Mixed Media Tunnel Book. 2024.
The Dating Game
Mixed Media Assemblage. 2024.
Initially just a reflection of dating app results in the Rio Grande Valley, this piece explores local societal views on dating and relationships. These include conventional gender roles, stereotypes, racism and colorism that plague family expectations on one's potential significant other all through the lens of a familiar game.
Lotería originated in Italy, but the version you’ll see played in Mexican households was created by French business man Don Clemente Jacques. While a beloved game for many generations, all of the figure cards showcase a stereotype based in racism and/or colorism. And though this version of the game was published in 1887, many of these views persist in modern day Latinx communities, and make themselves known the most when topics of dating and marriage are brought up in conversations. Most known of these are the “El Negrito” card and the “El Apache” card, which are clearly offensive caricatures. I had wondered if I should leave these out of my assemblage, but followed the example set by Dr. Gloria Arjona who emphasized in her article, “¡Lotería! A Racial & Gender Approach to the Mexican Bingo,” that doing so is exactly what entities have done to those people and their communities for centuries: erasing them completely.
Furthermore, the game only has three women cards compared to its variety of men. This also contributes to the narrow notions of how women may be perceived by their communities or as potential partners: “La Dama,” an upper class, white woman in ; “La Serena,” the temptress; or “La Chalupa,” the embodiment of the strong, hardworking Indigenous/Mexican woman. Only these three are options to choose from.
My assemblage was made to look like exactly the way we play the game at home, with DIY cards on cardboard and anything we can find to mark the cards. It’s messy; just like navigating invasive questions, bad dates, and conventional expectations.
Forget-me-nots hold significance in love and grief. Here, they are overwhelming.
Inspired by medieval manuscripts, flowers, and the consequences of using religion to justify toxic/abusive marriages (aka when strict churches/communities frown upon divorce, no matter what).
“Comfort Among the Thorns.” Watercolor and gouache. 2002. 7” x 5”
Available for purchase at https://gallerynucleus.com/detail/34774/
“Do You Revere Them Like You Revere Her?” Watercolor and acrylic. 20” x 16.” 2022.
Though her origins are controversial, Guadalupe, just like the dahlia flower, is indeed a native of Mexico. Her image and importance to Mexico, Mexican-Americans, and Latinx communities around the world cannot be questioned. She is revered. Many turn to her for healing and guidance. It made me think of curanderas; how they are also often turned to for healing and guidance. Sometimes it’s an elderly woman or man in the neighborhood, greatly respected and loved. Other times it’s your own family matriarch, who passes down her knowledge just as it was passed down to her.
A tunnel book inspired by the Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville, Texas. Made with paper, watercolor illustrations, Dura-Lar, and chip board.
For my graduate school thesis exhibition, I transformed the gallery space into a glimpse of what a neighborhood in the lower Rio Grande Valley might look like. The exhibit is an expansion of my thesis project, a graphic novel titled Resacas.
Patterns based on Mexican foods not often found at American Mexican-themed chain restaurants. These patterns were also inspired by seeing inauthentic Mexican hot chocolate in cafés on the East Coast.
24” x 24” mixed media painting: oil, acrylic, color pencil, and paper. If interested in purchasing, please contact the artist.
This mixed media painting speaks of the emotional aftermath of assault and/or abuse.
“Manifestation” has been exhibited at the 2017 Rising Eyes of Texas exhibition, and the Brownsville Fine Arts Museum’s International Art Show in 2018 where it won 1st Place in the Mixed Media category and People’s Choice.
Oil and acrylic on canvas.
