my subject as I explored more of my own experience as young adult experiencing loss, heartbreak and my life outside of my family. After enduring 2020, my work focused on the body, the every day and my sexual expression. I gravitated to a lot of reds and created bolder imagery. I was journaling (painting) important experiences that spoke on identity, feelings and memory. This led me to show my work in art spaces/galleries within LA and surrounding areas the past few years.

My work has always been representational and just more recently I’m experimenting with more landscapes and dreamscapes. Music has also been present in my work and I often incorporate writing and lyrics that fall into the mood of the paintings I’m working on. Living in Long Beach has also informed my work, especially living so close to the beach. It’s been such a great experience to be part of the art community here and be able to connect with many artists. I’m currently working on painting, comic making and writing this year so I’m pretty excited about all that.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I just want to create paintings I want to see in the world. Paint the bodies I want to see and construct narratives people can relate to. Story is what drives my work, any experience that holds strong significance can be expressed through art in an honest way. I often paint what I feel or what feels right and I feel most true when I do that. I see that same sentiment in other works and I find myself constantly motivated by other painters. Artists like Sasha Gordon, Zoé Blue M. , Tidawhitney Lek, Gloria Rivera Mendieta—- are making big waves with painting right now. The end goal is to build a life where I am able to work, enjoy the process of working and have my work travel. I’m already kind of there in a way but this will always be a journey.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I get to live a life that is unconventional in some ways but makes sense to me. I make work for myself and I’m able to channel whatever I have going on or what I’m going through into something meaningful. I built that language for myself and it’s rewarding to also share it with my loved ones and to the public. The job I currently have has opened a new level of play for me as an artist too. I work with young people and I get to teach them art. I share/expand different ideas, opinions and critiques and more importantly, I expose them to good art and artists! Besides making waves with my own personal work, teaching has also been one of the most rewarding aspects of my life so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: abrazameymuerdeme
• Other: https://www.artsy.net/artist/priscilla-s-flores

Image Credits
Edwin Sanchez (Shot “Me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento” and “Thinking Nothing in Ensenothing” paintings).