OFRENDA

Dia de los Muertos altar honoring Rosita Fernandez
Centro de Artes in San Antonio, Texas, 2016

Reanimate

Reanimate III
24" x 24"
fabric, leather, pins
2016

Old Wounds

I am currently working on a series about trauma, healing, and transformation. The healing aspect was my initial focus, but I realized that in order to discuss healing, I have to address the trauma. So I am opening up some old wounds and properly cleaning them out. Being able to reveal these wounds on my own terms has been really empowering. As the work slowly unravels I am able to recognize the pain, appreciate it, make peace with it. This is the beginning of three fabric assemblages.

Healing and New Growth

I had a leftover nopal hand after carving and hanging my last batch. It had a substantial root system still attached, so I potted it in some soil. I am blown away by how it has regenerated. New baby pads are emerging! I am in the beginning phases of a new assemblage series about trauma, healing, and transformation. And this little hand inadvertently hit the nail on the head.

Take Care

Take Care

11" x 9"

tissue paper, ink, pins, mescal beans in shadowbox

2015

This piece is an ode to relationships.

Transformation

This bouquet of cactus hands has been decaying in a friend's home for 9 months now.

Precious Dead Things

I started collecting chicharra shells when I was little. During the summer months here in South Texas, these beautiful morphing insects leave behind little "ghosts" all over the place:  fragile, translucent evidence of transformation. I now feel that same awe as I observe the life cycle of plants within my garden. Some leave behind hollow skeletons after they die. And of course, I collect them. I will be assembling a wreath of these precious dead things. 

chicharra or cicada exuvia

clockwise from top: 

mystery seedpods, calla lilies, pitcher plants, 

magnolia seedpod, devil's trumpet

center: easter lily cactus

In the Lab

I have several experiments brewing in my garden at the moment. This is one of them. I hung some plastic rings in my jasmine vines. Every couple of days I wrap the new growth around the plastic ring a little more. Its creating a wreath that I hope to dry out and use as a sort of frame. 

Experiments in Self Portraiture

I create self portraits as a way to better understand myself, to bridge the gap between my physical appearance and the roles I play within my life. My self portraits always start with a photo. Then, I sketch. From the sketch I make a large scale paper pattern. I use the pattern to cut the pieces from paper or fabric. Finally, I piece all of the parts back together again. Here are some photos that may or may not turn into something bigger. Obviously, plants are my world. My identity is all tangled up within my garden.

mimosa tree shadow-mask

philodendron leaf crown

Healing

These old family photos of my husband and his maternal grandmother are the inspiration for a new series of work I am doing about healing. My husband's mother documented the healing rituals performed by her mother in Asherton, Texas in 1982.

Ama uses an egg to perform a limpia or cleansing to treat mal de ojo or evil eye. These afflictions often manifested in a fever, stomachache, or lethargy. After rubbing the egg over the body of baby Ariel, she cracks the egg and drops its contents into a bowl of water. A cross made of broom bristles is placed atop the bowl which is then set under the baby's crib. 

Here, Ama uses ruda or common rue/bitterwort to treat susto or fright. With susto, the baby is startled very easily causing him to cry often.

Gathering Supplies

I am in the process of collecting materials for new work. I am feeling very drawn to flesh tones lately. Here are a couple of vintage linens I bought from a local thrift shop. Thrift shops are where I do a majority of my art supply shopping.

New Batch

I've been working on a new batch of cactus hands. I'm expediting the decaying process by letting them dry out in the Texas summer sun rather than indoors. This group of hands is to be used in a series of assemblage work about trauma, healing, and transformation.

 wavy leaf prickly pear harvested from my own garden

I went smaller with this particular group

details

 letting the triple digit heat do its thing

I re-planted one of the carved hands to observe its rehabilitation

Escape

Escape
24" x 48"
altered robe, leather, fabric, pins, key
2016

Supernatural

detail

Supernatural
42" x 48"
fabric, pins, artificial flowers
2016

That House

That House
fabric, leather, pins
2016

Bouquet

Bouquet
2.5" x 3"
fabric, leather, flowers
2016

Autopsy

detail

Autopsy
24" x 36"
altered nightgown, fabric, pins, cactus
2016

Collage Workshop this Saturday 3/26/16

Join me this Saturday for a collage workshop! Let's make some creepy stuff together....

"Hands are a prominent symbolic element in artist, Audrya Flores' work, and in this workshop, she will share her process for creating a "ghost hand" fabric and paper collage. Participants will be encouraged to explore this imagery by creating their own unique work of art."

Cost: $5 Suggested Donation, includes all materials and light refreshments. 

Space is Limited. 
Email stephtorressa@gmail.com to register.

Click on the link below for more info

Collage Workshop with Audrya Flores

Devil's Trumpet at Provenance Gallery

Thank you Provenance Gallery for a great opening reception! I can't tell you how thrilled I was to talk plants, ghosts, and dreams with all of the visitors.

Artist Q & A

I did an interview for Art and Provenance concerning my artistic process, influences, and inspiration. Please check it out along with the rest of the blog! Thanks Provenance Gallery!

Art and Provenance Artist Profile: Audrya Flores 

Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio

Devil's Trumpet is on the CAM calendar. Please check out the event details along with all of the other exciting art events:  Devil's Trumpet for CAM

Decay

I am including some of my completely decayed cactus hands in a large work-in-progress self portrait. This process of decay fascinates me. I actually prefer the hands in their dead, mummy like form.

NEW

This is a detail from a brand new, still unnamed piece for my Devil's Trumpet show.

PROGRESS on Devil's Trumpet

Things are coming together and my studio, much like my brain, has almost reached capacity. I am creating every piece for this show using fabric, lace, leather, pins, cactus, and seeds. Please join me at Provenance Gallery on Saturday, March 12th for the opening. Here are some progress shots:

lace ghost hands taking shape 

black safety pin cactus spines 

an all-seeing eye 

a house from a recurring childhood dream made of leather scraps 

 tiny morbid things

leather skull

 lots of gold in this show

 snipping pins to better fit the thickness of the cork board I use as a canvas

gold velvet panne nopal 

Upcoming Solo Show at Provenance Gallery

I've been pouring all of my efforts of late into an upcoming solo show at Provenance Gallery opening Saturday, March 12th. I am continuing with bizarre, metacognitive work exposing my artistic process of decoding dream symbols. The show is called Devil's Trumpet.

Datura, also known as Devil's Trumpet, is a highly toxic night-blooming flower that, if ingested, causes a state of delirium. Myths exist in multiple cultures in which the personified Datura plant aids people through dreams and visions.

I first became fascinated with this plant after purchasing one from a local flea market. I began to research some basic plant facts to better tend to it and discovered a symbolic connection to my current artwork. Here are some images of my favorite garden creature. You can see why I'm inspired and completely smitten…

 Datura metel aka Devil's Trumpet opening just after sundown

Devil's Trumpet seedpod

ST. SUCIA

I was thrilled to have my Vieja illustration featured in Issue II: Dos Mundos of
St. Sucia, "a zine exposing what it is to be a mujer in contemporary society."

SELENA LOTERIA

In December, I participated in Selena Loteria, a fun Selena-themed Loteria show featuring San Antonio artists. This event was organized by local artist, musician, extraordinaire: Pink Leche. My contribution was #33, La Arana. I used lace, paper and thread to pay tribute to La Reina.

Women Who Dare

I was honored to have my Seer and Hand Talker pieces included in the Women Who Dare exhibition at the Carver Cultural Center in November. This show was curated by Sarah Castillo and Anel Flores.

Women Who Dare

How Dare You: A Multi-Media Exhibition

Opening Reception from 5-8 pm at the Carver Community Cultural Center. Thursday, November 5th.

There is art in everything. Our home, our phone, our car, and even something as complex as our physical body. And, in the rat race that is life, there tends to be very little art that causes us to stop and implore the lines, functions, and story that lie within it. How Dare You? will exhibit works of art by San Antonio women artists who stimulate, provoke, and capture her viewers; allowing space for the movement and speed of the competing world to fall away.

Thirteen artists will be featured in this show - Claudia Zapata, Leticia Rocha Živadinović, Audrya Flores, Raquel Zawrotny, Linda Arredondo, Kristel Puente, Kat Shevchenko, Stephanie Torres, Adriana Garcia, Maria Vasconcellos, Amanda Bartlett and Ashley Mireles.

Curated by Anel I. Flores and Sarah Castillo.

Exhibition Dates: Thurs, November 5 - Friday,November 27
Monday-Friday - 7:45am-4:30pm @ 226 N. Hackberry, 78202.

Hand Talker

Hand Talker
2015
fabric, leather, lace, yarn, pins, cactus
28" x 40"

Years of battling anxiety have taught me this truth:  I possess the ability to harm or heal myself. The choice is mine. Often, my anxiety manifests itself in my hands through fist clenching, fidgeting, or sweating. And still, I choose to purpose these hands for cultivating, for mothering, and for making.

This self-portrait is part of a series of assemblage work that seeks to explain my artistic process. I create tactile representations of my dream symbols as a way to decode their meanings and resolve the conflicts they represent.