about the artist

Amy Hernandez was grown in SoCal along with her seven siblings.  For most of her life she has devoted time and resources to creativity, art making, and teaching.

After a ten year adventure co-founding and teaching with Coast Live Oak School and 4 years at B Minus Studios, Amy has returned to art full time in her own space (Suite K) in Downtown Santa Ana in The Santora Arts Building. In this space Amy paints, draws, creates woodblock prints, plans murals, sews, and contemplates her next creative endeavor.

Amy is inspired by layers, the passage of time, realities occurring simultaneously, and the natural world and how humans interact with it.  Her art ranges from representational to abstract.  Amy attended Pacific  Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon 1 year and lost count of how many years at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. She also spent many years educating herself

In my work I explore the formation of layers. Layers can be material, intellectual, or spiritual.  We can follow our own or another’s life story through the passage of time and see the creation of layers as change happens over a lifetime. We can also follow a crack in the soil, or the life of a tree, or the form of a shell, and find this process of layering.  Many layers, the life stories of many living beings, places or even objects, can overlap and interact to create dynamic patterns or forms. I watch to find the beauty in the patterns and forms created in these moments.  I look to see the small details or subtle patterns that emerge and give way to larger forms and patterns. I am interested in capturing motion with these coinciding patterns.  I am drawn to working in mediums that rely on layers like ink, watercolor, graphite, acrylic and printmaking. Their various qualities allow me to capture the vast worlds existing on each layer that build my images. I strive to bring the viewer in, stoke curiosity and give them agency when interacting with my pieces.