I was recently contacted by Huffpost Arts and Culture for an interview to talk about my artworks, Nicaraguan background and life as an artist.
Nicaraguan artist Ivette Cabrera’s delicate drawings, women real and imagined elaborate headdresses. The black, white and red crowns transcend fashion trends and sovereign traditions, resembling weightless, geometric diagrams ― part botanical, part architectural ― that allude to the endless, blossoming potential of its wearers. They are material and immaterial, regal and boundless.
Cabrera first began contemplating the series while researching the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the democratic socialist party in Nicaragua that overthrew the country’s president in 1979, establishing a revolutionary government in its place. Women played a vital role in the revolution, serving in government, enacting social programs and joining the ranks of the local guerrilla groups. While delving into the Nicaraguan history that propelled her mother to migrate to the United States, Cabrera discovered a photograph that grabbed her attention.
The photo depicted a Sandinista woman wearing a rifle slung around her shoulder while breastfeeding a child. “The image made me realize,” Cabrera explained to The Huffington Post, “that women are both warriors and creators, fighters and powerful yet fragile enough to care for human life.”