Resilient Voices – Identity & Inclusion in Contemporary Figurative Art
Resilient Voices Collection
A contemporary exploration of identity, resilience, and human connection. This body of work has evolved over time—from early explorations of identity and disruption to a more expansive and contemporary dialogue on resilience and inclusion.
Resilient Voices is a collection of figurative paintings that explores identity, resilience, and the layered realities of the human experience. Through expressive mark-making, fragmentation, and a dynamic use of color, these works give form to stories that are often unseen, unheard, or in transition.
Rather than depicting individuals in a literal sense, each figure becomes a vessel, holding emotion, memory, and the complexities of belonging. The paintings move between strength and vulnerability, revealing the tension, endurance, and quiet power that shape personal and cultural identity.
This body of work reflects an ongoing dialogue, one that honors diversity, invites reflection, and expands the space for how identity is experienced and expressed. It is both deeply personal and universally resonant, offering viewers an opportunity to see themselves, and others, with greater depth and understanding.
IDENTITY AND INCLUSION
The Identity & Inclusion works evolve from a long-standing exploration of masculine and feminine energies as complementary forces within the human experience. Earlier paintings centered on empowering women, depicting figures who embody strength, purpose, and self-determination while remaining deeply connected to intuition, vulnerability, and care.
As the artist’s audience expanded, particularly within the vibrant and diverse community of Puerto Vallarta, new conversations began to shape the work. Encounters with individuals who expressed identity beyond traditional binaries opened a broader inquiry into how these energies exist across all bodies and lived experiences.
These paintings explore fluidity, where strength and softness, assertion and receptivity, coexist and inform one another. Figures emerge that challenge fixed definitions of identity, inviting a more expansive understanding of presence, belonging, and self-expression.
Rather than defining identity, this work creates space for it, honoring the complexity, diversity, and evolving nature of how we experience ourselves and one another.
HANGING IN THE BALANCE
These works ask not only what has been gained—but what must still be protected.
Hanging in the Balance reflects a renewed urgency surrounding women’s autonomy, identity, and the right to self-determination. Created in response to a shifting cultural landscape, these works explore the fragility of freedoms once believed to be secure.
The figures exist in a state of tension, poised between progress and regression, strength and vulnerability. They embody the emotional weight of living within systems that continue to define, challenge, and at times constrain the female experience.
Drawing from both historical and contemporary realities, this series acknowledges the long arc of women’s advocacy, from the fight for basic civil rights to ongoing conversations about agency, voice, and choice. Each painting becomes a visual meditation on what it means to stand at a threshold, where the future of identity, autonomy, and equality feels uncertain, yet deeply worth holding onto.
GRAVITY OF HOPE
The Gravity of Hope marks a transitional moment in Kathleen Carrillo’s figurative work, where themes of identity, longing, and self-worth begin to take shape through a more introspective lens. The figures in this series are contemplative and androgynous, existing in a quiet space between masculine and feminine energies.
GRAVITY OF HOPE SELECTION BELOW
These works carry a sense of emotional weight, an inward gaze toward acceptance, vulnerability, and the desire to be seen. Influences of myth, symbolism, and theatricality emerge through imagery such as Leda and the Swan and masked, cabaret-like figures, suggesting the roles we inhabit and the truths we conceal.
While the tone is more somber, this collection represents an essential passage, an exploration of longing that ultimately gives rise to transformation. It is within this tension between concealment and revelation that the seeds of resilience begin to form.
HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW
The How Does Your Garden Grow collection explores the evolving identity of women, honoring both strength and femininity as complementary forces rather than opposing ones. These figures embody a balance of presence, intuition, and inner authority, reflecting a quiet yet powerful sense of self.
Each painting becomes a reflection of growth, both personal and collective, rooted in the understanding that identity is not fixed, but continually unfolding.
Created during an early and formative phase of this body of work, the paintings examine the tension and harmony between traditionally defined roles and a deeper call toward personal purpose. They speak to the importance of self-worth, growth, and the courage to expand beyond expectation, while remaining fully connected to one’s essence.
These works invite women to recognize their own resilience, wisdom, and capacity for transformation, embracing both nurturing and empowered aspects of their identity as part of a whole.
FALLING FROM GRACE
Falling From Grace was created as Kathleen Carrillo’s graduate midway thesis exhibition, a pivotal body of work that marked the beginning of her exploration into the personal as a form of visual and cultural inquiry.
Developed during a period of profound transition, the series reflects the experience of navigating identity, independence, and self-definition in the midst of personal upheaval. These watercolor paintings depict women balancing precariously on everyday structures, ironing boards, beds, boxes, and symbolic objects, representing both the visible and invisible frameworks that shape and often constrain a woman’s path.
What began as an intimate reflection became a broader statement on expectation, limitation, and the complexity of growth. The figures exist in states of suspension, caught between stability and free fall, capturing the emotional terrain of stepping beyond prescribed roles into an unknown future.
This early work established a conceptual foundation that continues to inform Carrillo’s practice today. While not created for commercial purposes, Falling From Grace remains an integral part of her artistic evolution and is included as part of a larger retrospective narrative.
This collection is not currently offered for sale and is presented as part of an ongoing retrospective of the artist’s work.
Truly A Temptress?
Holding On To Memories
Breakthrough
Hanging On To The Past
Triple Fuck
