Today we’d like to introduce you to Nayda A. Cuevas.
Nayda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Hato Rey, PR. I lived with my parents and sister in Caguas until the age of 10. My family migrated in 1990 to Deltona, FL. As a means of negotiating alienation and the absence of familiar people and places, I turned to the arts to explore my identity. I credit my high school mentor and teachers Mrs. Houdeshell and Mrs. Morgan for providing all the art tools available at my disposal, painting, printmaking, ceramics, graphic design, & photography. With the encouragement and support from my parents and family, I took all these tools to undergrad and graduate school. There, I refined my skill and artistic voice.
My passion emerged for unearthing a visual language to better articulate through visual arts my observation and/or interpretation of my Latino American experience. As an artist, my interest lies in using history, art history, and current cultural trends to produce images of both my physical and emotional experiences of displacement. I obtained a BFA in Fine Art (2002) from Stetson University in Deland, FL and my MFA in Visual Arts (2015) at Lesley University College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. I have called Boston my home for the past 10 years.
Has it been a smooth road?
Without obstacles, I believe, we cannot grow and demonstrate what we are really passionate about. The Art world is a complex institution, one I am actively deciphering. In it, I can paint or draw my discontent, my anger, my happy or political views.
Life is a juggling act where I must find balance in the role of Artist, Wife, and Mother. Women are held to a different implicit cultural bias. A woman is expected to sacrifice her time, ambition and sense of self to a higher purpose.
My advice to the young artist is to read and pay attention in art history, after all “To build a future you have to know the past” (by Otto Frank). Produce as much as possible, learn to take constructive criticism and become comfortable with rejection. Never allow people or words to discourage you.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with your business – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My artwork represents a journey in my continuous search to make connections with the people around me and in the place, I live. Exploring my identity produces a visceral exchange of personal and political identity while cultivating an awareness of “otherness.” As an Interdisciplinary artist, I use different mediums and experiences to challenge the viewer visually, of what they think they know.
My work entitled Expectations of Motherhood aims to draw attention to society’s standards for what a mother should do or be, aside from the challenges that as Mothers we overcome; mostly in silence or invisibility. Mothers become the purview of the public, which feels it has the right to dictate what a mother should and shouldn’t do or be. Women are held to a different implicit cultural bias. A woman is expected to sacrifice her time, ambition and sense of self to a higher purpose; Expectation of Motherhood is one more worthy than a woman’s own identity. Becoming a mother challenges her values, leaves a space of solitude, and it is a place where everyone around rushes to fill. It is important for me as an artist (and Mother) to create a dialogue and expose the complacent tags society imposes on women and mothers. Motherhood is not a selfless sacrifice, it is a privilege. Referring to motherhood as a sacrifice and selflessness is a language used to take away a woman’s power and keep her disempowered.
My series entitled #Latina: Reclaiming the Latina tag, allows exploration to discuss Western society’s view of the myth/stereotype of the Latina woman. The series consists of 100 selfie sized portraits measuring 3”x5” of those women who posted their selfies on the Tumblr blog. Reclaiming the Latina Tag blog exists on the social media Tumblr and the creator encourages a woman to post selfies of a non-hypersexualized image of what it truly means to be or look like a Latina. By representing the quickly created selfie with a more traditional, time-sensitive painting approach and hanging it on an art gallery wall, I want viewers to also slow down and more deeply engage the politics of identity negotiated in a portrait, from ethnic identity to social activism.
My self-published art/historical book Puerto American and the art created aims to explore narrative structures by recovering the suppressed or forgotten histories of my Puerto Rican heritage. Violence, secrets kept by the US government, murder, conspiracy, and torture occurred because of a large group of individuals wanted to gain independence from the United Sates. I knew nothing of this dark history nor did I know that when, as an adult, I began looking into the tragic effects of that history on my very own family, I would be warned more than once to be careful who I spoke with and what use I made of the information I discovered. My work aims to shed boundaries and engage in open dialogue around history, Latin@ identity, and of today’s important issues in Puerto Rico. Especially, the lack of support by the government after Hurricane Maria devastated the island on September of 2017.
What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Become a Renaissance woman.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.naydacuevasart.com
- Email: naydacuevas@yahoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naydacuevas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naydacuevasart/
Image Credit:
Rafael Pacheco, Mark Teiwes
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
