I am an artist who is perpetually engaged in the creation of a seemingly ethereal novel….: my life lived among others with the help of H/She who created me in love while simultaneously condemning me by imbedding within me the soul of an artist (as Jung stated: " the artist is a blessing unto others-a curse unto himself").
In a continuous labyrinth of all pictorial, ephemeral and permanent, I am oft distracted, cogitating on what my role as an artist is in society, so that it may more than purely inform as an aesthetic activity…but also act as a viable venue through which I, among others may be enabled to easier attain depths of vision, strength and understanding.
My own work is rooted, not only in my Latin American upbringing, but in the collection of Russian fairy tales my grandmother kept in her house in Santiago, Chile. As a teenager, it was a logical shift when I became interested in Kafka's stories, which in college led me to discover the Surrealists. Later, I found that I had an affinity with the fact found within Magic Realism: that ancient beliefs and spirits can coexist with modern ones.
Through my work, I hope to capture the development of life, the experience of being.
To portray the tonal effects and subtle contrasts of color that help constitute the promontory, recesses and folds of the labyrinth of the mind, the genesis of the eternal. To find content which is not only valid, but valuable: which can stand on political, personal and moral ground—non calibrated extensions of emotion, discovery, explorations of the psyche, expressions of a magic-real or surreal sensibility, a mysterious spirituality devoid of legalistic religion---all woven together.
To work forevermore intrigued by questions which hold mysteries lying within a multiplicity of answers, and to allow myself never to forget that I understand the necessity in life, to touch the earth.
Note:
On Creating as a South American (Latino) artist in North America (USA):
For us artists who have been uprooted, or that belong to a first generation of uprooted parents, there are questions that we cannot elude regarding assimilation and appropriation each time we create. Every piece that we conceive is confronted with questions in our heads regarding the intent, the purpose of each stroke and its ramifications; we wonder if we are being honest, if we are being true to our experience. We search to understand that if the effort says something about us, what does it say, first of all- to us- and secondly, about our essence? There are questions regarding how much have we accepted from the culture of hegemony (eg: how much of the root of my 'Latino experience' is still present) and ultimately, are we utilizing signifiers for a purpose that is our own? Obviously the risk one runs, without scrutiny, is that one is pleasing the many galleries that clamor for our work to simply bring in the exotic elements (now more politicized than ever, with the new statistics, as politicos salivate over the Latino vote).
Retorno A la Semilla is a piece that speaks about my longing for a Unified Americas, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska.
