I grew up in Colombia, where I often journeyed to the rainforests and witnessed lands and lifeways that have been caught in the middle of the eco/genocidal forces of both the drug trade and the US’s War on Drugs. The dizzyingly biodiverse Colombian forest, and the complex social and economic histories that have threatened its existence since the colonists arrived, remained indelibly imprinted in my psyche. And it was from that land and that complexity, that my re-learning began. And out of that learning, my artwork continues to emerge.
My fieldwork is a process of communing with plants that includes drawing, rubbing, photographing, preserving, and tracing the bark, seeds, and leaves of the forest. Over time, I have built up an index of forms and textures, a new and personal visual lexicon. These experiences are further enriched through ongoing conversations with indigenous people who have both ancestral and contemporary knowledge of the local ecology. Through witnessing their relationships to the land and their more-than-human kin, I see their cultivation of forests as a process for learning and creating ecosystemic, social, and spiritual relationships across generations and species.
Back in the studio, I use a variety of digital and analog approaches, including drawing, frottage, monoprints, photocopying, and digital painting to create collaged forest portraits, often at a large scale. These texturally detailed and immersive compositions aim to draw the viewer into contemplation with the immense knowledge and web of relationships that the forest holds. I employ a monochrome palette as a metaphor for the endangered natural world. Gold is used for details, acting as glimmering reminders of human avarice and the violent costs of extractive economies.
Recently I have experimented with translating this visual vocabulary into sculptural forms using natural materials sourced from the forest itself and sometimes fabricated with support from local artisans. This has led me to more deeply explore how my art process can advance mutually beneficial intercultural, economical, and ecological exchanges with my collaborators. Furthermore, I am seeking to embrace the ephemerality and natural life cycles of transformation and decay that these materials bring to the work. In the future, I seek to invest ritual and offering into both the process and forms of my art, and in so doing, deepen my investment in and care for the land.