@Art_ByLHR

​

My name is Lorena Hernandez-Rivera. I am a 21 year old artist born and raised in Monterey and Seaside, CA. I am senior at the University of California, Santa Cruz and I have been studying Latin American and Latinx Studies combined with Sociology. I moved to Santa Cruz in 2018 and have been returning to YAC during my school breaks, summers, and for one year during the remote COVID-19 shut down. Returning to YAC last year was the most beautiful time of my life, and it reminded me so much of my high school days. Being at YAC back in person for the summer of 2021 helped me create two beautiful new portraits that will be on exposition at the Winter Show this season. I was inspired to do acrylic painted portraits by my friends, peers, and mentors around me over the summer. I see the ways everyone at YAC is inspired by others and by each other and I just know that I wanted to contribute to that special feeling with my own paintings. YAC is no place like any other, and when I am away I often long for a space that can nurture me the way YAC has for so many years.