artist statement

Vintage family photographs, which I normally use in my artwork, connect the work to who I am as a person.  I use my work to express an opinion or as a campaign against those who claim to speak for me.  I use images and text together to symbolize a situation or event.  Text also mirrors my past when it comes from an experience, a love letter or a comment.  But don't take the text too literally.  I create with a sense of humor.  I poke fun at who I am.  I poke fun at those who take everything, including ethnicity or cultural background, too seriously.  I try to resist the restrictions forced upon me when I am designated a Chicano artist or woman artist or local artist. 

I make my prints using the cyanotype process.  Cyanotype is a photographic process discovered in the 1840's.  It involves chemicals that, when mixed together, become light sensitive.  The chemicals are then painted onto watercolor paper and printed using negatives and/or objects in our ever-present sun.  Each print is unique and archival.