First Fragment.
3-D relief on wood, tissue paper, foil - 47"x17"
This powerful image representing separation from family, land, customs, love and identity is resting on a background filled with Liset's parents names, Marta Santaló and Rafael Leyva. Liset skillfully fragmented the map of her native island to spell Libertad (Freedom) not only as a symbol of the psychological fragmentation of the immigrant experience that her parents, as first generation immigrants endured, but also as a statement of the hand me down regimes (monarchy, imperialism, dictatorship, communism etc..) that abusively have ruled the island following the slaughter of the native Taino and Siboney cultures.
The map was used in Geneva in 1992 during a Human Rights Debate and on many marches her parents attended to expose the oppression and abuse of Cuba's communist regime.
Spiritual Divorce.
sand, paint, plaster, cement, mirrors on cardboard - 65"x30"
Finding expression within the internal turmoil of divorce.
The broken mirrors represent the broken spiritual entity that is a marriage. The colors are disorganized like thoughts and emotions are during a separation yet the vibrant colors promise a positive and exciting future.
Sand, intentionally chosen, was a free access material during an economically conservative period. Sand also had an emotional value to Liset due to its connection to her native land, Cuba. The sand, paint and glue mixture resembled quick sand and provided expression of the internal feelings of uncertainty that divorce and single parenthood bring.
Beauty Out of Fragments.
collage on wood, mirrors - 58"x33"
Liset's daughter had a favorite mirror that broke when she was 7 years old. Liset incorporated the pieces into an already existing on-going table top family collage to help Ibel comprehend that broken things can be fixed or used to create new beauty.
The collage houses the images of her children's pivotal moments of their first broken hearts. It was imperative for Liset that she be present to nurse and provide the support each needed, well knowing that unattended adolescent emotional pain hurts, can scar the psyche and affect subsequent personal decisions.
Extra Precious Time
acrylic, ceramics on wood - 18"x60"
With the spiral representing life and time, Liset asks what type of an existence are you having? How are you investing your time? Are you present or merely going through the motions? Are you living or just alive? The panels were inspired by her children's entrance into adulthood and unplanned time they both spent living at her home at different intervals after graduating college. The 2-d and 3-d spiral galaxies represent reality and shadows of reality. It is to be the viewer's and her children's discernment to decide what kind of life they live, a real life or a shadow of a life.
Parenthesis (Do you see what I see?)
multi media - 8'x6' - SOLD
This piece, styled in what Liset has coined as Systems Art ( singular-whole components that define a greater whole), represents the years she dedicated to a career as an Early Childhood Educator while she made a "parenthesis" from an Art career after the birth of her children. However, during her "parenthesis," the creative process did not cease as she found new ways of expression alongside young children and inspired them with materials from personal art she continued to explore. Parenthesis, created mostly with recycled and natural resources, has over 300 individual recycled juice boxes, each representing the number of children she had the privilege of sharing a moment in time with. The boxes are divided into 12 clusters totaling her years as an educator and representing the material explored each year.
The mirrors, which are a reoccurring motif in her art, in this case express a child speaking the words, "do you see what I see?" It is an invitation to see the world through children's eyes, always listening to the inner workings of their minds and facilitating that their voices always be heard.
Parenthesis is about community and how as individuals we make up the whole system. It is where singularity meets the collective and where we embrace that we are all connected. With her adult children grown, Liset resumed her Art career, thus bitter sweetly moving forward from the "parenthesis."