About the exhibition:
“Love letters to Myself” is the first solo exhibition by Elena Caballero, a San Antonio based abstract painter who is known for her light studies.
“‘Love Letters to Myself’ is an exhibition focused on self-love, reflection, and healing. It’s about my experience of finding my own voice throughout disruptions in my life. Journaling is a part of a daily practice that I use to ground myself and I do that through writing and repeating mantras and just overall being loving, gentle, and kind to myself. It’s a form of self-soothing. In my life I’ve experienced times when someone else is doing that for you, but I had to practice doing that for myself.
Painting is my tool to refine the visual language I use in speaking to and about myself so that when the time comes to interact with the world and other people, I feel like I truly know myself. My practice involves a lot of homemade materials. Jars of homemade paints, found objects, domestic items, cups of flour. I seek to recontextualize them in a way that feels like a diary entry in itself, creating a language within a feeling and mixing it up so I convey my sadness and pain, but also my resilience and beauty all at once.” - Elena Caballero
About Motherling:
Motherling is a women-run art collective dedicated to presenting the contemporary in a familiar format. Motherling was founded by best friend duo Sealia Montalvo and Crisa Valadez, two college students and young artists of color. Their goal as curators is to highlight underrepresented and up-and-coming artists, integrating their work alongside more established contemporary artists in a DIY format.
Crisa Valadez is an artist, writer, and curator based in San Antonio, TX. She currently works at Texas Public Radio and is extremely passionate about art and nonprofit work, having worked and volunteered with several local organizations such as the McNay Art Museum, Centro San Antonio, Gemini Ink, Luminaria, and Artpace from a young age. She is a published poet and most recently had her photography work displayed at Creative Eye Gallery in October of 2021. She previously attended Pratt Institute for Creative Writing and is currently a student at Our Lady of the Lake University, completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Art & New Media.
Sealia Montalvo is an artist and curator based in San Antonio, TX. She is currently studying Public Administration and minoring in Civic Engagement and Nonprofit Management at the University of Texas at San Antonio. As an artist, her portfolio explores themes of nostalgia and identity. She is a native San Antonian who has been involved in the art scene from a young age, with notable experiences at Blue Star Contemporary, the Smithsonian Latino Center’s Young Ambassador Program, the Mellon Summer Academy at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Mellon Humanities Pathway Fellowship with UTSA’s Mexico Center.
About the Artist:
Elena Caballero (b.1995) is a contemporary painter based in San Antonio, TX. She received her BA in Public Administration & Policy from the UTSA in the spring of 2020. As an artist, her work explores themes of vulnerability and self reflection as well as placing an emphasis on capturing light from the natural world. Caballero’s love for nonprofit work and helping the community has led her to a career at San Antonio Clubhouse where she is the Community Partnership Coordinator. Caballero is a Peace Corps volunteer and this will be her last exhibition before she heads to the Dominican Republic for 2 years on her assignment.