Figure 1. Cindy Amaya working her craft in the studio.
For Cindy Amaya, being an artist is embracing the relationship between humans and our environmental surroundings. As a recent graduate from Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, TN, Cindy is exploring her creativity by presenting the viewer a glimpse of handpicked organic surroundings with an optimistic viewpoint through her work.
“I’m constantly inspired by the world around me. [It] comes from having a childlike mindset when I'm out in nature. I begin to explore different textures and patterns that can be added to my work. I’m inspired by fun color schemes I see in nature and also by kids,” says Cindy.
In her paintings, Cindy’s use of blank space almost removes nature from its surroundings and puts us face to face with it through very detailed realism and aesthetic techniques of how organic elements compose the overall part of nature she wants us to appreciate, be it whole or abstract. The use of broad strokes intermixed with complimentary shades and lines bring forth an abstract portrayal of nature to some of her work, yet they resemble the wildness and fragility of living things through delicate lines.
Figure 2. Cindy Amaya “Green Your Work #2” (2018).
Nature serves as an artistic element. Using these surroundings as a canvas for her current inspiration provides beauty and perception to living things most of us at times take for granted.
She explains, “Nature is good for us. A fact that is often times under-appreciated. Just looking at it and the color green, has this sort of calming effect. When we allow ourselves to me intimate and spend more time looking around, we begin to notice patterns that we didn’t know were there before.”
Appreciation of living things is not an understatement in Cindy’s technique, as nature gives life to the whole ecosystem, including aiding in our existence and that of animals. Through Cindy’s perception we can take a closer look in the safe space these living things provide just by their colors, shapes, and as living, breathing organisms alone. Interlacing this understanding with our surroundings only makes our experience and perception richer of why they matter.
All photos courtesy of Cindy Amaya. To view more of her work, visit her site.
A poetry pairing to Cindy’s artwork:
Turtle Came to See Me
BY MARGARITA ENGLE
The first story I ever write
is a bright crayon picture
of a dancing tree, the branches
tossed by island wind.
I draw myself standing beside the tree,
with a colorful parrot soaring above me,
and a magical turtle clasped in my hand,
and two yellow wings fluttering
on the proud shoulders of my ruffled
Cuban rumba dancer's
fancy dress.
In my California kindergarten class,
the teacher scolds me: REAL TREES
DON'T LOOK LIKE THAT.
It's the moment
when I first
begin to learn
that teachers
can be wrong.
They have never seen
the dancing plants
of Cuba.