Leticia Maldonado’s connection with neon dates back to her youth. Growing up under the dazzling, fantastical lights of The Las Vegas Strip, the artist has forged an artistic career dedicated to this awe-inspiring medium. In her series, The Storytellers Maldonado plays on themes of memory, childhood, loss, and the ephemeral human existence through her signature use of neon, as well as memorabilia. “Every day on this earth” Maldonado says, “someone sees or experiences something for the last or only time. So, to be anywhere at any time is to be a potential witness of a pivotal memory.”
These themes come to a head in her work “The Architect”, depicting a child bent down on their knees with a crayon in hand, preparing to draw in a notebook. Utilizing forty-five different elements and media – an astounding feat of its own – Maldonado manifests an otherworldly creation, comprised of
memorabilia from Maldonado’s upbringing, including old drawings, Christmas tissue paper, and casino matchbooks – formative objects representative of her childhood. Brilliant blue and green neon formations shine from within the child’s plexiglass skin, illuminating the memorabilia inside; bringing up
ideas surrounding the potential of children and the ability of young minds to absorb the world around them.
A bright, orange neon butterfly shines from within the head of the child as if to represent a lightbulb of freedom, inspiration, and childhood curiosity firing up as the young child brings the pen to paper. The pages of graph paper within the notebook shine from beneath the three-dimensional boat the child has drawn, imagining a future full of excitement while avoiding the schoolwork underneath. The child sits on a rug typical of American households beside a wooden toy truck, furthering the childlike longing to go out and see the world. Childhood, nostalgia, love, life, and loss are themes threaded through Maldonado’s
oeuvre.
These deeply-personal and universal concepts – combined with accomplished glasswork – are what continue to spark interest in Maldonado’s world.
Leticia Maldonado
The Architect, 2022
(Boy figure): Transparent and mirrored plexiglass, glittered plexiglass, dried roses, photos taken from the top of the Empire State Building, fresnal lens, a copy of artist’s parents’ marriage certificate, lenticular print of an astronaut circa 1960, candy cigarette package, shoelace, Christmas tissue paper, matchbooks from Las Vegas casinos, ribbon, velvet, photocopy of Pulitzer Prize winning photo by Stanley Forman, 8mm horizon blue glass, 8mm clear glass, 8mm uncoated emerald green glass, neon gas, argon gas, mercury; (toy car): wood, cardboard, transformers, GTO cable; (sketchbook): wood, paint, fabric, various found paper, envelopes, collaged drawings spanning 10 years of the artists youth, spray paint, charcoal, ink, markers, argon gas, mercury, etched 12mm raspberry glass, 6mm violet and raspberry glass, etched 12mm lite green glass, 6mm 6500 white glass, etched 12mm yellow glass, 6mm yellow glass, etched
12mm cobalt glass, 6mm cobalt glass
29 x 45 x 48 inches (including dimensions of the rug, the book, and toy car)