Artist Statement
Artists are simply catalysts reacting to their environment. The best singers create tone by allowing the sound to bellow from deep within their diaphragm. Art should be created with a similar concept in mind. It should emanate from a person’s “core”, translating experiences and the concept of self in the process. Self, referring to the individual, and by extension the commonality of human experience.
My artworks began with self-inquiry originating from a search for identity. In contemplating the idea of core, I was frequently reminded of the Rio Grande, also known as the Rio Bravo. It is a river that separates the United States and Mexico across the Texan border. One day, my father dared to challenge law and bring his young family from Mexico into the United States across the Rio Grande in search of the “American Dream.” His wife, three young children, and I in my mother’s womb. I felt that returning to the Rio Grande, my right of passage, would be a suitable place to find my core. The River is special in that it shares in my duality, it is at once American and Mexican. It even has two names depending on what side of it you stand. Instead of representing this dual nature using cliché imagery, I sought to retain the essence of the River. I wanted to allow the River itself to speak for the people who have origin in its waters, like me.
And so I broke branches from nearby trees, and filled an empty container with water from the Rio Grande. I charred the branches taken from the riverbank until they became crude sticks of charcoal to use as my medium. I held the River in my hands and began to draw people. These people do not shy away, but are engaging you directly. Their eyes are fixated but are not menacing. Their gaze is hindered by the unforgiving Texas sun, but they dare not look away and lose focus. The drawings invite you to step closer and look, study. I wish to capture your interest with an aesthetic response, seeking to momentarily subdue preconceptions, allowing an innate love for humanity to take precedence.
The people depicted are Americans of Mexican descent. I began this series by using the Rio to depict Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) youth as a direct counter to the rhetoric spewed against Mexican people who come into the US. DACA individuals are those children who were born in Mexico but were brought by their parents into the US as children. They pay to apply, and cannot commit any crimes with the threat of having their DACA permit suspended. They are not criminals, they are not drug-dealers, they are not rapists. I quickly realized that DACA is simply legislation, and the idea of positivity existed with the youth of the border community itself. The youth is, brilliant, full of hope and aspirations. Some are born here, some there, but they share a love of country and strive for success. They are the truth of our border communities.
My drawings are not finished until I drench them with the water collected from the Rio Grande. The River thereby embodying the dual nature of the people depicted. This also completes the elemental basis of man, carbon and water, existing at more than ninety percent in our bodies. River water and charcoal, giving life to the inanimate. The process seemed to me ritualistic, spiritual, as if the drawings were being baptized. Since the composition of this saturated mass is strikingly similar to my person at a molecular level, perhaps this drawing is within my same sphere of existence, from the perspective of the universe. The infinite, after all, holds no preference towards cognitive mass. And when you begin to contemplate life in reference to the finite, you humbly realize the miracle of existence is the reason we should all seek unity.
My artworks began with self-inquiry originating from a search for identity. In contemplating the idea of core, I was frequently reminded of the Rio Grande, also known as the Rio Bravo. It is a river that separates the United States and Mexico across the Texan border. One day, my father dared to challenge law and bring his young family from Mexico into the United States across the Rio Grande in search of the “American Dream.” His wife, three young children, and I in my mother’s womb. I felt that returning to the Rio Grande, my right of passage, would be a suitable place to find my core. The River is special in that it shares in my duality, it is at once American and Mexican. It even has two names depending on what side of it you stand. Instead of representing this dual nature using cliché imagery, I sought to retain the essence of the River. I wanted to allow the River itself to speak for the people who have origin in its waters, like me.
And so I broke branches from nearby trees, and filled an empty container with water from the Rio Grande. I charred the branches taken from the riverbank until they became crude sticks of charcoal to use as my medium. I held the River in my hands and began to draw people. These people do not shy away, but are engaging you directly. Their eyes are fixated but are not menacing. Their gaze is hindered by the unforgiving Texas sun, but they dare not look away and lose focus. The drawings invite you to step closer and look, study. I wish to capture your interest with an aesthetic response, seeking to momentarily subdue preconceptions, allowing an innate love for humanity to take precedence.
The people depicted are Americans of Mexican descent. I began this series by using the Rio to depict Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) youth as a direct counter to the rhetoric spewed against Mexican people who come into the US. DACA individuals are those children who were born in Mexico but were brought by their parents into the US as children. They pay to apply, and cannot commit any crimes with the threat of having their DACA permit suspended. They are not criminals, they are not drug-dealers, they are not rapists. I quickly realized that DACA is simply legislation, and the idea of positivity existed with the youth of the border community itself. The youth is, brilliant, full of hope and aspirations. Some are born here, some there, but they share a love of country and strive for success. They are the truth of our border communities.
My drawings are not finished until I drench them with the water collected from the Rio Grande. The River thereby embodying the dual nature of the people depicted. This also completes the elemental basis of man, carbon and water, existing at more than ninety percent in our bodies. River water and charcoal, giving life to the inanimate. The process seemed to me ritualistic, spiritual, as if the drawings were being baptized. Since the composition of this saturated mass is strikingly similar to my person at a molecular level, perhaps this drawing is within my same sphere of existence, from the perspective of the universe. The infinite, after all, holds no preference towards cognitive mass. And when you begin to contemplate life in reference to the finite, you humbly realize the miracle of existence is the reason we should all seek unity.