Roxanne Zuniga Blackwood
I love to create. When I was quite small, my artist father used to work late night hours for his “day job.” To let me know he was thinking of me, he would tape fantastical drawings onto the wall above my headboard. I would wake up to his drawings of clouds, animals and people flying in the sky. These drawings would bring me great joy as well as sparked my imagination.
I learned at an early age that I could make up my own world with art. I have always been inspired by beauty such as flowers, rainbows, butterflies and insects. I love depicting the figure as part of my art practice, I view it as training at the gym. Color is an important element in my work, I am always looking for new ways to add magic to a picture through pleasing color palettes, expressive brushwork, and the buildup of nuanced layering of paint. My work is multifaceted & eclectic as I aim to create bridges between my evolving technical narrative, my intuition, & disparate art styles. I am especially interested in investigating the concept of courage as we journey through life as humans searching for self-actualization and meaning as well as exploring notions of dream worlds, divergence, dualities, hybridity & the cycles of life.
I continually find inspiration by attempting to look at the world through the lens of a child. As a mother of young girls, I am in awe of their ability to live in the moment and how they find joy in small things. I want to infuse their essence into my paintings. I have had a longstanding fascination with childhood, a time period that holds so many keys to unlocking self-discovery and universal truths.
