Contemporary Artist Beatriz Ledesma Creates Art Inspired by Emotional, Spiritual, and Social issues.

Artist Beatriz E. Ledesma is a painter, curator, and psychotherapist based in Chicago, Illinois. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she is deeply connected to the plight of the poor, vulnerable, and undeserved. Her work is about issues of emotional, spiritual and social construct, taking a closer look at the emotional impact of displacement in marginalized populations and to examine the symbolic language of indigenous peoples. Her interests involve the practical applications of psychoanalysis and art for the purpose of healing and empowerment, focusing on the use of art-making in the clinical treatment of adults. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

“Faithful to my Latin American roots my work takes the viewer into the world of magic realism and color. I am disengaged from conceptual constraints, instead I allow intuitive knowledge to creatively guide me when painting or when thinking about a painting series to embark on. Painting becomes a mystical experience woven with material reality, myth, and the free flow of my imagination. I intend to challenge the viewer into a contemplative dialogue with the artwork, hoping that it may evoke a feeling, an emotion, a memory.”

With her work, the artist attempts to take a closer look at memory, at the emotional impact of displacement in marginalized populations and to examine the symbolic language of indigenous peoples. She finds herself studying tribal symbols from both, Northern and Southern tribes from Argentina. Using symbols, along with realistic and primitive tribal imagery placed in a dreamlike composition with heavily saturated colors, Ledesma seeks to recreate the spiritual world of native populations and the emotional reality of marginalized peoples through her paintings. Ledesma’s art challenges the social issue of displacement on a human level of community within society through initiating a visual conversation using the power of art to convey the vibrant colors, imagery and symbols of Latin American culture.

We recently had the pleasure to speak with Beatriz Ledesma about her work and understand more about her style and creative process. It was interesting to learn that her work holds a powerful aura of tribal energy and represents a larger spiritual practice at play. Ledesma works purely within the depths of her intuitive creative energy and her native Latin American roots, connecting with the Earth, and respecting the planet as well as all the inhabitants of this beautiful world.

Q – What is the best part about being an artist, how have you developed your career?

A – The best part of being an artist is that I get to be me, express my imagination in creative and energetic ways and to be my own boss. I grew up within a creative family where music, carpentry, spirituality, combined with community activism, were my inspiration. My father’s sharing of his dreams during lunch stimulated my imagination. But it was in the 1970s during what is known as “the dirty war” in Argentina, that art became the pivotal force in my daily living, it maintained my breathing in balance. It was on the walls of the Instituto de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, and the studio of maestro Luis Lopez and Osvaldo Rainoldi that I felt safe, my soul found solace and my spirit could soar. By 1981 I was in exile in USA, settling in Chicago and becoming involved with the local art community. Networking and participating in community art project propelled my artistic career forward and upward. As I had experienced art as a force for healing in my native country, it was natural to become enrolled in the art therapy/fine arts graduate program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating with a MAAT & MFA by 1988. This set me free to develop my own artistic and clinical practice with a studio at the Chicago Fine Arts Building, which I maintain till this day.

Q – Your work takes a closer look at the emotional impact of displacement in marginalized populations, can you tell us more about this?

A – My work speaks of issues that I am passionate about, that relates to my personal history as an immigrant woman and that are relevant to the present times I live in. Displacement is “the moving of something from its place or position”. It is synonymous of banishment, deportation, exile, expatriation, expulsion, relegation. As a woman and as an immigrant displacement is a known experience but, unfortunately, it is the experience I share with many populations within USA and around the world. In today’s life, many populations around the world are being mobilized out of their own countries by war and famine, economic hardship, human rights violations, etc. One of my latest paintings (pictured below) “Homage to the Caravan” for example is directly related to the caravan coming from Central America into the United States. And within our USA society today, gentrification is a concrete tool of displacement too creating what is called “internally displaced persons”- they are defined as those who have not crossed an international State border but who are obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence for many reasons, gentrification being one of them. The news pays attention to the physical impact of displacement – i.e war camps, physical illnesses, famine, homelessness; however little is said about the impact that those external circumstances has upon the emotional life of the displaced individual(s) such as behavioral difficulties, issues of low self-esteem and low self-confidence, a feeling of being an outsider, symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as the development of delusions or psychotic breaks.

Q – You have a very unique style, how do you work, can you tell us more about your creative process?

A – My artistic process usually begins with a reflection on current events, thought, an idea, a word, or simply a feeling related to a mystical experience, and/or dream. Something has captured my imagination and I stay with it until an image gets form. I consider this phase like a prelude to work. This phase can take a day, weeks, some times years. Then comes the “incubation time”; a period when my mind is very active with many images coming from dreams which in turn I sketch, then write about it, meditate on the image. The image might be dormant on my sketch book for long time. It is only when I begin remembering the image or seeing it in my memory that I know that the image is asking to be brought to life. This phase illuminates my conscious awareness and indicates it is time to begin gathering the materials to bring the image(s) to life. It is usually one or two images embedded in conscious thinking that brings forward the energy to pursue via painting in a series format. The number of paintings in a series is decided intuitively but because I do believe in numerology, I do place attention to the number involved in the series and I may make mental notes about it that might later on informed the statement for the series’ theme.

Q – Which artist or artists (past and/or present) do you admire most and why?

A – It is difficult to name only a few… From the past, three artists come to mind: Remedios Varo (1908-1963. Spain. Mexico) for her surrealist vision; Xul Solar (1887-1963. Argentina) for the manifestation of the spiritual and mystical; Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945. Germany) for the expression of emotion and feeling in 3D format. From the present time, Elsa Mu~noz, her work is emotionally and psychologically provocative; Cesar Conde, entices my imagination and gives social political food to my mind; Ingrid Albrecht, her watercolors express feelings, provoke an emotional response, and she makes use of watercolor techniques I have not seen done before. In all of them I admire also their painting technique.

Q – How do you navigate the art world, are there any trends you follow?

A – I have been one to follow the beat of my heart paying little attention to current trends. All that said, I do find interest in keeping up with what is current in the art world but follow none.

Q – We notice repeat images and symbols in your work, what do they mean or represent to you?

A – One of the main symbols that you will see in most of my paintings is the bird and/or birdlike image, it is almost as some sort of alter ego for me, manifesting the quality of my spirit. But I do play with other images such as eggs, light, geometric shapes, amorphous figures, shoes, papers. These are objects that represent an abstract, mystical and/or spiritual concept. The spoken word is symbolic i.e metaphors. I do the same but with images.

Q – What advice do you have for up-and-coming artists who are trying to learn the ropes and begin a successful art career?

A – First that “Picassos” and “Picasso’s success” does not unfold the next day after completing an art program. Second, I will point out the importance of focus, concentration, determination, tenacity, discipline, persistence, perseverance. Third, I will encourage them to think outside the box when comes to support themselves and to develop a practice that allows them to be self employed and have control over their financial lives. Four, always follow the bliss of their heart and trust their intuition. Honesty and integrity will see them through the ups and downs of the artistic path.

Stay tuned for information about Beatriz Ledesma’s upcoming solo exhibition this October 2019 in Chicago, IL. To learn more about this fascinating artist, for sales information, commissions or general inquires, email beatriz@ledesmastudio.com and visit www.beatrizledesmastudio.com