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Maria Deras

Dreams in the Desert, a poem by Maria Deras

Nine months in the desert,
The gestation of dawn, colors of the soul's mirror …
A dream of spring and hummingbirds of summer …
pregnancy of blind pupils … there is no victim
it is I, the others and the Light.

"I arrived in Mexico City on January 31, 1971. At five years of age we moved from the Pacific coast, from Tepic, Nayarit. At eight years old I won my first drawing contest, and since then I have discovered that painting could provide the answer to all my questions, both in terms of technique and artistic creativity.

"After graduating from preparatory school in Guadalajara, I packed my necessities in a backpack and took a bus to the Sierra Madre in the state of Chihuahua, where the Tarahumara people of the Raramuri ("runners of light foot") culture are established. They shared with me their cosmovision of life and inspired my first works. This experience shaped a large part of my personal philosophy for constructing my spirit, my mind, and my heart.

"In June of 1995 I traveled to the U.S. From New York, where I lived for a year and a half, I produced and exhibited my work in the City, Ohio State, Minnesota, and the city of Buffalo, New York. After this, I journeyed to the desert in New Mexico for one year, where I fine-tuned my painting with the selection of some writings from my travel journal.

"Later it occurred to me to take a trip for 90 days to Spain, Barcelona and Catalonia in general. That inspired an individual exhibition in Guadalajara in 1999. This journal of Barcelona was characterized by the recurrence of windows of the Mediterranean."

Maria Deras defines her work as a labor of "playful realism" and an "oneiric expressions of her experiences." To date she has held about a dozen individual exhibitions. Her works have been mentioned in numerous publications, both within Mexico and also in the United States, including the Encyclopedia of International Female Artists published by the Alliance of Female Artists in California.