V. Maldonado's exhibition of new paintings, Excerpts from a Book I'll Never Write is on view at the Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR through December 14.
Maldonado writes:
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 first started painting I didn't know how. I made painting to teach myself how to paint and I filled my canvas with what drawing had taught me. When I learned how to make painting I became a performance artist. Now I dismantle myself through my paintings to remake myself.
