Tania Alcala
Title: Back to Basics
Technique: Mixed media
Media: Enamel on Wood
Size:8' x 8' set of 9
For Tania Alcala, art is about freedom. She describes that art as “a search for the sublime greatness in human nature beyond my own struggles.” Born and raised in Mexico City where she learned oil painting from Juan Hernandez, educated at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, CA with a master's degree in Transformative Arts, Tania then took to the skies as a pilot to seek the freedom she craved. Her current paintings display the roots of her childhood spent finding her own voice. The development of her own awareness has transformed her. The acrylic medium, which gives immediate gratification with drying times close to the speed of light, released her from the boundaries of oil. She credits the German artist Christine Peirano for directing her passion for color into Abstract Expressionism that freed her from the realism of her early teachers. One can look deep into her series called “The Void” and find all one seeks. A new series of more intimate works, appear as study sections of the larger works. These are given a sheen of epoxy resin, which much like century old varnish acts like a mirror reflecting the surface and adding another dimension to this very 21st century painter. We would all do well to watch Tania Alcala fly free.
“It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.” Mark Rothko
