The Goddess In You

rebecca Flores

Interview by C. VanWinkle
August 22, 2023

What was the prompt you responded to? Can you describe it for me?

I received an image with a lot of colors, a drawing done with a computer, with Photoshop maybe. I don’t know. There is a drawing of a woman and there might be some tears. And on the right, there is a picture of two hands with a lighter.

In the background, it looks like it's evening. There is a bit of a full moon. There are words, too. They wrote “echoes” at the top and “empathy” at the bottom.

What did you think of it? What was your reaction?

I was a bit lost at the beginning. “What am I going to do with this?” And then I decided I wanted to do something with a lot of colors and try to copy this image without thinking too much. Something like that.

That's a pretty impressive goal! It’s a photo AND a drawing, and it's things that are hard to copy in the medium you work in. How did you get started?

I rested a lot. [laughs] I didn't think about it at all, and it just kind of emerged in my head. I wanted to do a body paint piece full of color, using myself. And I wanted to do something easy and instinctive. I didn't want to do something too complicated because I do other work sometimes too, and it takes a lot of time. I didn't want to take too much time, possibly because I thought the picture I received was something made pretty quickly too. I wanted to do something fun and playful.

I started with the headpiece. I had wigs and headpieces, and I knew I wanted something big on my head. I took some of the wigs and headpieces I had around and put them on my head. And then I started to paint myself. It was hot, which was great. I was just naked in my studio. I realized, “What?? I'm going to show my body?” With body paint, it's like you are dressed in a way. That's what I think when I do it on other people. They feel really free to show their body. It was a good thing for me to do to accept my body changing, because I'm turning 47.

I know what you mean about feeling dressed when you’re wearing paint. I’ve found that with nude photography, if I'm in a light situation with a lot of texture or colors or shadows or something, it makes me feel dressed.

You do photography?

Not really, I'm not a photographer. I just experiment a little. And I've never been trained, so I don't know how to do it “properly.” I’m teaching myself.

That’s me. You can see in my piece that the picture is not really well-made. I have a good camera, but the light is not perfect, etc. I think it’s good that we can use our bodies as a tool and play around.

I agree. And we always bring it with us! When I was emailing your image to the next artist, I wanted to be clear that the work of art isn’t the photo itself. The art is what the person in the photo is wearing. It’s not photography, it’s… how do you describe your art practice, anyway?

I create characters for theater and dance. I worked in fashion and movies, but what I really prefer is dance. I do masks and big pieces, things like that. I used to do a lot of makeup, but I'm not in love with makeup anymore like I used to be.

Doing it on myself was really a lot of fun. You know, if you do the work for someone else, it's not the same as if you do something for yourself. When I work for other people, I have to please them. I have to make it all as perfect as I can. And on this one I said, “I don't care, I just want to express myself!” And I think that’s what I did, and I had fun.

Do you get to paint yourself or do work on yourself very often?

Not so much anymore. I used to do it a lot when I was a teenager. Dressing up, applying makeup, taking photos of myself or others. Something I really appreciate is self-portraiture. I love the Durer self-portraits, for example. I love Frida Kahlo for sure. I love Mapplethorpe's pictures of himself. I’ve always admired people working with themselves. I think it's a good way to explore who you are and maybe know a bit more about the different masks you can wear in life.

I love that! We are not just one thing. We are lots of things.

Yes, yes!

Who is the character in this piece?

I think it’s myself as a kind of goddess. [laughs] I thought about that. Someone powerful, not like a dark witch but like a colorful goddess.

With fire!

Yeah, I wanted to take something from the picture, and I wondered, “What is this lighter doing here? Hmmm?” Fire for what? I don't know exactly what the meaning is, but okay, we'll have fire. I don't even know what the lighter’s meaning is in the piece that I did.

I think it helps you look like a goddess. How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

For a few years now, I’ve been creating characters for dance and theatre companies. A lot of that work is dark, but recently I am looking for colors, something colorful and alive. The darkness is part of me, so I will always have it in me, but right now I want to add color to it. Like my little colorful watercolor monsters I’ve been painting for the last couple of months.

So this is different from the work I usually do, because when I work for others, I don’t go as colorful. But it’s coming! So maybe that’s what I’m doing now: changing and putting more color in my work. It’s different from the past though, for sure. This piece is as passionate and expressive, as alive and heartfelt, as my other work. It shows my willingness to turn to more life and colors. Still, I will always keep some outrageous darkness.

Do you find working from a prompt to be more freeing or more limiting?

This project actually helped me. Most of the time, my work is a collaboration, working for other people and with other people. It's really difficult for me to just create from nothing. It’s hard to just create when I don't know what's going to happen with what I'm making. I want it to be useful in some way. I want to know that it's going to be on a face, on a head, on a wall. So this project helped me work through that.

You made this piece very quickly. How do you feel about deadlines?

I hate deadlines! They make me really nervous. I think I wanted to do it as quickly as possible just to get rid of it. “Okay, it's done.” It's a big problem for me, the deadlines.

It’s easy to say, “Ugh, I'll do it later. I don't know. I'm busy right now.” I have one more question. Now that you are on this side of this process, what is your advice to someone else starting with Bait/Switch?

I looked at your magazine a little bit. I remember an answer someone else gave, and I will give that same advice. Just have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously. Just play with it!

Call Number: Y110VA | Y112VA.floGo

Rebecca Flores Martinez is turning 47 and actually living in Belgium and working in the theatre & dance industry, creating characters using different tools like masks, wigs, headpieces or/and makeup.