CeliA Soto

OIL PAINTING AND COLOURS

Inspired by the paintings of the 19th, 20th Century, she invents her own particular way of interpreting art, blending various style influences in one creation. For example by taking inspiration in its colors from Pop art and the use of contrasted chromatism, impressionist strokes of light on realist representations, abstract touches in the middle of a well-defined water. On the first layers she might write on the linen canvas, infuse some healing energy, add collages which appear underneath the painting...

Against all formatting she doesn't want to be classified into a style.

According to her, artists are here to translate feelings into creation, for the others to feel.

Our feelings are not always the same and evolve through the years depending on life. It would be a pity to be prisoner of one single style just for the show of it, which is what the mainstream art world still promotes.

Wanting to be real to herself, she follows her guidance, her feelings. Her main inspiration is Nature.

She enhances the elements by meticulously researching and reproducing the vibrance truly present in nature.

Through her use of the spatula, reliefs and blendings emerge, playing with the light and creating movements amplified by shadows. For this special reason, she prefers the oil painting technique.

You will mainly see her paint on the beach, the process becomes a performance as the sea, the sand, the wind and the painting process all danse in a momentary composition.

WATER / FEELINGS  REPRESENT !

She's fascinated by water in all it's shapes, movements and colors.

Water, which mostly appears in her paintings and performances, is a reflection of human consciousness and subconscious. In onyric language, water symbolizes the way you feel, your relationships, your social ways ; depending on the state of the water, it gives you insights on how you feel.

With her art, CeliA wants to give Water, the cycle of water and nature, its sometimes forgotten importance.

As a response to the alarming single-use plastic invasion around the globe, CeliA Soto decided to paint a Limited Edition of thermic bottles in Venice:

The « Energy Art Bottles©».

Each one is a work of art in itself, signed, and has been infused with a special vibe by the painter, a feeling, which will manifest in the owner's life, adding to their power of manifestation.

These last few years, she has always been living in cities near water. Valencia in Spain, Oostende, Brussels in Belgium and recently, Venice in Italy. This city was built on water on 421 AC and is still the same nowadays. She qualifies herself as "Veneziana di cuore", Venetian from heart.

Venice is a city which depends directly on human activity. Climate change consequences are directly visible on the city.

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KARMIC PAINTING

Her research into her family tree, the repeating patterns of behaviour in different generations, has led her to paint as a way of healing family traumas. By first feeling the feelings her family members denied in themselves and then by expressing them, painting them, in order for these to be consciously felt, communicated, out and free so they don't pass onto the next generations. In this case her work becomes more symbolic and as she calls it, Karmic.

She draws objects which have a symbolic value to her and sometimes mixes them with collages of old black and white pictures from her family tree. She supports her work with psychogenealogy.

She also wrote a play called "Realidad", where she extracts the difficult feelings and consequences her Spanish family experienced during the immigration wave to Belgium in the sixties.

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YONI PAINTING

She also practices "Yoni Painting", which consists in using her own menstrual blood in order to paint ; the act in itself becomes a cyclic performance... A sacred ritual, where she gives space to herself, to dive deep in this intense mystery of life and being a woman.

Women have been invisible or shut down for many centuries, having to hide their sexuality, menstruation and power ; shame has been a constant consequence in their life, just for the fact of existing !

Celia Soto becomes part of the Feminist movement, re-taking her right to exist, reclaiming women's obvious and what should be their normal space in society, as the equal of men. As the Ying, Yang Symbol, masculine and feminine are ONE to create the perfection of life.

As she states: "Let's get out of those gender role boxes : a man also has a "feminine" side and a woman, a "masculine" side ; both sides need to coexist in order to have a harmonious life. We are more than a stereotype, We are Life and life can't be contained."

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SINGER / SONGWRITER

CeliA writes and sings her songs. Mostly influenced by reggae, soul and world music, she's been in various bands a few years ago. She now mostly focuses on her painting career. You can find some older recordings of live concerts on her Soundcloud page. You might find her jamming in cafés...

CeliA Soto currently lives between Brussels and Venice.