Embracing Chaos

Throughout my life and career as an artist, I have been interested in the notion of chaos. The idea of chaos permeates my art and is central to the way I paint.

I am fascinated by the random and chaotic aspects of the human experience. The unpredictable and often dissonant nature of life is what I explore my work. I am especially intrigued by the ways in which we, as individuals and societies, futilely attempt to organize the chaos around us.

Earlier in my career, I tried to order the chaos through painting figuratively. Over the years, I have moved away from that desire for structure and learned to embrace this chaos in my work. My current work reflects the chaos I see and feel through my raw use of lines and color.

My lines and colors emerge from and are influenced by memory. Many of these colors stem from those I saw growing up in my home country of Mexico, such as the brilliant orange sun and the vibrant colors of the fruits and foods I would see in the markets. These colors offset the dark elements and create a sort of equilibrium with the chaos that I depict. The vivid colors serve as a reminder of the hopeful and joyous qualities of life. It is important for me to represent this balance because it is not productive for me to deny or suppress the chaos of the world. I recontextualize this chaos and appreciate it as an essential part of the diverse array of human experiences.

In the past two decades, reading has become an increasingly integrated part of my creative process. Exploring a variety of authors, genres, and writing styles generates continuous ideas for my work. I am especially drawn to the process by which authors create and develop characters and stories. As I read, I visualize elements of the books as if they were paintings. Doing this allows me to draw comparisons between the books and my art. Observing and contemplating how authors create their literary works helps me better understand and elaborate new approaches to painting.

Reading also helps me to bring back memories of various, often nearly forgotten, moments from my life. I fill volumes of notebooks with these memories and contemplations. I eventually add lines, colors, and drawings to the notebook pages, which, in turn, inform my paintings. My process does not always follow this neat pattern, as the moment when I begin to paint is always, necessarily, spontaneous. However, reading and writing are always central to my comprehension of the world and therefore my approach to my art.