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Stories Behind the Works and the Artists The Creative Journey of Arianna Moreno By Estela Ferrer Raveiro Artworks From the halls of the Instituto Superior de Arte —today the University of the Arts— to the classrooms of the San Alejandro Academy, Arianna Moreno (known in her early days as Nina Moreno) has traced a path of perseverance and passion. She graduated in 2009 from the Vicentina de la Torre Recio Academy of Art in Camagüey and in 2014 from ISA, where she studied under the influence of René Francisco’s performance workshop. Her trajectory has led her to explore a visceral, honest, and profoundly feminine art, with identity and memory as guiding threads Behind the Canvas: What Inspired This Work? Arianna’s work engages in dialogue with nature and feminine eroticism, a direct inspiration from her devotion to Georgia O’Keeffe. Her roses, charged with sensuality, evoke desire and provocation through intense palettes: reds, yellows, and whites vibrating in every brushstroke. But her vision extends beyond that: she also explores religion, memory, and the ever-rebuilt notion of home, especially from the experience of diaspora. Her painting thus becomes a space where the intimate and the collective coexist in harmony. What is something that never fails in your creative process? From a deeply intimate and personal space, I’d say the desire to create and to act; from a more reflective one, it would be the eternal return to the seed (my essence, who I am) along with the honesty and strength to confront my lights, shadows, and deepest darknesses. Which Latin American artist inspires you? There are truly many artists with whom I share a poetic affinity, but one of those I most admire is Carlos Enrique. His eroticism is an atmosphere that envelops the entire landscape, where desire and passion are elemental forces, embodying the passion of the tropics, eroticizing nature itself, and transforming it into a sexual symbol. His natural elements (animals and vegetation) allude to corporeal forms, the lines between body and environment blur, suggesting that desire is a natural and indomitable force of the Cuban land. If you weren’t painting, what would you be doing? I believe creation never stops. The daily confrontation with new challenges contributes to a kind of learning, a knowledge that develops, evolves, and ferments in order to fulfill the desire for creation in any subject, discipline, medium, language, or space. Each one, with its own personality and atmosphere, would provide me with the necessary tools to express myself artistically. How does motherhood influence your work? For me, motherhood is a creative act in itself. From a natural state of being-feeling-existing, it becomes a process of transformation on an emotional, personal, and vital level. It evolves transcendently in both mind and body, providing coherent and nourishing tools for the artistic work I continue to develop. A place in Latin America that connects with your art: When I begin to recall my past, I immediately merge with the memories of my childhood: the discovery of a wildflower, a strange bush my grandfather showed me that bore very sweet berries loved by animals, the first pitahaya I tasted from a massive oak tree, the lagoons I shared with the wildlife of that beautiful countryside where I grew up during holidays. Yes, undoubtedly, some of us are our childhood incarnate—into that place I long for, that little corner of happiness to which I wish to return one day. My beloved land is that place.