Exploring Identity and Eternity with Elisa Pinto Delgado

Elisa Pinto Delgado Captures The Essence Of Time And EternityIn Her Captivating Artworks

Elisa Pinto Delgado, a visionary artist hailing from Aguascalientes, Mexico, has captivated audiences worldwide with her profound exploration of personal and universal themes through her art. Born on December 18, 1985, Elisa’s journey in the art world is marked by a rich educational background, including a postgraduate program at HISK in Gent, Belgium, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Autonomous University of Baja California. Her work is a testament to her ability to translate deeply personal experiences into visual narratives that resonate with a broad audience.

Elisa’s art is a harmonious blend of introspection and innovation, where she masterfully employs various mediums such as collage, sculpture, and printmaking to convey themes of identity, memory, and healing. Her series, “Chromatic Affirmations,” exemplifies her unique approach, using materials not just for their physical properties but for their symbolic meanings, creating a dialogue between the viewer and the artwork. Her ability to infuse esoteric practices and rituals into her installations and sculptures adds a layer of depth, inviting viewers to explore the unseen and the eternal. Elisa’s work is not only a reflection of her personal journey but also a universal exploration of the human experience, making her a standout figure in contemporary art.

Your work explores deeply personal themes, such as your reality, identity, and childhood memories. How do you approach the process of translating these personal experiences into visual art?

I believe materials play a crucial role in achieving better and clearer translations of ideas. For instance, I created a series of prints inspired by Popular Mechanics magazine. Since the reference is made on paper, I made them in silk screen and not painting because the origin reference is printed on paper. (Photo of serie Popular Mechanics)

How do your choices of mediums, such as collage and sculpture, contribute to the process of healing in your work?

Chromatic Affirmations is a series where I began exploring the idea of performing actions with the intention of healing. The choice of medium often comes partially by intuition but also by reflecting on the meaning of the material. Every material has its own physical properties as well as culturally assigned meanings, and I analyze both. For example, “I choose to see all people and things with love and joy”, is a lithograph on acrylic. The image comes from an old medical book, and I used a laser to cut out signs of disease. In this context, the laser acts like a surgical tool, symbolically performing an operation to remove illness. (Photo of Chromatic affirmations)

The passage of time and the eternal are significant themes in your art. How do you convey these abstract concepts visually, and how are they connected to your own personal journey?

The passage of time in my work is deeply connected to transformation—how objects or materials change over a period of time. It also explores how our memories shift and evolve as time passes.

On the other hand, the concept of the eternal has always been present in my thoughts.

As a child, I experienced moments of self-hypnosis with a mirror. I would stand before my reflection, staring deeply into my own eyes for seconds, sometimes minutes. This would spark a questioning of my existence, a strange sensation of contemplating the infinite. It felt like slowly sinking into a spiral. I found a peculiar joy in that fleeting moment of losing myself in the unknown.

(Photo of the installation Mariano Escobedo).

Esoteric practices, rituals, and emotions are central to your practice. How do these themes influence your artistic decisions, especially in your installations and sculptures?

In my recent project, Metaphysical Gymnasium, I was above all interested in doing it from the unconscious. To achieve this, I used a divinatory pendulum as both a guiding tool and a method for making technical decisions. For example, I asked the pendulum which materials to use or how many sculptures to create.

The manual Emotional Sculpture serves as a perfect example of how I integrate rituals and emotions in my work. These themes hold significant influence in my practice because I am deeply interested in exploring the unseen—things that cannot be perceived with the eyes.

(Photo of White Tara and Emotional Sculpture manual)

Your focus has evolved from childhood memories to the care of the spirit. How has your artistic practice transformed in response to this shift, and what new challenges or insights have emerged?

It has always been about getting to know myself, whether through childhood memories or spirituality. I believe the greatest challenge lies in materializing ideas in a way that communicates clearly with the viewer. My aspiration is for my works to become increasingly universal—allowing people to see the piece and intuitively feel or understand its concept, without it being too obvious.

How do you choose colors in your work to reflect the emotional and psychological themes you explore, and what do these colors represent in relation to the human experience?

I use color intuitively. Gradients are my favorite, and for me they could represent emotional transitions. While there are numerous theoretical approaches to color—some tied to emotions, advertising, or even esoteric theories connecting color to specific human organs and emotions—I believe that each color carries its own vibration, which we perceive unconsciously.

EDITOR’S HIGHLIGHTS