One challenge she shares with all expat artists: The temptation to zone in on the exotic side of China - just as foreigners in Spain fly like moths to flamenco and bullfights.

The China that creeps into her own art isn't a face from Peking Opera, Coca says. "It's a wall of corn on a roadside or a roof, or the red brick of a hutong the things that are familiar and comfortable to you if you live here, not what you know from passing through. I don't want my point of view to be the same as a travel guide.

Last year, she says, 40,000 young people left Spain because of the financial crisis. "If I had gone to Britain, I'd be one of the PIGS (a put-down term for economic refugees from Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) - from a poor country, seen as a burden on the rest of Europe, with a lot more pressure to prove my worth.

Coca at her current exhibition in Beijing. Mike Peters / China Daily

"Here, I have a good life without so much money, and I can get different kinds of creative work because Chinese people are very good about judging your talent by instinct."

She's a good actor despite being shy, she says, savoring roles as a prostitute and a Russian soldier in 1949 in dramas as well as smaller parts for TV and video commercials.

She has found bravery in her artistic persona ("I've eaten scorpions and all that, but not worms - NO!") and savors a down-to-earth lifestyle that includes yoga and sport, such as her beloved Spanish soccer team, and lots of creative projects.

"Here, my work stands or falls on its merits," she says. "That has helped me to reach a place where I can create a consistent body of work."

Contact the writer at michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn.