I am a multi-disciplinary artist interested in the repetition of patterns in nature both on a physical and conceptual level. I make narrative-driven work influenced by my time growing up in Mexico, Nicaragua and Houston, as well as my travels. I am inspired by the decadence in colors, ideas and visual storytelling of Mexican muralists, the Primitivism movement of Nicaragua and the old Spanish masters at the Prado. I like the idea of contemporizing these historic influences to my life as in Houston in 2023.
My process depends on the medium but usually starts with an idea I need to get out of my head, a way to make it Vernon. I see a character in a plant that reminds me of a behavior or I take a photograph in my mind that reminds me of something I read. I create a collage of these observations in my head, physically on paper, or digitally, which I then turn into a painting. I embrace camp because I see the world as equal parts comedy and drama. I want people to “read” my work as they would read a poem of magical realism by Ruben Dario. Saturated colors, dramatic figures and pattern-on-pattern ask the viewer to step into my world.
The characters in my stories can include live plants, photographs, illustrations, and memories. The octopus serves as a metaphor for feeling alien in my family and a hetero-normative world. The plants inside the bubble of my terrariums create their own world. Each being participates in creating a Pitufo (Smurf) fantasy land. The pitaya plant creeps up the walls of my grandmother’s house behind San Sebastian like an alien invading the garden. Alice falls into a mushroom and the bunny rabbit gets a sexy gay reimagining in my queen collage.