Artist Statement – Carmen Elena Riera Rodríguez Olteanu

I paint to understand, to feel more deeply, and to give form to things that cannot be expressed
otherwise. My art began in the figurative, depicting faces, gestures, and gazes. Over time, I
felt the need for forms to flow more freely, more intuitively, toward abstraction. I find myself
in a continuous process of searching between the visible and the invisible, between the
concrete and the suggested.

I work with oil, acrylic, pastels, charcoal, and ink. Above all, I work with emotion. Materials
become extensions of an inner search and I choose them intuitively, depending on the state I
carry within. My layered compositions hold tensions between appearance and essence,
between what we see and what we feel.

Within my paintings I place carefully hidden details and symbolsthat reveal themselves only
to those who know how to read them. Abstraction in my work is not accidental, but a form of
release — of energy, of emotion. Emotion challenges me. Gesture corrects me.
My themes are rooted in the human condition and the spiritual dimension. The primary
question I ask through my work is this:How much meaning and emotional articulation can be
held in a single line or a stain of color? My art practice is a form of active meditation, a
confrontation with myself, and a deep commitment to introspection, symbolism, and
emotional resonance.