ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an American multimedia artist of Mexican heritage who was born
in Los Angeles, California. Raised in middle-class neighborhoods of
various suburbs of Southern California, I began to look deep into
my cultural base and discovered a need to create art from a Mexican-American
perspective and with a Chicana consciousness.
Many of the images I create are memory-based and are intended to
explore contemporary themes based on sexuality, gender issues, religion,
and the complexities of cultural identity, I enjoy integrating visual,
social and technological literacy into my art making because I am
interested in challenging the boundaries that exist between politics
and art. My artistic vision is fueled by my desire to create reflections
of the past while exploring new understandings of the present with
the use of new technologies and diverse artistic practices. Creating
art with the use of new technologies helped me discover how diverse
artistic practices (photography, computer art, music, CD-Roms and
video) serve as catalysts of memory that can conjure up a variety
of social and cultural contexts.
From the Garden is based on Isabel De La Pena's fictional
short story, Lord Hear My Prayer. Like De La Pena's
short story, From the Garden is intended to explore
a variety of contemporary issues related to the complexities and dilemmas
of the "coming of age experience". However, in it's electronic version,
it is driven by a narrated story, photography,
music, computer art and text-based art in an attempt to further investigate
the role in which sexual oppression, religion and other social ideologies
continue to instill bias and fear in the complex developmental stages
of one's sexuality.
In it's entirety (8 minutes) From the Garden points
to a vision where the self collides with stereotypes and other socially
constructed representations of women searching for their sexual identities.
This multimedia project on CD-rom is further intended to offer the
viewer a critical examination of the pychological damage suffered
by women who were named after the Virgin Mary.
In all sincerity, it is my hope that From the Garden
will inspire a deeper investigation of what shapes one's moral, spiritual
and social consciousness.
This project would not have been possible without
the generous support of the author, actors, musicians, technicians,
family, friends and financial sponsors.
The music collage for this CD-rom was created in collaboration with
Lawrence Bassage and Los Romeros.
