Monica S. Camin

One Side of the Tree, 2003, Oil and Photography on Canvas, 36" x 24", (collection of the artist).

"I am inspired by childhood memories, ancestral stories, and social progress. Through my art I engage my doubts and seek answers from an emotional perspective." - Mónica S. Camin

Argentine born, New Jersey and Texas-based artist, Mónica S. Camin experiences her upbringing in Latin America as a first generation Argentine. Much like many North American-born Latinos whose nationality may be misjudged and discredited due to skin color, accent and cultural differences, her identity as a Latina has been questioned and rejected by some due to her European background. However, national identity - as opposed to ethnic origin - is determined by the fealty that one feels toward the country(ies) that contribute to the individual's world view.

One Side of the Tree belongs to a series of work in which Camin examines her roots as the daughter of German-Jews who escaped the worst years of the holocaust and found refuge in Argentina. The questions she examines in much of her work straddle the experiences of her upbringing as the daughter of immigrants in Latin America and the experiences of personal immigration as a Latina in her adulthood. While the catalysts for the movement between countries differ vastly, the commonality that ensues is that the culture and communities that so strongly shape our identity and understanding of the world in which we live are uprooted, causing us to seek out and reinvent the stories that make us whole. Camin sifts through her ancestral stories in order to connect to those roots that have been torn from their origins and to remember and pass on the stories of a living history whose survivors are aging.

To learn more about Camin's other works please