Lourdes Rivera
Lourdes Rivera, known as Lulu, grew up in an environment where her artistic abilities were recognized and actively nurtured from a very young age. Her parents identified her natural gift for painting early on and enrolled her in drawing and painting classes with the renowned teacher Fran Cervoni. Museum visits were a formative part of her childhood. At just five years old, she encountered Michelangelo’s Pietà at the Vatican Pavilion of the 1965 New York World’s Fair, an experience that left a permanent imprint on her visual memory and sense of awe. Her father further supported her development by surrounding her with books about painters, encouraging her to study and intuitively imitate the works that captivated her.
Rivera inherited her drawing and painting abilities from her father, who consistently encouraged her creative instincts. As an adult, she pursued architecture, earning a Master’s degree in the field. This architectural training became the formal education that most deeply shaped her painting practice. The discipline of observation, structural analysis, and conceptual rigor required in architecture now forms the backbone of how she conceives and organizes her work on canvas.
Although classically trained in academic painting, Rivera experiments with a wide range of media, techniques, and themes. Her work reflects an ongoing dialogue with the evolving pace of contemporary life and the transformation of human perception. Frequent museum visits, especially to MoMA, continue to inform her practice. She holds a MoMA Access Card identifying her as an artist, obtained through evaluation of her career, curriculum vitae, and body of work. These experiences reinforce her engagement with new materials, ideas, and visual languages while maintaining the high technical quality rooted in her academic foundation.
Recurring themes in Rivera’s work include creation, spirituality, and the natural elements that surround human life. Skies, greenery, sea, water, fire, and air appear not as literal depictions but through expressive and abstracted forms she describes as her own version of “Expressionist Impressionism.” In recent years, abstraction has taken on a more central role, driven by a lifelong and deeply felt passion for color. For Rivera, color is both instinctual and immersive, becoming a defining and recognizable feature of her work.
Her influences span centuries and movements, beginning with Joan Miró, whose work she encountered and remembered vividly from childhood. Over time, her visual language has been shaped by artists such as Marc Chagall, William Blake, Caravaggio, Raphael, Matisse, Monet, Gauguin, Botticelli, Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Arnaldo Roche, and Daniel Richter. She is drawn to these artists for their use of form and color, which resonate strongly with her own sensibilities. Her aim is for her paintings to remain alive, evoking memory, goodness, and beauty long after they are first encountered.
Rivera’s creative process begins with intense observation and mental analysis, a habit rooted in her architectural training. Conceptualization is essential. Without a clear concept, there is nothing to bring to the canvas. While materials and techniques remain flexible, color has become a central and unifying element that immediately identifies her work. Her surroundings play a critical role, as she observes and absorbs layered realities within them, often engaging ideas such as pareidolia, microscopic life, and even scientific imagery like neurons, which she finds both visually and philosophically compelling.
During periods of low inspiration, Rivera turns to study, reflection, and technical preparation, including coordinating group exhibitions and open calls in Puerto Rico, where she lives. This approach ensures that time remains productive and contributes to her ongoing artistic development. One particularly meaningful project, The Promise of Salvation, was a commissioned work centered on spirituality. The subject aligned closely with her personal beliefs and required extensive research and biblical reference, making both the process and outcome especially rewarding.
Rivera believes that meaningful artwork must carry a message and endure beyond the lifetime of its creator. She is deeply interested in the mystery of how art remains alive, continuing to evoke emotion, reflection, and understanding across generations. The most fulfilling aspect of her journey has been treating painting not as a hobby, but as a sustained and evolving life project. Validation through international exhibitions, publications, and organizational recognition has helped her measure success, alongside continued opportunities to exhibit both globally and in Puerto Rico.
She remains committed to her creative vision through values instilled early in life: discipline, dedication, aspiration to quality, and integrity. Her paintings function as an imprint of her personal life and inner world, a way of remaining present through her work even when she is not physically there. Rivera continues to draw inspiration from museums, light, reflections, water, fire, and the shifting colors of the sky, translating the infinite, three-dimensional world into dynamic two-dimensional form.
Currently, she is working on large-scale and potentially monumental paintings, continuing her exploration of color, depth, movement, and enduring meaning.
