something about the maternal, fertility, absorption, the eternal
solo exhibition
April 18-30, 2023
Davis Hall, TCC Northeast, Hurst, TX
This body of work includes ceramic / living sculptures, photographic installation, and paintings which are reflections on identity as a woman, mother, and Mexican immigrant. The work is premised on my belief that all life is interconnected and deserving of dignity. The fruit vessels — frutos / as / x — fluid paintings, and vegetal virgin sculptures all intentionally aim to disrupt or queer restrictive and rigid definitions of identity by embracing fluidity and interconnectedness in order to expand and interrogate common ideas of what fundamentally constitutes a living being with all its complex trappings: gender, agency, preferences, and attachments. The work is simultaneously surrealist / utopian and realistic / representational, an optimistic forecast of how we might redefine life, and therefore expand our capacities for empathy and connection in the future.
non-absorption, fertility, the eternal, 2023collage, watercolor, soap on yupo, dead pomegranate fruits and branches30 x 40 inches
Mamacita The Virgin, Estrella de la mañana, 2023, not Mexican terracotta, mica, white slip, primitive fire, nopalitos, Texan dirt, 11.5 x 8.5 x 5 inches
persephone’s choice II (Hades), 2023, New Mexican micaceous clay, primitive fire, 6 x 6 x 5 inches
grow light, babies (detail), 2023 photographic installation, grow light, pink cellophane, extension chords, digital collage, archival inkjet print on rag paper, overall dimensions: 6 x 8 feet
grow light, babies: Yes, he is my real peach. Adopted peaches are still real peaches. (fruits 2), 2023, digital collage on cotton paper on panel, 18 x 24 inches
grow light, babies (detail), 2023 photographic installation, grow light, pink cellophane, extension chords, digital collage, archival inkjet print on rag paper, overall dimensions: 6 x 8 feet
(Que) Milagros, 2023, not Mexican clay, iron oxide, yellow ochre, primitive fire, various sizes: 1-4 inches x 1-4 inches each
Mixed-media installation: Mother of Millions, 2023, grow light, not Mexican terracotta, mica, my mom’s barley, abuelita’s lentils, my pistachio shells, primitive fire, mother of millions (Kalanchoe) plant, marigolds, gifted baby cacti, Texan dirt, Overall dimensions: 5 x 6 feet
absorption, fertility, the eternal, 2022, collage, watercolor on Yupo on panel, 11 x 14 inches
something about the maternal, 2023, watercolor, soap on Yupo on panel, 11 x 14 inches
adoption, assimilation, absorption (a rainbow with a brown background), 2022 watercolor, soap on Yupo, 11 x 14 inches
Let it go to seed., 2023, stoneware, mom's barley, abuelita's lentils, my pistachios, dried pomegranates, baby peaches, old pecans, dried mint, 9 x 8 x 4 inches
persephone’s choice I (Demeter), 2023clay, mica slip, primitive fire10 x 10 x 1 inches
persephone’s choice I (Demeter), 2023, clay, micaceous slip, primitive fire, 10 x 10 x 6 inches
grow light, babies: what a waste. (fruits 4), detail, 2023, archival inkjet print on rag paper, 24 x 24 inches
a monstera growing from a rainbow prickly pear cactus (alex and me), 2022, watercolor on Yupo on panel, 24 x 30 inches, 4 panels
grow light, babies: first trimester (detail), 2023, digital collage, archival inkjet print on rag paper, 12 x 12 inches
Artist Statement & Original Writing
This work is something about the maternal, fertility, absorption, the eternal. Pulling from memories and experiences as a mother, daughter and woman, I create installations which include living and ceramic sculpture, painting, and photography in order to examine attachment to place, gender-expression, familial and cultural ties, and motherhood. Watercolors on yupo, grow-lights, the color pink, photographs of fruit at various stages of ripeness, clay sculptures of pregnant bodies, seedling plants in clay vessels surrounding a vegetal virgin Mary, evoke the complex realities surrounding caring and tending for oneself and others in today’s world. I use this work to redefine my autonomy in relation to the all-consuming, all-absorbing occupation of motherhood. Especially in a time filled with reproductive anxiety, this work evokes a sense of understanding, comradery and empathy.
I center both beauty and decay as an ambivalent homage: to absorption and non-absorption, ripeness and decay, tenuous young life and withering age. The grow light shines on the often-oversimplified, often-contradictory, bittersweet dualities inherent to motherhood. In this way, I seek an honest framework from which to address and inhabit motherhood within my family and myself.