ARTIST STATEMENT

My work centers Indigenous women of Latin America through the lens of detribalization, empowerment, and healing. As a first-generation Colombian American with Andean heritage, I explore the question, “Who am I beyond my body or past?” a guiding inquiry into generational trauma, cultural erasure, and self-reclamation.

Blending oil painting and airbrush techniques, I engage with a duality: oil connects my practice to classical traditions and the legacy of religious indoctrination, while airbrush rooted in Y2K memorial portraiture offers a contemporary, community based language of remembrance. Together, these mediums form what I call Indigenous Surrealism: a visual language that conjures ethereal, dreamlike worlds, bridging ancestral memory with present-day narratives.

In collaboration with the women in my life, I reclaim visibility and challenge the dehumanization of immigrants silenced by colonization and assimilation. My portraits depict the regal figures I longed to see growing up, embodied visions of dignity, power, and presence. Drawing inspiration from Andean artifacts, I adorn these figures with 24k gold leaf and emeralds, symbols of inheritance, identity, and resistance. My father’s craft as a wood carver deeply informs my aesthetic, embedding layers of familial history and artisanal legacy within the work.

Through meditation, I access imagery from my subconscious, transforming the sacred and surreal into spaces of personal sanctuary. Reimagined iconography becomes a tool for cultural reclamation, allowing me to integrate symmetrical patterns that emerge instinctively. These patterns serve as metaphors for the human soul, symbols of each individual’s unique perfection and a universal language that transcends identity. Ultimately, my work is a journey of healing, spiritual liberation, and self-discovery.