Photo credit: Xavi RodriguezGabriela Ponce Curlango is a Mexican-American artist studying Fine Arts and Photography at San Diego City College. After spending seven years at Xbox as one of the nation’s leading women and Latinx professionals in video game development, she turned her full attention to pursuing a formal education in visual arts. Originally from El Centro, California, Gabriela is the proud granddaughter of farmworkers and the daughter of a Math educator father and dedicated community advocate mother. She is also a graduate of UC San Diego, where she was one of a small minority of women in her class to earn a degree in Computer Science. Now, as a full-time artist she is forming collaborative relationships with San Diego and Madrid-based artists and has explored every artistic medium she can get her hands on. In the future, Gabriela plans to move to Spain to continue her studies and ultimately combine her passions into a single multidisciplinary career.
mucho gusto
some people who inspire me artistically
more deets about me
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When I was younger, I felt the need to choose a single, clear career path and deny one part of my identity to fulfill the definition of another. My journey from computer scientist to visual artist has taught me that I can embrace myself fully as multiple things; as Mexican and American, as an engineer and game producer, as a photographer and a ceramicist. Returning to school after spending nearly a decade in the video game industry has been a reintroduction to myself, one that comes with more questions than answers. Between shedding the parts of myself that I adapted for corporate success and asking myself for the first time what truly brings me joy, the creative process serves as a grounding place for contemplation and self-growth.
My art practice emerged from my curiosity and desire to experiment with new media and techniques. Many of my pieces also reflect my ongoing contemplations on the power of perspective, vulnerability, and play. I am especially inspired to create artwork that gives us new ways of seeing the world. As my practice matures I hope to become someone who uses art as a vehicle to exchange their wisdom with others and makes the world a more joyful and empathetic place–while remaining open to learning about how the world’s beautiful complexities blend together into what we know as existence.
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my latest shenanagins
