andreacazares

Portraiture will always be Cazares’ most beloved subject matter. As early as 4 years old the need to capture the likeness of everyone felt more important than simply doodling. For many years drawing was Cazares' main medium.

By the 2010’s it became the main feature to Cazares’ work as her attention to detail became so life-like it quickly brought her into the Napa Valley art world as The Portraitist. The extreme contrast between lights and darks will always be her signature look as it best expresses form.

After studying and living Italy Cazares’ work has transitioned her drawing focused portraiture to painting in oils; the use of colors and expressive brushstrokes brings more attention to the inner soul of her subjects. Cazares still enjoys her original drawing mediums but now primarily focuses on painting.

With every medium Cazares expresses her passion differently. With sculpture the importance of showing ‘the artist hand’ reveals the beauty of imperfection and the minute gestures of every push and pull of the clay. Something that Cazares strongly enjoys connecting to her passion of antiquity: there is nothing more enjoyable than carefully finding a surviving thumbprint of an artist that lived hundred to thousands of years ago on the side of a beautiful sculpture.

Cazares continues to use symbolism to recollect memories, as a form of emotional healing and current thoughts on the world.

Image on the left: Think Positive” Allegory of Anxiety dressed in Lemons [positivity]. Exhausted by her stress she eagerly seeks happiness within herself- allowing it to bloom. A response to the feeling of helplessness and weary sense of hope from the endless 2020 California Fires.

I spent the weekend building this lamp. Titled: "Flight in Vain 2"- Mulberry paper/ ink on a 36 x 36 in. wood/plexiglass panel with LED installation. A sad homage to the lost wildlife taken by these wildfires. Rabbits running in all directions hoping to escape the relentless flames which have already engulfed them (represented by the light). Rather than maintaining a realistic approach I decided to honor the style of my previous piece, with more refinement.

Based on a previous study/draft done from when my sister Angela and I visited (what was left) of a family home after the 2018 Malibu fire. When I was there I saw the charred foundation of a once beautiful house which held so many dear memories.... and yet I thought about the little rabbits which used to live in the area. I visualized how the fire rolled down the mountain so fast there was no way any animal could outrun it - and a great deal of wildlife did perish. The silence of death was unbearable.

The initial sketch titled "Flight in Vain" is roughly 7ft x 3ft and drawn out with the charcoal collected from my family property. In an almost automatic style the rabbit forms are crudely drawn out dancing in and out of the gilded flames. With the help of my sister we finished it in a day. "Flight in Vain" still remains in Malibu.