Flora Saldivar

Flora Saldivar (b. 1984) is a Mexican American artist recognized for her compelling large-scale abstract works, distinguished by a unique, technically rigorous process on raw canvas. Her artistic process balances an organic, “happened quality”  with  deliberate compositions. Her work is held in the permanent collections of OZ Art NWA, The Walton Arts Center and various private collections. Rejecting off-the-shelf materials, Saldivar utilizes custom gouache color blends for her soak-stain application. This unique innovation allows the pigment to truly absorb into the raw support without compromising the material, a unique advantage over predecessors who used oil. This approach achieves the signature diffused edges in all her work. Her “bleeding colors” technique  is another motif often seen in her body of work, where one color appears to shed another. She likes to think of this visual as the process of one world slowly transforming and informing the other. Saldivar’s search for depth led her to invent the Verso-Infundo method, a technique where she works on both sides of a raw canvas. By allowing the pigment to push through the textile, she creates what she calls “ghost layers,” subtle imprints that visually showcase how the past continuously informs the present. This method is a literal mapping of her bicultural identity: her cultural roots function as the underlying layers, always informing the top layers. Through color, movement, and texture, each piece stands as a true record of Saldivar’s unique process and vision.