Artist Candida Alvarez has been painting all her life, but recently decided to alter her lifelong hobby and combine the element of photography to her work.

“I want my work to be affected by the world we live in,” Alvarez said. “I like responding to visual information that inundates the world we live in.”

The visual information that Alvarez responds to is journalistic photography.

“At the moment, I paint paintings that are born from representational images, mostly journalistic photography,” Alvarez said. “I use drawing as a template from which my paintings begin. Therefore, the paintings exist in a space that is both representational and abstract.”

Alvarez believes there is a gap between how a location’s landscape and politics are depicted in local newspapers.

Her current work comes from her travels between Chicago and southwest Ireland.

Alvarez will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Tarble Arts Center, and the event is open for anyone to attend.

“I think she has a very interesting background to her work that can give a multicultural perspective,” said Chris Kahler, a painting and drawing professor.

Alvarez said one of the reasons she became interested in painting and drawing was because of her mother’s Bible.

“When I was a young girl, I was exposed to paintings of the life of Christ that used to illustrate my mother’s bible,” Alvarez said. “I was intrigued by the images and would constantly peek at them.”

She said that her first drawing was from a black and white photo of a ship that her parents hung in her home.

“The ship had a prominent place because it transported my father, along with several hundred soldiers, from New York to Japan on their way to fight in World War II,” Alvarez said.

She has also been teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago for seven years.

“Teaching was never a goal for me,” Alvarez said. “However, I have learned to love it. It has made me a better artist. I engage with my students and I am invigorated with their questions. It is a wonderful way to share your experiences.”

On Wednesday, Alvarez will discuss her creative process, her current work and her experience as an artist.

She will also share images of her work.

“I know she is a very good artist, and certainly somebody who would be very interesting,” Kahler said.

As for being an artist, Alvarez believes there is a certain level of peace that creating art provides.

“I did not make a decision to become and artist. It was my way of doing things. It was something I always engaged with and felt comfortable doing,” Alvarez said. “I enjoyed the solitude that it provided.”