Statement

I am a visual artist with a Puerto Rican cultural background and an interest in social justice issues. I believe artists should be outspoken, a resource for communities, and actively involved in working for the social good. I use traditional genres to convey these ideas, but work in a variety of media. My work is concerned with representation, specifically of people and places I am most in contact of because of my Puerto Rican, immigrant and LGBTQI background. I show locally and tend to engage in projects that satisfy my interest in the political.

As a young person I was most influenced by the figurative painting and social issue themes of Puerto Rican painters like Francisco Oller and Rafael Tufiño, and the Farm Security Administration photographs of Jack and Irene Delano. Joaquín Sorolla and Alice Neel’s subjects have appealed to me throughout the years.

Covid has changed some of what I do. In the past I have painted non-professional models who are paid the going model rate and choose their own poses and clothes. I am now working on portraits using references more extensively and painting outdoors quite a bit, focusing on the neighborhoods where my subjects live.

Over the last two or three years I have begun to collaborate with various communities on public art with social justice themes. This seasonal work has been tremendously fulfilling.

I have also worked on a series of political paintings, operating under the idea that artists must denounce injustice.