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Maureen Gubia lives and works in Ecuador.
Spilling white gouache on a smooth surface such as paper, embracing accidents. I work with watercolors in this way. Sometimes I use washable markers and pour water, dripping big drops onto the marker-colored surface. Letting the medium spread as it wishes, I work intuitively. I gather my own pulse and master it. I don’t have a desk; I work on my bedroom floor. As a subject, I prefer randomness and ambiguity, though I do keep a visual journal, which I take everywhere I can. I have an aversion to writing in general, so to keep my memories afloat I prefer to draw them. Sometimes I photograph key scenes in my life; sometimes I videotape them.
I’m self-taught. It’s been an evolving process, trial and error. It feels like what I create, the things I make in any medium—including sound and music—are subject to many interpretations, open-ended. I love freeform anything. I’m very drawn to dreamy, nightmarish allusions in any artistic medium. I have a sharp sensitivity towards internal struggles, towards quiet ones. Often times I paint whenever I wish. I never force myself to make anything unless I have to work on commissioned pieces.
“Freelance illustrator” family photo albums are a constant source of inspiration. I collect the curious looking ones. Usually they are peculiar compositions with slightly melancholy faces and usually something odd and humorous happening. Though my process is somewhat like appropriation, I do change a lot of elements of the picture when I paint these images. I try to imagine the event or the moment in which it was taken, and I just keep adding my personal views to it, projecting my own made-up stories into it. I found this one picture of my younger sister when she was maybe six. She was wearing a tiara, a red cape, and a white lace dress with this banner thing girls in beauty pageants have to wear across their torso. It read: “Princesita de Navidad.” She had a strong expression on her face—annoyance and bitterness. I had to paint it.
My sister also helped me self-publish a handmade art book conceived of two years ago, in August 2005. She sewed, glued, and bound it under my direction. People from around the world sent me personal pictures of their birthday parties when they were kids. I asked them to do that via my online journal. I had this idea to compile these pictures, mix and draw them, and turn them all into some warped photo album. I only made 20 copies. It took a lot of dedication.
I’ve had numerous group exhibitions in different cities scattered all over the globe. I’m eager to work on large-scale oil paintings, and drawings/collages mounted on glass that would be viewable from both sides. I want to build with shapes and cutouts to create the images I see in my mind, the images I wish to materialize and immortalize. *
