​​ARTIST STATEMENT

​​

​

I feel very fortunate to have been born into a family of storytellers. My fathers side of the family especially had a real gift for telling tall tales.  I can remember spending many weekend afternoons listening to my father and his brothers tell hilarious stories of their childhood as they sat around the barbecue grill and drank their beers.  My Dad could tell a story that would make you feel like you were right inside the scene there with him.  It was my Tia Enriqueta who probably left the greatest impression on me.  She was the reason I spent the first seven years of my life in abject terror. Her specialty was telling us horrible, frightening stories of the monsters and ghosts that roamed the monte just beyond the glow of our porch light.  She described El Cucuy (the boogeyman) and La Llorona in unsettling detail. These were creatures who roamed the monte in search of wayward children who hadn’t bothered to get home before dark.  El Cucuy would take such a child to his cave and eat them, scattering their bones with all the others. La Llorona might mistake you for her own drowned children and hold you in her deadly embrace. Enriqueta told other educational stories such as The Rude Boy Who Was Swallowed Up By The Moon and also The Disobedient Girl Whose Face Turned Into A Cow. These morality tales kept me up for many nights of my youth and ensured that I was home before the sun set. As I grew and developed my love for drawing and later, painting; my love for the narrative grew as well.  My images always tell a story and the objects and toys that I’ve collected over the years often play the role of actors in my little sketched out plays. As such, when I was asked by Gus Kopriva and Tanja Peterson to create ink drawings with the theme of fairytales, I was happy to agree.  This suite of drawings allows me to explore imagery of beloved fairy tales and fables through my particular lens.  I also saw it as an opportunity to introduce a new audience to creatures from my own personal mythologies. So among the images of Goldilocks and Aesops Fables, you will also meet El Nopalito and El Torito dela Copita, as well as El Mocho Eugenio.  It is my hope that the viewer enjoys the craft involved in creating these works and also the stories that inspired them.