Mini Projects

Look into the multitude of projects that Lorena has done. Ranging across all types of media, learn the history behind each piece and the meaning behind it.

Unisex, 2025

11x14                                                                                                                           

Collage, color pencil, acrylic paint

Unisex was a collaborative project with a group of other creatives, where we had to make a piece that respected “how you, or are you breaking the cycles (generational trauma, social constructs, etc.)”. We were assigned a mentor to help us navigate our ideas; my mentor was Malachi, and we met every week to discuss the project, and I got to learn from him and his creative process. I already knew what I wanted to draw: the anatomical bodies of a man and a woman layered on top of each other, mixing into one being in the middle. No gender was above the other; they were transparent, semi-inspired by Da Vinci’s anatomical body of a man, but I also wanted to explore the human body and gender identity. The woman is blue, whereas the man is red; I switched the colors associated with the opposite gender: blue, boy; red (pink), girl. While the original sketch had their gender’s color, this was a simple mistake since I sketched it out with the opposite color to help know which body was going to be colored what color, but I’m glad I made that mistake. I originally wanted the piece to be in oil pastel, but I didn’t like how my details were being erased, and the colors weren’t working together. So my mentor and I agreed that redoing the drawing in colored pencil would be better. I colored my piece, then cut it out and drew out the other anatomical pieces, wrote a small poem, painted the background in a brown wash, and drew a border.  

How my piece shows my breaking the cycle is through my known gender identity. I’m genderfluid, and I enjoy experimenting with the body and gender; my existence itself breaks the cycle. Even if I’m more fem-presenting, I don’t fit the social norm; therefore, I am an anomaly. While also using Sol and Luna to show my Hispanic heritage, showing how the language is heavily gendered and full of thorns, even if the culture has many outspoken queer people, they are still extremely conservative, and navigating that space can feel exposing, like being stripped naked. Overall, I had a lot of fun making this piece, having a mentor to teach me, and seeing other creatives’ work; it was a wonderful experience.

Intertwined, 2026

Size: N/A                                                                                                                 

Cardboard, acrylic paint

Intertwined was supposed to be a non-serious, site-specific painting project where we had to paint anything we wanted using a piece of cardboard, with the intention of putting it in a public area to take a picture. However, I always want to complicate my life, so I decided to do a multi-layered painting, where it opens to reveal the inside of a person's head. The outside was the head intersecting in the middle; when opened, it revealed the brain, eyes, and teeth alongside the veins, arteries, skull, sun, moon, flowers, and bugs. The two flowers I painted were Forget-me-nots and a crimson rose. I taped my cardboard piece onto the glass of a display case specifically in the health and science department at Elac. The meaning is that medicine is tied to one's gender: one receives more help than the other, while the other is left to decay, fend for itself, and survive by other means. It was a commentary on medical malpractice and the lack of funding when it comes to women's health. This piece took a lot of time and effort; I spent long days painting on the floor from 8 in the morning until 1-2 in the morning of the next day. I also went into my professor's 3D class so that I could paint, just to come home and paint more. I hurt my back, but it was worth it. Even if the assignment didn’t have to be this complex, I’m glad I pushed myself. My professor loved it and had it hung up for the summer; he said it was a big hit.

Alone in the woods, 2024 

128x128 pix                                                                                                                   

Digital Animation 

This was a small personal project I made using Dotpict. This small animation took me a little over 2 weeks to complete, due to me going to class and having to draw on a phone in a pixel app. The concept was simple: Olive in the woods, breathing in and out on a chilly night in the woods; they're a bit scared and cold, but they have nothing to worry about because something is always watching them. For some reason, I enjoy drawing Olive in ominous places looking worried. In my opinion, drawing pixel art is more difficult than drawing in a drawing app since my app had a set grid that can’t be changed to a custom size, so you have to use what you got to make your drawing. I did want my background to be a bit more detailed, like adding different opacities, but I wasn’t allowed to layer in the frame, so the background is a bit plain. Either way, I was still happy with how the animation came out; it was the first animation I have ever done (I don’t count “animated” a ball falling in FlipaClip since I wasn’t taking it seriously), and I think I did a good job.