Amancio Paradela
Amancio Paradela is a Miami native and avid tinkerer. His appreciation for the arts and the natural world began with precocious curiosity and watching the thunderstorms roll across the Everglades.
Amancio graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with studies in Biology and Anthropology, and shortly thereafter with a Master of Arts in International Administration.
After several years working in nonprofit administration, Amancio returned to the arts as a strategist and administrative problem solver. Unable to resist the creative inspiration of trees and their derivatives, Amancio uses wood and paper to reimagine their former embodiments.
From the Artist
Splinters and paper cuts are honorable. They are stinging reminders of the restorative rituals in finding new life in desiccated and reconstituted media. Grain, knots, and beetle bores are indicative of the natural processes that take place in the life of a tree. In most instances, the production of paper removes every trace of those processes.
I find solace in restoring the beauty of these natural processes through cutting, tearing, crumpling, dyeing, and painting. Every striation and crumple is indicative of the veins through which life once flowed. Every brush stroke and speckle is symbolic of a yearning for something more. Every node represents a prosperous past, and every bud a hope in an uncertain future.
Inspired by the sensitive nature of my native Mimosa strigillosa, I routinely incorporate emotion into my creations. My representation of Ficus plumila, primarily a wearable millinery product, displays its optimism with short inter-nodal segments and forward-facing leaves opposite to their natural orientation.