I am an abstract realist dreaming that I am dreaming. I go ‘Behind the Seens,’ to a reality stretched to the edge---just short of falling off---to encompass ‘beyond.’
I begin with the hypothesis: Art, my art, has powers. My paintings seem to have a life all their own—a force and momentum beyond me, of higher intelligence than mine. The paintings order a complex mesh of inherent paradox by unscrambling lived metaphors. They are "Visual Prophets," ‘viewmaster’ to reveal the grand connections.
Collaborating with history, the site, community and design teams for the goals of public art provides opportunity for my work to reach Everyman, beyond the art-viewing crowd. While reflecting culture, I recognize the power of Art in creating culture. I see jewels in the backstreets and paint up a reality that I can live in.
“Maria Mijares is a supreme individualist living a life of art as she alone conceives it. When she appears in one of her own paintings, it is as a stark silhouette slouched against the wall...But when she works it is the straight-edged, cutting silhouette of her forceful mind which haunts her work and gives it shape and meaning.”
David J. Wilson
Rutgers Alumni Magazine
