YMILSE RANGEL

Ymilse Rangel

By Hank Bordowitz

 

“My job as an artist, what I bring to the canvas, is basically how I am experiencing my life,” says painter Ymilse Rangel. “The translation is what I'm putting on those canvases.  I'm not unique. I am the mirror of the people around me, and the people around me are my mirror. We all have commonalities, we represent the wondrous creativity of something very intelligent. I make sure there is an interaction.”

In a style that encompasses naturalism, impressionism and expressionism, flowers decorate the décolletage of a pregnant woman, flowers bloom randomly from the canvas like blossoms of fireworks.  They float on water and drop into a net of mixed media burlap.  A duck swims amid fallen autumn leaves. The moon rises over a beach. Photos get reflected back in paint, text swims over faces.

“I love beauty in the arts,” she says. “Actually, these days what I'm challenging myself with is the goodness of faith.  Beauty, pleasure and enjoyment for life grounds me, but I create in a slower healing rhythm and that's what I think I share. And I can say that the results are coming out because I can see when people are standing in front of one of my works, they have different reactions. They participate in what they're seeing according to their own experience.”

Beyond the flowers, there is streak of nature that permeates her paintings. The colors are bold and almost pop off of the canvas. Her most recent work adds impressions of human figures which extends into the human condition.  This reflects her other art, the integration of Holistic Sciences.

“I have always wanted to make people feel good. What I'm bringing to my art is a healing process in many different aspects, according to the person experiencing the art. I can see that some people laugh with joy. Some people don't know what they are seeing, but they have some emotion. Some people drill themselves into the ground and they cannot even move. They like what they are seeing, but they say, ‘Oh my God, where did that come from?’ Art can bring on catharsis and being a therapist, I can see where that person is at that moment. That they are feeling my work.”

Ever evolving, as Ymilse has expanded her subject matter she has also diversified and developed her technique.  Where once she would achieve Van Gogh like swirls of color and texture with a palette knife (much the way Vincent himself did it), these days she is more apt to use a variety of brushes, as well as wet cloth and even body parts to get the effect she wants. While oil was never a major medium in her work, these days she predominantly paints with acrylics. She will use adhesive to magnify the meaning and message of her work with pages of magazines and even scriptures, and uses a variety of fabrics to add an extra level of structure and feeling to her art.

“I use my brushes,” she explains of her always intensifying skill and method, “sometimes my fingers, wet cloth. I used to work with a palette knife, but these days mostly brushes. Sometimes I use collage, I use some mediums to bring texture to it. Some techniques require a bit of patience of course because they need to dry. And then I have the good, good surface to put on it what I want. And then the process starts. I put the paint to then take it out, some of it, and then apply more because it dries fast. So then I'm able to be more … aware of that still point where my creativity dwells. The plasticity is just a kind of stretching, but at the same time I can bring results so fast.”

Originally from Venezuela, Ymilse has lived in Canada for several decades.  When winter comes, however, she migrates with the birds, flying south to Mexico, where she goes to recharge and see things in a different light.

“I have a property in Mexico. I go and spend my winters there and I get to do some new explorations in my art. I'm south in Oaxaca State, on the Pacific coast. It is amazing. I really love it there because it's a different kind of energy. The water there is so blue and the dynamism is great and it stimulates my senses. And the colors! The color of the land, color of the birds, the color of the tree trunks, it's the color of people and the smiles and the sorrows. It's very vibrant from the color, so I like it there. I go when it’s cold and spend winter then come back to my beloved ones here in Canada.”

 

Hank Bordowitz, Fall 2021