Interview: Manuela Lara

My name is Manuela Lara, I’m from Colombia, and the mediums I used for this artwork are hand-made papers made of natural fibers from Colombia. And then I painted on those papers with a 19th century technique, terrific technique called ‘Van Dyke Brown’, it’s an alternative process. And then I painted on top of it with natural pigments, oil, and mix media.

Tell me about the series of works that are in this medium, and why it is important to you.

So the series I created here is based on Colombian social leaders, female activists around the country. I’ve been doing women portraits now for 3 years, and it’s been a journey, a very inspiring and amazing journey where I invited these women to look inside themselves. They are women that have been working for years, that even today never really take the time to look at themselves to rediscover the beauty, and the spirit they have.

So that was my purpose, to invite them to self-love, to celebration. And in that sense, hopefully have others to recognize them. Not only for what they do, but because of what they are.

Explain how unique each piece leader is from one another. How do you differentiate each of the leaders in the works?

So the women in my work are very unique, and through the work I wanted to explore their individuality. So I invite them to a conversation where I ask them so many questions about, for example their stories, their past, their conflicts. But also how they want to be seen, so they choose the animals, the balancing all around, they also choose the color palette. So it has to be very co-created to work.

Tell me about your specific technique, how has that developed in working on this?

Before this project I was doing painting and collage. So I’ve always liked to have images that have different layers of significance, layers of techniques too. So with this, I wanted to do the same, but go deeper.

The paper here, for example, represents the territory. The painted elements represent their imaginary history. And the photograph, I chose the 19th century technique because I wanted them to be unique. Because with this technique, you can get one image along with others. It’s very experimental, so I wanted it to have that very natural energy look.