Ferrer’s eye-catching art draws heavily from nature and human culture.
Selena Ferrer’s art career started in the simplest way possible: with some paint, a piece of cardboard and an idea.
It was just a woman, partly covered by flowers, who was brushed into life on that cardboard several years ago. But bringing that woman from Ferrer’s head into the real world was the confirmation she needed to know that devoting her life to this — “running away to become an artist,” as her best friend told her — was the right call to make.
“Once I got to college and I kept pursuing that first painting, I decided I was feeling this for myself and conquering my own ideas,” Ferrer said. “I couldn’t stop after that painting.”
Her art has taken her from breaking into the local scene in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to living out her dreams throughout the Tampa Bay area while making her home in Plant City.
“In Chattanooga, only one of my friends had put together an art show,” Ferrer said. “It was the first thing any of us had seen in our town. It was rare to have a diverse cultural/arts scene with the youth… (in Tampa Bay), I can walk around and see young people posted up with paintings, doing music.”
The two driving forces behind Ferrer’s work are nature and humanity, which often come together on canvas in the wildest of ways. Her art is often surreal, meshing roots of the earth with roots of the people in psychedelic explosions of color in acrylics and oils.
“I’ve always found it so intriguing that the world we live in, there’s a lot of inexplicable miracles,” Ferrer said. “Yet when it comes to nature, there’s always a formula to how these things come about. I’ve always tried to put that in the form of human relationships and human connection to that. There’s mechanics to how we live, what we do, technology and advancements around us. We’re walking miracles… I’m always blown away by the world we live in and the creation around us.”
Nature is such an important part of her creative process that she prefers to paint outside whenever possible. In Plant City, she’s been known to post up at the Krazy Kup courtyard and work.
Her art style evolved into something predominantly surreal, and her methods have evolved well beyond a traditional canvas. Ferrer has also taken up painting on handbags, jackets and other clothing items, learning sculpture, photography and film, creating digital art and body art. She’s also not one to sit still at an art show, whether she’s hosting or just exhibiting in it: you can often find her performing in them, whether it’s live-painting or even dancing.
“I picked up dancing early on,” Ferrer said. “I was my brother’s little shadow and I picked up art and dancing from him super early on. I feel like dancing is neck-to-neck with painting on how passionate I am. It’s more of an impromptu therapy. As a curator, I like to have fun at my own shows. I love seeing a production and I love being a part of a production.”
Since moving to Florida with her family in 2018, Ferrer has curated and performed in several shows in the Tampa Bay area. In one of her favorites, a 2019 show at The Studio@620 in St. Petersburg, Ferrer live-painted using her hands and feet while friend and drummer Natalie Depergola and her band played music. Though she’s only been in Plant City for a short time, Ferrer hopes to become a part of the city’s own growing arts scene.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Ferrer and more artists like her to take their talents onto the Internet for virtual shows and exhibitions, one of which is a video series coming soon to The Studio@620’s website.
“It has made me not make excuses for procrastination when it comes to virtual stuff, computer marketing with my own art,” she said. “I think I really needed this kind of kick in the butt. I’ve done a few projects virtually with a few people and that’s been a cool, adaptable experience. I’m learning every day how to take this approach, but it’s been good. I needed this time to stay in the house, even though that’s hard to do. I’m working on my website and submitting my work to places.”
“Vagary” was the perfect word for her to use as an official name for her art projects. The dictionary definition of the word, as seen in Merriam-Webster, is an “erratic, unpredictable or extravagant manifestation, action or notion.” Its Latin context means “to wander.” Ferrer’s personal connection with the word is shared with her circle of friends.
“We had just reached senior year in high school and me and my best friends were all gonna go our separate ways,” she said. “We ended up wanting to get tattoos together. We spent a whole day hanging out and thinking about something to get. My best friend looked up this word and saw a connection to how our lives were… there’s something serendipitous and awesome about growing in art. We all got the tattoo. I picked it for my art because of that. How I make art is always evolving. It’s based on my emotions and life experiences.”
You can see and buy Ferrer’s work online at vagaryart.com and follow her on Instagram at @vagary_art.
