Milk Paint, Chalk Paint, Wood Panel. 2019
Port of Entry. 2019
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Detail (above left and right) of Detencion fronteriza
Detención fronteriza. 2019
Artist Statement
Author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison warned that "Language can never ‘pin down’ slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so . . its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable.” Yet it seems, it is imperative that we continue to strive to find a way to express ourselves, to understand, or to purge ourselves of the intensity of our thoughts and feelings. It is our humanity that preserves; searching for a way to begin the conversation in spite of the limits of verbal dialogue, that falls short only because we have become numb to it. When it comes to the question of the hell that fellow human beings are bearing, a hell we are either supporting, condoning, or failing to challenge - the inhumane treatment of victims of unspeakable violence, begging those who could help, for help, only to be met with more violence – the answer falls short of the ideals of humanity, set forth with the hope of our founding mothers and fathers. This series is my attempt to express what cannot easily be said, because we have strayed so far as a nation, to call, through abstract forms what so many cannot otherwise hear or see.
This series of work is titled, Dios todo lomira (God sees everything), was inspired by a photo in the New York Times of a small boy, living in poverty in Mexico, on the wall of his bedroom, were written these words. His hope and the faith in a better world, inspired this series.
One of my most recent works, the Rose Circle and the Gold Cross was painted during the first few weeks of the Cov19-outbreak and spread of the virus here in the United States. Like so many I felt myself in a downward spiral from so much fear. The massive hoarding, isolationism, and what seemed to be a return to a primitive barbarianism on the part of so many. My painting during that time dark and intense. I decided that I needed to shift the paradigm from dark to light; embody hope. Out of that came a painting of pastels and the ancient symbols of the cross and the circle. Not to be taken narrowly, the circle and the cross predates Christianity by thousands of years and is in fact an alchemical symbol found in the writings and teachings of indigenous peoples, Western civilization and organized religion worldwide, from Ancient Africa (protection and childbirth), Ancient Alchemists (quinta essentia), Amerindian (the Lodge Cross, Sacred space, a cosmic Centre). J.C. Cooper writes: The "Cross in circle: Solar mobility ; the wheel of change; the wheel fortune." (1978).
The paradigm shift is within us. It is an occult truth the only true power we have is over ourselves.
Author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison warned that "Language can never ‘pin down’ slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so . . its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable.” Yet it seems, it is imperative that we continue to strive to find a way to express ourselves, to understand, or to purge ourselves of the intensity of our thoughts and feelings. It is our humanity that preserves; searching for a way to begin the conversation in spite of the limits of verbal dialogue, that falls short only because we have become numb to it. When it comes to the question of the hell that fellow human beings are bearing, a hell we are either supporting, condoning, or failing to challenge - the inhumane treatment of victims of unspeakable violence, begging those who could help, for help, only to be met with more violence – the answer falls short of the ideals of humanity, set forth with the hope of our founding mothers and fathers. This series is my attempt to express what cannot easily be said, because we have strayed so far as a nation, to call, through abstract forms what so many cannot otherwise hear or see.
This series of work is titled, Dios todo lomira (God sees everything), was inspired by a photo in the New York Times of a small boy, living in poverty in Mexico, on the wall of his bedroom, were written these words. His hope and the faith in a better world, inspired this series.
One of my most recent works, the Rose Circle and the Gold Cross was painted during the first few weeks of the Cov19-outbreak and spread of the virus here in the United States. Like so many I felt myself in a downward spiral from so much fear. The massive hoarding, isolationism, and what seemed to be a return to a primitive barbarianism on the part of so many. My painting during that time dark and intense. I decided that I needed to shift the paradigm from dark to light; embody hope. Out of that came a painting of pastels and the ancient symbols of the cross and the circle. Not to be taken narrowly, the circle and the cross predates Christianity by thousands of years and is in fact an alchemical symbol found in the writings and teachings of indigenous peoples, Western civilization and organized religion worldwide, from Ancient Africa (protection and childbirth), Ancient Alchemists (quinta essentia), Amerindian (the Lodge Cross, Sacred space, a cosmic Centre). J.C. Cooper writes: The "Cross in circle: Solar mobility ; the wheel of change; the wheel fortune." (1978).
The paradigm shift is within us. It is an occult truth the only true power we have is over ourselves.