Born into a metaphysical bubble of sensitivity, of empathy, of nihilism and facetiousness... I had no other choice than to be an artist. As a child I was a docile, under supervised, ever-growing capsule of emotions. I was unsure of myself and of others. I preferred to always be a passive watcher of all things around me and with no one to pour my developing heart out to, I poured it all into a rich inner world instead.
My home of El Paso, Texas has always felt so small-sometimes suffocating, and yet the tightness has always felt so comforting. Days are monotonous, and if you let them be- painfully mundane. I took little interest in the people around me, but I’d personify the objects that surrounded me. I explore these feelings in my Lavender Haze ( ceramic, 2024) platter set where I hand painted an analog of tender items that relate to needs and wants. My entire life felt like vein attempts to reach out and connect with people around me, but I never found those interactions as fulfilling or genuine as the world I created in my mind.
In my childlike wonder I saw such magic in anything that broke the mold of regularity. I channel this desire for a maximalist world by creating one of one paintings on one of one ceramics. I allow the pieces to take their own personalities, some come in sets but no two are ever the same, this motto carried me into onia beloved series of Corset Cups (ceramics, 2023) where twelve hand thrown tumblers were painted with twelve unique corset designs, a nod to the sexualization of a uniform waist on an inanimate ladylike cup and its drinker.
I treasure uniqueness and I value imperfection as the great motivator. Determined to learn to make my own way in the world I have allowed myself to see both incomprehensible horrors and otherworldly like beauty in attempts to understand and be able to empathize with the full range of human emotions. These feelings blend into my sculptures, Take a Bow for example, where I, in full pigeon costume am sculpted to be taking a sentimental bow, meant to signal the end of a long and difficult performance.
What I lacked in emotional connection to the people around me, I made up for in love of the inanimate, the unhuman, the objects and animals that surrounded me. This inspired pieces like His Name is Handsome (metal, fabric, clay, 2025), where I pull the viewer in by their heart string to see a four-foot-long gutted pigeon in his vulnerable last moments of life. Tranquil fabric feathers and pink ruffles give an effeminate first impression however these craft materials come together to tell the story of an gory undeserved fate. It is my belief that strong art will never make the viewer feel just one thing. The line between delicate and demented visuals can crossover, twist and intertwine to create a complex narrative that mimics the unpredictability of life.
I find my art woven into this intersection of horror and beauty, all threaded into the ties of mundane life. This is where I find the strength of visual narratives in functional ceramic works. By painting stories on these common housewares, they suddenly are made to feel precious and ceremonial. I regularly depend on my dry sense of humor and whimsical attitude to assist me in the processing of my emotions, and I try my best to represent this process of emotional acceptance in my art with a light, colorful, sometimes dainty first impression. However, the longer a viewer looks at a piece the more likely they are to find hints of uneasiness, the unsettling details. This is best showcased in Something Sinister (ceramic, 2025) a piece that plunges into the pool of repressed memories and unresolved childhood trauma. I found myself humored by the resilience of the world, or maybe the indifference of it, to keep on turning.
For life to be changing so drastically in these times, yet we treat our routine and our objects as sacred, we cling on for any sense of normalcy or control in a world where it is all an illusion. The constant pending choice of humanity, routine habits and patterns and the ways they are intertwined with our memories, sexuality, and consumerism haunt us yet guide us. By utilizing nostalgia and familiarity through motifs such as pigeons, clothing, spirals, repetitive patterns, Knick knacks and common house clutter, I am acknowledging that I am a rich culmination of every painfully mundane creature or thing I have ever loved, as can be felt in my Growing Pains (ceramic, 2025) vessel in which my internal struggle to find my true self beyond societal expectations is depicted.
As a watcher of the world, I am always analyzing both my own identity and the identities of the people around me. I yearn to activate small moments of the day through emotionally touching functional pieces of art. To continue intellectualizing my experiences and pulling from them to create artwork that transcends metaphysical bubbles of isolation.