Today we’d like to introduce you to Dulce Maria Diaz.
Dulce Maria, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in a small room in a small poor town called Tumbiscatio de Ruiz in Michoacan, Mexico. In October of 1988, my father, a professional musician who had been traveling into the states to work arranged for us to come and live in Chicago. I grew up in La Villita while going to school in Pilsen where I have returned to live my adult life.
Since a child, I have been creative – drawing, painting, singing, dancing, organizing, playing, TV and caring. I have also been intuitive and interpret dreams and closely study metaphysics and various beliefs. It is these faiths that help me make my art and that led me to the continuing study of business for the arts, which then helped me start my own non-profit, S.H.E. Gallery where I can continue to make my art while help communities in the arts and in every community we visit. We host themed art exhibitions and events in traditional and non-traditional spaces, we create events and collaborate with other non-profits and empowering organizations, I take my roots to create all that I do – from a sketch to a performance arts show, I find that our souls connect most freely and honestly through the arts.
I formed S.H.E. Gallery in 2015, at which time, I began also began sculpting and tapped back into film, something I always dabbled with. It has been a great form of free-expression that I hope to continue to grow with. Forming my own beliefs through my arts and poetry has been one of my greatest latest personal achievements. I would like to continue to work with angels, butterfly wings, the elements and my metaphysical studies to help share what I find an importance to human unity.
In 2017, S.H.E. Gallery became one of the productions that went live on television with CAN T.V. – I interview and introduce guests on a hotline weekly, every other quarter. We are now four seasons in and I now sit with the board of directors at the station after curating the first art exhibition there ever. This has also been a great way to get to know our community, help unite and hopefully inspire others to follow their dreams. Literal or not 🙂
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Maybe because I am female, a lot of my work is of the female subject and most is extremely expressive in emotion and color. Lately my work has focused more on my personal spiritual beliefs in which I translate the elements into the religious figures – for example, considering Mother of God whom I like to call Good, representing the water element, and she with Will and Love giving light to the fire element, God – two elements that required balance, air, a third element representing archangels and the fourth element being of Earth, us. This idea indicating that we are made up of all of the elements, including the negative energy left from the jealous archangel – this being the demon inside that we fight everyday. My angels, sculptures and poems all very much somehow trace back to religious or faithful beliefs with a message of hope.
I also mural which is probably one of the most liberating forms of art – the outdoor space, the size, the freedom. Capturing moments through the film is probably the next best thing, I like to and I do. Time can be captured in a journal or a song but a photo or film, I don’t know it does something different. I think it’s a great form of human and time appreciation.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
I don’t know if it’s a challenge, but I see less authenticity and originality in works. Too much digital can really loose the beauty of the smell of paint and the grime in getting dirty in color. But that’s a personal thing, I am just grateful for my generation and keep doing my thing without competition, everyone has a unique gift and we grow everyday. I think our work grows with us, and that’s really exciting. I am excited to see where my art will grow to next while enjoying the now.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I have a website, dulce37.com but I am more frequent on my instagram account: @dulce.37 – people can always email me for commissions or collaborations as well: dulcemariadiaz37@gmail.com
Contact Info:
- Address: Pilsen, Chicago
- Website: www.dulce37.com
- Phone: (312) 622-2837
- Email: dulcemariadiaz37@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dulce.37/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dulce37.chicago/
- Other: www.sharinghisenergygallery.net
Image Credit:
Images Photographed by Self
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