Artist Profile: Luisa Fernanda García Gómez
Luisa Fernanda García Gómez is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her work is based on lived experience as an immigrant and the emotional consequences of growing up during the '80s in Medellin-Colombia. By highlighting the importance of concepts like empathy and compassion, her art practice is primarily community-based. By combining art and design elements, Luisa translates her feelings initially into drawings, then subsequently into installations, events and public art.
Selections of her work (as an artist and designer) have been featured by institutions such as the American Craft Council in New York; Burnet Fine Art and Advisory in Minneapolis, among other prestigious institutions; and published by The Cap Times; American Craft Magazine; Siempre Mujer; Minnesota Monthly; and internationally by Air France Magazine.
1) Have the events of 2020 impacted your creative process?
Absolutely! My position as an artist is to reflect on my ‘day to day’ existence and react to it. If today is affected; therefore, my artwork is too. My creative process always balances personal storytelling, childhood memories, and daily life—everyday life's magnificence, with its small flaws and great victories.
This year has been challenging for everyone, especially for the most vulnerable populations. I can't stop thinking about how, through my artistic practice, I can help. With Jennie Bastian, we made an installation around the idea of ‘home’ last October at Garver Feed Mill in Madison. We wanted to stress the right of having a physical place to live—not as a comfort, but as a basic human need.
2) What advice would you give an artist struggling to make a living wage solely from their artistic endeavors?
Keep the passion! We, as artists, create societies. Never leave behind the love for other human beings; and make this as relevant as any other profession. Instead, I issue a challenge to art patrons, galleries and other economic stakeholders: They must honor artists’ exhaustive work with fair economic remunerations and less with "exposure."
3) How do you continually discover fresh artistic inspiration?
I think it is a combination of curiosity and social commitment. I never get tired of creating and having fun with what I do. It isn't easy. I am sensitive to world politics, and its social indifference affects me. It is there when the small victories of the day reconcile me and make me continue creating.
4) What are "artistic collaborations" you've been involved with that have had a significant impact on the local community.
Currently with Jennie (Bastian), plus the support of the Madison Art Commission and Wisconsin Art Board, we developed an art installation for the community on the idea of "What is a home." We created this project based on our own experiences within the homes we grew up in. A commonplace to all that can be the setting of love—and conflict.The structures of the houses are air mattresses which will eventually be donated to those in need of basic furnishings within the community. This, in my opinion, is the best part of the project.
Also in 2019, I had the opportunity to collaborate with artist and weaver Bruce Engebretson at the Nemeth Art Center in Minnesota. We were artists-in-residence for two months. Jointly with the community there, Bruce and I explored subjects such as "abandonment;" "the acceptance of the immutable;" and how to accept scenarios impossible to change.
