Isabel Pardo
“In my work I address all painting as a collage. I consider my work a deliberate collection of individual images, layers, and colors spliced together to entwine new and old meanings for each symbol chosen.”
Have you heard the Tongues of the Sacred Flame
PP: How does the current state of the world influence your work?
IP: Consciously and unconsciously, the state of the world is always present when I'm working. As a very direct response, I work full-time, and though I am fortunate to be working in a space dedicated to art, I know for myself and other artists who work full-time or multiple part-time jobs, the materials we use and the time and access we have to make art are major factors in our practices. My work is my creative outlet to make sense of everything, yet can also be a source of frustration due to the difficulties of the art world and world at large. Though I don't feel that I make work that I would call political, I am deeply aware of what it means to be a woman in the arts, what space I take up, and question why my work is worth engaging with.
Beyond those circumstances, I work with a lot of themes of divination, alchemy, and mythology as it relates to feminism and the history of women. My series Have You Seen The Horsemen Yet? was a direct influence of the pandemic of 2020 as I looked into the mythologies and symbolism of the apocalypse from various cultures and translated that into a body of work. I have plans for a few works around the environment and am currently working with themes of the gaze and women's rage. Even when my subject matter becomes dark, I infuse a sense of levity, humor, and wonder through the use of materials like rhinestones and glitter and layered compositions of icons and juxtaposed images.
In this bleeding heart I have seen more life than I’ve ever known
PP: What does your studio practice look like?
IP: The physical spaces I have been working in have been changing over the last few years, switching from a basement in my family home to a studio with windows, to my apartment, and now an official studio space once again. Though my primary practice consists of watermedia on paper, much of my work is deeply rooted in the materials and space I have access to. One of my favorite parts about making installations is problem solving when it comes to space. In my 2020-21 series Have You Seen the Horsemen Yet? The first half of the series was created and displayed in my family's basement during quarantine and the cumulative installation, Tea Time with the Void, consisted of objects collected from around the house. Because of the starkness of the space, I began to think even deeper of the imagery as an internal apocalypse, as an collective event that we all also must handle individually. The second iteration then became my Cocktail Hour of the Apocalypse, an installation of my works in my own apartment and a party of my friends celebrating in the space for "the last night on earth."
Research additionally comes into play throughout the process as I sift through images and symbols I am attracted to and narratives I want to create. In reaction to working from my apartment, my series Half Sinner, All Saint scaled itself down significantly to seven 13 x 18 inch works on paper made with ink and a limited palette of gouache, greatly influenced by research on the relation of alchemical and catholic imagery. Now that I have moved into a studio space outside of my home I am once again working larger and plan to bring in more installation, experimental elements, and would like to play around with video and film installation.
Cocktail Hour of the Apocalypse
PP: What do you aim to say through your work?
IP: At its core, my work is looking to reveal interconnectedness through symbolism. Often my paintings have frames within frames as the composition, playing with layered meaning. It is a deeply spiritual thing to be able to create art, so there is a lot of gratitude in my work and also a lot of searching whether that be for knowledge, for identity, for meaning, for joy. I use historical imagery in my compositions to say the past is also present. There have been countless people who have done this before me and will continue to do this after me. Through these mythologies, histories, and icons that I recycle I am asking how knowledge and connection is passed down and how that can continue in the future.
Teatime with the Void
PP: What would a dream project look like for you as an artist?
IP: Spacial collaboration. As of now, where I am based in Baltimore, we have some very unique art and community spaces existing in anything from old warehouses, people's homes, or an out of commission funeral parlor. I would like to expand my work into these spaces to engage their histories and spaces with my site specific-installations and imagery in my paintings. Baltimore's sense of community is very strong and I would love to engage in that more fully with immersive work or pieces in window fronts, parks, everyday spaces. Ultimately I would love to work with a museum or library to create an interactive installation for educational engagement, specifically around women's histories that can be used to view my work, learn from takeaway reading materials, and to have conversation and talks in the space.
Isabel Pardo is an artist and curator based in Baltimore, MD. She has a BFA in Painting, Art History, and Curatorial Studies from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Curatorial projects include “This Is Not The End,” a virtual exhibit in January 2021 and MICA’s 2019 Exhibition Development Seminar’s ‘Historically Hysterical’ at Baltimore’s Peale Center. Solo exhibitions include, "Have You Seen the Horsemen Yet?" at The Alchemy of Art in Baltimore, MD and "Half Sinner, All Saint," virtually at The Aerogramme Center for Art and Culture. Inspired by surrealism and alchemy, She strives to create dynamic experiences for the viewer through multimedia paintings and immersive assemblage installations.
To reach Isabel or learn more about her work, see her instagram and website.