Statement

As a Mestiza living in the United States, I communicate the tension building inside of me, between the clashing of cultures, the illusion of the American Dream, and the historical grief of ongoing colonization across the globe. I create conversations between disciplines, weaving together works of varying media with one common thematic thread: the dream and construction of a post-colonial world.

My work is heavily influenced by the Avant-Garde and Andean folk art. I carefully choose vibrant color palettes inspired by Andean textiles for my two dimensional work. The colors harmoniously guide the viewer across surreal compositions, which often feature images of nature and reference artists such as Kahlo, Klint, and O’Keefe.

I embrace interspecies kinship and I feel compelled to draw and sketch the native plants and animals on Paumonok (what is now referred to as Long Island). Depictions of rainbows in my work, as well as the moon in its various phases suggest a moment suspended—the fragile life of an insect, the tragic death of a blue jay from an automobile—stretching the ephemeral into the eternal.

My sketchbooks, those sacred petri dishes in which ideas grow, are diverse. They contain pastel renderings of my living space, landscapes and cityscapes abstracted, colored pencil sketches of “roadkill,” and whimsical illustrations of imaginary animals done with Sharpie or brush pens. I explore different styles, each serving a unique purpose, whether it be a plan for glaze work on a ceramic vessel, an idea for a more involved canvas drawing, or a step in storytelling.

When I venture into the third dimension, I reach for clay to hand-build vessels informed by Pre-Columbian functional art, or to sculpt “Chanchitos” (AKA “Lucky Pigs”), a type of Chilean folk art meant to be gifted to loved ones to spread good luck. Armed with the wisdom and knowledge of previous generations, I fulfill the legacy of my ancestors by creating loving art objects with intention, centuries later.