Connecting-the-Dots

The origin story behind A Bright Spot | Un Punto Brillante

Your friendly neighborhood Puntillista knew she might be inclined to be an artist since elementary school, when she was asked to create her own version of a Norman Rockwell and rendered a little girl in bunny slippers attempting to catch the tooth fairy and looking shocked to discover her disgruntled mom captured under a laundry basket. She first encountered pointillism as a style on a visit to the Met in 5th grade. 

She rediscovered pointillism in college, during her senior year independent study, The Artist and The Viewer: A Neurological and Psychological Perspective, with the university's Neuroscience program director, Dr. David Robbins. The course focused on how the brain interfaces with the sensory system during the creation and perception of art, and explored pointillism among many areas including how the art of artists with degenerative cognitive diseases was impacted as their condition progressed.  

A prolific Lego builder, prom dress maker, and biscuit baker, the methodical nature of pointillism resonated immediately. She began taking on special commission works the size of playing cards for friends to hang on their fridges. Like her friends and family, the requests that came in ranged from unabashedly nerdy to delightfully absurd - from the Egypyian God Thoth and wealthiest man in history Mansa Musa, to the Phillies Phanatic and a Rhinoceros Auklet, which is not a Rhinoceros at all but a very silly whiskered bird. She's been occasionally asked to recreate elaborate Erte pieces and complies. Her art now hangs on fridges across the country and two other continents.  

Always silly and never profound, A Bright Spot | Un Punto Brillante aspires to bring a little lightness and whimsy to the every day.  By leaning into dot density shifts, leveraging negative space to allow shapes to suggest themselves, and letting the edges enjoy some soft fuzziness, the style is both technical and imaginative. Some exuberant dots cluster together and scheme while others float around reveling in their buoyancy. The occasional mischievous dot even misbehaves and sneaks off, escaping the form. Each piece intends to gives you a playful wink - don't take it too seriously, the drawing knows it's a drawing! 

A few of the latest inspirations include jellyfish, a rubber duck, a pava hat (IYKYK) and several obscure types of birds requested by the many ornithological enthusiasts in our orbit.

maria@unpuntobrillante.com