PAINTINGS

2022 - ? - THE VELVET NOTEBOOKS

The first recollection I have of art in our home is a portrait of President John F. Kennedy painted on black velvet. I loved that painting. Thinking back, I then remembered the opening of the Carriage Square Theatre in my hometown of Oxnard, California. I could not believe those amazing burnt orange and old gold velvet drapes that parted to reveal a gigantic, single movie screen. From there it was quick step and a hop to one of my DIP songs, Some Velvet Morning, by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood and then of course, on to The Velvet Underground. And boy oh boy, the way David, Ingres, and Caravaggio painted velvet.

During the pandemic I felt the need to take a break and think about where I wanted to go with my studio practice. Time to take stock. I filled a number of sketchbooks with preliminary drawings, short stories and outlines for future films. All those recuerdos and ideas, wrapped for safe keeping in my most favorite of fabrics. Time to begin again. Welcome to The Velvet Notebooks.

Sr. Rodríguez, los campos te están llamando (Mr. Rodríguez, the fields are calina you), linocut print, 8”x10.5”, 2023
Una llamada desde el otro lado (A Call From the Other Side), oil and wax on linen on panels, 48”x64”, 2023
El Cumpleaños, diptych, silk screen print,16.5”x33”, 2023
Las Cajas, diptych, silk screen print, 16.5”x33”, 2023
Los Ciclistas, diptych, silk screen print, 16.5”x33”, 2023
San Miguel, el Arcángel, matando el virus del SIDA (Saint Michael, the Archangel, killing the AIDS virus), linocut print, 8”x10.5”, 2023
Joe y Roy atrapados en una tormenta de fichas de domino (Joe and Roy trapped in a storm of dominoes), linocut print, 8”x10.5”, 2023
Charlando con Historia (Chatting with History), watercolor and ink on Fabriano paper, 15”X15”, 2022 This is the cover of the debut album by the band, The Cracked Velvets, with their breakout hit, Cucarachas sin Parar (Non-stop Cockroaches).
Las Conchas, silk screen print, 16”x16”, 2023

2019 – 2022 – WARPED

WARPED is a series of paintings and drawings that catapults the viewer into the year 2060 but not before taking a kaleidoscopic romp through the 20th century. The narratives are a mixup of politics, popular culture and film history as well as images from my family photo album. The paintings and drawings are meant to serve as provocations about where we are going (at warp speed) on this roller coaster of progress. Now that we have simultaneously entered the fun house and haunted mansion, what can we expect on the other side when we exit this house of mirrors?

The Arrival of Freedom and Other Strange Tales, watercolor, gouache, and ink of Arches paper, 22"x30", 2021
The Gang of 16, watercolor on Arches paper, 16"x40", 2021
Scary Monsters, watercolor and ink on Fabriano paper, 18"x18", 2021

2016-2018 - AFTER A SOMEWHAT PROLONGED LAPSE OF MEMORY

My latest body of work, After A Somewhat Prolonged Lapse Of Memory, acts as a portal for time travel and looks at the history of the American people through the lens of those that have been left out. The series is comprised of paintings, drawings, and a short film.

On our travels through time, we meet historical characters from the American Revolution to the California Gold Rush. Then in the year 2050 we are introduced to scenes and characters that seem distant but resonate with today's issues. Some of the issues portrayed include racism, endless war, rising inequality, gender discrimination, sexualities, weakened labor unions, and the corruption of our political system. This is presented alongside our current obsession with new media technologies and the challenges presented as we struggle to process this plethora of imagery and texts. "How does all this affect our democracy and its ability to inform and serve the will of the people?"

I am attempting to create a visual bridge between the past and present by illuminating untold and erased stories and setting them alongside exigent current events. Moreover, it is my way of participating in the ever-unfolding grand, historical drama. I see this body of work as a way to foster much needed conversations around racial, gender, and class prejudice and bring them into the public realm where action can be cultivated.

The Spanish Soldier in Alta California, oil and wax on Arches paper on panel,18” x 14”, 2020
Heyokah, The Sacred Trickster, oil and wax on Arches paper on panel, 18” x 14”, 2020
ReGeneration Through Violence OR Burn Down the Mission, oil and wax on linen on panel, 48” x 48” x 1.5”, 2019
Untold Gold #1 – Ah Toy and Henry Conrad, 18” x 20” Oval, oil and wax on canvas, 2015. Ah Toy was the second Chinese woman to arrive in San Francisco and Henry Conrad was her first husband in the U.S.
Untold Gold #6 – The Dream Seller, 14” x 18”, oil and wax on paper on panel, 2016. This character was inspired by aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles after the Second Great Awakening in the early part of the nineteenth century. A character that is also still with us today in America.
Untold Gold #5 – The Confidence Man, 14” x 18”, oil and wax on paper on panel, 2016. This character was inspired by Herman Melville’s novel, The Confidence Man. He was a prevalent character in nineteenth century America and one that is still with us today.
Untold Gold #7 – The Stage Coach Driver, 14” x 18”, oil and wax on paper on panel, 2017. Charley Parkhurst, born Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst, lived his life as male from the time he ran away from an orphanage in his youth. He later moved to California and worked as a stagecoach driver during the California Gold Rush. Upon his death it was discovered that his assigned gender was actually female.
Untold Gold #12 – Woman with a Dutch Oven, 14” x 18”, oil and wax on paper on panel, 2017. “Aunt Maria”, and other formerly enslaved women, inspired this portrait. The freed women sold food and sometimes ran boardinghouses for the miners in and around Sonora during the California Gold Rush.
Untold Gold #14 – Antoine Clement, 14” x 14”, oil and wax on panel, 2016. Antoine Clement was a French Canadian-Cree Native American. He was also a hunter and the intimate companion of Sir William Drummond Stewart.
Untold Gold #15 – Sir William Drummond Stewart, 14” x 14”, oil and wax on panel, 2016. Sir William Drummond Stewart was a flamboyant Scottish nobleman who traveled to America to take part in the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the 1830s and 1840s. This was a cultural milieu of openness in which men could pursue same-sex relationships.
Tug Of War, Triptych, 30” x 70”, watercolor on Arches paper, 2016. The Time: Then and Now. Somewhere that resembles John Trumbull’s painting, The Signing of the Declaration of Independence. AND Post-1776 and post-Constitutional Convention, 1787 and the war for capital.

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UTOPIA vs. DYSTOPIA IN THE AGE OF MYOPIA

These are political cartoons executed in response to our “post-truth” era. They are inspired by the work of Honoré Daumier, Francisco Goya, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Sue Coe, Robbie Conal, José Guadalupe Posada, Joe Sacco, and Art Young.

Homeland Sweet Homeland, 11” x 15”, black ink on Arches paper, 2015.
Contesting Eden, 11” x 15”, black ink on Arches paper, 2015.
The Fading Magic, 11” x 15” black ink on Arches paper, 2015.
Koched-Up!, 9"x6", ink on Fabriano paper, 2022
The Other Koch Head, 9"x6", ink on Fabriano paper, 2022

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2009-2015 - PICTURING HISTORY: LIGHTS, DARKS, CAMERAS, AND ACTION!

While the Cold War for the most part dealt with the conflicts between the Soviet Union and the United States, it was also one of the most turbulent and transformative periods between Latin America and the United States. Picturing History: Lights, Darks, Cameras, and Action! scrutinizes the history of oil painting, television, cinema, and U.S. empire through the memories of my family photo album during the decades of the 1950s and 60s.

The staged narratives of my paintings, drawings, prints and films re-present my parents as strawberry sharecroppers in the California Central Valley, and later in Southern California, in their attempts to participate in the American Dream. Other historic actors include Joe McCarthy, Arthur Miller, Roy Cohn, Fidel Castro, Louis Armstrong, Jackson Pollock, Rita Hayworth and Pedro Infante to name a few. Juxtaposing histories and aesthetics is my way of highlighting a visual connection between past and present. It is also my way of challenging the viewer to question how past beliefs and value systems continue to influence and shape how we see others, the world and ourselves.

The Unraveling (for Gore Vidal), oil and wax on linen on linen, paper, and aluminum on panels with mirror ball, recording tape and reels, plastic toy soldiers, gasoline container, 108” x 90” x 1.5”, 2014. How did we get here? It started with Lee Harvey Oswald in ’63 and the single shot…Really?...the pill…Dr. Martin Luther King warned us of unchecked materialism and our lack of spiritual depth….then he was gone…It was the death of Mao Zedong and the rise of market Leninism…Linda Lovelace and Deepthroat and the Watergate break in…Was Richard M. Nixon truly our last liberal president?...he did create the EPA and OSHA…pill popping and “Mother’s little helper”…It was the Bay of Pigs fiasco…No, it was the Vietnam War…Jock Yablonski’s murder and the death of labor unions…Odd and even days for getting gasoline depending on your automobile’s license plate…Was Andy Warhol gay or asexual and did he really kill art by saying consumer products were art?... Reagan and Thatcher with their deregulation and neoliberal economics…that’s what did it… Really?... Sayyed Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini led the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran….during his reign, the Iranian oil industry was briefly nationalized under Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh before a U.S. and UK backed coup d'état, in 1953, overturned the regime and brought back foreign oil firms…In 1975 most of us were just “Stayin’ Alive” on the dance floor every Friday and Saturday night…..In 1972 gas prices were 22, 24, and 26 cents a gallon…now it’s $4.15, $4.25, and $4.35 a gallon...How did we get here?...”Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’…you’re stayin’ alive…stayin’ alive …
The Uncertain Trumpet, Oil and wax on linen on panels, 40” x 60” x1.5, 2014, This painting takes its title from General Maxwell D. Taylor’s book published in 1960. The book criticized the Eisenhower Administration’s defense policy, which he viewed as dangerously over-reliant on nuclear arms. However, the title also refers to Armstrong’s ambivalence towards Eisenhower’s use of African- American musicians as cultural ambassadors. Bishop Sheen, Cohn, and Schine add to tension of the times with helicopters in the background symbolizing the quagmire of the Vietnam War.
The Great Society: A Work In Progress, oil and wax on linen on panel, 32” x 48” x 1.5”, 2014. The Great Society, President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s unfinished work from the 1960s. Its two main goals were to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Education, health care and urban problems were also radically re-thought during this time. Many critics believe the Vietnam War cut short his best intentions. My painting compresses time with historical actors to tell the story of this nation’s need to keep chipping away at making a society great. There are artists, Jackson Pollock (a self-portrait) helping to pick the crops in the field, Louis Armstrong taking a break on a strawberry crate, a re-staged portrait of my parents (both in chinos) getting out the vote, as well as Roy Cohn and David Schine from the HUAC hearings. Fidel Castro, Bishop Fulton Sheen, and Obdulio the soccer player are here too. I’ll let you figure out who worked towards (or against) a great society.
The Late, Late, Late Capitalism Show, Oil and wax on linen on Panel, 18” x 18” x 1.5”, 2010 – All the world’s a stage and this one is full of actors from the cinema and world history to the personal, Rita Hayworth, Pedro Infante as Pepe el Toro, Fidel Castro, and Obdulio. Then my parents, Pedro and Matilde, interrupt it all.
How To Wage A Cultural Cold War, Oil and wax on linen on panel, 32” x 48” x 1.5”, 2011 – There he is at the center, Louis Armstrong. In the 1950s the U.S. government got into the culture business by sending famous musicians to other parts of the world under the auspices of goodwill. On the far left (but really the right) there’s Bishop Fulton J. Sheen pontificating. On the far right (literally) in the beautiful blue suit is Senator Joseph McCarthy interrogating the playwright, Arthur Miller at HUAC. In the background are his protégé, Roy Cohn, and his best boy, David Schine. And there’s me as Jackson Pollock, painter of the moment, throwing colored commotion everywhere
Art, Thought, and Hypocrisy in Times of Terror, Oil and wax on linen on panels,18” x 36” x 1.5”, 2011 – How does society change? Is democracy really possible? Throughout time art has played different roles and in many different cultural, social and political settings from the ancient to the modern to the now. Terrorism. When? Now? Control the masses by inciting fear. American colonists chopped of the heads of some Native Americans to incite fear as well. And then, Abu Ghraib?
History Exists But Imperialism Has Spaces To Hide It, Oil and wax on linen on panels, 18” x 50” x1.5”, 2012 - There can be revolutions from the left like the one in Cuba with Fidel Castro. There were revolutions from the right with Senator Joseph McCarthy red-hunting. In the middle is the laborer. In this case she is in the fields. Where have all the unions gone? Between all of this is the pretty blue sea, the Caribbean, to be exact. And it’s being sold as paradise or exotica. Like the slogan says, “Discover the exciting world...... right at your own back door.” Pero cuidado, History exists... but whose History?
Cold Warriors: Red, Hot, Pink, and Lavender, Oil and wax on panels, 30” x 30” x1.5”, 2012 – During the cold war homosexual males were thought to be a national security threat because they couldn’t be trusted around other men. The thinking (or non-thinking) at the time equated homosexual behavior with that of women’s, uncontrolled. Here is a fictional (or is it) narrative that begins with two closeted lovers, Jim and Pete, working for the CIA. Jim finds out that Pete was involved in the CIA backed coup d’état in Iran in 1953 and wants him to come clean. But Pete takes action and that’s all I’m saying. All is fair in love and war? Some say the cold war has melted away. But how do you get rid of an ideological glacier that big?
Imperialist Nostalgia, Oil and wax on linen on panels, 30” x 90” x 1.5”, 2012 – As the historical figures look back at us and possibly to a time when the empire was new, they all appear as red-hot embers. Perhaps they are caught in a house burning. However, their cool, slightly detached, and somewhat melancholic stances give the impression of not being too worried. Could it be the cool blue floor keeping their temperatures down or is that run-off from the melting polar ice caps?

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ENDLESS, ENDLESS

Endless, Endless is a multidisciplinary series comprised of oil paintings, ink drawings, relief and intaglio prints. At the heart of the series is the subject of war. What does it mean for a nation to wage an endless campaign of war? What costs are incurred for the nation waging that war? What are the physical, emotional, psychological, and financial effects to all persons involved? Is war inexorable or is it possible to end endless war?

The Hunter and The Hunted, 66” x 48” x 2”, oil and wax on aluminum and linen on panels, 2009 – The future? Tense.
Policing of Dreams, 49” x 69” x 2”, Oil and wax on aluminum on panels, 2007 – Immigrants brave desert borderlands. Mariachi bands traverse restaurants. U.S. soldiers can’t tell of their love for their same-sex partners. Iraqi soldiers attempt to hold their country together in spite of occupying forces. The clock ticks on. Opium poppies grow taller and taller. And the Blackhawk helicopter pushes forward. Dreams of a better life. But are some dreams more acceptable than others? If we can’t speak of our dreams, what do we have?
The War Zone, 49” x 69” x 2”, oil and wax on aluminum on panels, 2009 - No escape.
No Barbarians Allowed, 49” x 69” x 2”, oil and wax on aluminum on panels, 2008 – Close the borders! Electrify the fences! They are tainting the culture. Inspired by J.M. Coetzee’s novel, Waiting for the Barbarians, this painting is a rumination on the frightening rise in racist and xenophobic hostility and fanaticism as to who qualifies as a “real American”. When globalization begins to erase national borders in the service of corporate “free trade”, what does it mean to be a “citizen” in the twenty-first century?
The New Rome, installation, dimensions variable, 2009 – From a distance, the work gleams richly. Its folds of silk organza are soft, the embroidery finely worked. The robes are floating on air. How lovely. Draw nearer. It becomes apparent the fabrics are locked into place upon a support of metal, an armature. Look again. Now the viewer can see the embroidery fixes X-acto blades onto the silk. In the backyard of the phallic tower lie the markers of U.S. imperial encroachments in Latin America. Beautiful and horrifyingly dangerous.

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2007-2008 - THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE

My latest series of oil paintings, The Middle of Somewhere, addresses issues of globalization through the lens of a working class Mexican American family photo album.  Some of the imagery included – those piñata picnics in the park, maquiladoras, the zoot suit riots, the cannery lives of women, corner day-laborers, the 70’s Hollywood bar scene, a Pentecostal baptism, the carts of the homeless, and a mariachi band accompanying it all.

For inspiration, I have used stills from my latest film of the same title to experiment with juxtaposed histories and aesthetics as well as to interrogate how the media continues to influence and shape how we see each other, ourselves and the world. The film is simultaneously set on the riverbank where my grandparents settled after immigrating from Mexico and in a film studio. The action revolves around a picnic, real and staged, with a group of friends debating the value of art, family, politics, and the power of the media. Eventually, the two stories collide and prompt the viewer to question the shaping of reality.  The paintings, which fragment the narrative, as well as problematize the genre of history painting, are intended to spark conversation and question what it means to be a participant on the social/political landscape in these turbulent times.  It is one of my goals that these paintings allow viewers to gain greater awareness of the lineages of immigrant stories, and to see the fragments of their own pictures connected, in order to present a larger story to the project and topic of becoming and belonging in America.

Paradise, 48” x 67” x 2”, Oil and wax on Linen on Panel, 2003, This painting was inspired by Manet’s, Dejeuner sur l’herbe, and the portraits of Velasquez. This setting is again, the riverbank where my grandparents settled after emigrating from Mexico in the early 19th Century. As more and more Latinos move into the middle class, I think it is important to remember our histories. These four men; the urban poet, the middle class cool dude, and the zoot suiter are painted in traditional portrait manner. However, the focal point of the work is the Immigrant who literally, interrupts the painting and our consciousness seeking the often abstract concept of “paradise”.
Drunk On Oil, 18” x 24” x 2”, Oil and Wax on Relief Panel, 2004
And La Banda Played On , 60” x 120” x 2”, Oil and wax on Linen on Panels, 2004, This painting is part family memoir, part U.S. history and part art history. It all converges in attempts to look at the ongoing process and changing face of the American Dream. The setting for this painting is the riverbank near Modesto, California where my four grandparents settled after emigrating from Mexico in the early 19th Century. The four people in the foreground are a re-staging of an old family photograph that includes my father Peter, my aunt Tonia, my uncle Frank and a friend of theirs. The baptism in the background recants my grandmothers adopted religion. The contemporary figures; the flower vendor, the homeless man and La Banda Mariachi, are meant to remind us of the challenges that this country faces as the United States continues to be for many, the possibility to turn hopes and dreams for a better life into reality.

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2003-2006 - THE FLAT EARTH

The Flat Earth is a series of paintings that looks back to the sixteenth century, El Siglo del Oro, and parallels it to the twenty-first. At one time, prior to Magellan’s voyage, the world was thought to be flat.  Now the world is more round than ever and “globalization” plays everywhere. The paintings explore how past beliefs and value systems continue to influence and shape how we see the world and ourselves. Whether the inspiration is taken from the economic, political or domestic arenas, all the portraits and narratives in the series challenge and contest “official knowledge and histories”.

Cuanto Cuesta La Corona? (How Much Does the Crown Cost?), 21” x 29” x 2”, Oil on Bark Paper on Panel, 2002, lifts the blindfold and looks at the price of power. Democracy requires an active and educated populace. Here again, I used a young Latina woman to inspire women and Latinos, as well as young people of all colors to take part in the democratic process.
Exhausted, Oil on Panels,75” x 50’ x 2”, 2001
New World Domestic Order, 72” x 32” x 2”, Oil on on Silk on Panel, 2000, looks at immigrant Latinas’ ways of making a living; caring for other peoples’ children and homes.

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1999-2002 - INTERRUPTIONS

Interruptions is a series of oil paintings that explores the fantasies and fears that manifest when Chicano/Latino gay men seek relationships.  The paintings juxtapose, contrast, and superimpose family photographs, staged fictional narratives, and stills taken from my films.  My intention of working in this manner is to represent the dilemma of being caught in non-linear historical narratives and unconscious ancestral realities. Aesthetically this body of work challenges the superficial, indifferent and fragmented form of postmodern appropriation and aims to inspire a revitalized look at the ability of narrative and realism to generate dialogue about the content of the art as well as the political stakes of self-representation. 

(La) Futura, 40”x60”x2”, oil on panels, 2000. takes its title from the San Francisco Latino gay mens’ nightclub to look at the past and to the possibilities for the future regarding mens’ relationships. At the center is large Michelangelo-esque Latino man looking at us disconcertedly. A stereotypical large Latina mother with a phone looks in from the right and a Latino man digs in the earth on the left. Concerns for the future- If we are to move forward, we must not be afraid to exhume the past and look at it from a multitude of perspectives. We must also not be ashamed of our working class origins and voice our concerns to society. AIDS continues to be a major concern in our community. Drug use and its connection to unsafe sex as well as the lack of information about AIDS needs to be a continued topic for discussion as we move into the 21st century. We also need to remember the women in our lives, be they mothers, sisters, friends, partners, wives or colleagues as we move forward and struggle against sexism, which affects us all as we struggle for greater depths of intimacy in all of our relationships.
Fathers, Sons, and Sometimes Lovers, 96”x120”x 2”, oil on panels, 1999. looks at role models for men, media influences and the obstacles to intimacies between men. My father is situated between two “monochromatic media males” attempting communication but must pass through the patriarchal figure, by way of a large chasm, in order to touch. Religion, alcoholism, shame, and a death bed symbolizing all those lost to AIDS are also images used in this visual symphony depicting an emotional minefield.
!Mira! (Look!), 96”x52 x2”, oil on panels, 2000. tells the viewer to look. But what are we to look at? The plastic looking men (GI Joe dolls) in the background or the two men in the foreground (my grandfather and his brother) or could it be the house situated at the center being pointed to by a child’s hand? Perhaps it is all three and the way they all overlap seamlessly. This work speaks to the concept of home and where do we as men get our cues and clues as to how to make a house a home and more than just an edifice?