The Lover, 2020, oil pastels on 19 x 25 paper

We Need One Another

Like a tree in the forest, you were born to be a unique, individual expression and a member of a collective at the same time - creating something larger and more meaningful than the sum of its parts. 

I believe meaning and connection is available to all of us. It can be experienced when we allow ourselves to express ourselves, without apology or self-judgement.
​
When we nurture the seeds of creative expression together, we create a regenerative, cultural eco-system that allows us, you, me and the Universe, to thrive.

Collaboration with Gabriela Hearst

Tree stories

STUDIES

Ana Martínez Orizondo is a visual artist and writer living in
​Shelter Island, NY. 

Ana is fascinated by trees, animism and mystical states of in-betweenness. Her work explores themes of ecology, spirituality and transformation. She is fascinated by liminal states, emergent and amorphous forms, portals to otherness, and time-in-development. Whether acrylic on canvas, soft pastels on cotton rag paper or plastic wrap on cardboard, Ana dwells in the push and pull of the creative process, its tactile nature and alchemical power.

Born in Cuba, raised in New York City with a stop in Miami, Ana returned to the Big Apple in 2017 for an executive position in higher education. After two successful careers as an Emmy award winning television producer and a non-profit executive, in 2020 she took the big leap of leaving her post to turn her part-time art practice into her full-time career.  She has exhibited in group shows at the Painting Center and RIVAA Gallery in New York and online with The Curator’s Salon, Visionary Art Collective and others.  In 2021 she collaborated with fashion designer, Gabriela Hearst on her Fall Winter 2022 Collection.  Most recently, she was the inaugural artist-in-residence at The Chequit, Shelter Island with a solo show of selected works from her Tree Stories I series.

​Her work resides in private collections and has been featured nationally and internationally in Vogue Mexico & Latin America, Orion Magazine, The Cut, Cottages & Gardens, Shelter Island Reporter, Art Seen Magazine, and The Hopper Magazine among others.

In addition to her art practice, Ana is a lover of words.  In 2018 her short story, “Apparition on Elmhurst” was published in Newtown Literary Issue 13 and her poems have appeared in The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism and From Whispers to Roars among others.  She has kept a journal since the age of ten and believes in its creative and healing power
 
She holds an MA in Liberal Arts from Florida International University and a BA in Latin American Literature and Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. 

​MEET THE ARTIST : INTERVIEW in Cottages & Gardens

Ana Martínez Orizondo - AMO
​Artist Statement

I am a Latinx visual artist and writer living in Shelter Island, NY.​

Under the umbrella of ecology and spirituality, I am interested in the exploration of emergent and amorphous forms, time-in-development, liminality, cosmic memory, divine feminine, and transformation.

After my solo show of selected works from the series Tree Stories I, I began working on Tree Stories II.  These abstract works are inspired by trees I photograph during meditative walks and explore the idea of trees as receptacles of time and divine protectors of souls in transformation. I consider tree trunks as  symbols of stillness and motion, a form in place yet  home to spirits in motion.  I see bark markings as cosmic hieroglyphics,  a glimpse at deciphering memory,  every mark a being in transformation.
 
In addition to my Tree Stories, I am experimenting with a series of studies,  an intuitive, non-brush, spiritual, tactile practice.     A  manual painting process using my hands, fingers,  plastic wrap and acrylic paint on canvas. The wrap then gets up-cycled into new art on paper or cardboard. These new paintings are naive, abstract, impressionistic landscapes inspired by the beauty in Shelter Island, NY., the place I call home.  The process for each painting, is active and fluid and dependent on the time it takes for the paint to dry.  They intend to capture the ephemeral feeling of a place or time through the impressions of memory, not photographs. This new approach is an exercise in playfulness and freedom, two essential components of my aesthetic philosophy. 
 
It is my hope that, through my art, I bring awareness to the climate crisis and awaken a sense of intimacy with our living planet. My artwork calls the viewer to see trees and all non-human forms as beings,  sacred and necessary for the health of our planet and spirit.

Contact

Photo by Lorin Klaris

CREATIVE CV*

EDUCATION
2006 MA in Liberal Arts from Florida International University
1986 BA in Latin American Literature and Communications from the University of Pennsylvania
1982 Liberal Arts, Bard College
Additional:
2021 Fall - Orion's Environmental Writer's Workshop with Francisco Cantu, Orion Magazine
2021 Fall - Universe Story & Earth Community: The Cosmology of Thomas Berry, CIIS
​
SOLO SHOWS:
2022 Tree Stories Series: Selected Works, The Chequit Hotel, Shelter Island, N.Y.

GROUP SHOWS:
2022 "Break of Day, Edge of Night," juried show, The Painting Center, NYC 
2022 Thinking in Systems, "What's Next for Earth Project," Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere, Stanford University Arts
2021 ARTSI Group Show, Dirt Beauty Gallery, Shelter Island, NY
2021 Collapse Online Exhibition, "What's Next for Earth Project," Stanford University Arts 
2021 The Autumn Exhibition, The Curator's Salon online exhibit 
2021 Inner Power, Art Queens, online exhibit
2021 When Words Fail, Visionary Art Collective, online exhibit curated by Grace Langl
2021 Reverie, The Purposeful Mayonnaise, online exhibit
2021 Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres, Raices Taller 222, online exhibit
2021 Artists of Shelter Island, Shelter Island Island Historical Society, Shelter Island, N.Y.
2020 Vernissage XIX, group show, Gallery Rivaa, Roosevelt Island, N.Y.
2019 Unexpected, group show, Gallery Rivaa, Roosevelt Island, N.Y. 
2019 Time, group show, Gallery Rivaa, Roosevelt Island, N.Y.

​PRESS:
2022 "Meet the Artist," Cottages & Gardens, August 16, 2022
2022 Art Seen: The Curator's Salon Magazine Autumn 2022
2022 The Chequit Marks 150 Years, WWD
2022 "Chequit gets ready for its close-up: Tavern opens, art show launched," Shelter Island Reporter
2022 "Conexion Arborea," Vogue Mexico & Latin America, April 
2022 The Purposeful Mayonnaise, Volume 1, Issue 5
2021 Orion Magazine
2021 Plantain Bark I, nominated in the visual category for the Best of the Net Anthology by Hopper Magazine
2021 EcoTheo Review Autumn 2021
2021 The Hopper magazine Issue 6
2021 Artist Talk Magazine Issue 15
2021 "Ana Martinez finds deep beauty in island life," Around Town, Shelter Island Reporter, Feb 18, 2021

​COLLABORATIONS:
Gabriela Hearst Fall Winter 2022 Collection
Gabriela Hearst BLOG 
​PRESS
"Conexion Arborea," Vogue Mexico & Latin America, April 2022
​Shelter Island Reporter, Feb. 24, 2022
Milano Finanza
V Magazine
The Cut
​Harper's Bazaar
Vogue Runway
WWD
British Vogue
 NYFW
Design and Culture by Ed
​Harper's Bazaar Brazil
L'Officiel Italia
Vogue Mexico
​
WRITING
Poetry:
Earth-Root, Newtown Literary, Issue 15 Winter 2019
La Nada, The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, Volume 2 Issue 1 March 2019
I am Transparent, From Whispers to Roars Volume 1 Issue 2 2018
Convergence III, Honorable Mention Haiku Contest, Dreamers Creative Writing Magazine,
Issue 1 2018
Sand-painting Silence, Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies, 2007

Short Story:
Apparition on Elmhurst, Newtown Literary, Issue 13 Fall 2018

PHOTOGRAPHY
Stepping Stones, From Whispers to Roars Volume 1 Issue 2 2018
NYC Skyline, Honorable Mention, Fusion Art Juried Show 2018
First Place: Best in Architecture, @VisitTaos @Travel New Mexico Instagram contest/ June 2018

COMMUNITY BUILDING & COACHING
2021 Badass Art Queens panelist, online talk, Art Queens
Spring 2021 Dream Retreat,  thirteen weekly online session for clients who want guidance, clarity and accountability in regards to their dreams and goals.  
One-on-One coaching - Context, clarity and strategy. 

MEMBERSHIP: 
East End Arts
​The Art Queens
​Latinx Art Collective

*Prior to my full-time art career, I was Vice President, Institutional Advancement at Hostos Community College, CUNY / Executive Director of the Hostos Community College Foundation and an Emmy award winning television producer.