I’m Monica Silva. I take raw materials (paint, cloth, my own body, hints, dreams, wire, earth, time, gravity, tedious moments, graphite, paper, linoleum, to name a few) and shape the ones I choose into an artwork. Most often the result is a painting or a performance.

For example, an ongoing obsession of mine is illuminating through art the human mysteries and unseen forces pervading medicine. I directed a full-length performance, Octopus Heart, diving into this topic, and my recent paintings are inspired by both my experience as a nurse and as a human body subject to sickness and death.

Snooping around the secret passageways that connect here to there and me to you, I discover my subject matter and commit art as solace and instigation.

Iris: medicinal beauty whose roots are rhizomes— horizontal, underground, tenacious.

Engine: converts energy into action. It does things.

For inquiries, commissions, or collaborations, email airtigerlily@gmail.com