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Art that makes you come alive
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The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Ayleen took a practical path in her education, studying business and later going to law school at the University of Miami. Nevertheless, throughout her life, art has been a faithful companion whispering in her ear the way “home.”
Her distinctly bright colors alongside her expressive brush strokes were definitely born from her Cuban roots. Some of Ayleen’s earliest memories include painting at the breakfast table with her father, a banker and an innately talented artist. Not surprisingly, the margins of Ayleen’s school notebooks were covered with portraits of classmates and still life sketches of everyday school life. Ayleen doodled her way through law school lectures and later, conference calls. The decades of drawing lay the groundwork for her paintings later in life.
After the birth of her second child, Ayleen experienced some baby blues and felt she had lost herself in the never-ending to-do lists of motherhood and life as a lawyer. During naptime, she started escaping to her Chicago basement to paint flamingos and flowers. She initially thought she was simply searching for color and life in the dead of Chicago winter, but later realized she was actually searching for a way back to herself.
Today, Ayleen can be found in her studio, back in her hometown of Miami, FL. While her studio’s warm, morning light invites her in each day, it’s really the freedom the canvas provides that keeps her coming back. When she’s slinging paint in her studio, all the typical “shoulds” and to-do lists fall away. It’s a sacred space where she draws on the innate wisdom of childlike wonder and where the only voice that matters is her own.
As an intuitive painter, I don't typically have a plan or color palette in mind when I start painting. The painting comes into focus through the process although I do later find connections between my paintings and memories or experiences through the colors, shapes, and textures I create.
Through the many layers of paint, I process experiences and mistakes. I toss them around in my mind and on the canvas. Through this process, I relish in reliving joyful moments or reimagining difficult ones into realizations, A-HA moments, valuable lessons, moments of grace.
I would say that my muse is the wild, unedited version of me as kid. She is the side of me that was sometimes too afraid to peek through. When I am in the flow, all the shoulds I learned throughout my life fall away, and she guides my hands fearlessly and rebelliously.
As such, it's no wonder that my work is largely abstract. Each painting is unique. While I hope the emotions show through the painting and are relatable to the viewer, I also hope the viewer has his or her own experience with it.
If nothing else, I hope my art energizes others to find creativity, to find that thing that brings them incredible peace and joy in this one, wild, and beautiful life.
Women and wild flowers are common themes in my artwork. I see many parallels between the two. I believe many societies often think of flowers and women as beautiful, yet frail. However, I think that's only true of domesticated flowers and women. Wild flowers are incredibly powerful and resilient, growing and even thriving in the toughest of environments. I think women who follow their intuition and interests, whether they align with society's expectations or not, are incredibly powerful and resilient as well.
The fact that my art is abstract and completely intuitive is in line with these themes. I could create representational art, create a mirror image of what I see, but there's no wildness or emotion or intuition available to me when I paint that way. Abstract expression, abstract botanicals, abstract figurative and the freedom to use a variety of materials through mixed media provides me the space and freedom to create from my truest self.
Published: Arts to Hearts, Art and Woman Book
Represented: Biscayne Art Collective
I have studied under and received artistic critiques from Wyanne and Jodie King.
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Contact Info
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Emailinfo@ayleenart.com
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Websitehttps://ayleenwolfe.com
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