Born in Bogotá and based in Los Angeles, Carmen Molina studied photography in New York at the School of Visual Arts. Her artistic expression has grown from a love of textures, color and light and an innate desire to explore the world. These interests have exposed her to a diversity of cultures, landscapes and ethnicities. Each has contributed to the creation of her art and most recently, the silk line.
Carmen Molina’s prints derive from her photographs, documenting the passage of time, in places that are raw and wild. Although the work originates from her representational photography, a process of deconstruction and layering turns it into abstract art.
The work, originally on paper, found its ultimate expression on silk cut to the female form. The pieces are the result of the ancient raw material intertwined with the state of the art. From the process of the silkworm producing a thread from eating mulberry trees, to the textures digitally photographed and altered by Molina, the artist and the silkworm are inextricably bound.
Molina sees herself as a small part in the silk chain that includes the mulberry tree, the silkworm, the silk weavers, the ancient Chinese wife of the Emperor who recognized it as a thread to luxuriate in and the merchants that have been making it accessible to everyone around the globe.