Statements

ARTIST STATEMENTS

Tucson cluster:

• Pavel Acevedo

Mi trabajo se basa en la figura humana como un vehículo de apropiación de su entorno. Las figuras no permanecen en estática y siempre están retando el tiempo y el espacio, poniendo en riesgo la representación y reconocimiento de ellas mismas. La trascendencia de las personas mas alla de los limites geográficos y crear un vinculo entre el espectador y la pieza atravez de un gesto o de elementos que el puede reconocer en su espacio.

Pavel Acevedo (1984, Oaxaca, Mx)
Termine la licenciatura den Artes Visuales en la escuela de Bellas artes en Oaxaca, Mexico. También he desarrollado mi educación en diferentes talleres y de manera autodidacta. Acutalmente resido en Riverside, Ca y colaboro con Espacio Centro y Taller Grafica Libre en la ciudad de Oaxaca. Mi trabajo se ha expuesto en los estados unidos y en la república Mexicana.

• Cristina Cardenas

I am a "Tapatia de Corazon" born in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

My draftsmanship, iconography, artistic forms, color and style are derived from Mexican neo-figurative expressionism, which I learned from academic training at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Escuela de Artes Plasticas, in combination with the training I received in the University of Arizona where I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking. I am a recipient of grants and fellowships: The Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Award Residency at Claude Monet Museum in Giverny, France; NEA/WESTAF Regional Fellowship for Visual Artists; and Great Walls Unlimited, SPARC, Venice, CA, among others.

Due to my personal history as an immigrant, the reoccurring theme in my work responds to, and communicates relevant political and personal impressions, it is an exploration of immigration/migration and its effects on culture, family, the loss of los ausentes (the ones who left their homelands and are considered missing in their physical absence, but not in their psychological presence), and the individual in these times of racism. I also represent with images the timeless human phenomena of deconstructing female stereotypes, echoing themes of divided families, struggle, strength, and finally success.

I create from the perspective of a woman artist born “al otro lado” that has now lived and worked in the border region of Tucson, Arizona for over two decades. 

• Michael Contreras

Line drawing and printing, (intaglio and relief) are two forms of art, that I associate with.

Design and form are important aspects of my background in art, because I grew up as a apprentice in my father's jewelry business. My father, Alberto Contreras, was taught by the famous jewelry master, Frank Patania Sr., in the 1940's.  Sometimes my jewelry designs and art resemble each other.

Cultures, and Art History are what inspire me. The "Encierro", (Running of the Bulls), is an example. I have an Applied Arts degree from Pima College.

⦁ Mark Christian

I like to look at change. In the context of this print, the unraveling of the myth that my childhood idols were anything more than regular people, represents that change. Throughout the print are scattered references to the heroes of my childhood and where they became mortal in my eyes. Stylistically, it is chaotic and jumbled representing the many thoughts that come with a drastic shift in perspective.

I graduated with a BFA from the University of Arizona in 2013.


⦁ Gonzalo Espinosa

Painting and printing has been a parallel learning process in my career ,
My first intent was in 1978 whit a black and white lithography and
from there on , Serigraph is the technique of printing of my preference
because is a more direct process and providing me flexibility .


Rudy Flores


⦁ Joe Marshall

While I printed a woodcut for this print, I also wanted to flex my screen printing muscles, and choose to print a rainbow blend. This work is a mediation image and forces the viewer to sit and focus on the work. The interaction between the rainbow blend and the white of the woodcut cause your perception of the work to phase in and out, changing from flat to 3D and back. The image is of Rainbow Jaguar the bridge this world and the upper world. Sit and take flight with him.


⦁ Lauren Moran

final thoughts before the reconstruction
four color relief print, edition of 50, 2015

This print was created using two different relief blocks, and three different printing sessions. A wood block was used for the color block, for its texture that you can see in the finished print. Using a stencil around the outer edge, the first layer printed was the blue polygon in the middle. The second layer was rolled up with the brown and orange at the same time, then blended where the colors meet with a separate roller with a stencil again used, this time in the middle of the block. The last layer was created by printing a linoleum key block, where all the detailed imagery comes in.
The subject matter of this print is based to the artist's reflection on inner and environmental experiences living in Tucson, Arizona. The figures, commonly repeated in Moran's work, intentionally mutate to and fro, from personal signifiers to symbols that could echo larger social issues. The title comes from the fact that this was the final print created before the artist moved to Portland, Oregon, away from the desert.
Lauren Moran is a socially engaged artist based out of Connecticut, currently living in Portland, Oregon. Through printmaking, curation, teaching and collaborative projects she attempts to engage with people and make authentic connections. Lauren is currently pursuing an MFA in Art and Social Practice at Portland State University. She was previously living and working in Tucson, Arizona where she helped establish the Tucson Community Print Shop, taught art and developed a gallery/work-training program through ArtWorks at the University of Arizona.


⦁ Ruben Urrea Moreno

BEFORE THE MIGRATION
Block print on paper

January 15th 1944. My grandparents in front of La Catedral, D.F., Mexico City. The four hundred year old church built from the stones of the Aztec's Templo Mayor. My father, only four years old at the time and his brother, my namesake, an infant. They moved to Tucson Arizona from Puebla in a mining truck my grandfather delivered to the Pima Copper Mines. With 1500 miles ahead of them, I can only imagine what an arduous task that was. I don't know for sure because all four of these family members have passed on but I wonder if they visited La Catedral to say goodbye and pray for a safe journey. Besides wanting the reminder of where my family came from, I wanted to get to know them through this photo: I wanted to feel how they felt that day, to feel the sun on their faces, the awe from the sheer grandeur of architecture, and maybe even the warmth of their hearts from the presence of God. Through the carving process, the image also revealed their brewing excitement, and hope for a better future. They had to have known that their diligence would add prosperity to future generations. It makes me grateful for their hard work and perseverance to arrive in America.


⦁ Martin Quintanilla

Naci y vivi en Mexico City por 21 años, vivi en Madrid España y luego me Fui a vivir a los Estados Unidos donde Radico hoy, siempre  me a gustado el Arte popular, los luchadores, los Tacos al Pastor y el Guacarrock de Botellita de Jerez, Soy Nako de Corazòn y mi Grabado es como una estampita de la Iglesia, de esas que siempre habia una en culquier cajon de la casa.


⦁ Tanya Rich

Tanya Rich is a printmaker living in Tucson. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 with a BA in Art History and a minor in Fine Arts. Currently Tanya is the Youth Program Director and Exhibitions Curator at The Drawing Studio as well as an independent Art Curator for local businesses in town. Tanya's interests are in serigraphs and woodblock printing.


⦁ Rogo

I'm heavily influenced by the 80's punk rock aesthetic. I like the idea of these girls lined up as if they were being admonished for their sexuality, but then they take control of the situation and turn it on it's head. I like using bright colors in my work to harken back to the heyday of 80's neon and grit.
Rogo is famed for his graphic and illustrative work that is silkscreened on various substrates.
He is a self-taught printmaker heavily influenced by the skateboarding and punk rock aesthetic of the 80's.
As an avid skateboarder, Rogo absorbed the underground culture of skateboarding, punk rock and comic books.
Born in 1971, Rogo attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Visual Arts program in 1990, but attained most of his training through
colleagues and peers with the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators as a volunteer and member from 2008-2010.
As an Illustrator, Rogo has created artwork for The New Yorker Magazine, Concrete Warrior Skateboards, Tucson Roller Derby,
Pacific Roller Derby (artwork was featured on an episode of the new Hawaii 5-0 television series), Pain Killer Products, and Deadbolt Skatepads.
Rogo has had numerous solo shows in both Pittsburgh, Pa and Tucson, AZ.


⦁ Mykl Wells

About Santa Muxe'

This print was born out of a deep respect I have for the people and culture of Mexico. I have traveled extensively and Mexico is by far my favorite country. In Oaxaca there is a third sex, the Muxe. I imagined a patron saint in the Catholic tradition who might see over those who are not quite men, not quite women. Who might guide with a sequined hand for the non-binary, the celebrated and unacceptable. Sexual and repressed a culture of contradictions and those who trek ever chaining paths. Confident in a miasma of uncertainty.

Albuquerque cluster:

• Nani Chacon

"+++" is an interpretion and exploration in weaving, I use the textile pattern, color, positive and negative space and the use of the figure to create a composition which moves in and out of these elements, the view is let with 3 interpretations of the "+" one that is black one that is created by negative space and one that is an inverted representation. I employ the figure as an organic shape the allows the weaving of the geometric pattern to shift and change though out the composition


Nanibah "Nani" Chacon is an Painter, Muralist, Educator and Art Activist and Organizer.  She was raised in Chinli, Arizona and Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Her cultural heritage and experience often informs her work as an artist and activist.  Nani has a prolific career as an artist which spans close to 20 years, covering Graffit artist, illustration, fine art painting, Murals and public works.  In 2002 she received her BA in education, she has taught grades K-College Prep both formally and informally as an artist and mentor.  As an artist Nani has won numerous recognitions and exhibits her work nation wide.  Her recent endeavors include work as an art activist with the nationally recognized group Honor the Treaties, curatorial projects and community organizing.

 
⦁ Krrrl

Rather than offer a realistic likeness, I prefer to draw the space, and promote the illusion that the figure can move through the picture space.  The thin lines both obey gravity and describe a female body.  Likewise, I want the viewer to imagine himself walking around that space, and reaching through the figure.  My style is my content, and it's about space and motion.
I graduated with a BA in Art from the University of Texas at Austin, 1987; and a Maestria en Artes Plasticas from the University of Mexico (UNAM -- ex-Academia de San Carlos) 1991.
Krrrl.blogspot.com

• Henry Morales

Pachamama This piece honors the earth. It represents the four corners region and the need to save it.

El Paso cluster:

⦁ Jesus "Cimi" Alvarado

“Es Un Rio” is a memory of growing up on the border. As a child I remember crossing the bridge from El Paso to Juarez and watching people cross the river in makeshift inner-tube rafts. People with jobs in the US side and who didn’t want to get wet would pay “lancheros” to cross every day. I see this as the universal experiences we all have as people who cross boundaries and blaze paths to reach our goals, whatever they may be.


For years political graffiti has been painted on the concrete banks of the border. I decided to use “Esto No Es Una Frontera/Esto es un rio” as one of many messages painted on the concrete banks for years. The quote is from Simon Bolivar, who alluded to the use of borders to divide communities instead of uniting them. Bolivar suggested that the overreaching powers in place politically at the time benefitted from the ensuing chaos that occurs once divisions are made and enforced. He further suggested that if one community suffered, the other “opposite” community suffered, as well.


Another graffiti tag appears on one of pillars that support the international bridge. The message was painted by the family of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, who was shot and killed by a US Customs and Border Protection agent through a barbed wire border fence near El Paso, Texas. At the time of the shooting Guereca, a 15-year-old-Mexican national was standing on the Mexican side of Mexico-United States border, while the agent was on the American side. The agent claimed after the shooting that he had used deadly force because Guereca had been throwing rocks.


⦁ Chris Bardey

Christopher Bardey
Rogues’ Gallery: Artists vs. Robots
Silkscreen, 30x22”
2015

My representational works in painting and printmaking often place an alter-ego in an unusual situation. Engaged in some dimly seen narrative – no more understood by himself than by the viewer - the rodeo clown (or suburban schmoe) tries on a new persona, seeks wisdom, or does some other pointless thing.

“Rogues’ Gallery” is a more direct self-portrait. My part-cyborg self wanly contemplates the denizens of a future that may or may not come to pass, some of whom we recognize from old movies and TV shows. Will the wonders of technology create a life of leisure for all, where everyone’s free to be an artist? It’s hard, honestly, to be optimistic.

I hold a BFA in printmaking and book arts from the University of Georgia and MFA in painting from New Mexico State University, as well as K-12 certification in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I currently teach art at La Academia Dolores Huerta Charter Middle School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I’ve taught high school art, photography and animation in Las Cruces, Chicago, and Atlanta, and printmaking as an adjunct instructor at NMSU.

• Francisco Delgado

“Lastima Margarito!” is an expression made popular by comedian Victor Trujillo in his parody of a game show. In Mexican culture, the expression has become symbolic of the contestant’s failed attempt to achieve a goal after successfully overcoming many barriers and only to ultimately be given an unachievable task. The linoleum print “Lastima Margarito” is critical of the lack of diversity in most United States’ colleges and universities due to the unarticulated status quo. Like in Trujilllo’s parody, some institutions of higher education consciously set barriers for qualified members of under-represented communities to get hired in faculty positions. They undermine the voice of large minority groups they pride themselves in serving.

The print was created in the City of Oaxaca, Mexico in collaboration with Dessert Triange Carpeta, Taller de Grafica Libre and Espacio Centro.Education: BFA UT El Paso 2000, MFA Yale School of Art 2002

⦁ Manuel Guerra

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico was at one time considered the deadliest city in the world. Infamous for a wave of attacks beginning in the 1990s that left hundreds of women dead -the majority of the victims were young women from impoverished backgrounds working in factories. The crimes, similarities across cases include the rape, torture, mutilation, and murder. Since then, Ciudad Juárez received international attention, primarily due to a perceived government passiveness. Currently, the media’s attention has moved on and more victims still being discovered.

This print is a reaction towards this on-going social pandemic. It was created at La Ceiba Gráfica, located on one of the most important and beautiful haciendas in Coatepec, Veracruz with renowned Master Printer Per Anderson. La Ceiba Gráfica specializes in traditional lithography using Mexican marble.

Manuel Guerra holds three degrees including an Associate of Arts degree from El Paso Community College, a B.F.A. degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and an M.F.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. As a studio artist, his work has been shown throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. His drawings and prints are included in museums and private collections.

• Los Dos

The “El Gallo” print is based on a series of paintings done in 2013 titled “Tres Animales” (El Gallo, El Chivo, El Coyote). The animal portraits were painted on old Sonidero Party posters found on the streets of Canutillo, TX. The title is inspired by the song “Mis Tres Animales” by Mexican norteño band Los Tucanes De Tijuana who describe the song as one of their “Valientes crónicas del acontecer diario” or “brave chronicles of the every day life”. The song is a first person narrative where a drug dealer uses animals to metaphorically speak about the products he sells in the U.S.

In both the song and the print “El Gallo” symbolizes a marihuana cigarette and along with the other animals is used to describe the narco culture and its impact on every day life.
For the artists it also represents the human factor involved in transforming an animal and a plant as complex symbols of social behavior, this is why the rooster has a human eye.

Los Dos is the collaborative moniker of husband and wife duo Ramon and Christian Cardenas. 

Ramon is a Filipino-American visual artist and co-founder of Maintain; a multimedia artist network formed in 2007 involved in curating cultural art events and projects in El Paso. Christian is a female mixed media artist from Cd. Juarez Chihuahua with a background in textiles, design, and printmaking. Their approach is ethnographic in nature; describing the unique border culture, as well as their own Filipino and Mexican heritage (respectively). 

⦁ Jellyfish Colectivo

Our work for DESERT TRIANGLE PRINT CARPETA is based in this strange relation between two countries divided for a line, and how we live that. Our work try to represent our opinion about this relation and how all we forget the more simple things like we all are just humans trying to live in this difficult world and we all want to be happy. That's why just we leaning over a fence and wait for the next nonsense decision, rule or law in this world while we see so many hard things passing by trough our eyes, people looking for money, fame and so many things with no real meaning and in that search all we lost a very value moment in our lives and we don't see the amazing simple things, while a dog pee our shoe.

Jellyfish colectivo it's a creative group who work with graphic art (Murals, exhibitions, animation) and with social art projects based in juarez since 2010. This group has work in many differents projects, like workshops with young kids, people with some disability or adolescents for 3 years (2010-2013) and they did big events in Juárez like HOLA COLOR (2013) and COLOR WALK (2014).
With his art work they have worked in places like México city, New York, Austin or Germany to name a few, and they won with his first animated short film the best animated short film of 2014 in FILM (festival internacional de cine de Morelia).


2nd version
Our work for DESERT TRIANGLE PRINT CARPETA is based in this strange relation between two countries divided for a line, and how we live that. Our work try to represent our opinion about this relation and how all we forget the more simple things like we all are just humans trying to live in this difficult world and we all want to be happy. That's why just we leaning over a fence and wait for the next nonsense decision, rule or law in this world while we see so many hard things passing by trough our eyes, people looking for money, fame and so many things with no real meaning and in that search all we lost a very value moment in our lives and we don't see the amazing simple things, while a dog pee our shoe.


Jellyfish colectivo it's a creative group who work with graphic art (Murals, exhibitions, animation) and with social art projects based in juarez since 2010. This group has work in many differents projects, like workshops with young kids, people with some disability or adolescents for 3 years (2010-2013) and they did big events in Juárez like HOLA COLOR (2013) and COLOR WALK (2014).
With his art work they have worked in places like México city, New York, Austin or Germany to name a few, and they won with his first animated short film the best animated short film of 2014 in FILM (festival internacional de cine de Morelia).


We are three graphic designers and one architect.


⦁ Raul Monarrez

Since I can remember, communicating visually has been a basic part of my nature. I create art that is from my subconscious, so most, if not, all my work has a spontaneous approach. I set my mind on a topic and through the elements of art and design I set out to visually answer my concerns. In this serigraph I pose the question of religion and how it forces itself upon my own undoing. This pushes me to find an escape, to overlay my inability to control my inner urges. Therefore, it is the devil that is being devilish in tempting my desires and not my failure to clear my mind.

My educational background Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. In addition I am currently working on my Master of Education in Instructional Technology.


⦁ Victor Muheddine

Victor M. Muheddine has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at El Paso with a Major in Painting and Minor in Printmaking. He resides in El Paso, Texas and teaches art to high school youth.

Being inspired by the Egyptian Revolution of February 2011 during the Arab Spring, he embraced his heritage that he felt had been tainted by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. His art focuses around the Arabic word “Qabeeh”, which translated to English means “Ugly”. Ugly is the word that best describes how the media, movies, and stereotypes of Arabs made him feel throughout the years. 

⦁ Albert (Tino) Ortega

B. 1978 Tino Ortega

Albert “TINO” Ortega was born and raised in El Paso, TX in 1986. The rich culture of the southern U.S border helped fuel his artistic creativity, and can be seen through the artwork that he produces.

This print is dedicated to all of the surrounding tribes of the southwest, and all the people who have fought to keep their heritage alive.


⦁ Zeke Pena

A Nomad in Love is a personal narrative. While making this print I was also working on a painting for an exhibit with the National Museum of Mexican Art about home and community. When I think of home the image of the mountains comes to mind, so in this print I depict the Franklin mountains. These mountains bare a sacred indigenous symbol of the thunderbird on them. As a kid I played at the foot of these mountains and they make me feel grounded. The image of a hummingbird is inspired by the Mexica (Aztec) tradition that says the spark in our hearts beats like the flight of a hummingbird: steady and self-sustaining. I was in some hard times personally having lost important people in my life. I was feeling crazy and alone like a coyote howling at the rabbit moon. So I'm telling a love story through symbols and images about heartbreak and anxiety. But there is also some comedy in those wild eyes. Laughing at my loss. There is a saying I know from the work of the artist and poet, José Montoya: La locura cura (Craziness cures). Laughter heals and this print cracks me up.

I was born in Las Cruces, NM and raised in El Paso, TX. I've exhibited in museums, galleries and community spaces in Chicago, Los Angeles and throughout the southwest region. I have a Visual Studies degree from the University of Texas at Austin and I'm self-trained in my craft. My multidisciplinary work explores identity, community & life on the border. My process often involves community collaboration and engagement.

• Matthew Poe

Ole is an abstracted depiction of war and a war on false idols. Great culture is lost and has become a savage obsession over power, corruption, greed and status. The golden calf is an homage to the Book of Exodus. It represents the gods people have made to go before them. This piece expresses a slaying of a false idol.


Poe is from and still resides in El Paso, Texas. He has a BFA from New Mexico State University.


⦁ Tim Razo

My name is Tim Razo and I’m a Southwestern, United States multimedia artist based out of El Paso, TX. I don’t like talking about art, because ultimately it’s pointless. To me the point of art is to become incomprehensible.



⦁ Federico Villalba

Bici Rider No. 1 of Saipan is my Desert Triangle serigraph, which originated with the crisp click of my camera’s shutter while covering a grassroots rally in May 2014 to save the historic Lincoln Center in El Paso, Texas, from the destructive swing of a wrecking ball for new freeway construction. The still photograph has been featured in several art exhibitions in the photography form. My friend, Karl Whitaker, asked to use the image for a print created by maestro Arturo Negrete and his team at Mexico City’s Taller 75 Grados.

The print features Luis (Tego), a young Chicano bicycle enthusiast proudly resting on his beautiful blue and chrome, three-wheel custom lowrider bike in the midst of Lincoln Park, an urban jungle playground of grass and freeway concrete pillars adorned with colorful art murals with Mexican American themes. The area has become a center of the celebration of Chicano culture, art, and heritage with its Chicano-themed murals and events like the annual Lincoln Park Day featuring lowrider cars and bicycles, art, music, dance, and attire. It is El Paso’s flavor of San Diego’s famous Chicano Park.

Lincoln Center and Park are located under several feeder arteries in the I-10/54 “Spaghetti Bowl” freeway exchange area historically known as Concordia and Saipan. Lincoln Center, the last remaining structure from El Paso’s past, was a training camp for Buffalo Soldiers (1860’s) and the first non-segregated school, admitting Mexican-American and Black students (1915). The summer when I took the photograph of Luis, the issue of Lincoln Center’s future had reached a fevered pitch involving Texas Department of Transportation, El Paso City Council, multiple car clubs, and several grassroots neighborhood groups like Save Lincoln Center and Lincoln Park Conservation Committee.

El Paso is my home base to wander the US/Mexico border. My street photography art tends to focus on visually documenting the things – dimples and blemishes – that make life along “la frontera” so colorful and unique. The debate on the future of Lincoln Center is still ongoing.



Yorch