about.
Artist Statement
I am a Queer Puerto Rican artist, activist, and former pro athlete currently living in Barcelona, Spain. Painting is a segway to collectivizing what has felt stolen and reclaiming it through abstract paintings.
Much of my recent work is driven by an uprooting of emotions from childhood memories of growing up in rural Georgia, USA, triggered by the string of socio-political events in the US and Puerto Rico. In 2019, after the increasing social-political upheaval in Puerto Rico began to surface more, so did my need to take control of my internal experiences. I had no other choice while dealing with mental and emotional burnout, depression, and suicidal ideation. I needed to access this outlet as it helped me to dive in and ground all other artistic mediums I used; my body as an athlete, activism, education, writing, and entering film.
​
I believe my work translates as calculated, stored life expressions that reached a breaking point that recognized a systemic, extremely problematic and unchecked imbalance of power.
My paintings, which are few at the moment, barely scratch the surface. I think stating that I have a diagnosis of some "mental illness" is an understatement and minimizing of my humanity as well as the fact that the system claiming to be some arbiter of naming types of human conditions is entirely incapable of seeing its own cyclical abusive nature. I am only responding to a world with no moral compass and unconscious behavioral patterns that are basic and predictable, but uses unspeakable violence to maintain its palpable deviance.
​
Some Of My Works
Through using my personal life experiences, I am visionary with unconventional works across the landscape of social justice, human rights abuses, and normalizing conversations about mental health. My work has been seen in public installations (one below) and several global online galleries such as Artsper and Artsy. I am currently developing skills for projects in film and podcasting.
2012 'Imolation' Atlanta Beltline Installation
Visionary and organizer
of demonstration to
commemorate those who
had self-immolated in
Tibet against the Chinese
occupation with their
increasing crackdown
measures. Between 2009-
2012, more than 50
monks, nuns, and lay folk
set themselves alite to
protest against religious
persecution and decades
long cultural genocide
against the Tibet people.
​
Collaborators:
Student Resident Tibet Monks, Emory University
Emory University, Students For Free Tibet Chapter
Ryan Mathern, Burning Man Metalsmith Artist
Stephanie Kohler, Flame Dancer
​
WhiteWashed
2022
Oil & Acrylic
234cm x 135cm
English translation voice-over collaboration with theatre company, Y No Habia Luz in Santurce, Puerto Rico. A beloved children's book, The Mango Sentinel, a commemoration to all Puerto Ricans, especially those whose unquestionable action toward decolonizing is felt today after Hurricane Maria.
13:44 length
Finalmente
I was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. I spent my entire childhood in rural Georgia, US. I was not allowed to learn Spanish and was forced to assimilate into a violent white context and gender binary that dictated who I was, what I was to learn, and what imperialism on the island portrayed my identity to mean, a form of psychological warfare.
Over the past 12 years, I have been vehemently investigating and unraveling the complex trauma of my childhood. I am the youngest of 5 children. I was the only one of the five to leave GA, pursue a 4 year college degree, identify as Queer, and became an international professional futbol player in Iceland finishing out my years in Seattle, WA USA. It was not the trajectory my Deacon-father and devout-mother had in mind for me, given their Puerto Rican religious catholic beliefs. While one supported my endeavors with developing an “open mind”, the other was ruthlessly judgmental throughout my young adult life.
Rejecting the social and religious dogma, I explored various spiritual practices in an effort to define my own belief system resulting in personal transformation following my own deep “darkness”. This is what led me to my pursuit in human rights. It is also what inspired my art. The two coalesced in my drive toward social justice.
​
I had to gain my own wisdom through tremendous grief whilst redefining my convictions and how I would make my mark in the world, all while trying to navigate Complex PTSD on my own. Although I have always engaged in the arts, it wasn’t until recently that I began to use art as a medium to capture and contextualize, as an adult, complex trauma from childhood, a diagnosis of Complex PTSD and late diagnosed Autism.
It’s been terrifying, excruciating, confusing, and far from being over. My art is about humanizing and normalizing intersectional identity and interrogating human rights abuses and I am in the process of integrating my life’s experiences in the larger world and universe.
artworks.
bring bold, energetic, and meaningful abstract art into your home. read glimpses of my life in which these works are inspired from.
