Posts Tagged ‘art’
Carolina G. Flores in her Blue Star Art Complex studio. Photo by: Anisa Onofre.
Artist Carolina G. Flores recently teamed up with Gemini Ink’s Writers in Communities (WIC), to create broadsides inspired by poetry written by 7th and 8th grade students from Edward H. White Middle School. The “My Part of Town” project was funded by Rackspace, and gave students the opportunity to compose poems that depict their neighborhood. Although Flores did not work directly with the students, she has taken their poems and given them life through her bold water color illustrations.
“How I paint is more joy than anything,” Flores said. “The joy of just being alive, celebrating my family history, the beauty of the flowers … I think what my paintings do, is, make people very happy.”
Her vibrant pieces of work done in watercolor, oils, silks and ceramic are displayed at the Carolina G. Flores Studio, located in the Blue Star Art Complex.
Flores credits her middle school teacher, Ms. Brown as the person that introduced her to art.
“She was very, very much involved with my talent and I didn’t realize it was worth much, but she took so much interest in me,” Flores said.
It is no wonder that Flores’s dedication to community-based work and teaching has always been a part of her life. In fall of 2009, her first venture with WIC was a ceramics project with students from East Central Independent School District.
Flores is currently a part-time art teacher at The Winston School, a school for children with learning disabilities.
“I’ve realized that if I don’t teach, I miss it,” Flores said. “I miss communicating with young people and sharing what I know.”
Flores still makes time to paint for herself. As part of collaboration with two other artists named Carolina, 25 of Flores’s paintings were exhibited at the Centro Cultural Aztlan show, Carolina por Tres.
“I’m at a point where I want to do as many paintings and say as many things as I want to say with my canvasses,” Flores said.
– by Melinda Gonzales, Gemini Ink intern
