Originally from Guatemala, I am a self-taught painter who does not hesitate in my stroke. I explore the accident as a form of communion with the unknown and regularly reflect about the role of art in social justice. Since childhood, I have experimented with textures and materials while working in trades of wood and construction work. Now I integrate this knowledge in my painting. My life is marked by signs of socio-economical violence as well as with legacies of personal and community resilience.
To paint I investigate the present, the memory and history because I am convinced that we can only heal that which we are willing to see. The present that we know and suffer is impregnated of social fear and privatized violence. This deforming environment permeates all daily actions in this time of consumerist rushes, selfies, social media and virtual solidarities. I paint with the intensity of a scream to crack open calluses of insensitivity and oblivion, to nail puncture effervescent bubbles of privilege and overconsumption. My paintings come precisely from those forgotten realities, rather those systematically denied, those from which one cannot have the luxury to escape life’s hardships and often feels condemned to live and suffer them. I paint what I see and feel to make others see and feel, to provoke a sort of stumble that takes us out of our comfort, whatever this might be, and brings us closer as more aware human beings to hopefully not to continue reproducing so much suffering in the world. Painting has become my first language.
Art is for me the only space where light and darkness, the grotesque and beautiful, love and fear can integrate with each other to birth a fuller whole. And because of this, I keep painting.
