Artist Statement

The intention of the artwork that I am currently creating illustrates who we are as individuals, as a society and as a nation. I use art to express my individuality, my identity - but also to connect with others who might relate to the shared experience, culture and identity expressed in my artwork. The artwork and the process of creating allows me to take a look inside my core, reflect and see how and where I fit within contemporary art and culture. 

My body of work is a documentation of moments and sacrifices my parents have had to endure to afford myself and my siblings resources and opportunities to have the life we have.  I am reminded everyday of the hardships my parents went through that eventually afforded me the ability to actively pursue and accomplish my own dreams. I create with a weight of guilt that comes from knowing I will never have to endure the struggle or make the type of sacrifices they did. This guilt pushes me to work on my art just as hard as they did to give me a better life. 

My layers of paint, color, and movements, are an imitation of their movements and energy. I use earth tones in my artwork, but there is always a brightness to my main subject serving as a way to enlighten what may often be ignored. My content consists of labor, the tools used to work, and ultimately the struggle of migrants and the first few generations of Americans (children of migrants) also known as America's backbone and most recently coined as "Essential workers". I believe that our work and tools are a reflection of our identities.  My artwork is never smoothly painted and I want my viewer to want to touch the art. I am not making artwork that is just aesthetically pleasing, I’m creating art that impacts how we see those around us. 

Bio 

I was born in South San Francisco, California and graduated from California College of the Arts in 2014 with a BA in painting and drawing with honors. I live and have a studio space in Richmond CA. Around creating art I work as a preparator (art handler) at SFMOMA's Collection Center. On my daily commute I gather inspiration for my content from observing the people I encounter and their pursuit. 

 I began drawing and painting in middle school as a way to express frustrations of being bullied. My “scribbles,” as I call them, did not make sense for a very long time. Once I graduated from high school, Ibegan to attend college on and off, and in the span of ten years; I earned his BFA from California College of the Arts in Painting and Drawing. It was in art school that he learned how to make sense of my “scribbles”.In the beginning, I painted cityscapes; a professor told me during a critique that my work was too Mexican. Unsure how that professor came to that conclusion, I decided I had two options: either to continue to paint what she called too Mexican or to expand on what mystyle had become and build on it to create paintings that could be interpreted as universal.I am most inspired by Mexican Muralists who’ve made art to show powerful stories of work along with politics, and Impressionists that used color and movement, creating emotion to suck in the viewer.

 I recently participated in Mexi-arte’s YLA-23 “Beyond Walls Between Gates Under BridgesBeyond”, in Austin Texas. I’ve also shown in MACLA’s 6th Chicana/o Bicentennial. In 2018 I completed the series "Contrapposto" that was shown in Sanchez Contemporary in Oakland CA, and In 2017 I exhibited the series “Pursuit” (truck series) at El ComalitoCollective.