An interview with Yessenia Barron about her art and mission.
Editor – Yessenia, please tell us about yourself and how you came to want to be an artist.
Yessenia – I am a current Fine Art student at La Sierra University with an emphasis in Fibers and Fabrics, a second emphasis in graphic design and illustration. I am looking to further produce more work as a textile and book artist in the years ahead of me. My maker experience consists of researching, communicating, and experimenting with different mediums. My purpose is to create pieces and spaces that engage, inspire and speak to others and allow for self-reflection. Overall my maker experience has been both a challenge and an innovation.
My interest in becoming an artist was the ability to speak to others visually, to have the ability to engage the audience through my work and making a difference through my work. I always tell myself everyday, I have the ability to promote a positive or negative message. It is my responsibility to create work that will make a positive impact on others lives and have my audience feel just as important as the work I make.
Editor – Wonderful. Let’s unpack this a little. Can you provide an example of the kinds of positive messages you hope to portray with your art?
Yessenia – I hope to portray for self-reflection and create a safe space for the audience, where they can find peace and restoration.
Editor – The objects you use are everyday materials that we can all relate to, yet your treatment of them gives them a new, higher status. Leaves, bark and dirt, who would have imagined these could be viewed as art. Basically you are arranging and presenting things that God has created, so in a sense your art is an echo of His creative genius. I love it. What one piece of art have you created that you like most, and why?
Yessenia – Forced Migration has become one of my favorite pieces, as I was installing this piece, I purposely tied the four individual silk habotai fabric pieces together; unifying them as one piece. In Forced Migration, each fabric contains a range sub-species of Eucalyptus, where they are migrating together in this forced migration onto fabric, which now becomes this new habitat for them to dwell in and call their own. Its a matter of unifying as one and searching for a place of refuge when a trial approaches these specimens.
Editor – What do you plan to do after you graduate? Do you have something particular in mind?
Yessenia – I plan to go into teaching or working for a museum, either in the education program or in curating. I am going to wait about 2-4 ears until I plan to attain an MFA degree for Studio arts.
Editor – Thank you for sharing your art with us, and we wish you well as you grace the world with your positive images.
Interview conducted by Rich DuBose, director of the inSpire initiative.
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