About My Art Practice
My current body of work builds directly from a multigenerational Central American family photographic archive — decades of images passed down through my family that document migration, labor, celebration, and quiet domestic life across two countries. I've been using this archive as raw material for paintings and mixed media works that move between two modes: intimate, documentary-style renderings of specific remembered scenes, and more symbolic compositions that draw on the visual language of Guatemalan textiles and folk devotional imagery — tree-of-life motifs, birds, pattern-dense borders — to place personal memory within a broader inherited visual tradition
Recent pieces have paired these modes deliberately: a single family gathering rendered first as a wide, documentary-style group scene, then again as a tight, close-up fragment isolating one gesture or object from that same memory. I'm interested in what happens when a single archival moment is worked and reworked from multiple distances — what gets clarified, and what gets lost, each time.
Lineage of Lightening. 2026
Mixed Media Collage
Family Photos / Found Imagery
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Reach out through the contact form or email with a bit about what you're envisioning — whose story, which photographs, what feeling you want the piece to carry. We schedule a short discovery call (20-30 min) to talk through your vision, the people or moments involved, and practical details like size and placement in your home.
What I need from you: a general sense of the story you want told, and whether you already have archival photos in hand.
You share the photographs, documents, or family materials that will anchor the piece — scanned or physical, whatever you have. We talk through the history behind them: names, dates, relationships, what matters about this particular thread of your family's story. This is the raw material the piece will be built from.
Timeline: 1-2 weeks, client-paced. This step moves as fast as you're ready to move.
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You share the photographs, documents, or family materials that will anchor the piece — scanned or physical, whatever you have. We talk through the history behind them: names, dates, relationships, what matters about this particular thread of your family's story. This is the raw material the piece will be built from.
Timeline: 1-2 weeks, client-paced. This step moves as fast as you're ready to move.
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Based on our conversation, you receive a written proposal: scope, size, medium, price, and estimated timeline. Once approved, we sign a simple commission agreement and you pay a deposit (typically 50%) to reserve your place in the studio calendar.
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I develop an initial composition concept — a digital mockup or sketch showing how your photographs and story will come together in the piece. You review and approve the direction before any painting begins. This is the one checkpoint built into the process specifically so there are no surprises later.
One round of revisions is included at this stage.
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This is where the piece is actually made: substrate preparation, image transfer or collage work, underpainting, and layered painting sessions. This phase takes the longest and happens entirely in-studio — it's not something that can be rushed without compromising the work.
Once painting is complete, the piece cures and is varnished for protection. I professionally photograph the finished work for both your records and mine — this step also protects the archival value of the piece.
Typical active studio time: 25-40 hours across 6-8 weeks, depending on scale and complexity.
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The remaining balance is due before delivery or framing begins. From there, you choose:
Unframed delivery (ready for your own framer), or
Framing through the studio, which adds framer lead time (typically 1-3 weeks depending on the framer's queue)
You receive care instructions for the piece — placement away from direct sunlight, cleaning guidance, and archival notes about the materials used, so the work is protected for the next generation of your family, the way it was made to be.