This mixed media collage, titled “Ilusion,” is one of several works that Ivette Ortiz will exhibit this weekend at Miami Beach Festival of the Arts.
The Miami artist used various techniques to distress and antique the photos within the mixed-media collages encased in small rusted tin boxes. The works, she says, convey the stories of her grandparents’ struggle during the great depression in Puerto Rico, from her grandfather’s migration to Brooklyn, leaving his children and wife behind in Puerto Rico, to the illusion of a better life in the U.S. and the dream of the farm worker trying to sell his home made goods at the market so that he can buy his daughter a new dress.
Ortiz is one of several artists exhibiting their works in a South Florida showcase that Life Is Art will present at the festival. Others include Blake Fisher, Jennifer Maria Cordoba, Valentina Ramos, Dianne Romero Buitrago and R. E. Sanchez. To see more of Ortiz’s work, see the accompanying photo gallery or visit her Web site.
The Miami Beach Festival of the Arts will feature glass, jewelry, paintings, sculpture mixed media works and more by 150 artists from around the U.S., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Ocean Terrace, East of Collins from 73rd to 75th Street, in Miami Beach. Admission is free.
