Carla is from New York by way of Venezuela. She found her passion for art her junior year of high school. She Joined the Creative Clay community as a Transition student in 2009. Then, in 2012, Carla became a member artist in Creative Clay’s Community Arts Program. Carla is a motivated artist, intent on practicing her art techniques and expanding her talent to produce gallery-ready art.

Carla’s art is focused on depicting people and her favorite animal, the owl, through various mediums. She feels that although her disability impacts her physical abilities, it does not limit her unique artistic expressions that enable others to see “through her eyes and soul”. She finds freedom and connection by expressing herself through the arts.

“I like to do my own work. Whether it’s painting people, embroidering, writing a script, or doing clay, I like being independent, “she said.

Carla experiments in many different mediums, “All kinds, I can’t pick a favorite,” she said. She joined a group of fiber artists in the studio and creates needlework of people such as baseball players and musicians. Sometimes she collaborates on needlework pieces sketched by a peer, which she stitches in a clean and even style, selecting the colors. Carla also works in ceramics, hand-building giraffes and other animals. Her acrylic paintings are often colorful portraits of celebrities and singers. One of her paintings was inspired by the St. Petersburg Opera’s production of West Side Story. It was purchased by a collector at the events opening. Carla’s line drawing of an owl was selected and used on printed greeting cards and t-shirts.

Her artwork appears in private collections and exhibits in the Tampa Bay area, as well as in the Good Folk Gallery at Creative Clay.

Carla enjoys music and her friends and family, and the New York Yankees.