Title: “El Mex” Medium: Acrylic paint Size: 1 ft by 2 ft both canvases Date: December 2021 El Mex is a diptych that steps into the themes of culture and identity. I wanted to demonstrate how I sometimes feel more connected to my Mexican culture and how I sometimes feel lost with my identity. To show my culture I used a Mexican skeleton with a sombrero and I only painted half of the skeleton to demonstrate that I'm only half Mexican. Then to show how I sometimes feel lost with my identity I painted an abandoned sombrero on my second canvas.
Title: “B.A.D. Deer” Medium: Cardboard Date: February 2022 The B.A.D. Deer is a mask revolving around representing my Mexican culture because of the deep connection I feel Mexico has with nature. To show this connection Mexico has with nature I created a deer skull. With this piece, my intention was to explore the idea of different stages in someone's life. I was inspired by how deer without antlers is a fawn then with antlers, it's an adult deer and I made it a skull to show death. Jozef Mrva inspired this piece with his style of creating animal masks.
Title: "The Bright and Dark Side" Medium: Color Pencil Size: 10 x 15 inch Date: March 2022 This piece revolves around the themes of good and bad. I really wanted to capture the idea of how there's always bad where there's good and good where there's bad. To express this idea I used two different trees; one being full of leaves to demonstrate good and the other with no leaves to demonstrate bad. I also changed the color of the grass to show this idea. The green grass represents the good and the red and black grass represents the bad.
Title: "IT'S TIME TO..." Mediums: Charcoal, Acrylic Paint, and Color Pencil Size: 9 x 8.5 inch Date: April 2022 "It's Time To..." is a piece to demonstrate the idea of growing up and how in this society we are expected to grow up. To show this I used a balloon to represent childhood, which I was inspired by Banksy because of how he has a little girl and a balloon in his piece. Then to show how we need to let go of our childhood at some point I made a hand appear like it's letting go of the balloon. Making the hand appear realistic, following my other inspiration Giacomo Cavedone’s style.
Title: “MYSTERY SOLVED!” Medium: Acrylic paint Size: 3 ft by 3 ft Date: May 2022 Mystery Solved! is a self-portrait heavily inspired by Rene Magritte's painting The Son of Man. Even though my piece is quite similar to Rene Magritte I have done some changes. I removed the apple from Rene's piece and made a Nopal(cactus) to symbolize my Mexican culture and I didn't have anything covering my face, unlike Rene who creates a mysterious feeling in his piece by covering his face with an apple. Thus the reason for my piece being called Mystery Solved!
Title: "Glimpse to the Past" Medium: Photography Size: 11 inch x 8 inch Date: June 2022 This piece explores the theme of the past as it is being portrayed with an old radio and cassette tapes. My main inspirations are Peter Zentjens and Mat Collishaw. Peter inspired my piece because of how we both captured an old object as our main subject for our pictures. Then Mat inspired my piece with his way of really capturing the subject in the picture. For example, the way he doesn't have anything in the background to not distract the viewer from the main subject in the picture.
Title: "Sunset Valley" Medium: Watercolors Size: 9 inch x 8.5 inch Date: July 2022 This piece Sunset Valley is a watercolor painting that has the theme of peace. I wanted to create a piece that showed my own representation of how I think peace would look. The artists that inspired this piece are Joseph Mallord William Turner and Tony Conner. Both these artists have a similar style and they inspired me to create this relaxing-looking watercolor painting of a landscape. For this piece, I tried to implement techniques that they have in their paintings to create a peaceful vibe.
Title: "The Feathered Serpent" Medium: Color pencils Size: 10 inch x 7.5 inch Date: September 2022 "The Feathered Serpent" is a colored pencil drawing that I wanted to connect to my Mexican culture. I chose to draw a feathered serpent which is called Quetzalcoatl by Mayans and Aztecs because of how it symbolizes the union of the earth and sky, which was considered a god. Then for the style of this piece, I chose to do something similar to my inspiration "Monster Mash" by Daniel Fenelon because his style has a connection to Mexican culture.
Title: "Don Julio 70" Medium: Acrylic Paint, Color Pencil, and Pen Size: 10x10 inches Date: September 2022 "Don Julio 70" is a piece in the pop-art style done in a similar way as my artist inspiration Andy Warhol. His pieces "Shot Marilyns" and "Campbell's Soup I" are the ones that inspired me the most. What I implemented from Warhol's pieces to mine was his use of colorful hues in the background and the repetition of a random product. But in my piece, I used a tequila bottle to represent my Mexican roots and where my family is from.
This piece "Mr. Mexico" is a watercolor painting that was created to represent Mexico and its people. In a similar way to my artist inspiration Frits Ahlefeldt, I gave an animal human-like appearance. I chose the eagle because of the recognition it has in Mexico and the representation it has in Mexican culture. Not only is the face a representation of Mexico but so is the suit as it can be seen with colors like green, white, and red being the colors of the Mexican flag.