-
-
Maycee Dukes
March 14, 2019
"The Walking Roots," 2019
MFA Candidate Spotlight: Dimelza Broche
The annual Master of Fine Arts Degree Candidates Exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art opens on April 13. The exhibition will display the creative works of eight students slated to graduate from the Lamar Dodd School of the Art in May. Additionally, twelve students will show at the Deupree Building in downtown Athens at 458 E. Clayton Street. Both exhibitions run the same dates and will hold opening receptions on April 12 (6 – 8 p.m. at the museum and 8 – 10 p.m. at the Deupree Building). All candidates will participate in MFA Speaks. Over the coming weeks, we will spotlight some of these candidates, starting with drawing and painting student Dimelza Broche.
Broche focuses on depictions of the human body, more specifically her body, to depict her life experiences as a person with disabilities. Her art also extends into the subconscious and into different spaces within her own consciousness.
Originally from Cuba, Broche moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to attend the University of North Florida, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and drawing. She now teaches a class at the University of Georgia along with her graduate work.
Her paintings have a motif of nature, which she uses to explain parts of the human experience. “Nature is something we think we have control over,” she says, “but we really don’t. Either we destroy it, or nature takes over. So, you know, thoughts, we don’t have much control over them sometimes.” Her various works give insight into some of her roaming thoughts, her dreams and the ways in which she views the world.
Broche also works in sculpture. It has always held her interest, and her skills have improved as she has continued studying at the University of Georgia. Beginning with weaving, she moved into wire sculpture, which turned into explorations of dollmaking. Now she is learning and experimenting with felting, an artistic technique in which barbed needles are pushed inside and out of pieces or blocks of wool to interlock fibers and create a denser, more solidified shape.
Both in her painting and her sculpture, the most inspiring and important part of Broche’s works is the messages they convey. She is inspired by art that has much more below the surface.
“I think [of] art in history as one of the most inspiring things to people, the beauty of it, the beauty of looking at a painting and how it was done,” she says. “But also what you can communicate with it. In my case, [there’s] bright colors, and it can be pretty, but you can tell it is more than just a pretty picture.”
To see Broche’s work, along with that of all the other MFA candidates, you can visit the exit show, on view April 13 – May 19.