When Edurne Esponda arrived in Cape Elizabeth as a 15-year-old from Oaxaca, Mexico, she didn’t speak any English. According to her host parents, John and Elizabeth Serrage, by the time she was halfway through her year as an exchange student at the high school, she was tutoring her American classmates in calculus using their native tongue.

“Everything she’s ever done, she’s been good at,” Elizabeth Serrage said of Esponda, which is why she is not surprised that her Mexican daughter has been so successful.

In the past two decades since Esponda made her first trip to Maine, she has lived and studied all over the world as a fashion designer, which she gave up in 2002 to pursue a career as a professional painter. Now that she has established herself in the art world, Esponda is holding a show of her work throughout June at the Thomas Memorial Library as a way of thanking her host parents and giving something back to Cape Elizabeth, from which she has drawn much of her artistic inspiration.

“I was really shocked by the beauty of Maine,” Esponda said. “In Mexico, we don’t have seasons.” Esponda said she is inspired by color and in Cape Elizabeth she was exposed to new colors – like those of autumn in New England – that she hadn’t seen before and that continue to show up in her work. Her show at the library, “4s-Maine,” which opens with a reception at 6 p.m. on June 1, is abstract work that represents the four seasons in Cape Elizabeth.

“I’m always mixing both. It’s something I can’t really separate,” Esponda said of her two homes in Mexico and in Maine.

Esponda visited Cape Elizabeth in December in order to see the space she would be working with for her show at the library. Seeing Esponda twice this year has been a real treat for the Serrages, who usually meet up with her every couple of years, which is “not as often as we would like,” Elizabeth Serrage said.

Serrage said when her daughter came home from school asking to host a Mexican student for a year, she was not thrilled about the idea. She had just sent one daughter off to college and was looking forward to a less hectic household. Still, she gave in and couldn’t be happier about it.

“It’s been one of the most wonderful experiences we’ve ever had,” Serrage said. Since housing Esponda, the Serrages also took in her younger sister and have met their parents on a few occasions. “We have an extended family in Mexico,” Serrage said.

After finishing high school, Esponda went on to school in fashion design in Barcelona. From there, she landed a job with renowned fashion designer Oscar de la Renta – “a dream” job, she said.

Among the work Esponda did for notable people of the world, she remembers working on the team that designed Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe and how exciting it was to see her wearing the gold lace suit that had been in the studio as her husband was reelected president of the United States.

“There are things you’ll never forget,” Esponda said of the high-profile lifestyle. Because Esponda was fluent in Spanish, French and English, de la Renta had her constantly traveling in order to help with communication. Though Esponda said the lifestyle was exciting, she yearned for a slower pace.

“I didn’t see myself living the rest of my life that way,” Esponda said. “It wasn’t me.”

In 2002, Esponda quit her job with de la Renta in order to start painting full time. Though friends and family thought her decision was risky, Esponda has been incredibly successful. According to the Serrages, she has sold out all of her shows, which she has held in Mexico and in Washington, D.C.

Esponda is excited about her upcoming show in Cape Elizabeth, which she said took her about six months to complete. Though she is used to showing her work in galleries that empty, she has tailored the size of her canvasses in order to make her art work at the library.

“It looks very clean and modern,” Esponda said. “I think it will be a nice contrast to the library.”

Regardless of how her pieces sell, as always, Esponda hopes her paintings speak to the people of Cape Elizabeth – whether they remind them of their home or of someplace else.

“It’s a language,” Esponda said of her art. “It’s the way I can communicate with the world.”

Edurne Esponda stands in front of one of her paitings inspired by the scenery of Cape Elizabeth. Esponda, of Oaxaca, Mexico, first visited the town as an exchange student.John and Elizabeth Serrage await the arrival of their former Mexican exchange student Edurne Esponda, who made the painting that hangs in their living room in Cape Elizabeth. Esponda’s work will be on display at the Thomas Memorial Library throughout June.

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