FORMATIVE YEARS
1970s - 1980s
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
Growing up in Puerto Rico in the 1970s - 1980s, Colón was exposed to art through her mother who was an art historian and painter. From a very early age, Colón created collaborative paintings with her mother on varied subjects of Caribbean life, such landscapes, still-lifes, portraits, etc. Colón learned how to paint with palette knives, applying think impasto oil paint layers on wood substrates. During this time, Colón also sculpted with clay, learned crafts such as sewing, embroidering, and macramé weaving, and at the age of ten, painted the walls of a room in an abandoned building in contrasting colors, igniting a bonfire within, an early experiment with light.
Above image: Colón at the age of six with a painting depicting the Zafra or process of harvesting the sugarcane. Colón would observe the natural world around her and channel her experiences into the paintings. Mother nature was often the main subject of the work.
Above image: One of the early oil paintings Colón created at the age of eleven in collaboration with her mother, titled La Finca, 1977, which embodies the natural and supernatural worlds that permeated her youth. It depicts “el campo,” the rural area where she grew up outside of San Juan in the mid-1970s. In the foreground, Colón placed a rooster, one of the magical creatures that provided her with life energy during the vicissitudes of her childhood.
Above image: Colón at the age of four with one of her roosters in Puerto Rico. Plants, animals, trees, mountains, and everything else in mother nature around her became a natural source of life strength.