The paintings I present are an expression of my being between two worlds. As a refugee who fled Nicaragua during a civil war in the 1980s (where there was repression and violence against gay people), I came to the U.S. to build a life where I would have the freedom to express who I am.
These works have been created over a span of several years, and as I paint, I want to tell my story. Tengo un Historia que contar!
The worlds I fall between are:
The world of imagination
The world of identity
The world of accepting
The world of life
The world of death
As I paint, I escape reality and find myself in personal discovery and fantasy. This escape helps teach me how to find my own identity!
Heterosexual / Homosexual
Normal / Abnormal
Vida / Muerte (Life / Death)
Comienzo / Fin (Start / End)
Alpha / Omega
Acrylic as a medium gives me the freedom to create complex, playful layers. If you look closely, you will see many layers of images, where faces and other imagery start to present themselves. This water-based paint gives me flexibility to layer images in ways that are complex in technique but appear more simple to the viewer. This layering reflects my emotional state as I paint.
“Why so many faces?” This is a question many viewers often ask me. Because as they study my work, they start to see more faces reveal themselves.
Do all the faces represent the many parts of my identity? They include the many races of my Central American ancestors.
Viewers also ask: “Why all the darker colors?”
The darker colors represent how I hid my own identity in the past. They represent my emotions and my feelings. They convey sadness of how I was forced to hide the real me.
As a homosexual I was trying to hide my identity, especially growing in a Catholic culture where homosexuality was viewed as the Diablo! Cachudo! (The devil.)
The blackness in my composition conveys the sadness that I had been hiding.
And the bright colors are also part of my story that bridge my life in between worlds.
I also want my art to express a sense of harmony and peace within. The color (the breaking of the darkness) reflects my happiness, and the acceptance I have today of my true identity.
As I paint, I listen to music. Physically dancing and stretching in studio helps me reduce the anxiety. And my painting, The Dancer, expresses this motivation to move with joy.
I love to dance. Dancing for me is an expression of harmony. And as I paint, I create windows to other worlds. My small squares and other geometric forms are for me, a universal, unspoken language. For me, they reflect peace and harmony.
