Elisa Ortega

Growing up in the 1980s in Spain, ten years after my country transitioned from dictatorship to democracy, has marked the way I relate to materials in my art practice. I grew up hearing stories from my grandmother about the Spanish Civil War while she mended hand-me-downs for me from my cousins. What was a result of economic austerity later became an ethical choice for me.My work explores three fundamental parts of who I am: my experience of being a woman and my feminist values;my feelings of acculturation from living in the US while maintaining my Spanish identity;and my opposition to consumerism and commitment to environmental sustainability