Melissa Fernandez, a 2018 graduate of the New World School of the Arts high school was selected as this year’s first place Miami Latino Art Beat competition winner for her artwork titled Recetas del Corazón.
To proudly accept her award were Melissa’s parents, Victor and Maria Fernandez, who along with NWSA dean of visual arts Maggy Cuesta and Melissa’s art teacher, Jennifer Gifford, attended the ceremony at Miami City Hall in Coconut Grove.
The awards were presented in front of a large audience to the winners and their families by Mayor Francis X. Suarez, Miami city commissioners, and Latino Art Beat president Don Rossi Nuccio. This year’s winning artworks including Melissa’s drawing, were exhibited at Wynwood Walls that same evening.
“I was inspired by my Mexican background to do a piece highlighting my family’s passion for cooking and making passed-down recipes from my grandparents,” Melissa explained about the concept for her award-winning piece. “Food is one of our ways to connect and showing unconditional love for each other. All the flavor, spices and soul that goes into home cooking is so lovely.
The moment others come to taste your creation is amazing.”
“As president of the Art Honors Society Melissa was the quiet leader who consistently organized volunteer opportunities, provided weekly email updates and helped collect and prepare art work from her fellow classmates for local and national art shows,” said Melissa’s NWSA art teacher Jennifer Gifford. “Her extra efforts, positive attitude and attention to detail were exceptional.
“As an artist, she surprised us with gutsy collaged sculptures and drawings about her family and life that revealed certain struggles she was dealing with at home. She was a voracious reader and was chosen to represent her class as their graduation speaker. In addition to an outstanding artist and student she also is a kind, generous person who can easily laugh at herself.”
In her bio, Melissa highlights that through her art she “explores the interaction people have with their surroundings, allowing her to draw and learn about human relationships within domestic environments. The varying weight of her line catalyzes the focus that she has on details and positive/negative space. Visually, she represents the essence of people as characters, emphasizing their individual movements. She shares stories about her identity, specifically her Hispanic background and fluid sex/gender, through illustrations that reveal both the external public side and internal private side of unresolved personal tensions.”
Melissa, who could not attend the Latino Art Beat ceremony due to her school schedule in California, graduated from New World School of the Arts and currently is studying Illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, pursuing a career in editorial illustration. Her dream is to work for magazine companies like The New York Times, The New Yorker or National Geographic to later become a creative director.
Her work has been exhibited in Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Wayne White’s puppet parade “Art is Supposed to Hypnotize You or Something,” Small Works, and the YoungArts National Foundation. Melissa’s awards include Presidential Arts Scholar Semifinalist (2018), YoungArts Finalist (2018), Scholastic Arts and Writing Silver Medal Art Portfolio (2018), Florida State Art Fair Merit Winner (2018), Outstanding Achievement Award in Science (2016), Isaiah Fund Scholar (2018), Commencement Speech Award (2018), Visual Arts Dean’s Award (2018), Principal Hall of Honor (2018), Painting Award (2018) and Latino Art Beat Winner (2018).
Latino Art Beat is a Chicago based not-for profit national arts organization runs a national art competition themed “What Hispanic Heritage & Culture Means to Me.” Latino Art Beat celebrates heritage and the student’s artistic talents while encouraging higher education through the award of scholarships, over $2 million awarded since its inception in 1998. LAB’s program gives students from Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles and Washington, DC opportunities for studies based on their artistic talent.
