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Jaime Barrera

"Hello, I'm from the Yucatán Peninsula and have always been interested in painting and art in general. When I was growing up, my hobby was painting and I always had colors at hand to express myself and my vocation through simple drawings. I consider 1944 to be the year I began. Paper was my first canvas, paintbrushes my first colors. I began to work on my own, consulting those who would take the time to answer my questions with sincerity. I read books, I observed and analyzed; I made methodical visits to museums.

"I never attended art school; mine has been a solitary work. Creativity rules me, impels me. It is in painting that I find my greatest freedom of expression. The blank page or canvas is a challenge to overcome. There are no preliminary sketches and I never know what will occur – perhaps I'll put down a design from everyday life. Designs are everywhere. We discover them in the diversity of life's quotidian objects.

"I am always observing the colors and forms of nature, the objects and works made by man. I also observe and study works by the best contemporary painters so that within this universe of patterns, forms and colors I can nourish my own vocation. And thus my inspiration triggers the need to express these impressions and memories.

"Each of my works is distinct - none is like another or reveals the same signs of identification. I compose, un-compose, erase, add and take away as I go… I like textures that highlight the forms and color, striving to let the color vibrate on its own. I always desire works that are happy, optimistic, that attract the viewer and, of course, that enclose a hidden message to be deciphered.

"I do not pretend to control the orchestration of colors, but I let them flow by themselves, by accident even, but starting with emotional liberty that guides and directs the composition.

"Each work is a flight of its own, with wings for a journey of freedom without ties or commitments to anything or anyone. The final image achieved brings a spiritual pleasure and fills me with the satisfaction of having done something for myself that I can share with others."

Barrera's art has led him to promote art and culture through the university, while his own work has been exhibited since 1990 when he mounted his first exhibition of photography.