Sus Propias Flores ( La Maja Encantada) translates to Her Own Flowers, while maja encantada is a charmed pretty woman. Sus Propias Flores ( La Maja Encantada plays with expectations that are put on women in regards to romance and courtship and the role that flowers play in both. In my painting, the charmed woman isn’t waiting for someone to give her flowers, she creates her own bouquet.
Made from recycled clothing garnered at thrift stores, fast fashion outlets, and LA’s Santee Alley fabric stores, Sus Propias Flores ( La Maja Encantada ) also refers to the female labor and the work that goes into the fashion and textile industries. She ( the seamstress) is in fact gathering her own flowers.
Carolyn Castaño is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work in painting, drawing, video,
and mixed-media installations has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Carolyn’s work “Cali es Cali” is currently featured in the Orange County Museum of Art. She has exhibited her work in We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles at
the 56 th Biennale di Venezia, LACMA’s Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano
Movement, and International Paper at the Hammer Museum.
Ms. Castaño is a graduate of the UCLA School of Art and Architecture (2001 M.F.A) and
the San Francisco Art Institute (1995 B.F.A)