Monica Aissa Martinez

The presentation on the artist Monica Aissa Martinez was absolutely stunning. Her work is so complex and visceral. She creates torsos, pelvises, brains, arteries, veins, cells within the body and spiritual energy of the torso. She essentially makes maps of the body. And within her art she combines two different things such as science and spirituality. Her work is made with organic materials like egg shells, casein, etc. 

Artwork of hers takes over a year or more, because as she paints she learns more about herself and her body. I’ve always thought that art shouldn’t take so long and I would get frustrated with myself if I didn’t finish a piece in a couple of hours. It’s essential to know about artists and their practices because then we will feel validated or hear another perspective.

Take of a Hawk Moth: She saw a Hawk moth outside of her house window one day and told the moth,” You landed on my screen door to get photographed and drawn, didn’t you?  I think there’s a certain charm to that because an artist's inspiration can come from various things others might find odd or mundane. This piece is absolutely beautiful. She wanted to focus on the external and internal parts of the moth in her piece. The body turns out to be furry with electrical wires to make it look like an electric moth. 

On top of a map: Her artwork is connected to maps. 

In the piece she shows a map of Phoenix Arizona. She says that communities can be seen biologically as well. Compares microorganism to macro. Community is the same in that we are all bodies with cells. Nucleus of the cell in the map of Phoenix.