ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is about merging the invisible into the visible, primarily through my abstract work, and more recently also in my figurative work.
My artistic journey is all about ‘improvising’, and imperfection and focusing on the new vision they point to.
It is about highlighting that art cannot be intellectualized, it can only be observed through the senses.
Place, music, rhythm, spontaneity, imperfection, and the concepts of becoming visible and invisibility, all influence my work.
Most of my pieces are influenced by music: tango, jazz, classical music and also contemporary musical pieces.
The majority of it has been all about New York, music, and memories that overcome the test of time, as well as being present in the moment, taking fate into my own hands and shaping it to become something better, something meaningful, something that can also inspire others.
Emotions such as despair, loss, finding hope, challenging fate, and finding the self through a perceived sense of belonging.
Overcoming obstacles, imperfectly, yet with a vision to believe in myself and in others, going down into the depths of despair, where I found myself and art.
I have also made it my mission to share my work with the world, bringing my creative process and art into the public spaces of New York City because I believe everyone benefits from art, and most of the time there is a disconnect for the audience, they don’t get to see how or why, or where, of a work of art.
I wanted to change that as I also explored the relationship between place, invisibility in all areas of life, the sense of belonging, and how I identify as a New Yorker and as an artist.
My journey has opened up my imagination, linking the visible with the invisible, first through my abstract work and more recently with my work in figuration, because I’m intrigued by the spiritual world and what we call fate, I believe it envelopes what we see around us.
Music has always played a part in my life, and it has been at the core of my creations, tango, jazz and other music genres inform my work.
Poetry has also influences my work.
Words as well as rhythm can ignite light in times of darkness, words can awake parts of our soul that seem otherwise dormant, give hope, open paths otherwise not visible, pointing to invisible beauty and emotions, and pointing to freedom, pointing to our experiences and that of others around us or half around the world.
Freedom is a key element of my work and my approach toward my work, and for me, it is not about "doing anything" but about doing away with what is ‘expected’, that which often serves to limit ourselves depriving us from our own growth.
My work in public spaces is an active statement of this freedom that happily I own, most artists might like to go out and do this but they allow the opinions of their practice, their sense of shyness, their fears, their own beliefs of how certain things "should" or "shouldn't" be, to interfere and they don’t.
I don’t let that happen to me, I don’t allow anything that others might think interfere with my purpose and what I believe is a part of me and my work.
I believe this way of thinking informs my work and my process, my painting in public spaces is testament of this and of how I choose to live this artistic journey.
Some may call it a rebellious spirit, to me it is so much more about my relationship with myself and with the world- I am also one who never allows another one’s opinion on anything to drift me away from my own vision and purpose and my freedom to just be, and to also allow others to just be.
My practice encompasses a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, and ceramics sculpture.
Especially through my work in ceramics, I seek to address issues of marginalization and exclusion, and taking on an important social role of helping unheard voices heard and feel empowered.
My abstract and figurative work in painting draws inspiration from my Latin-American roots’ of Buenos Aires’ ‘fileteado’ as a starting point to reinterpret my own experience as an immigrant and new generation of Americans.
I also believe to have been in New York for so long that I feel more identified as a New Yorker, which for me has been a process of nostalgia for my identity as an immigrant, into one where I feel at home in New York only.
My process shifts the narrative away from dominant stories while creating new spaces to celebrate the beauty of everyday life, creating a new vision of fate, and notions of home and belonging, in the process.
I am enveloped by the idea of fate, those invisible forces that present us with choices and new or old paths and choices that shape our lives, my work seeks to give a glimpse of the invisible world that seems to influence our destiny, as well as shed light on the seemingly invisibility of our existence, unless we take on a role of purposely standing up against that invisibility and work against anything that we believe is not our destiny.
I believe that as an artist I will never stop learning, art and life are both a journey that are directly linked, it's important to remain open to the idea that we are evolving beings, and that sometimes we learn the most when we lack the most.
This has been one of the most important lessons I have learnt. It is part of my story and also partly the reason I paint in the public spaces of New York.
I am privileged to be accessing academic training, however my spirit and vision have been shaped during times when I had no means to access this privilege. I remain in a state of gratitude for all obstacles that have shaped me into the person and artist that I am today.
Although my work benefits from my academic training, I believe that art cannot be intellectualized, it is to be felt, and observed through the senses, it must be shared and it must serve a purpose for a greater good, it must unite, it must include everyone.
If we miss this important vision on how to appreciate art, we miss the point of it.
My sculptures in ceramics ask the viewer to reconsider what another human being may be experiencing, how they are being subjected to injustice, suffering, poverty, impossibilities, being made to feel insignificant, invisible, or facing a fate they are unable to bend.
The idea of the fly emerged from my experiences. I believe that this same concept can be applied to create conscience of the suffering and injustices other human beings are experiencing by bringing them into the visual realm.
My work intends to speak about the hope that is found in those dark places, in the ‘aloneness’ or ‘unfairness’ if we continue to work on ourselves and don’t give up. This is also a concept behind my work in painting in the public spaces of New York.
The fact that I am here thriving, making art, that I have been working to put myself through art school while being my best advocate in life, is nothing short of a miracle, and proof of my vision and determination as an artist.
I always say that my name will be joining Cy Twombly, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, among others, whom I admire, and I say this out of a place of humility and determination, because I have worked to create this path and have overcome many obstacles to be here, and out of each obstacle, I have made a masterpiece.
I am forever grateful to those who believed and continue to believe in me, who open doors for me, who have showed up for me. I am deeply grateful to those who have come to me and thanked me for being out here in the world making art in the streets, I am deeply grateful for all the hope and sense of companionship they have made possible for me.
I am forever grateful to the important collector who saw me recently in SoHo, New York, and so firmly believed in me, who saw my face marred in effort and because they believed in me they allowed my name to be amongst those very artists I so admire and always knew I’d be joining.
You too, are my inspiration.
Thank you for reading.
Some of my Favorite Quotes
“It is not the critic who counts; not the manwho points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds couldhave done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in thearena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort withouterror and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knowsgreat enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who atthe worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his placeshall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nordefeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
”All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.” Jorge Luis Borges
”No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way,
with precisely the same kisses. One day, perhaps some idle tongue mentions your name by accident: I feel as if a rose were flung into the room, all hue and scent.” Wislawa Szymborska
"He who strongly desires to rise up, will think of a way to build a ladder." Japanese proverb
”I’ll stay out till I get in.” Faith Ringgold
”Destiny is a series of detours.” Unknown
”I was this way before I met you, I walked the same streets and ate the same foods. Even before I met you I was already in love with you, and sometimes, not just a few times, I missed you already, as if I had known I needed you.” Julio Cortázar
“She spent too much money on clothes, the hairdresser and shoes, not realizing that he’d rather see her naked, with messy hair and barefoot.” Julio Cortázar
“I have dreamed of you so much that my arms, grown used to being crossed on my chest as I hugged your shadow, would perhaps not bend to the shape of your body. I have dreamed of you so much, have walked so much, talked so much, slept so much
with your phantom, that perhaps the only thing left for me is to become a phantom among phantoms.” Robert Desnos
”I know there is no straight road, no straight road in this world. Only a giant labyrinth of intersecting crossroads.” Federico García Lorca
”Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.” Antonio Machado