My motivation as an artist has always been life. My motivation comes from everything from nature’s patterns to current political issues. All of my ideas come from looking around and observing what’s happening around me and how that is affecting me. What motivated me to create my new series was the new law that passed in Arizona that is if you get stop by an officer for some reason and if he thinks you’re an illegal or undocumented immigrant then he has the right to check your proof of citizenship. If you don’t have proof of being a citizen in the United States, then he can detain until you can prove that you are a citizen. But my question is how illegal or undocumented immigrants are supposed to look? In my series, there will be 6 portraits and for the audience to guess who is Latino or not. This series shows how you really can’t tell who’s Latino or not by the way they look and that Arizona is basically racial profiling, which is illegal.
I started off by looking at myself in the mirror, wondering how I see myself as an artist. Trying to figure out how to combine my culture and my political views into one to make a series of art work that has a powerful/meaningful statement. I looked in the mirror and saw how in reality I’m Dominican but when people first see e, they guess that I’m Indian or Native American by the way I look. Many people thinks that I’m Indian or Native American because of my skin complexion, my hair and how my face structure. So I started think “Hey”, I’m perfect for one of the portraits. I started with myself and painted the self portrait. In my self-Portrait I capture that Indian/Native American look so that the viewer can see that you can’t tell whose Latino or not by the way they look. As an artist I learned a lot out of the creation of the self portrait. I explored my color pallet and also how to capture a person look.
My Second piece is another portrait of a person who I think is another great example for my series. Her name is Tiziana and she is Dominican/Italian. The first day I meet her, I never thought that she would be Latino. She has a European look and has no typical “Latino” look. She has nice, long golden hair that complements her skin-tone. She not a typical “Hispanic” in looks, but if you get to know her, you’ll notice that she Hispanic. During painting the portrait, I explore my color pallet by mixing different colors to match her skin-tone. Also I figure out a composition that would capture her personality. As an artist I learned many things from painting this portrait, like about proportion and how that’s important in capturing a person’s look.
