BELINDA FLORES-SHINSHILLAS

Below the Noise is a body of work that explores the beauty and the solitude of the desert. The series focuses on the amazing landscape of the American Southwest it has the purpose to create consciousness about the importance of preserving nature while submerging the viewer into the hidden voice of the land. An exhibition of large scale oil paintings and mezzotint prints will be presented at the Second Story Gallery in the St. Claude Arts District in New Orleans in October of this year.

Does It Hurt Me? Offerings through human history has been associated with religious and spiritual connotations making them an intricate part of human love and suffering. Even if we are beings with a very defined individuality, we have always lived with a group of peers crafting community and culture. Since we have developed ourselves as makers, giving has been a common practice in our own nature. Every time we create, we do it sharing, sometimes unconsciously and sometimes with a specific purpose. Being makers and creators compels us to give. Although, giving is a common form of offering in every community, artists and poets have made this practice a cultural conversation about spiritual connection, that is an ongoing practice. By recognizing the complexities of historical rituals of offering, we could add our own voices to our contemporary cultural conversation through the art of giving. Art speaks to us as a spiritual force that shakes our conform zone feeling de