Curbed Article and mini-documentary on my work for John Freida. FULL VIDEO HERE

Ivette Cabrera came to the United States when she was just three years old. The turmoil of the Nicaraguan Revolution caused her mother to flee the country and seek a new home with her young daughter. Now, Cabrera creates murals and other artwork in Miami that mostly focus on female strength and wisdom — and much of that inspiration originated with her own background and her evolution into womanhood.

Cabrera became interested in the Nicaraguan Sandinista movement — the party that challenged Nicaragua’s dictatorship from 1979 to 1990 — as an adult. During her research on the movement, she came across an image of a Sandinista mother with her baby that inspired a thought: Women are both warriors and creators, powerful yet delicate. That idea sparked a larger project in which Cabrera researched more women across the world. Her findings startled her: "Our history of oppression has had cataclysmic effects that have molded the identity of women today, especially for women of color," Cabrera explains.

This led her to the idea of expressing female strength through her work. Though she had studied and worked in architecture, Cabrera began to teach herself to draw portraits of women four years ago. She used charcoal to incorporate architectural elements into elaborate headdresses on her subjects. She sometimes even uses a magnifying glass to add detail around the head.