Sep 22, 2021

Living & painting in love with our planet ~ with New York based Artist Carolina-Arevalo

As we chat from opposite ends of the world with crazy time differences, it was 7pm on Thursday in New York and 9.30am on Friday, in Australia. We realise we share many common grounds; our love of the land, getting out in nature, feeling grounded, morning rituals and the importance of family. Carolina is the most amazingly talented artist who went from hospitality worker to full time artist in her dream career. There is more to her than meets the eye as she shares with us her love for microbiology, plants and her drive to help everyone explore their creativity and love for nature.

Coming from Peru where Carolina studied art at University, she would go from studying in the city to visiting her family in the Peruvian jungle. This is where her love of nature and exploring it in art form really came into play.

“It was fascinating for me; in the jungle the animals are in charge and humans are part of the whole ecosystem. I went to different ceremonies that were true awakenings for me, I realised how much everything works in symbiosis and that my work is essentially a love letter to the planet. What is there not to love about this incredible planet. I hope my art allows everyone to celebrate it more” Carolina said.

“They say make time to stop and smell the flowers and that is my life moto. That’s what I am trying to communicate with my work. We can lose perspective and the natural world is so abundant and has so much beauty to share with us.”

Carolina was drawn to photography and came to New York to study it but quickly realised her art is the language of love that she desires.

“It all unravelled for me and meshed together. The place that I was doing my photography course, I found a microbiology class that held far more interest to me. We are a floating rock in space and I needed to explore more of the living organisms on this earth. I have been on this journey of exploring the natural world, half the time I’m painting and half the time I’m doing biological research and studying the specimens.

“When the pandemic hit I had some microbiologist friends help set up a microscope in my studio that is connected to a camera. I can capture and showcase how the natural world works to the human eye and how the species look under the microscope. That’s why I am so interested in geometric patterns in my artwork, that I get to see under the microscope. It really inspires me. If only everyone could look under the microscope from time too time to help understand that we are all energy and that we are living in abundance.

A while back, Carolina created a video of her doing some artwork and placed it on YouTube that went viral. She has recently partnered with a kombucha brand and coffee label to paint their logos as custom pieces. Carolina now offers courses to empower you to harness your creativity called ‘Rituals in Creativity’ and has also taken steps to being an eco and sustainable art studio.

“It didn’t make sense to me to be working with nature and painting with materials that weren’t supporting our earth. I now have 80% of my art supplies that are eco, plant based and sustainably made.

“My dream is to one day create my own watercolours from earth pigments.”