Artist Statement

My work contributes to what Professor of Anthropology and American Studies Arlene Davila describes as the “project” of Latinx art. This “project” is not a mere label designating a unified identity; rather, it seeks historical visibility for the expansive and diverse Latinx communities whose experiences, as art historian Mary K. Coffey notes, “...have often been systematically erased or misrepresented by both the “aesthetic cosmopolitanism” attributed to Latin American artists and the Anglo-nationalism of U.S.-American art history.”

I was raised in the constricting suburban landscapes of Frisco, Texas in its low-income immigrant enclaves spliced with months spent each summer break in Guanajuato, Mexico chasing ghosts in abandoned homes from those who had migrated north to never return. My experiences coalesced into an interest in what Professor of Sociology, Avery Gordon calls complex personhood, “Complex personhood means that the stories people tell about themselves, about their troubles, about their social worlds, and about their society’s problems are entangled and weave between what is immediately available as a story and what their imaginations are reaching towards.” 

My work is deeply inspired by the liberatory potential of an imagined home, and the idea of capturing life touched by the divinity and mystery of the mundane, that which is exhilarating, painful, and all in between. Among the threads I’m pulling at in my work are the sociopolitical history of Latinxs in the USA, the aesthetics of excess, and the politics of visibility. Using automitografía, as theorized by Gloria Anzaldúa, and folklore, I investigate memories through photography-based paintings blended with painterly moments, loose gestures, and strong mark-making. My process involves intuitive collaging from photographs, assembling memories, events, and people into compositions that I then paint through a process of additive and reductive direct improvisation. In my work, portraiture is deployed as a focused, familiar, cornerstone that invites pause and remembrance; it toys with the loneliness and proximity of people. My paintings and drawings develop like retrofitted memories that look back and speculate alternate futures. This approach allows me to translate real life into a re-imagined world, often resulting in dense, cluttered, chaotic spaces that reflect the complexity of the people who inhabit them.