Vanessa Mercante

I aim to give shape to untold stories—fragments of experience, memory, and emotion that shift each time we try to hold them still. I’m drawn to the space where meaning begins to blur: where identity is uncertain, where silence is sound, where the narrative is constantly evolving. 

I work in layers—adding, erasing, eroding—until something essential begins to surface. I like charcoal and everything I can reach that has a texture and that can add plasticity. That plasticity carries its own history. What remains is a moment in motion: vulnerable, raw, honest—inviting pause, reflection, and communion.

I was born a storyteller, and now I tell stories living in the tension between what is remembered and what is still becoming.

A note
Much of my work is highly tactile and reflective—its appearance shifts with the light, the angle, and the position of the viewer. As a result, still images can only partially capture its evolving, dimensional nature. For some pieces, I’ve included video to offer a closer sense of the surface and depth, though even this remains limited by the constraints of 2D media.

What to say about me? I went to art school, but then I stopped painting for nearly 30 years. Fear of not meeting academic dogmas I was taught and the constant weight of expectations (and meeting those), kept me away. 

Then life shifted suddenly and in order to survive I stopped caring about the noise. Painting became the outlet that allowed me to face both the highs and the lows. Through it, I learned to accept that I can be many things at once—a creature of different moods. Sometimes full of energy, like lava breaking through, and other times drawn to quiet communion and contemplation. I also accepted that I can move between these states, and that it’s perfectly fine. After all, our bodies shed around 50 million cells every single day—how could anyone expect us to remain the same person or to express ourselves in just one way—even from one day to another? 

So here I am. There are themes I am obsessed with, subjects I love more than others—and perhaps that’s the only thread of cohesiveness I allow myself. Everything else is daily, raw, unscripted storytelling, and the uncontrollable desire to create.

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