My work draws from histories of adaptation and migration, and I find myself interested in the confluences of improvisation and careful experimentation. My painting practice is meditative in that it strives to dissect and understand the components of my experience and of my cultural and aesthetic legacy in a way that might give a greater understanding of the whole. These works address the surreal nature of being stuck between two worlds. In am often occupied with the ways that culture and art can mitigate cultural and philosophical barriers. I am guided by my interests in architecture, memory, and storytelling to create layered and detailed works that explore illusion and depth on flat surfaces. Some works reference Mexican mythology, and some are based on malaphors, which are essentially mixed-up idioms. The device of the malaphor (eg, “the greener the apples, the farther they fall from grace”) is a nod to the confusion and inherent syncretism of the immigrant experience, but also a way to speak about the ways that abstraction and realism can be recombined to talk about a paradoxical universe. We live in a world where separation and unity coexist and define almost every aspect of reality. The most essential nature of our matter is said to be both a wave and a particle.
My paintings usually begin as loose and improvisational series of brushstrokes, then progress into a building of illusory architectures, and finally incorporate realism and narrative. The process takes me from an almost complete removal from subject matter and composition, through to a very tight examination of form and story. Looking to the writings of contemporary philosophers like Karen Barad and Donna Haraway, I examine the notion that each person, animal, and object is not only an essential component of the present moment, but an entangled element in a greater apparatus of constant change and adaptation. I seek to depict our reality in ways that reimagine anthropocentrism and established hierarchies, and am fascinated by the potential of hybridity, remix, and reinterpretation. My work emphasizes the idea that magic and surprise always happen as a result of shared experience, cross-cultural inspiration, and the subversion of established tropes and identities. I like to question the human animal’s centrality in the cosmos, and engage a fascination with the diversity and inherent tension of life’s web. Animals often take center stage in my work, acting as mischief makers, seers, and stewards of human culture. The painting exist outside of our timeline and history, and the recombination of objects and environments allows for historical artifacts, often stored in the bowels of museum storage, to take on new life. There is a nod here to ethno-futurism and decolonization. I come from a nation that is often bogged down by trauma, corruption, and disfunction. By freeing them from their usual setting in time and place, the objects of my cultural heritage are freed from some baggage, and are able to tell new stories and relate to a broader range of interpretations. If there is a need for new symbols, new words, new ways of seeing things, how can I add to the conversation as a painter?