I focus on isolation, physical and emotional, and the feelings it can evoke. Awkwardness. Vulnerability. Ultimately, self-awareness and acceptance. My work is influenced by the vibrancy and austerity of my Mexican-American upbringing in rural Southern California. Celebrations were often colorful and loud, but couldn’t overshadow feelings of loneliness and confusion. In this work, bright, intricate landscapes frame highly adorned figures, but the vastness of the plains suggest a lingering emptiness. A variety of techniques are used to create the components of the landscape; stripes divide layers of the horizon, expressive brushwork suggest distant trees and vegetation, sanding reveal shadows and ground texture, individual blades of grass are painted with a single hair brush, chunky thick paint sculpt tree branches, poured tinted high gloss resin form a creek. I’m addicted to the labor of painting where intricate patterns and purposeful mark-making construct a representation of a personal experience.