Ojo123 (2023) Drawing by Daniel Portales

" I remember my first box of watercolors when I was about 8 years old, a teacher at my primary school gave it to me, he was the first to encourage me to take seriously what at that time I had no idea what it was and that I would later know by name. the name of "talent". The emotion I felt was great, so much so that as soon as I got home I took off my uniform and painted without stopping. I painted with the only brush that came in the box, a brush of depressing quality hahaha, but for me it was wonderful. From that moment I knew what I was born for, and today I can say with complete certainty that I was born to be an excellent father, a grateful son, a protective brother, an unconditional friend, a loving partner, a great artist, and above all, a humble person."

    I was born on February 5, 1991 in Cuba. Since I was little I was a lonely, silent, passive child. I spent hours reading or playing with inanimate objects using the extensive imagination acquired after having spent long hours lost in my thoughts; Yes, he was a very creative child. Reading was one of my great passions from a very early age, making it possible to be an outstanding student.

  My talent was discovered around the age of 8, when I realized that I was attracted to tracing illustrations from school books and then I was already able to illustrate my own fantastic scenes on paper. Due to my family's economic scarcity, I never had the possibility of having the necessary materials to enrich my skills. Furthermore, the place where I lived did not offer great importance to the discovery of talents and the promotion of their professional careers in the artistic field.< /p>

   So I lived in ignorance of my capacity as a creator for many years until upon completing my secondary studies in 2006 I had the opportunity to enter the "Pepito Tey" School of Art Instructors; from Santiago de Cuba. For 4 years I trained as a plastic arts instructor, receiving classes in History and Appreciation of the Arts, Film Appreciation, Pedagogy, Teaching Methodology of the Plastic Arts, Elements of Professional Training, Drawing and Painting Workshops, Ceramics Workshop, among others. others.

   I graduated as an Arts Instructor in 2011 at the age of 19 with not many expectations about my profession, since I only wanted to be an artist. Of course, given my young age, I still did not value the importance of having all that knowledge accumulated in four years of studies and I just wanted to jump into action.

  In 2022 I moved to the United States in search of asylum and where I have decided to return to my great passion for painting. I am currently 32 years old and have a dream: to be a successful artist. Really, what I want most is to touch people's hearts with my work, to make them feel identified with it. I want to be the bridge between people's souls, create similarity, empathy, make love the most spoken language in the world.

• Nationality: CUBA
• Date of birth : 1991
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Cuban Artists