Emelina M Figueroa Symonds was born in Hermosillo , Sonora , Mexico but she calls Arizona her home. As a child, she demonstrated mature artistic talents in the areas of art, dance, singing and writing. She began her artistic studies in 1991 under the private instruction of Olga Quinones, specializing in traditional European oil painting techniques. Later on, she became involved with non-toxic printmaking methods under the instruction of Beth Lacour, which influenced her to incorporate non-toxic materials into her painting approach. She now creates her URBANIC (short for Urban-Organic) Mixed-Media Paintings by using acrylic and water based art materials along with organic elements such as marble powder, sand, wood, seeds, coffee, fibers, grains, and other natural items.
Emelina’s paintings are inspired by her Latino background, the complexities of life and nature. Her vision crops moments of emotional and natural environments; and she celebrates them in her paintings with movement, texture, light and color. The woven coils and patterns in her paintings speak of the developing integration within our-selves individually and as a world community. They also speak of environments like feelings, waves and frequencies which aren’t apparent to the human eye. The flow in her lines speaks of a constant movement, recycling, cleansing and evolution of the thoughts and feelings that occur throughout our human development as well as in the cycles of nature. The textures on her paintings speak of the opportunity to transform ideas and emotions into tangible subjects; and therefore, create opportunities to direct human intention into a much healthier human greatness and experience.
