Beauty and Decay: A Journey to My Soul by MariaTeresa Ortiz-Naretto

In Ortiz-Naretto's words, "I am looking at my mirror as Paul Eluard would say about my paintings. Almost like a reverie, my oil paintings express my desires, my searches, and my accomplishments. My hands dance with my palette knives by giving textured strokes and lumps of material. I carefully choose a range of colors to embody a balanced tension between figurative forms and abstract details. My series Beauty and Decay: A Journey to My Soul addresses my search for the Self. Intentionally, I oppose the ideas of Beauty and Decay to depict two opposite forces that pull and push constantly. They both coexist within oneself. They both generate dynamics. And from that movement, I intent to froze in colors and shapes an instant in which beauty and decay are present as lively entities that show the drama of my existence, or better, of human existence."