I was born in Maceio, Brazil, was raised in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and I currently live and work in New Jersey. I have just graduated from William Paterson University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I am a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on acrylic and oil painting. My paintings include portraits and abstracts, and I have more recently been exploring a combination of both. I find that working back and forth between the two mediums, as well as the two subjects, creates a balance I find necessary in my art practice. Though the two practices might seem quite opposite from one another, I find that each one strengthens my practice in the other. My latest body of work, “Always With Me” is a series of self portraits dealing with the subject of mental health. The body of work aims to not only depict the visual aspects or faces of depression and other emotions, but also reflect and amplify the complexity of these emotions through the process and application of paint. Though the paintings all have an underlying blue theme, whether in the backgrounds or in the figures, they all also have bright colors and patterns throughout, alternating between the mental state of the subjects and the reality of their environments. Both my portrait painting and my abstract painting are a continuous body of work, and whether working on portraits about mental health, or working on fully abstract pieces, color is one of the driving forces in all my work. I find that strong, vivid colors, patterns, and textiles are a connection to my heritage and upbringing that I constantly consciously and subconsciously incorporate into all my work.