ARTIST'S BIO

I am a San Francisco, California based Latino artist. Originally from East Los Angeles, the youngest of four children. (That's me sitting between my parents, you can see why my grandmother called me "Gordito") I have traveled to Mexico since childhood. In the 1960's we twice drove from Los Angeles to Mexico City to spend the summer with my mother's relatives. In 1997 I lived in the city of Oaxaca for seven months. While there I was able to completed a series of paintings based on images of "Dia De Los Muertos" and typical street scenes (mercados, street vendors, town squares).

I am a self taught painter and now have over twenty years of painting experience. I am also a social worker with has dedicated the past twenty-eight years working in Southern California, New York City and San Francisco with Southeast Asian immigrants, low income elderly, at-risk teenagers and with children with developmental delays and disabilities. These years as a social worker has given me the perspective to appreciate the time I spend creating my art work and I know the art produced is, at some level, reflective of a melding of my experiences in both fields. In my work you will see street scenes in Mexico (including Mexico City and Oaxaca), images of the Mission District of San Francisco, intimate family scenes and portraits. Strong light and shadows, vivid colors and representational imagery describe my art work.

My process begins with photographs I taken over the past 30 years. When beginning a series I look through hundreds of photographs. The images include scenes of mercados (open air markets) , town squares and of family.

My photographs almost always provide me with more than sufficient images. However, when living in Oaxaca I met a French photographer, Valerie Pinard. Our color palette and sense of light were very similar. With her permission I have used one of her images to produce the "Cocina En Verde" series.

My paintings have been exhibited in group shows with the work of Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo and Rufino Morales.

My artwork is now in over 155 collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions, comments or inquires about commissions.