Very early in life, many artists know ART is their calling. For others, however, that calling does not come till later in life. The latter is my case, and in spite of being a medical doctor, I boldly entered. I was lucky to have seen the old classical and modern paintings in Europe, the Americas, and in Argentina’s most important museums. I looked at each one of them in detail.  When looking at some of them, I was ecstatic; in front of others, I was moved, and when I saw the lofty, the most pure and outstanding ones, I saw God’s hand in them.  All the artwork I saw remained in my mind as a hidden stimulus.

Once, Lia, my daughter, asked me to paint something.  That’s how I started, just trying to paint something on paper; then, I used canvas, and that was the way I began, reading techniques, trying, correcting, and repeating, eager, happy, in awe but also with apprehension. I did not attend art classes, it is painting the way I learn to paint.

I have been asked what I feel when I paint. In the figurative paintings, I feel the urgency to try to portray the object exactly as I see or I believe I see it. In my abstract artworks, at the beginning, I’m anxious. However, I really don´t know how I feel. I have been asked what I want to express, and I do not know.  I do not have a goal to express anything. I do not have an objective or a message to convey, whoever looks at it, will complete it and thus, the painting will become theirs. I follow the brushstroke, the color, the shape, and the harmonic effect that I would like it to be.  Sometimes, though, someone has to tell me it is enough.

I would just like to thank those who see my work, and to tell them that if they see a door opens to the realm of Art, they should enter.

María Elena Vega MD