Working in a studio which was part of a converted Army barracks, Cerro was influenced by the austere raw aesthetic of theses surroundings. In this period her work moved from dense oil paintings to these lighter gestural pieces which paired down to the absolute essentials. Cerro utilized the basic building blocks of paint in their singular forms: Vehicle (water), Pigment (dry organic pigments), and Binder (acrylic polymer emulsions or egg). Experimenting with the mixtures in varying forms, while practicing Zen techniques of painting, the works formed as meditations. The term Zen here is referring not to style or mere aesthetic, but to method.
By allowing breath to carry the brush, the simple and unadorned marks speak directly. These little paintings engulf the sensitivity from which they emerged. The strength is in the subtleties and in the space.