#elizabeth villega perea

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

I had always thought about what happens after we die. I have also always wondered about how friendship and relationships we have affects our mental health and our dreams. My body of work explores life and death, dreams and friendship and also the idea of soulmates. I explore life versus death, and I explore emotions created by my friendships and my dreams. My body of work includes digital artwork, paintings and drawings. My intentions are to explore and show my thoughts and feelings and tell a little bit of my own stories, because I believe we all have a story to tell. My body of work also allows the audience to enter my thoughts and see a little bit of my experiences and things I have gone through.

Most of my pieces were inspired by friendships and family members. I told their stories through my art. However I did tell my own stories and I stated my own opinion relating a controversial topic and relating to my own culture. The intention behind my body of work is to portray emotions, thought and my relationship with other people. I try to show the definition of soulmates and having a partner who thinks and is like you. What ties my work together is insurmountable grief and a joyful character.

In my body of work I uncluded mediums like acrylic on canvas, marker, digital artwork, PrismaColors and watercolor. There are various reasons why I chose the mediums I used on specific pieces of work. For example, I chose to work with watercolor on the piece me and ur ghost was because I found it easier to add value to the piece. Using watercolor allowed me to add darker value on the bones and on the skull. Martirio was made with software and created as a digital art piece because I wanted to be able to add small details to the cultural mexican clothing. I used PrismaColors on the piece False God because it gave me more freedom to add details like texture and a lot of value on the cross and electric chair.

In my pieces I explore controversial topics like hell after death and the argument of whether we should have or continue the death sentence as a punishment. I stated my opinion and it may be controversial, but I do think that my opinion should be able to influence the audience. I don’t believe that the audience or my viewers should change their opinions based on my views, but I do hope that they view my art works with an open mind to learn new things and an open mind to explore new thoughts. I do hope that my viewers don’t judge my opinions but hopefully they are able to accept my views and hopefully have the same views.

I chose to organize my art pieces based on the topics they explore and on the stories they tell. The reason why I'm organizing them like this is because I believe that it would make it easier to explain my topics and to explain and tell the stories I have to tell about each piece. I have worked hard on grouping these pieces together. I also chose specific colors on my pieces of artwork to symbolize some things that I couldn’t or I didn’t know how to add to my piece. For example, I painted yellow daisies to symbolize my friendship and happiness and I painted the piece epiphany in red to represent hell and a skull to represent death . I also used colors that are often used in mexican culture to pay homage to my Mexican culture.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

epiphany Acrylic on Canvas 24.4  x 24.4 cm 

This piece explores the realization of the thin line between life and death. Epiphany makes us realize that at some point we are all bound to die and it is something we can’t run away from. My sudden realisation came during the pandemic, I lost someone who meant a lot to me. I wanted to portray confusion and my anxiety.Epiphany represents courage but at the same time it represents fear.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

me and ur ghost  Watercolor 40.64 x 45.72

This piece was made for a friend of mine who struggled with drug abuse. My intentions on this painting was to portray them how they saw themselves but to also add some beauty to it. I added yellow daisies to represent our friendship and the happiness we lived together. This painting also represents their fight and their bravery.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

hell is where i dreamt of you Marker on Paper Bag 30.48 x 30.48 cm

I created this piece off of a dream I had. In my dream I saw my friend crying on the floor and realized her teeth were falling out. I portrayed a lot of emotions on this piece. I used a black marker because I felt like adding color would add life to it and I wanted it to be dark. I added a vignette effect because I wanted it to frame the faces together. The black bubbles represent isolation.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

False God PrismaColors 31.75 x 30.48 cm 

This piece explores religion and the death penalty. Religion views killing as a sin, but at the same time most religious people agree with the death penalty. I think that their way of thinking is very contradictory to their actions. The cross represents christianity witnessing execution but they also blindly accept it.  I used PrismaColors because I felt like it gave me more freedom to add texture to the cross.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

the lake Acrylic on Canvas 20.32 x 25.4

This painting explores balance in life. Koi fishes had always represented balance between good and bad. Having balance is important because if you have too much of something it can cause a great chaos, but if you have equal amounts of something. I created this painting because I always wanted to own a koi fish and because I love what they represent.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

martirio  Digital Art 35.56 x 25.4

This art piece was an homage to my Mexican culture. In Mexico I remember being told the story of La Llorona many times and I was very intrigued by her story. I was also inspired by the song la llorona by Angela Aguilar. This piece shows mexican clothing and decorations. I titled this piece martirio because staying away from Mexico and not being able to visit because of the pandemic has mad me feel like a type of torture and saddness.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

close to you  Acrylic on Canvas 24.4  x 24.4 cm 

I created this piece because I always like the thought of finding your soulmate. Your soulmate would be like you and have your same sense of humor. I believe that they wouldn't be a complete copy of you but they would have some resemblance and it would make a great match.

[ibart2021]

Elizabeth Villega

self-portrait Acrylic on Canvas 35.56 x 27.94 cm 

This piece is a self portrait. I did the background colourful because I want it to represent happiness and being joyful. I painted myself in  black to represent the opposite. I wanted fun and colorful colors to represent my personality.