Teodora Guererra’s abstract artistic vision has evolved throughout her years spent painting and teaching in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Tucson, Arizona, and upstate New York. Arizona’s naturally radiant landscape and arid climate led her to experiment with rich under-painting and vivid color, while the shifting seasons of the East Coast inspired her to pursue dripping and thick texture techniques. Guererra's primary focus has always been pushing the limits through experimentation with new materials. She is influenced by Pat Steir, John McCracken, Helen Frankenthaler, and Brian Rutenberg, to name a few.
Guererra received her undergraduate and graduate Art degrees from Southern Connecticut University, The College of Saint Rose, and Skidmore College. Guererra’s paintings can be found in public and private collections across the U.S., including the Allmen Health and Wellness Center for Women in New York, SUNY Brockport, and William & Sonoma in San Francisco.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“I’m a big risk taker, experimenting with different materials so my work can be a series of continuous failures until I figure things out. I’ve explored different directions in my work over the years, but I think you can see the work of my hands or one signature throughout.
Some of my work achieves a sense of fluid movement with saturated color, while my newer collection is so textured it is like frosting. I may start out with a plan but then the painting may decide on the direction. My most successful work should be complex yet minimal and look like it was easy or just happened.”
Review by Dr. Jill Deupi, Founding Director and Chief Curator of the Ballarmine Museum of Art, Fairfield University:
“The depth pulls us in and dares us to look deeper. It is chasm and midnight sky, it is poplars reflected on a moonlit lake, it is rain running down a windowpane as dusk declares itself to be night. It is all of these things, and it is none of these things. Therein lies the beauty of this chromatically intense and artfully executed work.”