MDFerrera Fine Art

While I consider myself a multidisciplinary artist, always happy to craft, draw, paint or build, I specialize and gravitate towards drawing mostly portraits of figures and faces, creatures and life, with pencil in a realistic, raw style, using wood as my canvas. These (mostly) monochromatic drawings tend to happen during heightened emotional periods where the creative process provides the much needed time and space to finding healing among my own struggles with chronic mental and physical health, parenthood today, and always as a way to explore new techniques and styles. Using wood as my canvas was one of those happy accidents that began in 2009. Not only the does smell conjure nostalgic memories, as a lover of all things nature and getting lost in the woods, I’m drawn to the beauty of the wood grains and the way it mimics human skin, each person’s unique and vulnerable grains. I prefer to leave much of the wood untouched, serving as a mirror for viewers to hold space for their individual needs. The artworks' titles hold significant importance, most evident in my last few self-portrait series, as an essential part of my creative process and not just as background noise. “When words fail music speaks.” Each song has provided validation and comfort through its powerful lyrics, with inspiration and motivation felt through its loud and epic melodies and sound. Titling my artworks this way is my thank you to the musicians that saved me. My art reflects a delicate balance between fragility and strength, self-healing and community, using realism and stretched perspective to disrupt tension, unveiling empathy in hopes to build connection through honest conversation.