Sandra Diaz

Visual Art – Vancouver

I am an artist/designer living and working in Vancouver, Canada since 2003. Born and raised in a small town north of Bogota, I grew up in the midst of a tumultuous political era in a dense and lively culture. Since my early years in Bogotá, my hands were put to work on various forms of traditional feminine art and craft. The latter, despite the value-laden hierarchy in that pair, had an invaluable impact in my artistic education. I developed precious skills and dexterity making various crafts as a child, against the background of a tumultuous political era in a dense and lively culture. Such contrasts, carved in me an interest in social struggles, critical theory and a passion for alternative forms of creativity. These were all interests I further explored through a formal art education in Canada. Being plucked and replanted in a new land, I began to appreciate how being a part of the Colombian diaspora catalyzed the process of defining her identity as a Latin American woman. My work looks to depict this on-going process of defining an identity, particularly from a female perspective and in response to conceptions of male/female dichotomies. Both in aesthetics and process, she explores the ‘feminine’ and the politics and expectations of her gender in an aim to challenge the value-laden binary opposition. think of my images as a play on the visible spectrum of the feminine: from powerful to delicate, from experimental to masterful, from decorative to compelling.