About the Artist


In her New Mexico studio, Andrade transmutes everything she sees and thinks about into her own alphabet of organic and geometric shapes. “My painting is a distillation, like a poem but made without words,” she explains. Intentionally confining herself to a few abstract forms, she repeatedly revisits and reconfigures them in new arrangements painted in subtle, muted colors. Her compositions suggest familiar yet mysterious terrain: this could be a map of an unknown city; that could be letters from another language. Inspiration comes from the natural world, from ancient cultures and archetypes, or from an everyday urban sight, like the pattern of stripes on a parking lot pavement.

Andrade uses both paint and collage in her work. She compares her creative process to traveling through time and space without ever leaving the moment. “I like the idea of bringing the essence of something into the world in order to see it differently” she said. A sense of elegance and calm prevails. She strives to achieve equanimity, capturing the tensions between mass and scale, volume and space yet seeking a balance. “I’m always looking for a resolution, where it’s apparent to me that everything fits together. It’s my way of communicating and telling a story."

-- Leslie Clark, Santa Fe, NM

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