Rosa Murillo - Welcome

self%20portrait%20in%20dark.jpg I have lived in North Carolina for the last 2 years - I’ve lived in many places throughout my life. I grew up in Mexico. I guess the Mexican culture influenced much of my work as an artist and as a human being. I am an architect by profession and an artist by fascination.

Since I was growing up I've enjoyed collecting the weirdest things, from bugs to old coins and bills from different countries to old maps and love letters, a habit inherited from my grandfather.

I also like to collect decks of cards like tarot - although I do not know how to read them or even know what they mean. This conundrum makes me want to paint around them, giving them my own meaning an interpretation of something that has happened to me or the future I would like to have.

I also collect little crosses and buttons and keys and other trinkets alike because I think they can be used to make art and give them a new purpose, a new life.

My studio is full of little things inside boxes of all shapes and forms, waiting to be used as part of a new assemblage, to be combined with paint, to be given a new format and a new story. I like to think I am creating a new meaning for them, a tiny world in canvas, paper and wood.

I am a self taught artist in a lot of the art I do, this means I have struggled with mastering the tools, mediums and art techniques, like that time I thought mixing collage and oil painting was a good idea (it is not) but this experimenting has opened my horizon to explore new materials and tools and figuring out different ways of combining them.

And even though I did not go to art school, art has always been a part of my life. I actually majored in architecture. This really permeates into my work in the way I approach the design, the layouts and the materials. I worked for some time building 3D models in wood for architecture projects and this experience helped master the tools for collage. I brought this skill on board when I started painting. I love to work with paper, specially historical documents and old letters. There’s something special about the history they tell.

Most of my work is emotional and tells a story, I follow an instinctive process and the colors, papers and drawings have a lot to say about what they want to be and what kind of story they want to tell, it is always interesting for me to fully understand the outcome.

Solo Exhibits

2007

July-September Exhibit at Cafe Mia, North Carolina, USA

2006