Sometimes when I have a fantasy of making a piece of art, I get scared. I find that when I think about what I want to do too much, then I don't do the work. Other times when I am scared yet still do what I want to do, it always ends up being okay. Even if some people are going to get pissed , at times I make art that not everyone is going to be happy with - I just can't do "pretty" work, I can only make work speaks to me, like my piece La Conquistorda.

- Nicholas Herrera

The realities of my life have challenged me since I was a child. I never really learned how to "cope" merely relying on survival instinct many times to move forward. These realities fed my fantasies and it became clear to me when I decied to reclaim all those broken parts of me, that in order to really rise in my life, not mearely "survive," it would be crucial to reveal these excruciating parts that made me whole. Art, in any form, is not only a healing tool, it is the next breath, the release of creative energy, the cultivating of spirit and self. As an artist and woman, combining words with visual art through film, poetry, photography, and mixed media has allowed this wonderment with such purposeful passion and fearlessness that I am humbled to be such a vessel to represent the woman-ness, the earth-ness, and the excruciating honesty of feeling.

- Tara Trudell