Nikki “Nyx” Martinez is an acclaimed artist, a poet, a dancer, a musician, an actress as well as volunteer willing to help out when the need arises.  It’s hard to imagine how one person could take on so many different roles, but Nyx is truly an embodiment of a modern “Filipina.”

With this endeavor and along with her new advocacy of promoting cultural awareness, she hopes to inspire people to find their true calling and make them realize that the pursuit of greatness lies not in declarations of success, but in the lives you touched.

Social Advocacy

The journey Nyx took could not be considered conventional by all means. Nyx was born to Christian missionary parents in Manila, Philippines who grew up in an environment that allowed her to pursue many talents including a life of service at a young age.

There are those remarkable few who live to help others. Barring fame, personal gain, and any form of monetary recompense. These people have the heart full of intention to give. And they live remarkably uncommon lives in the “Service of God and Mankind.”

Nyx in every essence is a missionary with a mission to make a difference in the hearts of many lives near and far. Through Our Life Outreach, a non-denominational Christian missionary program that her family started and accompanying her father visit prison inmates on a weekly basis, her first missionary undertaking as an art teacher to abused and neglected kids in a Children’s Education Center in Thailand helped shaped her destiny. 

Nyx has touched the lives of people from all walks of life from her Thursday sessions with cancer-stricken children kids in PGH. The semi-regular Living Academy of Arts (LAYA) Sessions to the various Fun Day activities she prepared for disadvantaged children. She created ways to draw a silver lining of happiness from the ominous cloud of hardship and poverty.

After two years of full-time volunteerism, she heard of a mission program in Africa but was guarded at first from the lack of financial support to make it possible. This was the point where Nyx felt God’s hand in her life.

In her three years in Africa, she journeyed up north to the “Ik” lands where she created awareness for the then-forgotten tribe through an exhibit of her paintings in Uganda. Never forgetting her passion for helping children, she painted happy stories on the walls of a pediatric ward in Mulago. She was also a local celebrity in every place she visited, and had everything going for her.

Advocacy Art

I wanted to give the Ik people a different representation, do dispute the perception of them being a savage tribe,” she says. “I realized that they were quite different, good mannered people who had just been ignored for all this time.

Nyx first solo exhibition was held in Kampala (2005) to raise awareness of a “forgotten” indigenous tribe called the “Ik” from whom she had met and stayed with for a week in northern Uganda.

Since then, she has continued to support and educated developing communities through her art. She has taught art and creative courses to international students in Kampala, Bangkok, Manila, and Lake Como. Her most recent art exhibition was held in Brussels last June 27th 2015.

In 2005, Nyx moved back to the Philippines, where she hosted Travel TV Shows with Living Asia Channel for 3 years. She also started the FunDayTion, a project to help terminally-ill kids. In 2009, she moved to Europe, where she got married in Denmark, lived in Italy and gave birth in Germany. Nyx is now Features Editor of Mabuhay, the Inflight Travel + Lifestyle magazine of Philippine Airlines. 

Painting with Red Wine

“Art as Intoxication”

Wine and art have for years been inter-weave in art. Wine as we know is an indispensable component to enjoying and experiencing art. The wine made art concept was recently conceptualized in contemporary art to encourage new and creative methods of incorporating wine experience in art.

I believe art can also wash forth the soul, baring and exhibiting it; transforming the dust of everyday living into powerful experiences of energy and light.

Creating wine art is Nyx’s way of revering all the wonderful gifts life has given.  Her paintings are a portrayal of emotions and inadequacies of humanity. All created with passion. Artworks that is pulsating and energetic.

Wine painting is a dynamic form of expression. The texture changes and the colors evolve from red, bright purple and to a more mature tones of amber, orange and brown. Depending on the type of wine, the hues will differ in time. Painting with red wine creates a sense of boundless space and powerful strokes—both that flow and the volatility of this medium makes it a thrilling process for Nyx to explore.

Nyx uses Chinese calligraphy brushes with the deep full-bodied colors and of course, flavors of red wine.  She uses drip-method technique were the paintbrush rarely touches the paper where the stain intensifies with time, their transparent layers deepen, and the final picture emerges. Incorporating drips into a painting, whether they happen purposely or inadvertently, will always give a result that’s intriguing and pulls in a viewer.

Adult Coloring Art

Free Fine Art for you to download and color! Just right click to print. Don’t forget to send in your colored versions to Nyx’ Facebook Link!

Visit Nyx Martinez at www.nyxmartinez.com to sample some original fine-wine art, shop around, or contact the artist for commissions and collaborations. All images supplied by the artist.