I approach my artistic practice as a visual interpreter of Jungian concepts. For me the figure serves as a convergence point for myths, archetypes, and histories. The body is an active agent, embodying and reflecting physical and cultural substance. In public art, I explore the concept of rhythmic movement, sports, and dance as universal expressions of culture. These elements mirror the organized patterns of motion found in public spaces. For instance, consider the synchronized stops and movements of transportation systems or the coordinated flow of people entering and exiting schools and workplaces, all contributing to the choreography of our communities. I aim to capture and reflect these dynamic interactions.
Mural at S. Renton Transit Center, 2023 I was inspired by the Ride the Wave motto and the idea of people in Renton travelling across each panel. The sparkling waters of Renton’s rivers and creeks wash across the entire mural, revealing many of the ways Renton moves. A Metro bus, Boeing airplane, cars from nearby dealerships, bicyclists, and skateboarders join folk grooving in all sorts of sports.
Panels 2-6 of S. Renton Transit Center mural, watercolor maquette
Panels 19-23 of S. Renton Transit Center mural, watercolor maquetteGideon’s Call, Acrylic/latex mural, Seattle Defender’s Office, 10’x 30′, 2017. Depicting stakeholders as free runners leaping over a stylized cityscape as a metaphor for the legal and intellectual maneuvering performed in the service of clients. Architectural details and columns from the building are also represented. Legacies A Right to Rise, Legacies, scaled 10′ high x 12′ wide, acrylic concept drawing. Proposed to DPD and accepted by PAAC and stakeholders before funding fell through. 4Culture/DPD. Site 3 wall surface speaks not just to the workers and clients, but also to the people working and visiting the floor. Historical figures in the fight for legal and social justice are commemorated.Traceurs, Wall paper mural concept, acrylic on paper, 2020. The idea is that urban workers climbing the corporate ladder are like parkour figures. Rendered in a single line that connects figures to environment like in an Etch-a-sketch brings a playful, nostalgic quality to figuration.Boogie Woogie Chroma, 2022, digital concept drawing for Bus wrap. Traffic and pedestrian models in the city are conceived as orchestrated dance patterns. Urban break dancers mingle with bits of poetry and movement trails.Boogie Woogie BW, 2022, digital concept drawing fro Bus wrap.Dancing on Air, digital concept drawing, 2017 Conceived for the Seattle Center Monorail System. In 2017, Seattle Center Park initiated a campaign, called The Heart of The City. The cornerstone of this concept is that the Seattle Monorail is like a circulatory system, and the museum that it bisects, is like a beating heart. Window decals allow passengers to view urban figures dancing across treetops and building roofs bringing a sense of fantasy to their ride as they join the beat of Seattle Center’s various festivals.Singing In the Rain, concept drawing, 2020. invites everyone who transits, works, or visits Occidental Square to shake off the oppressive doldrums of the wet season with a celebratory spirit. This public installation, which takes the form of banners and stenciled superhydrophobic paintings on the ground, celebrates the idea of dancing and spontaneous celebration as an expression of communal identity. The Hand That Feed Us (Snack Time) / Las Monos Que Nos Alimentan (Merienda), 2020, serving-ware maquette. In “The Hands That Feed US (Snack Time)/ Las Manos Que Nos Alimentan (Merienda)” Concept of temporary Pop-up Snacking corners with Toile de Jouy wallpaper, table linens, and porcelains featuring decorative drawings of farmworkers planting, weeding, and harvesting alongside statistical data that bring home our interdependence with undocumented laborers. The Hand That Feed Us (Snack Time) / Las Monos Que Nos Alimentan (Merienda), 2020, digital Concept drawing
The Hands That Feed Us, video projection, 2021
Shadow Boxing, temporary art projection/installation, The High Wall, INScape Arts, Seattle Art Fair, 2019 Animation projected on the side of the old INS building.
Shadow Boxing, hand-drawn animation, single channel video, 3m27s. 2019. Available for public projection. 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.No Hiding Place Down Here, 2017, Seattle Office of Arts, temporary art commission, Installation of tent, scrim drawings, photographic projections and sound. 12′ x 14′ x 10′ A soundscape intermingles my recollections of homelessness with photographic documentation of Seattle’s unsanctioned homeless. A sculptural tent built entirely out of screen scrim dominates a temporary encampment situated inside the Seattle Presents Gallery. Hip Hop Dreamers, enamel on aluminum and steel, 2023. Size variable, paper cuts and 3-d printed concept maquette. These paper cut and 3-D printed maquette are part of an ongoing exploration of both free standing and cantilevered 3 dimensional sculptures. Conceived as enamel on aluminum or enamel on steel, these figurative structures explore how moving figures occupy and displace space through their gestures.
