I never posted the full version of this work here. To this day, it remains one of my favorites. It symbolizes the beginning of my practice…
I was very depressed at the time. I was studying graphic design rather than pursuing Fine Arts. Deep down, something kept telling me I needed to make visual compositions. Everything happened organically. I was drawn to experimentation as a mode of creation and I knew that feeling was at the core of my necessity and curiosity.
I renamed it recently:
“Doubt is a catalyst for Close Attention”
2022
Mixed media
I have been working carefully for some time on an online archive for my practice.
The website is still developing, but it felt right to begin sharing it in its current state.
(I recommend viewing it on a computer for the full experience)
sofiaortega.art
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I’ve been gathering my words to explain what my work means to me. I’ve sat down and wondered, where do I begin.
Surely, there is some academic research behind it, but when I’m completely honest about what I am deeply obsessed with - (in the sense that I can’t stop circling around it through everything I do) academic knowledge falls short. It becomes constrictive, less interesting to me.
My work is primarily concerned with the existence of the soul. It took me a long time to understand it in such a simple sentence.
What moves me most about being alive is the inner landscape of a being what is invisible and deeply felt, and holds the power to create a whole reality.
With time, I’ve realized that I’m not looking for concrete answers.
What is so enchanting, and at times horrifying, about life to me is its mystery the fact that we can’t really pin it down or measure it. It is elusive, hard to “understand,” and exactly when I let go, it floods me with a strong sense of aliveness.
A kind of curious, subtle electricity that I can only access through the sensations in my body.
It allows me to become an innocent child all over again.
It is just like the question of God. I am fascinated by God, too, and this directly feeds my work.
Recently, I went to a silent Buddhist meditation retreat, and I realized that what fascinates me most is stripping God of my mental constructions.
In that moment, He is not even called God anymore.
I want to leave certainty behind, at least here. I want to feel the raw power of possibility and feeling combined.
What fascinates me most about life is when I don’t know the answer.
“Scholarliness alone is not enough; there is a knowledge of the heart that gives deeper insight. The knowledge of the heart is in no book and is not to be found in the mouth of any teacher, but grows out of you like the green seed from the dark earth. Scholarliness belongs to the spirit of this time, but this spirit in no way grasps the dream, since the soul is everywhere that scholarly knowledge is not.“
🌅🌌 stream Love Infinitely Shining by Jaime Jaime or else …
Also.. fun fact: this drawing is about a dream I had where I gave birth to a worm that turned into a huge louse.
I also learned that LOUSE is the singular of lice ..
