This post is focused on my personal life.

At the time of this blog post (January 25, 2019), it has been 5 months since I lost my beautiful Mother to cancer.

She was my best friend. Being a photographer, I was always the one taking images of my family, hardly being in any photos myself. Battling a bit with confidence, I always shrugged and said I would be in the pictures another time.

After connecting more with the importance of photography and why it mattered to me, I started questioning myself as to why I wasn’t taking pictures with my loved ones. Why was I being so shy to be in pictures with people that I love? I decided to change that in me, and I started existing in photos with my parents.

Flash forward a few years, I receive one of the scariest news of my life: my mom was diagnosed with cancer.

Bombarded with all the thoughts that were coming to my head, there was a little moment where I started going through all of my hard drives, and I started to look for pictures of her, and us together. I didn’t have many, and that made me angry. Talk about the shoemaker without shoes. After that, I started photographing her (and my family) any moment I could.

There were a lot of moments where she didn’t want to be photographed, especially during her last visit to my home (on my birthday), but I persisted and she said yes. This is where I was able to photograph the most beautiful family portraits of us that I will ever have the pleasure to capture:

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I also captured some wonderful (and funny) portraits of her, and of my parents together:

These were the last portraits that I took with my Mom.

She passed away on August 19, 2018. On September 25th, 2018, I found out that I was pregnant. This is where everything hurt the most. I was becoming a mom, without my mom. My baby girl will never get to meet her grandmother. She will not get to feel her warm embrace and loving kisses. But, she will know what her grandmother looked like. She will know what her beautiful smile looks like. She will know how loving, silly, and energetic her grandmother was and I am happy that I was able to preserve that for her.

Whether its with a professional photographer or even if it’s with your phone, take the picture. Be in pictures with people that you love. Be silly, loving and capture those beautiful moments. Your life can change in an instant, and even if it sounds cliche, you honestly don’t know when you will see or hug someone for the last time.

I’ve learned my lesson, the hard way. I’m no longer afraid of existing in photos for my loved ones. Now with a baby on the way, this lesson is even more important, because her mother needs to be in photos too. Someday I won’t be with her, and the only things left behind for her will be the memories and photos.

Omy

Flora Art Studio is a ceramic studio specialized in contemporary sculpture

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Personal Branding Experience

" I really enjoyed the connection between photographer and artist. It was a great experience connecting and getting to know another person from a different art medium. It is great to see things through someone else’s eyes. I liked seeing how a photographer looks at things and how she interprets them.

I also liked the documentation of the process. Since I usually work alone in my studio, most of the photos taken are of the final product. It was great being able to see visually how pieces are being created from start to finish. 

Branding is not only a name and a logo. It is an extension of who you are as a business. As an artist, your brand showcases many things; your artwork, your ideas, your projection to the world, your soul as an entity. If the branding is done correctly, it allows the viewer to have a clearer picture of who you are and what your business is about. Yes, art is very subjective and it is open to interpretation, however, business it is not. A branding session allows for the subject to be able to showcase their business, show their core, and reach out to their customer / consumer / client / fan / follower with a better understanding about it. As a ceramic sculptor, it has allowed me to present my artwork and to define who I am as a working artist. "

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About Flora Art Studio

Flora Art Studio: WEBSITE | SHOP | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK

" I am the main force behind it, and it is through my own creativity that I come out with some out of the box ceramic art pieces. Flora Art Studio was born as a side project over a decade ago. After attending the University of Hawaii and obtaining a BFA in Ceramics, it was something that I tackled here and there after my regular job. I never thought I could make a living out of it. I always had in my head that I had to have a “proper job” and that being an artist full time was only for daydreamers. Years later I got an MFA in graphic design from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and it was during that time, along with some personal changes in my life, that I finally took the plunge and decided to make a go at it. Ceramics had always been my first love, and I wanted to give it the real chance to succeed. Flora Art Studio was no longer a weekend hobby but a full on artistic business. "

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" While living in Barcelona (where I am originally from) I took a ceramics class after work as a hobby. We hand built mostly houses, leaves, and very basic forms, but I was instantly hooked on it. I love everything about clay… the color, the texture, the plasticity, the smell (yes! even the smell) I like that it offers many possibilities, endless, I would say. With other mediums, such as woodworking, for example, if you make a mistake, that’s it, you cannot put it back together, or if you do, it may be a weak joint. Ceramics allows you the possibility of making mistakes, correct them, and keep on building. Also, call me old fashioned, but living in a high tech world, where we spend so much time in front of the computer in our cyber life, I love that ceramics is something tangible; something tactile. It makes it real if I can hold it in my hands. "

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" It will all start with an idea, like all things. The idea may come from different and a variety of sources. From there, I may do a little bit of research on the topic, especially imagery driven. After that, anything goes. I will “play” with clay until I find the right fit for the image or look and I am aiming for. I usually work in series, which allows me to explore a specific theme across various pieces. This serves me as a way to dig deeper in the subject matter of the series, or, in all honesty, to keep on enjoying the process. After the pieces are done, I will fire them once or twice, depending on their desired finished look. My artwork sometimes can be seen as dark in nature, but I usually off balance it with the use of color.  My upbringing in Barcelona, can be seen in my choices of finished looks. Color, texture and pattern are a huge part of my pieces. I suffer from Horror Vacui (In visual art, horror vacui (from Latin "fear of empty space"), also kenophobia, from Greek "fear of the empty"), is the filling of the entire surface of a space or an artwork with detail), but I am ok with that. I guess in my world, more is more, and I thoroughly enjoy that as part of the process. 

There is no other place that I would rather be than in my studio creating new pieces. My motivation is the creating itself. While I am working on something, sometimes it sparks a new idea for another series, so I am already thinking what could be next. There are endless possibilities and it always exciting finding out what those can bring you.

I thoroughly enjoy also how the artwork is received by other people. I hear all kinds of comments about my pieces. Some of them can be quite shocking, however, I do not mind the commentaries. I, myself, view artwork that way; it should spark some kind of reaction out of you, good or bad, but it should never leave you indifferent. What keeps me going is the idea of creating and the reception of that creation. "

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What inspires you?

" So many things… some of them can be quite personal in nature, such as a devastating divorce (The Dissolution Series came from that), or being in love again (The Breathless Series came from that) Other times can be from my many travels, such as the Lucha Libre Ghost Babies Series, from a trip to Mexico or perhaps something I read or saw on a movie, such as the Phobia Series. I learned a lot about the strangest phobias that people have, haha!

I have many idols, in and out of the clay community. Ceramic artists such as Lisa Clague, Sergei Isupov, Richard Notkin, Marie Gibbons, etc. are always a source of inspiration via their work. On the other hand, other artists and designers such as Frida Kahlo, Javier Mariscal, Paul Frank, Salvador Dali, Edward Gorey, etc. are also references that I look up to when working on my artwork. I love reading and mostly watching films, subtitles welcomed. I draw from anything and everything. "

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