Francisca Vergara
Francisca Vergara
Santa Monica, CA
Los Angeles-based artist Francisca Vergara was born in the USA with ethnic origin from Chile. Her vibrant, colorful painting mostly incorporates collage. Her medium is paper and paint to create layers of texture. Francisca likes to defy traditional norms in painting and create a new understanding of life and beauty with color.
In the spring of 2010, Francisca left her job at St. John’s Hospital for a journey of self-discovery after a difficult time with her career in mental health, having graduated with a Masters in Social Work from Boston University. She ended up going to South America where she had some extended family.
After getting an apartment in Santiago, Chile, teaching ESL and a university job as an adjunct professor, she came across an art store, and the owner came out to greet her. He invited her in to take a class, though Francisca had never taken up a paintbrush before. The experience was surreal and life changing. She ended up painting with the instructor in her private studio for about a year. She returned to California with a renewed vision for a future filled with art.
When Francisca returned to work in mental health full-time, she always yearned to paint and create. She stayed up late, took days off work, and went on artist retreats. In 2018, she had her first group art show in Venice, Italy, with It’s Liquid Art Space, along with various other shows in New York, and the greater Los Angeles area.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, she quit her work as a Mental Health Therapist for a Sexual Assault and Rape Center in Compton, along with teaching at CSUN as an adjunct professor, and started to paint. Francisca now does life coaching, and embraces the life she always dreamed of as an artist. She currently has her work on display at Artlounge Collective, and ArtlLife Gallery in Redondo Beach.
“Through the deliberate dismantling of structures, I create an environment that is
both disrupted and fertile for new ideas and colors to emerge. I paint because I
have to. And the only authenticity is what I put together, based on my desire for
them to be together.”
— Francisca Vergara