Artist Statement
Monica Cliff was born and grew up in Zacatepec, Morelos, Mexico. As a child, she remembers loving art and being mesmerized by drawings, paintings, animations, comics, puppets, theater plays, costumes, and anything creative. She wondered after seeing a piece of art “how did they do that?” That initial curiosity took her into a journey of learning, practicing and discovering different forms of art and media.
In the series of paintings, Mujeres (Women), she explores the concept of gender in Latin America by representing different images of faces and emotions in women. She integrates a diversity of ages in the paintings because she believes that the beauty of women never fades with age. She also wants to explore the beauty of indigenous women and at the same time represent their strength. In the painting Herencia (Heritage) she represents the importance of physical and emotional labor women provide to preserve community, traditions and culture. Women nurture and grow the roots of communities and culture.
All the paintings in this series are acrylic paintings on canvas.
Bio
Monica Cliff is the founder of Inventiva Works, a company focused on providing art and theatre classes for kids, youth and adults in Spanish. Monica has over 20 years of professional experience in the arts, she has designed sets, costumes, puppets and props for local theatre companies such as Madison Opera, Children’s Theater of Madison, Theatre LILA, Wisconsin Film Festival, among others. Monica has a bachelor’s degree in Scenography from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico and a master’s degree in Social Innovation and Sustainability Leadership from Edgewood College.
