Viviana Lombrozo enjoys working with a variety of materials and techniques to create her art. Her favorite part? The actual creative process of artmaking.
How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?
I have liked making things as far back as I can remember. My mother told me that she discovered a “mural” I had painted on the wall hidden behind the living room couch when I was 5 years old. Ever since, my love of art was encouraged.
I was fortunate to grow up in a very creative family. My mother was an accomplished seamstress. She used to make the clothing for the family. She taught me how to sew and knit at an early age and my paternal grandmother introduced me to crochet.
My father instilled in me the love of words and language. I grew up in a home where five different languages were spoken, so very early on, I knew there were many ways of saying the same thing.
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However, my parents, as immigrants, were all too conscious of the exigencies of life and adamant that my education provide me with a marketable skill, so I became a Conference Language Interpreter. Thus, words have always played an important role in my life, and text has played an important role in my work.
While working as an interpreter, I studied art at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City. I emigrated to the United States and I completed a degree in Visual Arts from the University of California in San Diego, and throughout the years, I have taken classes to learn specific techniques.
What different creative media do you use in your work?
I love working in a variety of materials, and with a variety of techniques and processes. Each has its own challenges and potential. The nature of each project dictates its form, content, and the choice of materials.
Techniques are tools to achieve my vision. Processes allow me to overcome the challenges that each project presents. As an artist, I love to take risks and try new ideas.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
I feel that everything one does informs the rest of one’s work. I usually start a piece with a specific idea in mind by creating a challenge for myself, and then allowing the process to take on a life of its own and influence the course it takes.
Textiles and text have been part of my tool kit throughout my entire life. I love the possibilities that fibers offer. Using fibers is a visceral response to my earliest memories of being surrounded by soft, flexible, tactile fabrics and with recollections of warmth, security, and home.
At the same time, I recognize that textiles are rich in information, they carry histories, and have been ubiquitous and influential in nearly every culture. It seems unavoidable that they should be charged with social and political content. Ultimately, I find the patchwork quilt to be the perfect metaphor for life itself: made out of bits and pieces of information, feelings, ideas, and thoughts stitched together into a new expressive whole.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
The creative process is my favorite part of “artmaking”. For me, it is a form of contemplative action. This applies to all the materials I work with. However, I particularly like the sensuousness and tactility of fabric. The repetitiveness of hand stitching, for example, produces a continual source of pleasure. It creates a meditative and transcendental experience. Each stitch becomes a form of recording a singular moment in time.
Do you work in a series? How does that influence your work?
I usually work on a series or on multiple pieces at the same time. This practice gives me the necessary distance to analyze each piece and let the different elements coalesce and come together, or simply, the extra time to let the paint dry.
Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?
I make art to explore life and the world. I love experimentation, so my work is constantly changing and evolving. Some of the themes in my art are:
- The use of text and calligraphy as a form of mark-making. I greatly admire alphabets and calligraphy, and I enjoy creating my own personal scripts. My aim is not legibility but rather depicting symbols that stand for universal communication and connection. For many years I have been combining “text” and “textiles” to underline the etymological connection between the two words (both deriving from the Latin word “texere” which means to weave or construct. By blending both, I create new narratives. (Examples: Recollections, Dancing To My Own Tune, Ordered Chaos, Retrieved Memories).
- An important part of my work deals with social and political commentary . (Examples: Protect Children Not Guns, Please Save My Children).
- I have been using fiber to create 3D pieces. (Examples: Precarious Vessels, Hanging By A Thread, Trapped Memories).
- Producing art, for me, is “archeological” in the sense that it involves removing layers that can obscure seeing something for what it is, what it was once, or what it can be. While I have explored this in much of my art, it is especially apparent in a series that I have called “Excavating for Meaning.” Every piece in this group seems to have been “excavated,” found, or uncovered, and together, they help to paint a picture of imaginary civilizations that created these artifacts. (Examples: The Journey Is The Destination, Abundancia, Silent Prayer).
And, as it’s inevitable, very often there is overlap among the above categories.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
One of the best pieces of advice that I have ever received is: “The only way to truly fail is not to try.”
Learn more about Viviana on her website.
Interview posted January 2025
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