I believe that you don’t have to force it. I think that it just happens naturally. I think that is so ingrained in who you are as a person that when you walk through your life and you’re growing up, you’re soaking all these things that are around you that
it is just naturally coming out when you’re drawing, so I think you’re not aware in the beginning, and then people tell you. They tell you, “Wow. You look so colorful, so vibrant. Or, you have this Latino thing.” And then you realize that it’s there. It’s always been there, you know, it’s always been your friend and companion through your career. But I think it’s better not to force it, just to let it just flow and be what it is.
So what things influenced me that were pretty obvious from Mexico and the street life and everything, and my culture, I think were
there are many things. Obviously the color of my country. I think it’s in some way, having this color. I mean, we don’t have chromophobia in Mexico. We love color. And I think it’s a way to preserve this spirit of childhood, you know, and the spirit of wonder.
So color is very important, and I think that’s one of the biggest influences. Texture. There’s a lot of texture in my work, and I live in a city called San Miguel de Allende and it’s like a 17th-century, 18th-century city where you are surrounded by textures, beautiful old textures.
But also the work of muralists. I love the power of the muralists, like Diego Rivera, and Siqueiros and Orozco. So I think that I like to convey this feeling of this heroic figures in some way into my work. You know, I don’t know how I do it, but I
they definitely influenced me a lot.
The colors that I use in my work are
actually, they come from Mexico. There’s a little tiendita called El Pato that is just down the hill from my house in San Miguel de Allende, and I walk down there and I buy these big jars. You know, they could hold like medical specimens. You know, they’re just gigantic. And the color’s very vibrant compared to the color that I can get in the States, besides the fact that color in the States is really expensive.
So my backgrounds are done with this Mexican colors that are really, really strong, and some of the colors are very difficult to find, like the rosa Mexicano. Most of the color you get here in the States is just pink, but the pink from Mexico has got something in there, and they’ve got a little extra kick.
Just out of school, I started using different medias, media, and I finally decided that I feel more comfortable working with acrylics. I like them because I’m an illustrator, I needed to turn in things very quickly, so oil would take forever to dry. Pastel was too messy to ship and ship to the client. So I decided that oil was something
I mean, acrylic was something that really worked with me and my schedule.
So I worked with wood, because — especially old wood, beat-up wood — because it’s got a lot of texture and that reminds me of those walls from Mexico. So I would say my media is acrylic on wood.
