Artist Bio
Paolo Mejia grew up in the Bay Area. At a young age art was not a priority or interest for Paolo. This all changed when he attended college. His interest and passion for art developed and expanded. Paolo’s inspiration and passion for art initially was brought out by a great mentor and friend, Barbara Bouchard and in the latter, Dickson Schneider, who continues to fill gaps to complete his love and devotion to and of art. With their encouragements and positive reinforcements Paolo continues to pursue his love for the arts. He decided to pursue art making as his focus because it is life fulfilling and what makes him happy.
Paolo is an experimenting artist who loves to paint and draw, make three-dimensional works, and create installations. He explores the realms and tropes of 2D and 3D art because it gives him a different feel and perspective in seeing things visually and conceptually. Two-dimensional works allow Paolo to see different perspective of things that are ineffable and intangible, and three-dimensional works gives Paolo the opportunity to handle art in tactile ways that goes beyond the two-dimensional form. Incorporating these dimensions enable Paolo to feel and understand the materials, processes, tactility and limitations of art. These are what make him interested about art and what he does.
Artist Statement
Paolo’s oeuvre deals with the formality of art and the metaphysical state that deals with gestalt or automatism of the subconscious. He amply applies the formalism of art as he makes arbitrary subconscious choices, or gestalt, in his artistic processes, with a bit of chance. In Paolo’s art processes, ideas and inspirations are conceived from the abundance of forms, shapes and patterns from nature and materials. He also uses man made mechanisms and objects as his initial inspirations. Sometimes, innate sensibility is used to make art. All-in-all, these are the inspirational factors in Paolo’s art making.
As an experimenting artist, Paolo continues to explore things new, ephemeral and traditional. These are what drive Paolo to make art.