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Artist Statement
Art has always been my therapy, a way to navigate the hard times and celebrate the joyful ones. I’ve been creating since I was a child, and when I majored in art in college, the first versions of my masks were born. Since 2004, they’ve grown and evolved alongside me, shifting with my emotions, my needs, and my journey. My work began as a response to judgment, both the kind we place on others and the kind I felt placed upon myself. There were times when I wanted to hide from the world, to protect myself from assumptions made before I was seen or known. Those early distorted forms reflected how I sometimes felt inside: raw, uncertain, and searching for understanding.
Over time, my masks have become more personal, rooted in my experiences as a woman, a Latina, the daughter of immigrants, and the richness of my culture. Traditional braids with ribbon and flowers, red lips that echo my Folklórico days, and Charro bowties honoring our Mariachis, all speak to a deep pride in where my family comes from. Feathers appear again and again, representing the fire that burns within, the light that emerges from feeling silenced or repressed. In these pieces you’ll see forms that are altered, disquieting, sometimes unsettling, but alive with expression and invitation. The distortions are deliberate: to slow you down, to make you ask why. Touch is central in my work, it’s a metaphor for empathy, connection, and the things we feel but rarely acknowledge.
Despite moments of pain or struggle, my work is not about emptiness. It’s about fullness, of feeling, memory, and spirit. Through color, texture, and the pulse of my heritage, I process what it means to be human: to hurt, to heal, to hope.
That’s what art is for me, a reflection of who you are, a space where you can simply be. My hope is that when you encounter my work, you pause long enough to feel something, about yourself, about others, about what it means to be truly seen.