Artist Statement
Influenced by the constantly shifting landscape and architecture of my childhood,
I create drawings and sculptures depicting an alternative reality, invented and
inspired by the cycles of deconstruction and reconstruction produced by hurri-
canes. Based on both my memories of Puerto Rico and the recent rise in storms
across the Caribbean and Southern US, my work responds to these changing land-
scapes, suggesting the storms' power to alter not just the physical terrain, but
also individual psyches and the broader cultures of affected areas.
In referencing the hurricane's continual transformation of landscapes and menta-
lities, I hope to provoke certain questions: How do we "map" memories? How is a
visual crisis represented? How are boundaries determined? Drawing, while
perceived as a logical system, also allows for the creation of deconstructed
spaces that can be unraveled and redefined through the processes of mark-making
and repetition. The evidence of one's hand and the ability to be very direct with
formal choices infuses the drawings with a sense of intimacy. My proximity to the
work and its scale is also focal. The larger drawings give me more room to play
with scale within the image, while the smaller ones tend to be more quiet and
delicate. Sequences are created, fabricating an imaginary world where my memories
of places are topographically stored and distorted to their limits of collapse.
In collecting representations, stories, myths and fantasies, a mental terrain is
diagramed, allowing narrative and fictional landscapes to respond to one another.
Struggling between order and disorder, these elements ultimately piece together
landscapes and structures that, like our multi-layered, fast-paced, precarious
lives, demand a place in the visible world.