I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. It was my first language before I could speak. I learned how to draw from observation and from my imagination. I learned that I could draw portraits of my abusers and tormentors and that they would stop. That I could draw pictures of my family and friends from memory and always have them with me.
When I started painting I didn’t know how. I made paintings to teach myself how to paint and I filled my canvas with what drawing had taught me. When I learned how to make paintings I became a performance artist. Now I dismantle myself through my paintings to remake myself.
-V. Maldonado
