Rosa Elena Flores, AMONG LOVE AND GLADIOLI

Artwork by Rosa Elena Flores inspired on En agosto nos vemos by Gabriel García Márquez.

AMONG LOVE AND GLADIOLI

As I finish reading the book, a thousand images flood into my mind. How will I give shape to everything that García Márquez has given us, in his singular style, while taking us on a journey through Caribbean jungles, golden sunsets and magic-filled atmospheres? How will I give shape to those tales of love, desire, and freedom? Without a doubt, Until August is a fantastic, inexhaustible source of inspiration which not only helps you along in the path of interpretation, but makes it pleasant.

This exhibition, inspired by the Nobel laureate’s posthumous novel, Until August, has been extraordinary experience and a great learning opportunity. I had to delve into the essence, feel it, imagine it, and take it to the canvas, remaining faithful to my own pictorial style.

I hope that my painting is capable of transmitting the same emotion that I found on every page of this wonderful novel.

Special thanks to the Gabriel García Márquez house of literature, to Emilia García Elizondo, and to everybody that contributed, in one way or another, to making this exhibition happen.

-Rosa Elena Flores.

Strongly attracted to every artform, Rosa Elena Flores was initially self-taught. Later, she delved into the study of various forms of representation at the National Museum of Watercolor, San Carlos Academy and individual workshops.

Her technique tends toward abstraction and leans to expressionism, distorting her subjects and arranging them in a way she finds harmonic, in the process revealing something profound about what is being represented. Often, one finds figurative elements of her subject that give away her starting point.

Flores was influenced by numerous painters, movements and styles: earlier works showed traces of futurism, vibrant colors that would later give way to a more neutral palette, which is now one of her work’s distinguishing features.

Having been active professionally for fifteen years, her work has been the subject of individual and collective shows in museums, galleries and cultural centers in Mexico and abroad; she has been awarded on several occasions with prizes and honorable mentions.