activism

I use my art practice to express the dualities, issues, questions, feelings and conflicts of a bi-national, bi-culture, and bi-language woman identity - pain, belonging, struggles, cultural loss, self-esteem, acceptance, and inclusion. My practice transports the audience into the experience of being in my world - emotionally and physically - by utilizing Painting, Installation, Sculpture, and Photography. This is portrayed by using elements such as body language, facial expressions, objects, shadows, and nature. My use of iconography is important to represent both the Mexican and American cultures, inspired by the symbolic metaphors of Frida Kahlo. My depiction of dualities is influenced by Cindy Sherman and Ana Mendieta. The colors used in the work reference the national flags, culture and emotions. The materials, such as tissue paper and paper mache, interpret the Mexican handicraft and piñatas, and chicken wire and wire fences relates to the barbed wire and fence of the U.S. and Mexico border. In the U.S., some of these issues are shared between the Chicanx, Latinx, immigrants, women, and minority communities. My work, as well as this paper, decolonizes art and is made to represent the people that resonate with it.

My thesis work Young Rebels explores the role that visual metaphor has played in activist movements throughout history. Teenagers are well-known for their obsessive and complicated relationships with labels, often exhibiting covetous behavior toward celebrities and fictional heroes, and, through product consumption and object worship, seeking outside affirmation of identity. Trading cards, formerly "cigarette cards," carry a centuries-old history of distributing low-cost illustrated works to millions of people across social strata, and I feel the industry has missed an opportunity to operate as an educational tool. Through a calculated subversion of everyday symbols, in tandem with a reimagining of the common collectible trading card, my series Young Rebels invites young people to find personal connections with young activists throughout history, and through the power of visual metaphor, to co-opt the ordinary objects in their lives into tools of resistance and education.