I create mixed media paintings, drawings and collage artworks fusing imagery from tropical flora, fauna and Puerto Rican popular and pre-colonial arts. With these influences, I develop imaginative patterns that symbolically touch upon transformation, mutability and resilience. Through decorative biomorphic elements, I explore dualistic narratives and interpretations of nostalgia that relate to personal and collective experiences of dislocation. With this exploration I combine memories surrounding diasporic experiences with the traditions and heritage from my motherland, while simultaneously contrasting current realities and sociohistorical references. My practice is introspectional in scope and serves as a place for mediation in which I redefine and embrace other meanings and paths toward connectedness.

This series of digital collages called “Bodegones”, is a re-imagination of the still-life painting tradition of tropical produce from the 19th century in Puerto Rico and the cement tiles commonly found in many Puerto Rican households as in the ones I lived in growing up in the Island. With patterns and mirrored imagery of fruits and fly motifs, I explore the conflicts of the in-betweenness, nostalgic narratives, and the possibility for transformation. “Bodegones” is an ongoing body of work where I reflect on some of the discoveries, changes and challenges of my diasporican experience.