Spotlight on Artist Zonelys Martinez

Welcome to The Elective’s digital art museum, dedicated to the incredible work of AP Arts students. Each week we highlight a work or series created in one of the AP Arts concentrations—AP 2-D Art and Design, 3-D Art and Design, and AP Drawing (the AP Program also offers Art History and Music Theory)—as well as a statement from the artist (and, occasionally, their teacher).

From the first cave paintings to contemporary breakthroughs in virtually reality, art, in all its forms, has been a crucial way for people to process, make sense of, comment on, and grapple with the world around them. In 2020, there is a lot to process and grapple with—and AP Art students have risen to the challenge. The work many of them submitted in their final portfolios is explicitly of the moment, from commentary on the covid-19 pandemic to the celebration of people of color to the nature of heroism in perilous times.

The work is often challenging and provocative but always insightful, inspiring, and expansive.

This week we feature mixed-media work made by Zonelys Martinez from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida.

Here’s Zonelys’ statement on the work:

“I obsess with the fact that one small thought or action can effect the entire body and the way it functions. I make soft sculptures with materials like pantyhose, bubble wrap, stuffing, latex, and other found objects that reminds me of body parts. When she was 15 my sister was diagnosed with epilepsy, and for the past two years I have worried about finding my sister dead or being too late to find her. This piece is about my sister.

“Being able to completely zone out while I’m creating helps me forget about everything around me and has been a way for me to escape my excessive thinking and worry. I like to take pantyhose and stuff them with materials that create a sense of satisfaction on my hands, I either begin to knot them, tie them or even use resin to Harden certain parts. Making soft sculptures that creates a squishy texture gives me an outlet for my emotions and releases tension. It is important for me to too make something that I can squish and interact with so that I can momentarily forget about that constant reminder of a bad memory, I’m attempting to turn something traumatizing for me into something more comforting.”

And here are a few other works from Zonelys’ portfolio:

Student statements are lightly edited for length and clarity.