Once, I asked my parents, “why would a boy want to be an avocado?”
"He wants to be a lawyer," answered by mother.
At least that’s what it sounded like she said. Sometimes words get stuck in her mouth. In the same way, words get stuck in my head. English, Spanish, and everything in between were spoken in my US-Mexico border town home. And, a boy on a TV public service announcement said confidently, "Yo quiero ser abogado.” Or did he?
From this memory, or misunderstanding, I am building on my previous investigations into mark making as text and language. Through drawing I’m working to see a critical moment in self-perception: the way one relates to their loved ones. Through my mother’s response, the absurdity of a boy wanting to be an avocado was recast as a conventional ambition to be an abogado, an attorney. Consequently, the surrealist potential of being an avocado was erased.
To recover that imagined possibility, that unseen but felt space between language and meaning, I am using marks to connect viewers and viewers turned readers to the influence of imagination and identity.
All works 2024.
"He wants to be a lawyer," answered by mother.
At least that’s what it sounded like she said. Sometimes words get stuck in her mouth. In the same way, words get stuck in my head. English, Spanish, and everything in between were spoken in my US-Mexico border town home. And, a boy on a TV public service announcement said confidently, "Yo quiero ser abogado.” Or did he?
From this memory, or misunderstanding, I am building on my previous investigations into mark making as text and language. Through drawing I’m working to see a critical moment in self-perception: the way one relates to their loved ones. Through my mother’s response, the absurdity of a boy wanting to be an avocado was recast as a conventional ambition to be an abogado, an attorney. Consequently, the surrealist potential of being an avocado was erased.
To recover that imagined possibility, that unseen but felt space between language and meaning, I am using marks to connect viewers and viewers turned readers to the influence of imagination and identity.
All works 2024.
