About the Artist
I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, where I spent most of my early childhood playing outdoors, listening to music, drawing, and spending time with my grandfather (Papi) and my grandmother (Wuelily). At the age of eleven, I learned I was moving to the United States to be reunited with my mother, after a two-year separation. On a cold December morning in 1997, I reached my destination at Boston Logan International Airport. As I began this new adventure in this unknown land, I felt hopeful and excited. However, being uprooted from my birth place at a young age and forced to blend and balance multiple cultures simultaneously became exhausting and disheartening at times.
My art practice focuses on cultural identity and hybridity. As a Latin American artist, I've made it my purpose to reconnect with my roots and reclaim my culture and traditions through my work. As an immigrant, I navigate feelings of nostalgia, displacement, and a distorted sense of belonging while understanding that transitions can bring loss but also growth.
I create mixed media paintings on weathered or reclaimed wood, using acrylic or oil paint and gesso. I build my own painting support structures to best accommodate my ideas and ultimately my compositions. In the past few years, I transitioned from paper to canvas, from canvas to wood panels, from panels to reclaimed or weathered wood. My attachment to wood comes from the piles of scrap wood my grandfather would keep in our backyard in Chile. He had just retired from the air force when I was born, so I was practically raised by him. He was no carpenter, yet he would build random things out of wood, like fences, book shelves, stools, and dog houses. I grew up with all these wood planks laying around so much that they became part of my everyday life.
My ongoing exploration of mixed media, symbolism, and surrealism has allowed me to have more freedom and flexibility when it comes to the narratives I want to emphasize. It also gives me the opportunity to incorporate stories and meaningful references from my own experiences into my artwork. I, sometimes, integrate materials such as fabric or wire and other components that directly connect to each piece, specifically. I use this approach to build layers, create contrast, and emphasize texture. These elements present a compelling visual metaphor for the complex layers of history, memory, and identity that inform and heighten my creative thought-process and overall existence.