Artist Statement

My paintings start from a feeling you get from an old photograph, one you find from a box in the closet; there’s nostalgia, there’s loss, and there’s this sense of a moment that is gone. I paint family scenes, interiors, and the outdoors. Usually, I include the people that I have in my life, and often myself. My paintings are meant to feel candid, like a snapshot. Some of my paintings are slightly imperfect in composition, and the mood is dark and quiet. I want viewers to feel that there’s an after moment that exists.

The series of Messages from the Past is my way of going back to these memories. Memories I wish I could relive, moments that I don’t fully remember. The subjects are in detail, and the backgrounds of my paintings are more dreamlike, more abstract, giving them this fogginess that you see in a memory. A lot of the scenes are things I can remember clearly, and others feel like I’m filling in the blanks of memories. My Mexican heritage is a part of this structure, daily life, family, religion, traditions, and small details that shape who I am, representing my culture. Things Mexican Americans can relate to. These paintings of these moments are what formed me. I’ve always carried this sense of emptiness, and my paintings are a way to return to these specific moments, looking at them again and painting with each brush stroke, reminds me a little bit of that moment. Revisiting my life in a different way than I experienced it.  

Painting oil on wood helps me capture these moments slowly. It makes this memory physical. A photograph on paper can feel fragile and deteriorate faster, becoming the past of the past. A painting takes time, and time becomes part of this painting just as a deteriorating photo. The paint on the wood becomes permanent, something to return to.  Moments people long for. A moment worth remembering.