Reyna Noriega chases after the little glimmers of joy in life. And she puts them in her art.<\/p>\n
Her illustrations are full of soft lines, gentle curves, and vivid hues of deep redish orange, teal and green that seem to breathe and move. Women of color are the focus of many of her pieces. The women all exude power, grace, strength, beauty. They are Noriega\u2019s way of capturing and sharing joy with others, especially the women who see themselves reflected in her art.<\/p>\n
The FIU alumna \u2014 fulltime\u00a0artist and author<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 has perhaps shared more joy in the past year than she could have ever dreamt possible. At just 28-years-old, Noriega has been a cover artist for\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Science Magazine<\/em><\/a>. She also designed\u00a0a special edition t-shirt with Old Navy<\/a>.<\/p>\n A little over year ago, though, Noriega\u2019s life looked a lot different. She had just taken a leap of faith, becoming a fulltime freelance artist after years of working different jobs.<\/p>\n Noriega\u2019s path has been full of exploration, what she calls \u201cfollowing the feeling.\u201d She graduated from FIU with a diverse set of skills \u2014 majoring in psychology with minors in English and art. She says\u00a0she\u2019s always carried with her everything she learned at FIU, that it\u2019s helped at every stage of her journey \u2014 when she was an art teacher at Everglades Preparatory Academy in Homestead, a creative director for a startup, and, even now, when she\u2019s working with clients.<\/p>\n Those first few months of freelance life were hectic. Noriega took on as much work as she could. She designed album covers, posters, logos.\u00a0Sold prints<\/a>\u00a0of her paintings and illustrations. Attended different speaking engagements and networking events. She was also working on her second poetry collection\u00a0In Bloom<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n During this time, Noriega\u2019s dog \u2014 a white schnauzer named Pepper \u2014 had four puppies. She took it as a sign to slow down. Pause. Noriega told her friends that if they wanted to see her, they could come over and pet the puppies, but she wouldn\u2019t be going out or leaving the house.<\/p>\n From this time of birth came another type of birth and new beginning for Noriega\u2019s art.<\/p>\n \u201cIn those moments of stillness and reflecting, I was thinking about what type of art I want to create \u2014 how I could put my vision and my own self into my work in a way that other people would benefit from,\u201d Noriega said.<\/p>\n When she wasn\u2019t caring for the puppies, she was painting. Without all of the noise and busyness of life, Noriega\u2019s new unique, unmistakable style emerged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA big part of my work stems from not seeing enough images of women of color in museums or galleries \u2014 or thinking back to when I have seen then and what messages they portray. Mostly, they are depicting the struggle and trauma \u2014 women carrying the world on their back,\u201d Noriega said. \u201cI wanted to create something where we feel empowered, beautiful, elegant and to celebrate the softer sides of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n With this fresh start, Noriega wanted to take the next step. A really bold one.<\/p>\n She bought a plane ticket to Paris. On March 16, 2020, she was going to leave Miami for six months. She planned to travel across Europe while expanding her art career.<\/p>\n The timing seemed perfect. The lease was up on her apartment. The puppies had gone to good, loving homes. Then, the pandemic sidelined her plans. With nowhere else to go, Noriega moved back into her parents\u2019 house.<\/p>\n The future Noriega imagined seemed to vanish.<\/p>\n A few months later, however, it was as if everyone knew her name. Everything she expected to happen to her career while she was in Europe, ultimately ended up happening \u2014 in its own way and on its own time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A push to support and uplift Black artists came following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota. Noriega\u2019s work garnered widespread recognition. She gained thousands of new followers on social media. Companies wanted to work or collaborate with her.<\/p>\n But, even with all of the success \u2014 the very thing she\u2019d been working toward for years \u2014 she couldn\u2019t shake the heaviness of life. She was wrestling with so many conflicting, difficult feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was the uncertainty of the pandemic. There was the reminder of the state of racism in America \u2014 and how we haven\u2019t fully reckoned with it as a society,\u201d Noriega said. \u201cEverything was just so traumatizing.”<\/p>\n Through it all, though, Noriega did what she\u2019s always done. She kept drawing and painting. She continued creating. She searched for joy \u2014 to bring it to others through her art when they really needed it the most.<\/p>\n \u201cHappiness is everyone\u2019s birthright. I believe you will be more successful when you\u2019re in alignment with what passions are and what you\u2019re good at,\u201d Noriega said. \u201cThat starts with constantly feeding your interests and investigating things that bring you joy \u2014 and then going closer to those things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reyna Noriega is empowering women and bringing joy to others through her art \u2013By Angela Nicoletti for FIU News Reyna Noriega chases after the little glimmers of joy in life. And she puts them in her art. Her illustrations are full of soft lines, gentle curves, and vivid hues of deep redish orange, teal and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[453,499,394,12],"class_list":["post-16143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","tag-alumni","tag-art","tag-college-of-arts-sciences-education","tag-fiu-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16145,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16143\/revisions\/16145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"reyna1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/news.fiu.edu\/2021\/_assets\/reyna1.jpg\")
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![\"art.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/news.fiu.edu\/2021\/_assets\/art.jpg\")