I wrote this for being published on the web, a few years ago, answering questions from another fellow artist. In july 2010 my words were published on the Pink Panther Magazine
“I’m a mother of two, and live with
my husband and kids in Buenos
Aires city, Argentina.
I come from an artistic background (of
musicians and visual artists) since most of my
family developed artistic careers. The strange
thing is that I’m the first woman in the Casalla
family who are trying to pursue a career in the
arts.
My major is Drama. I’m an actress. I graduated
from the former National School of Drama in
1990, and from then on I’ve been trying to cope
with my theatre activities and my family duties.
I’ve been in and out of stage many times along
the years; meanwhile I’ve been working as
drama teacher’s assistant at the Drama School.
Having small children was challenging and
when we bought our first PC and I discovered
other ways to be creative something exploded
inside…a new creative way of
exploration….that I could go into alone and at
home, and in many ways nurtured my theatre
activities. I wrote my first theatre play with a
friend, and most of the idea came from a series
of image works I had done. It is so exciting, to
see and develop ideas and concepts in different
media.
I enjoy creating Digital Art through Photoshop.
I started in 2006, trying to enhance my
photographs, since I did not have a good
camera. Then I found a group of people who
played with common pictures to create fantastic
fantasy images, through a technique called
Amazing Circles, and then I joined many other
groups that worked in a collaborative way. Most
of people there were so kind in sharing some
tips, but mostly I learnt from watching. This
was the starting point to me….to be able to
experiment using filters, layers, collaging
images to create something entirely new, but
in some way present in the inspirational
original image. It was fantastic to exchange
opinions with the people lending the image to
work with, and discover that even when my
result seemed ages from their image I had
been able to catch a certain feeling or mood
that that person was going through while
taking that particular pic. And this was not
because I intentionally plunged for it….but
because, images speak by themselves! At
least to me!
I usually don’t start with a concept, but the
image starts leading me into unexpected
paths….and this is so thrilling to me! Is
always a self discovery journey…in many
senses, artistically (I’m a self taught person,
so every work widens my skills) and
personally (because some works can be a bit
creepy or dark or unfamiliar to me, and if I
decide to search, I can find many ideas to
work out feelings or emotions that needed to
come to light to be faced).
Creating is a way of self discovery…. and
this is why I enjoy it so much.
I was always amazed at the people’s response
to my images. Their writings have always
enlighten my works, because many times they
bring things to light that I had not discovered
by myself, lost in trying to achieve an artistic
final result. When somebody can relate to my
work I feel as in Theatre, communicated, I
love this feedback experience!
I aspire to keep growing and never cease to
explore…. and being able to share those
visions along the path in a creative way.
Paraphrasing Marcel Proust, keep trying to
see with new eyes…. “ Daniela Casalla
