Art heals the spirit by virtue of the creative process. The act of painting engages the memories embedded in our cells, resurrecting past experience, lived and un lived, that has forged our identity as human beings.

My artwork employs a language of memories found in time. The elements of Cuban culture that populate my canvases trace back beyond the images of my own childhood into the very roots of existe nce.

That allows me the joy of reliving the images and emotions of my homeland, the vestiges of everyday life were not valued in my work. When I had to find my way in different cultures, when the reality of my heritage moved into the gossamer world of memory, then the common became the sustenance of my artistic spirit.

The creative play of the imagination, that pretense between reality and representation, allows my art to continually evolve. Some memories fade while others move into consciousness. Reviving these images is like living them again, allowing the painful and the sublime to find refuge on the canvas in the healing transformation of art.

GUILLERMO PORTIELES Tampa, FL