Meet Isabel Oliva

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Isabel Oliva. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Isabel below.

Isabel, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

I keep my creativity alive by being engaged with books, fairytales and art that is in conversation with my work thematically. I often look to my dreams as well for inspiration. I am often visited by animals in my dreams with a reoccurring message, I manifest my own personal mythology unconsciously. I work through the meaning in my dreams by creating iterations of the imagery I see in my dreams in my art. I also enjoy reading mythological stories that include the creatures I am drawn to in my work and make work based off the message of that story. Recently I have been thinking about the great vision Black Elk, a Heyoka of the Oglala Lakota, had when he was young boy. The imagery and symbolism of the horse is very powerful in his vision. The description of the vision moved me so much, I started thinking about what the horse means to me, and including them in my work. I enjoy exploring themes in this way.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

There is something familiar about the sound of galloping horses. The way a swan glides through a lake. The shine in a spider’s web. The silhouettes and shadows I conjure in my work are inspired by the edges of the animate earth. The sight of these creatures evoke a feeling of nostalgia within me. They are emissaries from my unconscious.

My work explores the archaic connection I have to the natural world, as well as my quest to create and explore my own personal mythology by dissecting symbols and imagery that often shows up in my dreams. I draw inspiration from the natural world to create artificial landscapes and fantastical ecosystems filled with creatures that are fleeting and constantly transforming. I reference reality to create a fantasy. This intersection of nature and abstraction creates an atmosphere where wildlife fluctuates and hybrid entities emerge.

I create paintings and weavings that reflect the wild and ever-changing nature of the fantastical realms present in my work. The space where I start to reference the silhouette of a creature and then slowly morph and abstract the figure and landscape is a space I am interested in navigating. In my paintings, the edges of my figures get lost and the space where things begin and end starts to disappear. Trees turn to antlers and hooves melt into the ground. Familiar yet mythological creatures emerge from the dream-like landscapes I conjure. In my work, I strive to capture the spirit and mystical knowledge that is present in the natural world.

My woven works explore the intersection between drawing, painting and digital weaving. I create my weavings using a TC2 loom. The TC2 (thread controller two) is a jacquard loom based on computer technology. This tool requires the weaver to design their weaving in photoshop. The TC2 allows the artist to experiment with weave structures, imagery, color and weft density in a way that would not be possible on a regular floor loom.

I begin my weaving process by choosing a few drawings and merging them together digitally in photoshop. This process interests me because I can overlay images and merge symbols together. I then plug in the weaving structures into the photoshop file. The weaving structures are what allows you to “shade” in your woven design in photoshop. I translate my drawings from paper into a digital realm to allow a second world to emerge from the fantastical landscapes I create. There is always a loss of information that occurs when I create a weaving, the edges of my figures become even more defined or become completely abstracted. I enjoy this relationship with the machine where I leave space for the unexpected to take place while I create a weaving. As I weave, I also think about how cloth was once used to depict folktales and pass down family histories. I feel as though I am tapping into that tradition by depicting my personal mythology through cloth.
This past March, I was able to attend a two week residency at Praxis Fiber Workshop as the TC2 Digital Weaving Lab resident this past March in Cleveland, Ohio. This residency offers support and targeted engagement with the TC2, allowing artists the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of this tool as well as realizing a project or body of work. This was an incredible learning experience as well as a great opportunity for me to be immersed in a community of artists. Shortly after completing my residency at the Praxis Fiber Workshop, I was selected to receive an art studio space for a three month period, provided by the YoungArts Foundation for Summer 2024 in Miami, FL. I was able to dedicate time to my painting and drawing practice and continue exploring the space where I can walk the line between abstraction and reality. Choosing when and where they meet. It was great to be able to walk into my own personal space everyday and try something new, whether it was starting a painting twice my height or just making small sketches. It was also so valuable to have enough studio space to have multiple projects in process in the studio and be able to bounce back and forth between works and try new things at the same time. This style of working helped me expand my painting vocabulary. This past Summer I realized how important it is to allow yourself time to play in the studio and not try to control the outcome of the work all the time. I allowed the imagery to slowly reveal itself to me through intuitive mark making.

It has been increasingly difficult to be able to have access to a studio space in Miami due to high cost and an increase in demand. I am so grateful to the YoungArts foundation, for supporting me and my work and allowing me to grow and nurture my artistic practice by providing this space for me. So many magical things take place in the studio, intentionally and through intuitive processes, it’s essential to artists’ growth to have access to these spaces to learn more about themselves, their practice and be able to share the work with others. Something new process wise I explored during my YoungArts residency was working with homemade botanical inks. I extracted color from plant matter such as hibiscus and marigold flowers to create natural inks. I was able to host a workshop in my studio with a small group and teach them how to extract color and how to experiment with different mordants to change the color completely ! It was very special and rewarding to be able to pass this knowledge on to people in my community. I hope that more opportunities like this become more and more available as Miami’s art scene continues to flourish.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back I think my willingness to get out of my comfort zone in my practice and explore new mediums and techniques was very impactful to my artistic practice, sometimes we feel something is too different, and we won’t be able to relate it to it in our practice or we think that the process won’t connect well with the themes in our work. You won’t know how something will turn out until you try it so I say always be open minded ! Its also important to pursue opportunities that might be out of your comfort zone, applying to different kind of grants and residencies that maybe are not really in your lane or maybe you feel you are not ready for that opportunity, but you never know you might get a yes from an amazing opportunity !

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

David Abram’s The Spell of The Sensuous has had a huge impact on my life and my art. In his book he goes on a journey to find proof of magic in the natural world and reconnect with nature. He talks about how we used to be in tune with all the animals and forest spirits centuries ago, how we used to speak the same language and had a mutual understanding of respect and reciprocity with one another. Th book guides you and helps you understand how this sacred bond was broken and how we can restore that piece of ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://isabeloliva.squarespace.com
• Instagram: sirenastudio_

Image Credits

photos by Jason Koerner and Isabel Oliva