Artist Statement
My Mexican father and New England mother met as students at the Rhode Island School of design and moved to Guadalajara, Mexico when I was very young. Since then, except for summer vacations, college, and graduate school in the United States I have lived in Mexico. Living under these two strong and in many ways competing cultural experiences has been a profound influence on my creative work.
The naturalism and primitivism of Mexico, the vivid colors of Mexican art, its traditions combined with deeply religious and archetypal influences are reflected in my painting and sculpture. For example, from a very early age I have been intrigued with the ceremonial masks that play such a huge role in Mexican folk life. I collect these masks as well as other rural objects reflecting the primitive essence of outsider art in Mexico and incorporate them into my work.
Yet my art is tempered by an educated artistic eye derived from my U.S. education and cultural experience. I believe my vision has been strengthened by studying the evolution of Philip Guston's painting and the work of Jean Dubuffet and his response to non-traditional art forms. My use of clay provides a link between Mexico's fascinating ancestral pottery traditions and the late 20th century American ceramics movement that initially drew my in to focus on art.
With my work I'm not after an immediate response rather than making art that produces an everlasting experience that always changes. I want to create works that reflect optimism. I think of myself as a naturalist. I work in a studio surrounded by tropical forests where I like to go out and observe, digest, and portray. I try to have the art reflect the interconnectedness of the natural world, our home.
