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Diptych
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Capstone 2021
Incident: 00640; Type: Fatality; Location: I-605N / SOUTH ST OFR, 2021
Acrylic, oil, gold leaf, wool yarn, and polyester spandex on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Referencing iconic toys from childhood, Incident: 00640; Type: Fatality; Location: I-605N /SOUTH ST OFR is pulled from a memory and pictures of a scene in front of my childhood home. This is the first piece of my in-progress series that started the idea of memories pulled from moments lived between these two iron architectural elements that were iconic to our childhood. This painting, like the others in my series, is titled after lines on the California Highway Patrol dispatch report about the accident that killed my cousin, Elizabeth. The fiber on this piece is from a dress she wore the last time we went out to the club together. This series is supposed to be experienced almost as a fleeting moment of silence after the gunshot is heard off camera in a film.
Incident: 00640; Type: Fatality; Location: I-605N / SOUTH ST OFR, 2021 (DETAIL)
4:47 AM FIRE IS ADVISING 1144 (POSSIBLE FATALITY), 2021
Acrylic, cotton blend fabric, and cotton embroidery floss on canvas
9 x 16 inches
This painting depicts an iconic Little Tikes car that many of us had as children. The metal columns are wrapped in grapevines that we had in our house growing up. We would eat them and throw them at each other while playing outside. The grapes are embroidered in 44 french knots, 44 being the police code for a possible fatality. The strip of fabric on this piece is from the belt of a pair of pants she let me borrow the first and last time I went to a party with her and her friends in East LA. The stripes on the fabric resemble a road.
4:47 AM FIRE IS ADVISING 1144 (POSSIBLE FATALITY), 2021 (DETAIL)
4:47 AM FIRE IS ADVISING 1144 (POSSIBLE FATALITY), 2021 (DETAIL)
5:45 AM Elizabeth Stopped sharing their location with you, 2021
Acrylic, gold leaf, cotton embroidery floss, glittered tulle, and polyester blend fabric on canva
16 x 20 inches
5:45 AM Elizabeth Stopped sharing their location with you is more sculpture than painting. A bounce house, or “jumper,” sits in low relief on the surface of the yellow canvas. The bounce house was an icon of the celebration of life and childhood while growing up with Elizabeth. The fiber in this piece is sourced from an old bedroom lounge chair that was Elizabeth’s, the tulle is from materials I used for my Quinceanera.
5:45 AM Elizabeth Stopped sharing their location with you, 2021 (DETAIL)
8:15 AM: [CHP] Has closed their incident., 2021
acrylic, gold leaf, lace, laced plastic beads, and polyester blend fabric on canvas
16 x 20 inches
This painting resembles the front steps and door of our childhood home, where we would always sit down to play. The steps are made from the same chair fabric as in 5:45 AM Elizabeth Stopped sharing their location with you. The decorative lace and peach colored flowers are from leftover materials that my mom used to make keepsakes for our baptisms. The gold leafed door is almost a portal, or the final passage which she passed in the closing of the accident case.
8:15 AM: [CHP] Has closed their incident., 2021 (DETAIL)
8:15 AM: [CHP] Has closed their incident., 2021 (DETAIL)
Dancing Among the Sunflowers, 2020
Oil, gold leaf on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Dancing Among the Sunflowers was painted the day after she died. I painted this in a few hours, independent from my Capstone series, to make prints and stickers to raise funds for her funerary expenses. Sunflowers were her favorite flower and this spring, I have been growing some. Her number one dream was to get her BA in Child Development and, though she isn’t alive to receive it, CSUDH is granting her a posthumous degree on May 25th, 2021. I like to think that she will eternally be dancing among the sunflowers.
