Paulina Santalez (Puerto Rican, 1925–1987)

When Paulina Santalez began making art late in life, she became obsessed with her craft. As if making up for lost years, she devoted all of her physical and mental attention to her artwork, often staying awake through the night working on a drawing, and exhibiting to others the calluses her hands had developed while gripping her pencils. Santalez drew with brightly colored pencils, applied with a density that resembles oil pastel. Her compositions often include flat stick figures with oversized, floating heads and reveal her horror vacui, or fear of open space, common in Outsider art. Beneath her surreal figures, an intricate and vibrant rainbow pattern fills the space of the page, as if emptying Santalez’s personality completely onto the page, giving the work a busy and urgent quality.