Born in New York and raised amid the warmth and colors of Puerto Rico, Ileana has always felt attuned to rhythm — whether through music, movement, or the quiet poetry of the natural world. A lifelong lover of the arts, she first found her voice as a soprano, drawn to the emotion and discipline of song.

After a long and fulfilling career in finance, Ileana returned to creativity with renewed devotion, this time through painting. She began her artistic training at the Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park, where she studied under several accomplished instructors, including Beth Pendleton — one of her most influential mentors — as well as Noreen Coup, Kathleen Brodeur, Giovanni Casadei, and Sally Cummings Shisler. Ileana has participated in numerous workshops at Crealdé and has exhibited several times at the professionally juried Crealdé Annual Student Exhibition.

Her primary medium is oil, and she is especially fond of the palette knife technique. She paints as a meditation on beauty and memory, inspired by the textures of nature, the vastness of landscapes, and the fleeting impressions gathered from her travels.

Rooted in a family of artists and musicians, Ileana paints with a sense of inherited rhythm and intuition. Each canvas becomes a conversation between light, color, and feeling — an exploration of stillness and the quiet joy of seeing the world anew. Now based in Florida, she continues to paint as a way of staying connected to the wonder that first inspired her.