In your work The Constructed Self, I think it's really interesting that you explore the idea of selfhood as a social and cultural structure. Could you tell us about this project? What's your inspiration and creative process?

I've always been interested in Selfhood, but it was more of a philosophical way, and when I moved to the U.S. a lot of questions about my own identity started to come up. Having emigrated as a fully formed adult made me see things differently. I started to compare and question the structures of my identity and how they relate to my cultural and social background and in relationship with the new sociocultural environment. I first started exploring self-representation and belonging related to social media through collage with my previous series. But I felt I wanted to explore identity in a broader sense and not just social media related. I also wanted to use different materials to create portraits in which the process of making a piece conceptually, parallels the construction of identity. And so "The Constructed Self" was born.

You explore the idea of Cubism and Surrealism in your art practice by transforming two-dimensional prints into sculptural objects, how did you come up with this idea?

I’ve always been a big fan of Magritte’s work and that has informed my work.

I came up with the idea of Cubism while doing research about collage for my project “El Pertenecer en Tiempos Modernos”. I wanted to push further away from traditional photography to explore identity and its multiple layers. What inspired me from the Cubist period was that they were breaking apart from what was, at that moment, a traditional form of art (painting). At that time, the camera had been invented and there was no need to use painting to capture portraits.

The use of vivid and vibrant color palettes appears in most of your works. It seems to become a visual symbol of your creation. I'm curious about the color theory that lies in there, visually and conceptually. How do you manipulate colors?

I was just having this conversation with one of my assistants the other day. We were discussing topics for a workshop I will be teaching in 2023. And, I realized that many people are interested in me teaching color theory. But I’ve also realized that I do it instinctively and I don’t really think about color theory too much because it is something I’ve learned and is kind of ingrained in my practice. I feel it's like learning to ride a bike, you don’t think about the theory of riding a bike every time you hop on.

But besides that, I do use color conceptually in most of my work. And that depends on the series I am working on.

What projects are you currently working on? Can you tell us a bit about your next step?

I’m currently working on a project that was inspired by the 2021 events of social injustice in the United States and my experience as an immigrant. For this project, I opened a call to collect a diverse range of skin tones to create work. Now on February 7th I am launching a website and submission form for people to participate and I am pairing it with a public art project I’m part of here in Houston, TX.

For this project, I will use mixed media to create visual representations of the data to speak about race, migration, sense of belonging, and identity within digital and “real” communities.

I invite readers to take part in this project by submitting their images here.