Annel Citlaly Penaloza

Annel Citlaly Penaloza was born on July 13, 1988. Annel has a ethnical background of Mexican Culture. The currently 23 yr old, currently dedicates herself to fill her mind with knowledge in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems. When she was in elementary she enjoyed drawing a lot, and she re calls winning her first drawing competition in the 4th grade. Beginning of high school she requested an art class because she really enjoyed drawing. She was inspired by what Deborah George had to teach about art. That was Annel's first time learning to draw people. Attending 5 yrs of Cal Poly Pomona to major in Landscape Architecture has helped her with technical work such as detail in trees, landscape, freehand expressions, and learning from Professors point of view on modern art. Although, she majored in Landscape Architecture she took couple of art courses because it was a "must" for herself, it was something she really enjoyed. Professor Ann Phong who had her M.F.A in Painting said, " Landscape Architects are artist but we all know that it is hard to make a living by being an artist." Those are some powerful words Annel still remembers. In 2009, Annel decides to study abroad to Italy with the encouragement of her mom. It was a difficult decision when tensions occurred within her family. They were short on money and her parents were going thru separation. Annel decided to leave her mother with her 2 younger brothers, to fulfill her knowledge to another extraordinary world of living history. She felt in love with Italy, Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Madrid, and its culture. She witnessed phenomenal exhibitions of Simon Starling, Guyton/ Walker, Yoko Ono, and other exhibitions from other countries at the Exposition international of Art called, Making Worlds. While being in Italy, she had projects, she worked, and she was dating, and on top of that she decided to join an art competition that involved her classmates and 2 other schools from Texas. With limited money and intimidated by other classmates and their capability of their work, she joins the competition. She was encouraged by a classmate to buy wood because she did not have much money. She drew with black pens and sharpies on an MDF the size of about 11 by 20 inch board, and gave it a top gloss look. The painting consisted of Jesus looking away from the town Castiglione Fiorentino, but guarding his people. It was a pointillism approach, took hours, but she won first place. She currently has one of her art pieces exposed at the Transportation and Land Management Agency. Other than that, she continues to paint in a unique approach. She has worked with oil pastels, acrylic, gel stains, and particularly wood. Wood and Sharpie is something she focuses on the most. Her paintings can describe emotions, reality, dreams, architectural images, people, culture, and patterns.