24x30
Oil on canvas
A lot of my work is driven by personal narratives. Being a first generation American with Spanish as my first language, shifting careers from corporate lawyer to full time Artist, and becoming a mother after years of struggling with infertility. When I look at the body of my work, starting over a decade ago to now, there’s a big focus for me on these themes of change and evolution, and this idea of duality and straddling worlds. I’ve been recognizing that my work, especially my current paintings, are created in an emotional response to that.
This piece is named “It’s Nearly Light” because I thought about the shift between night and morning when the world isn’t quite awake but I’m there in the quiet knowing that there is so much that the new day will bring and that’s where I like to live.
Mixed media oil paint and oil pastel contemporary art on stretched linen canvas
60x72
This painting is inspired by one of Monica’s favorite neighborhood’s in New York - where Chelsea meets the Meatpacking district underneath the Highline. The energy of that area of New York, just like all other parts of the city, is palpable and Monica wanted to capture the colorful, nonstop movement of the people, streets and lights against the concrete backdrop that is Manhattan. It’s part of the “Ghosts That We Knew”.
This painting is on raw, un-stretched canvas and can be stretched and framed or framed in a floating frame as in the photo. It can also be hung directly on the wall, as is.
54 inches by 78 inches
Gesso and oil on canvas raw canvas
36x48
Oil on Canvas
Monica took inspiration from the bright colors of the Palisades and the Hudson River and the wildlife outside her studio window. On a daily basis she will see and hear everything from sparrows to hawks to crows to cranes and even, on occasion, an eagle.
These tiny 5 x 5 creations are more like sculptures than paintings. The mini paintings, or “mini cakes” were an experiment at first and then started to become a road map for Monica’s larger paintings. She took the inspiration for them and the color choices and mixtures from both photographs and paintings. With the texture they feel like sculptures. They look alive. They work beautifully in a pattern as a set or on their own. On a wall they appear to be floating and on a table for a vignette paired with other objects they’re colorful, tactile sculptures.
Read more about the mini cake paintings here.
60 in x 72 in
Oil on Canvas
This brightly colored abstract oil painting channels joy and optimism. Its energy is both kinetic and calm.
11x14 Original Small Format Oil Painting
Vibrant, highly textured and deeply layered painting in oil. This painting, part of her new series "The Travelers" is inspired by images from her personal archives shot over the course of her career in New York City where she lived for more than a decade.
16x20
Mixed media on canvas
Oil paint and oil pastel
Read more about The Birds Are Singing in the Nighttime series.
And learn more here.
Contemporary oil painting on canvas
60x72