Camila Salinas

        The power of art can be subjective, meaning that it can have more than one meaning to different people. I believe that is what makes art masterful: it can have its true meaning to the artist while also carrying multiple interpreted meanings that can speak to anyone, including an entire community. Hence, we have a young fine artist named Camila Salinas, whose YouTube channel is dedicated to documenting her journey of developing her craft as an artist. According to Famous Birthdays, Camila's artistic journey goes as far back as elementary school. She also posted her first artwork on Instagram back in November 2018, and she even participated in a contest for The New York Times, in which she won recognition for her successful artwork in the collection "Coming of Age."

I was introduced to Camila through her YouTube channel two years ago, on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. I was drawn to her charismatic personality, but what really made me invest in her was her artwork. I identify as an autistic individual, and while looking through Camila's artwork, I realized that some of her pieces symbolically resonated with me as an autistic individual and member of the autism community. I'll explain why.

The first art piece I want to talk about is titled Tied Together. In one of Camila's videos, she explained how this artwork was created to represent her mixed identity as a Mexican American.

"This one is exploring kind of like my mixed identity as a Mexican and an American, so as a Mexican American and kind of having these two cultures meshed together," Camila explained. "So, each person represents a different one of my identities; they kind of get tied together in the middle."

I like how this painting explores the feeling of being an individual from two different worlds, but from my perspective, I love how it symbolizes the autistic experience of self-diagnosis. When a person learns they are autistic through self-identification, the feeling is like being introduced to their authentic self and realizing that this is who they have always been. This painting symbolizes how I felt after discovering that I was autistic through self-identification. It felt like I had been introduced to a hidden layer of myself that had always been with me, but I had never noticed until that day in 2017.

In the painting, there are two Camilas. One of them is looking at the other, who is staring off into the distance. This symbolizes me looking at my authentic self, saying, "Here I am, your true authentic self. I've always been with you this whole time, and I'm glad to see you've finally noticed."

Especially since the thread tying the two Camilas together symbolizes how my authentic autistic self was always connected to who I was but had been buried underneath layers of ignorance and a lack of knowledge about autism. Also, red is a perfect touch because, when it comes to the autism community, we're #RedInstead.

The second art piece I want to talk about is titled Permanent Precaution. In another video, Camila explained how this piece is supposed to represent the fear she experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

"I wanted to kind of exaggerate the fear that I was feeling during the beginning of the pandemic," Camila explained. "So, I stitched it on to kind of represent that I was really taking 'extra' precaution."

From my perspective, this is the best symbolic representation of autistic masking. When it comes to autism, masking is something that many autistic people have experienced because of our desire to fit in and society's tendency to pressure us to conform to its standards. Masking is not something autistic people necessarily want to do; it's something we're often forced to do, either by our peers or by ourselves.

I love how the mask in the painting is used to show how masking is often a forced practice within the autism community. The thread and needle are also the perfect touches to symbolically show how autistic masking is not only a forceful practice but a painful one as well. It is mentally, emotionally, and physically painful for autistic people to mask our autistic traits, so I love how this painting symbolically channels that type of suffering.

The last art piece I want to talk about is titled Is It Over Yet?. In the same video mentioned previously, Camila explained how this piece is supposed to represent how people during the pandemic were becoming fatigued by COVID-19 and decided they were done caring about it.

"It's kind of showing how some people just stopped caring and pretended like it just wasn't a thing anymore, and especially at my school, masks were optional," Camila explained. "We're all super squished and tight to show, you know, the social distancing rule basically disappeared. These three people who have a mask are kind of looking into the camera and are like the only ones aware of what's happening."

From my perspective, I love how this painting represents how autistic people can often appear neurotypical, and this is often because they've mastered the art of masking to blend in. I love the symbolic detail of having most people not wearing masks to represent neurotypical people, while the three people wearing masks symbolize neurodivergent people who mask their autistic traits to become more socially acceptable among their peers.

So, this is basically another painting that symbolizes autistic masking, and it is my second-favorite painting addressing this topic.

All things considered, Camila Salinas is someone I respect and admire, both as a person and as an artist. I know it wasn't her intention, but I appreciate her symbolic representation of the autism community by channeling important issues, such as masking, into her paintings. This makes me appreciate art at its finest.