From the moment Marlene began her journey into art at just five years old, her aim was not to express the world around her but observe and develop upon the one that existed within. As she says: ‘I did not look to express myself to others but to create a personal fantasy world where I could be understood, feel at ease, and dream’. Yet, it is arguably this introspection and this consistent refinement of her imagination that allowed Marlene to devise the surrealistic pieces she creates today – works, she claims, that extend directly from her subconscious realm.
After becoming fascinated with art from a young age, Marlene entered the Escuela De Bellas Artes in the city she was in born in, Santiago in the Dominican Republic. Though, in a manner similar to those of the nineteenth century who looked to break free from the tradition of classical paintings, Marlene too felt trapped within her school’s seemingly archaic curriculum. After a few months, she finally snapped and told her professor that ‘Keeping me enclosed for months in a room painting the same still-life subject is an atrocity to my creativity as it is killing it’. That remark, followed by her outright refusal to create any further still-life works, would lead Marlene to being expelled. After this Marlene decided to ditch the idea of art as being a career path altogether and enrolled in Law School.
