Rarely do we find a doctor who not only heals her patients through her knowledge and medical skills but also through her creativity, and her artistic creations. Dr Andrea Ignacio, Doctor of Chiropractic. D.C. at InTouch Clinic, is one such doctor who shares with BTW her facet of being an artist.
Tell us briefly about yourself: where you were born and raised, your educational background, etc.
I’m an American Doctor of Chiropractic, born and raised in Colorado.
Were you initiated into arts and painting during your childhood?
The arts were ever present when I was a child. My mother taught art prior to her marriage, so she enabled us in that direction. From what I remember, creating visual art was something my siblings did quite a bit, and most of us played some sort of instrument and were taken to the symphony quite often. I also spent years in choirs and drama. Although art was also encouraged, what I’m most extensively experienced in is building and problem solving – critical thinking. We spent extensive time with our father doing projects around the home, and we were all competent with power and hand tools by our early to mid teens and learned quite thoroughly how to think through any project we undertook to do the best job possible. Honestly, creating visual art was never my interest or talent, but I’m happy to know I absorbed some of that along the way.
Tell us briefly about the kind of arts that you pursue. Who has been your inspiration?
My initial inspiration was simply color. I had piles of swipe files I’d collected of images and rooms and patterns I liked. I only wanted to create one or two pieces that are saturated with one particular color I like, using decoupage/collage – since I can’t draw. The first two came out really well and I was encouraged to keep going. It snowballed from there!
Tell us about the significance of art in your life.
I could not live without art. My obsession, since childhood, is history and thankfully much of our knowledge of history comes through what people have designed, built and left behind as art. It’s absolutely fundamental to learning, to development of the brain, and to our well being. It’s something that has been ever-present in my life and I’m thankful for that.
Do you feel that a formal training is essential to pursue arts?
Absolutely not! Although… maybe I can’t be objective because of my background. I feel like my art came out of nowhere, but really there’s a lot of learning and interest that has gone in to it. However I don’t doubt there are people with zero art in their background who have created amazing things out of their imagination. And really imagination is all you need, and the courage to just START trying to create what you imagine.
Tell us about the art classes that you offer.
So far I haven’t taught any classes, but I’ve been asked by a few people to consider giving collage classes. I’m definitely going to pursue that! It sounds fun.
What kind of help and support do you seek to help reach your goal?
Ah fantasy question! At this point, as a very new artist, I can’t really ask for more than appreciation for what I’ve made so far, encouragement and advice from established artists, and inshaallah to sell the pieces I’ve already made. If I could make this a major part of my career, that would be amazing, but I think that’s far in the future if the value of the pieces goes up. As the gallerist and administrator for InTouch Clinic Gallery, I hope the success of this exhibit leads to more artist interest in exhibiting with us, and for other new artists to take the leap into creating a show.
Have you participated/held exhibitions in Bahrain or in any other place? Give us a list of the last few.
Nope, zilch!
What is your message to the aspiring artists of Bahrain?
There is great appreciation and reception of art here in Bahrain, and it’s an amazing place to develop your style and to become known. Bahrain is very diverse, yet the scale of the country makes it easy to access everything and gain exposure. More importantly, we have access to all of the arts, between the museums, cultural areas, national theater and arts & crafts shops and groups. There’s no lack of outlet or resources. If you haven’t started creating art, just START making something and it will flow from there.