Part of what makes us human is our ability to see beyond the narrow door through which we enter the world - to grow beyond the culture of our birth by recognizing other cultures, other patterns of life. Yet our birth culture is always imprinted upon us, and the mystery of identity is never fully resolved. We are always from a time and place to which we can never return.

Cecilia Paredes addresses this paradox about birth culture and identity by using myths, symbols, and metaphors to urge new myths into being. Exile, adaptation, and transformation shape her art. Peru is in her blood and part of her life force.