As a painter, I have come to the realization of how fully my visual aesthetic is grounded in the Mexican Baroque. I continue to make this discovery about myself over and over again. I love things that are ornate, excessive, overdone. I look at fish, or water, and have the same visual experience as I have looking in awe at a 17th century Mexican church. It's a difficult thing to describe but is as close to a mystical experience as I have had.

When I moved to Oregon in 1981, my experience was one of cultural isolation. There were few Mexicanos here and my familiar connections to a larger Latino and African-American community were absent. Over the past 29 years of living in the Willamette Valley, there has been a pronounced change in the demographics and hence, in my isolation. With 11% of Oregon’s population now identified as “Hispanic,” I recognize with great delight, that my culture of origin has come to me. I acknowledge this demographic shift in Oregon because my cultural heritage is the lens that informs every stroke of what I paint. The growing presence of a Latino community has given me a larger audience for my expression, one that understands my own artistic references.

Painting has been the compass by which I orient myself to daily experience. My hope as an artist is that I will continue to have new and honest ideas. I continue to believe that beauty and humor are powerful tools that can affect policy and positive change, and I continue to be influenced by the rich iconography of traditional Mexican art.

I am currently working on a new series of paintings called “Loco-Barocco”. As a point of departure, this work takes the over-the-top aesthetic that I grew up with and reexamines the possibilities of “excess.” I am incorporating traditional Baroque motifs as well as personal animal totems.

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