While I have been busy getting up to speed at the college after a 9-month sabbatical, my alter ego Puer has been busy. Havik Anthology, an arts and literature publication is featuring four pieces from the Puer series in their next volume. I am so excited and grateful to be included by this prestigious anthology published by Las Positas College from California!
Alchemical Bride at Cornish Playhouse
Alchemists of old called the furnaces where base matter was transmuted into gold the House of Chick, because symbolically, this incubator is a metaphor for the human body, and our physical metabolism is the fuel that transforms matter into the sought after body of light.
Five paintings from my new series, Alchemical Bride, are on display at the Cornish Playhouse in an Artists Up group show.
The show is up through May 15th, 2019 at the Cornish Playhouse, 201 Mercer, on the grounds of the Seattle Center.
Up The Stairs Quarterly to feature Through The Aleph from the Puer series
oils on canvas
36″ x 24″
Seven pieces from the Puer series will appear in Up The Staircase Quarterly. The pieces as a group are titled Through The Aleph, because my alter-ego, Puer, that eternal Man-child, travels through one to experience different landscapes. He’s my very own transcendentalist, with an exuberant point of view!
Spring and Jump Into Green
This piece is my contribution to this year’s EGGS-plore Lynwood Egg Hunt. The EGG hunt city wide is on!! After the egg hunt, the eggs will be on display at Lynwood City Hall and auctioned off to support local nonprofits. The auction is on June 14th. I Love nothing more than to be able to give back to my community!
One of the most awesome memories from a youth spent in the tropics is the sight of bright tree frogs latched onto a window. I could inspect them up close and they wouldn’t try to flee. They knew there was glass between us. Maybe the frogs wanted to get a closer look at the humans too! Frogs usually herald springtime with their croaking and chirping choruses, but sadly populations in the US and abroad are declining. Amphibians are the first to suffer when contaminants enter the environment and so I am hoping these colorful frogs will help bring awareness to how we all can spring a little more into green. Every little action by every single one of us adds up to one big greening effort!
My New Animation Titled Shadow Boxing
I embarked on this hand-drawn animation as a kind of ritual, paralleling the tedium of drawing each individual cell with the daily battle against the Othering our bodies are subject to, most critically in this historical moment. I was thinking of epigenetics also, how we inherit the bruises of our ancestors in this fight as old as patriarchy and colonialism. Calling upon the archetypal warrior, Ogun, the repeating call in Yoruba, oh Ogun o mogba mogba, is an homage to the resilience of the Africans brought to my homeland of Cuba (and USA) who were able to maintain their faith and persist despite unspeakable cruelties and enslavement. A Lucumi song from my youth, when I was consecrated Iyalocha into the faith. And while I don’t practice the religion anymore, that ashé lives on in me, and I consider myself fortunate to have come to understand the wisdoms of those who survived the unthinkable with their souls intact.
Making It, A Life In Art
Making It, A Life in Art, single channel video, 54m39s, 2019
No Hiding Place Down Here in Concrete & Adrift: On The Poverty Line at the Alexandria Museum of Art from March 1 – June 22, 2019
I am so honored to have my multi-media installation, No Hiding Place Down Here, included in this critical exhibition. Curated by Megan Valentine, the show examines the too often ignored subjects of poverty and homelessness. On view in conjunction with Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings, Concrete & Adrift features work by regional and national contemporary artists working in a variety of media. The Alexandria Museum of Art is committed to fostering a culturally rich community through innovative art experiences.
Alexandria Museum of Art
933 Second Street | Alexandria, LA 71301
(318) 443-3458
Gallery Hours
10 AM – 5 PM | Tuesday – Friday
10 AM – 4 PM | Saturday
Closed on Sunday, Monday, and Major Holidays
Admission Prices
$5 | Adults
$4 | Senior Citizens/Students/Military
FREE | Children under 4 years of age
I am happy to announce that The Three Joses, a triple portrait of the patriarchs in my family, offers a counter point to the stereotypical image we have of latinos in Bridging The Gap: Machismo In Latinx Culture & Community. Rather, the work explores what happens when that father figure is removed from the fabric of family life. In this triptych, I drew a portrait of my grandfather, father, and brother…all named Jose… on delicate linen handkerchiefs. Each handkerchief portrait also bears the text to personal letters written to them. Cutting and pulling on horizontal threads to partially distress each, I physically eroded the textiles, illustrating the dissolution of intergenerational ties when a member of the family is forcibly removed by the state.
The first portrait tells of the lost familial connection when my grandfather fled to the USA and left us behind. The second portrait tells the story of what happened to my father when he was taken by the G-2 Cuban Secret Police and tortured. He died at 36. The third portrait tells the story of my brother whose son is the first in many generations to break the tradition of naming the first born Jose. A reception will be help Jan. 18th 5:30-7pm at SAA, in Salem, Oregon. Read more about the show here: https://salemart.org/16993-2/
Gideon’s Call, My DPD Mural at the Dexter Horton Building
Mural Celebrates the Work of The Public Defender’s Office
I am so grateful to 4Culture for project managing and helping me serve the dedicated and hard working lawyers, investigators, and staff of the Department for Public Defense with the mural design, Gideon’s Call. I envisioned the members of the DPD as freerunners pivoting, vaulting, and leaping over columns and a stylized city scape– a visual metaphor for the maneuvering they preform everyday in helping clients navigate complex legal challenges. This is my first mural art commission in Seattle and I am deeply honored that it was for these hard-working folks. I painted on the weekends so as to not disrupt the office life overly, but sure enough, plenty of lawyers worked the same long hours on Saturdays and Sundays! The mural is situated in the mezzanine of the historic Dexter Horton Building, downtown Seattle.
Migrations series is published in Lunch Ticket
Wake Up Screaming online journal, Issue #16, Numbers
They published a selection of my Books Of Hours Series! This was such a thrill…you can’t imagine. As some of you know, my mission is to change hearts and minds through art, and this unique journal intersects so beautifully with my own vision. Wake up Screaming is an online arts magazine, a window to the soul based in Glastonbury U.K. The first article is by Tom Bree, who is currently writing a book about sacred geometry in the Well’s Cathedral. Visit the journal and see my work here: Book of Hours at Vol #16, NUMBERS
New Video Shorts For My Documentary, A Life In Art
featuring Philippe Hyojung Kim
featuring Brian McGuigan, Programs Director for Artist Trust
So if you’ve been wondering why you haven’t been seeing new artwork on the Puer or Migrations series, it is because I have been neck deep in writing, directing, editing, and producing a documentary…um, with only my husband to help me! I’ve got five more shorts in the pipeline before I embark on the long documentary piece. So yup, this is a no-budget, bring your heart and soul to the community kind of film-making project. oxox
Center on Contemporary Art show closed on Saturday
Exhibition: October 4 – November 17, 2018
Reception: Thursday, October 4, 6pm – 9pm
Reception: Thursday, November 1, 6pm – 9pm
Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) presents the group show, (Where) Do We Belong? This exhibit shares the realities and challenges surrounding immigration and includes artworks that are a response to Trump’s “Zero-Tolerance Immigration Policiesâ€â€”amplifying diverse artistic voices with direct experience. A wide range of media including installation and textile to video and paintings will present artworks from Humaira Abid, Hawo Ali, Tatiana Garmendia, Hiba Jameel, Rohena Alam Khan, Jake Prendez, Marcia Santos, and Judy Shintani.
Center on Contemporary Art
114 3rd Avenue South
Seattle, WA, 98104
Phone (206) 728-1980
Email info@cocaseattle.org
Centers Of Gravity Shoreline City Hall
‘Neath The Sugar Moon, 2018
Shoreline City Hall
17500 Midvale Avenue N
Shoreline, Washington 98133
Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Last chance to catch the Kent Summer Show
Kent June 6- August 22, 2018A painting from Puer, a new archetype I’ve been exploring in the studio, is on display at the Centennial Center Gallery’s summer group show. My Puer really does dance to the beat of a different drum. He titles his own series (this one is from his Aleph series) and goes places where I as a woman might never go unaccompanied. He gets around. He’s even showing elsewhere under a different name! Not sure if he’s a rascal or a transcendentalist. Want to see more? Click here Puer Centennial Center Gallery
400 West Gowe Street Kent, WA 98032
Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., closed holidays
Faculty Group Show
February 5-28, 2018
I’ll be showing films, and other new work from the Migration series.
The Unraveling, single channel video, 6:54, 2017
M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery
1701 Broadway, BE 2116 (by the Atrium), Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 934 – 4379
Internalized Borders
February 14 – April 13, 2018
I’ll be debuting For What It’s Worth and showing three other films and a new drawing from the Migration series. Other artists in the show include Alva Mooses, Edel Rodriguez, Deborah Faye Lawrence, Ricardo Gomez, Felipe Baeza, Mauricio Cortez Ortega, Shahrzad Changalvaee, and Maria de Los Angeles.
Shiva Gallery
899 Tenth Avenue, 6th Floor New York, NY 10019
(212) 237-1439
Zhi LIN’s drawing, Chinese Reconciliation Park, 2017. Chinese ink on paper, 8¾ × 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Seattle.
Immigration Panel Speaker at Tacoma Art Museum- in conjunction with Zhi LIN’s exhibit.
February 15, 2018
I have been invited by Tacoma Art Museum to comment on the relationship of art and activism, particularly as these relate to the hot-button topic of immigration. The panel and community activities support the current exhibit/installation by Zhi LIN at the museum (see drawing above). The artist will be joined by Humaira Abid, Fulgencio Lazo, and myself to converse with Dr. Susan Platt and museum patrons.
TACOMA ART MUSEUM
1701 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98402
T: 253-272-4258 x3062
Our Daily Armor lll – The Virago in Contemporary Art and Adornment
November 16th – December 31st, 2017
Come on by to support and celebrate the righteous art and artists this show!
Virago Gallery
4306 SW Alaska St., Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 933 – 2444
October 11, 2017 through November 28, 2017
Lynnwood City Hall, 19100 44th Ave W
Lynwood, WA 98036
No Hiding Place Down Here at Seattle Presents Gallery
Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104
Through October 14, 2017
Commissioned by Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Everything Passes Everything Stays at Steele Gallery
Gage Academy, 1501 10th Ave E., Third Floor, Seattle, WA 98102
Open September 13 – October 4, 2017