Mariana Palova is a featured artist of the Miroir Magazine Inner Vision edition
The surrealist artist Mariana Palova has been actively pursuing her love of art since age seventeen. She studied art and design at the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. She is now an Illustrator at Flamel Stone, and a graphic designer at Thubten Dhargye Ling.
Her alchemical visions are expressive and delicate in detail. Surreal in nature, filled with symbolism and mystical elements.
We see influences as diverse as the Mexican Surrealists, Remedios Varo and Lenora Carrington, and the Flemish masters such as Jan van Eyck.
She explores the relationship between the fantastic visions of her dreams and the surreal constructs of design. By merging several seemingly incompatible worlds into a new universe, s he uses a visual vocabulary that references both myth and the spiritual. The work incorporates time as well as space – a fictional and experiential universe that only emerges bit by bit.
By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language, works appear as dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet, well-known tropes merge, meanings shift, past and present fuse. Time and the universality of myth is expressed in her creations. Memory always play a key role. Mariana Palova currently lives and works in Guadalajara, she is also a writer. Her recently published book; The Nation of the Beasts: The Lord of the Sabbath” is available at Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/series/190212-la-naci-n-de-las-bestias and LLSW (La Nacion de las Bestias) is expected in September of 2017
Q: How long have you been an artist? Please tell us a little about your chosen medium.
A: I loved to draw since I was a child, at age sixteen I started to experiment with photography but by itself, it was not a full enough to give me a pleasant feeling. That is why I started to make photo-manipulations, and I fell in love of the possibilities!
Q: Have you been trained, and if so from what institution? Or are you self taught?
A: I am mostly self taught. I took drawing classes in Madrid, Spain, but years after the beginning of my artistic career.
Q: What inspires your creations?
A: Nature, mostly animals, astronomy, plants, and also cultural behaviors, religions, traditions.
Q: Was your family supportive of your artistic endeavors?
A: At the beginning, it was hard for them. I came from a business family, and I am the only one with artistic inclinations. They could not understand my passion at first, but when I started to grow as artist, they became very supportive.
Q: Is there someone special who has encouraged your work and your path as an artist?
A: Yes, my mother.
Q: What are your hopes and dreams or future goals?
A: I already published my first book (The Nation of the Beasts/La Nación de las Bestias) I am truly excited about it and I would love to dedicate my future years to writing.
Q: What does Inner Vision mean to you and how do they inspire your art process?
A: Inner Vision for me is an introspection. To reach our own concepts of the world that surround us, and transforming the vision is the vital process of the art.
Q: Are there any historic works of art that you feel were visionary, and why? How did this art affect you?
A: I think that Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington are some of the most impressive works for me, they open the vision of the art from a woman’s perspective. I found a lot of inspiration in those worlds they envisioned, when I started to create my own.
Q: Do you feel as an artist that it is important to change the world, to have a vision? If so what would you hope to change?
A: Art saved me. When I was younger, I suffered a lot of low self-esteem. Thanks to art, I found a way to release all my insecurities. I started to feel better. It was like medicine. I think that art can help people to fight against inner violence and sadness.