Christiana Mercado is a self-taught portraiture artist living and working in Memphis, Tennessee. 
Her mediums consist of acrylic paintings, found objects, organic materials and modeling clay.      

“My practice focuses on capturing the gaze of various feminine deities, ghosts or spirits that I feel have always existed. My work is motivated by my interest in the ancientness of belief systems, the natural world, and relics left behind by both human and animal forms. 
My creative process relies heavily on research, and being able to mentally marinate in these ideas and systems. I then like to start my world-building phase by doing a lot
of movement and stockpiling; I collect upcycled items, used
books, and objects found in nature. 

 I take inspiration from early 90s video games, 1930s-1960s 
Hollywood, long walks in isolated places & resistance training, vintage fantasy novels, and conversations I've had with other people. 
Instead of sketches, I usually record or write sentences as a form of my 'sketch', and then proceed to create a 2-d or 3-d facial expression or body that center around the recorded dialogue."