Throughout life, we meet countless people. However, there are a few who, without seeming particularly different, enrich and inspire us with their presence and closeness. They are a virtuous stopover, a place to pause, benefit from their experience, and use them as points of reference to continue moving toward our own goals. According to some Eastern philosophies, we project onto these people qualities that exist within us but which they have been able to recognize, cultivate, and accept.

The series presented in this exhibition is a collection of ten portraits and one self-portrait, executed with a meticulous and painstakingly detailed realistic technique. These works stem from the artist’s personal reflection on the complex development of inner freedom and on those people who serve as guides to virtue, leading us toward it. This reflection is materialized in the construction of each image. The luminous, neutral background and the subjects’ poses allude to freedom, while the low-angle shots elevate them. The title of each work refers to the time the artist dedicated to portraying each of these individuals—that is, the time she shared with these figures of virtue. This period, in turn, became a time the artist spent reaffirming their shared and growing qualities.

The inner freedom I speak of in this series is that freedom unleashed from the invisible limits we impose on ourselves or accept others imposing upon us, that freedom that allows us to develop all our capacities and live in absolute fulfillment. Being near someone who lives this freedom is an intense experience, one that sheds light on all the things from which we have not yet freed ourselves.