User:Mayte Almeida/sandbox

Mayte Almeida, is a sculptor, painter, and photographer, who was born in Havana Cuba. She left Cuba for Venezuela in a quest for a better life with her mother at age seven. Her passion for art began at age 3 when she started learning to play the piano. Her mother, a nurse, became the owner of a nursing home in Caracas. Here Mayte spend most of her childhood with her animals, drawing and painting on the walls of the nursing home. At age 19, she came back to her native city of Havana to pursue her passion for art at the National Art School of San Alejandro. Soon after starting school however, she discovered that life in Havana wasn’t working out the way she thought and she was once again forced to leave the country. She moved to Florida and made it her new home. Here she continued to develop her art and found a career working at the airport. She has been working in the aviation field as airplane mechanic for over 10 years. Her many accomplishments in this field of work were featured in Woman in Aviation Magazine, Miami Herald, and many others websites. Mayte continues to practice her passion for photography doing freelance for local newspapers, participating in galleries and taking pictures of the Florida Keys. She is self-taught in the technique of Tiki Art and started this by deciding one day that she wanted to begin carving. Mayte grabbed a chain saw and put her ideas and imagination for sculpting Hawaiian art into a wild form that has now taken off. Quitting her aviation job to do what she loves, she has found an opportunity in the Florida Keys to share the passion for art and nature while enjoying the island style life.

https://www.facebook.com/Maytealmeidart