Santiago Andrade, social communicator, photographer, medicine man, spiritual leader, and Ecuadorian Andean doctor, has received instruction for more than 30 years in the spiritual path of Sumak Kawsay (Andean cosmovision) and its traditional practices. During his career, he assumed the responsibility of sustaining the cultural tradition and ancient knowledge of the native peoples for medicinal plants, guarding healing altars and ceremonies.
Santiago’s art comes from a spontaneous and empirical inspiration, from learning as Kuraka (Andean Doctor). This ritual art created as an instrument of healing and transmission of ancestral knowledge is the legacy that it offers us. With the deep conviction that by painting myths and making medicinal pictures, he makes that continuity in tradition, preserving ancestral knowledge, the memory of ancient peoples, considering other points of view on the cosmos and life, portraying the path of wisdom that the native peoples of America have developed as their culture. Representing the expression of a people, Santiago paints the vision of the healer, the mystic, the teacher who has decided to walk, recognizing himself as the son of this mother earth.
