Holding onto the Simple Things Through Art | Victoria Martínez

When the world came to a pause in 2020, Uruguayan audiovisual producer and visual artist Victoria Martínez found herself reaching for paint in a way she never expected. What began as an instinctive experiment during lockdown has since become an essential part of her daily life—a space where memory, family, and sensory details intertwine on canvas.

In this Arts to Hearts Project interview, Victoria shares how her two decades of storytelling through film continue to shape the way she frames her paintings, why she is drawn to moments just before or after human presence, and how tables, tiles, and everyday objects carry the weight of memory. She opens up about the influence of her grandmother’s home, the sensory imprints of food, laughter, and gathering, and her belief that leisure is a treasure worth defending.

Through her words and work, we learn how painting for her is not about perfection or pleasing, but about preserving fleeting moments—those ordinary scenes that, once remembered, reveal themselves as extraordinary. Her journey reminds us of the importance of slowing down, paying attention, and finding connection in the simplest details of daily life.

Victoria Martínez is a featured artist in our book, “100 Emerging Artists 2025” You can explore her journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing the book here:

https://shop.artstoheartsproject.com/products/the-creative-process-book

I am Victoria Martínez, a Uruguayan professional audiovisual producer and visual artist, with personal experience in these fields. I began my tertiary studies in Communication at ORT University, completed a postgraduate degree in Cinematographic Direction in Madrid at Séptima ARS, and have over 25 years of experience working in audiovisual productions for film, advertising, documentaries, and events. These experiences have always brought me closer to the world of contemporary art and its universe of artists. I started painting in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic out of an organic need, without any planning.

What began as an exploratory game of trial and error, trying different techniques, supports, materials, and creating a naive and childlike figurative style, remains a challenging path that I repeat daily in my life. Today, I approach it with a more technical, introspective, and conceptual perspective, following the same process, which requires my time, studies, research, and full commitment. Both my professional training and the natural development of the artist I am today are reflected and embraced in my paintings, with a constant search for meaning—objects chosen, metaphors, spaces, stories, and dialogues of styles—that allow me to express what I want purely out of passion, creating a new space free of time and judgment.

1.  You describe your path to painting as something that appeared unexpectedly when the world stopped in 2020. How did that stillness change the way you see your place in life and creativity?

My way of seeing the world has always been from a sensitive perspective. I care about others and easily empathise with other living beings. Once I started painting, the exercise of observing, listening, and feeling became a permanent part of my life. The constant desire to prepare a canvas to tell the next story through painting has been an uninterrupted activity since the beginning of the pandemic. I understand the world as an artist in transition, in which I am the protagonist, telling what I feel and what I see, and not a simple spectator of everything that happens in it.

2.   Your paintings often hold scenes that feel paused—tables waiting for company, windows opening to another place. What draws you to capture those moments just before or after human presence?  

In each of my paintings, the human presence is latent. This can be seen through a cup of hot coffee, a plate of food, a camera, and a birthday cake with lit candles. I aim to create an intrinsic narrative in each painting, where the protagonists are positioned out of frame yet remarkably close. It’s as if capturing a moment before or after an activity where two or more people are connected, whether through a meal, a celebration, or simply enjoying the beach and the sea, or taking a walk on the sand. In all my paintings, there is a desire to enjoy the day, whether sunny, cloudy, or moonlit. Mundane problems are left aside so that only the good moments appear, which, by the way, are the only things we take with us in our memories.

3. Having spent two decades in audiovisual production, how does your background in storytelling through film influence the way you compose a canvas? 

I’ve studied and worked in the audiovisual world since I was 17. The contact with creative people, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs is always present. Meeting artists who create sets from scratch, with a lot or a little budget, achieving immensely brilliant works, is something I experience in every project. I understand and respect the sacrifice of being a good storyteller through art and cinematic language. The composition of frames is something I learned, as is the use of light, which for many years remained dormant in my role as a producer. Once I started painting, all of this awakened from a place of unstoppable personal creation.

Leisure time gives us that borrowed time to feel a little more alive.

Victoria Martínez

4. Many of your works are rooted in sensory memories from your grandmother’s house. What is it about those everyday details—tiles, tea cups, homemade food—that continues to inspire you? 

I keep and cherish the memories of moments of immense happiness, like treasures in little boxes. Growing up in my grandmother’s house, surrounded by the smells of cooking, the chatter of women and neighbors who stopped by to say hello, her voice singing, people who visited her and brought amazing stories, sweet cakes in the afternoon with a tea or coffee, summer naps with the radio on, afternoons in the iron hammock, the backyard of a house in the middle of the city with a turtle of almost 90 years, two dogs and one cat, ray lights in the tiles of the floors, and I could go on.

All of this is as if it were engraved in me, and once I started painting in my 40s, I was able to express it in different paintings, where reality and spaces are distorted just as they are relived when I close my eyes. The memories of my childhood have textures, colours that take centre stage, and atmospheres. Being a reality of its own, the objects that are repeated in my paintings are those linked to the people who used them the most; therefore, they have their trace and imprint. Being able to paint those feelings on objects and spaces and having my family and friends recognise them fills my soul with joy. The best thing of all is that the stories in my paintings make people from different parts of the world find themselves in them, too.

For me, forgetting is the most important aspect in my art. I want objects, spaces, and everyday scenes to evoke emotions that we sometimes overlook due to the speed of life.

Victoria Martínez

5.  You’ve said you want your work to promote leisure as a finite treasure. How do you practice that philosophy in your own daily life?

I understand that in the world we live in, the whirlwind doesn’t give us time to sit or lie down and do nothing. It’s frowned upon because it encourages laziness. As someone who works on projects that require a lot of time and thought, I firmly believe that leisure time is a space for self-discovery, a pause to connect with my surroundings, which are my home, my family, and painting. That’s what the meaning of life is all about: having the ability to feel like you’re enjoying it or living it in that very moment. I don’t repeat this as a phrase, but as a way of life. Leisure time gives us that borrowed time to feel a little more alive.

6.  People from different parts of the world have connected with your paintings. What has surprised or moved you most about the ways others see themselves in your work?  

I’ve been surprised by messages from people telling me that the character, the space, or the object is like that of their grandmother, aunt, or family. This made me understand that the memories I treasure come from universally shared worlds where the genuine, human, and simple are paramount. For me, the encounter in everyday spaces in silence with another person, whether at breakfast or reading, is more critical than a forced, banal conversation in a coordinated and scheduled cafeteria. The human, with its real miseries and both light and dark sides, is present in everyday life and among the people who live with us. In my paintings, there are no poses or pretensions; what happens there is something genuine for the protagonists, something I capture in an instant, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.

Victoria Martínez’s paintings are about pausing time to honour the everyday. Through tables set for company, windows opening to other places, and objects charged with memory, she captures the presence of what is just before or just after human connection.

Her journey shows us that creativity can emerge in moments of stillness, and that what we carry from our families, our homes, and our small rituals can become a shared language across cultures. From her, we learn that happiness can be found in simple gatherings, in slowing down, and in creating space for genuine connection.

To learn more about Victoria Martínez, click the following links to visit her profile.

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