Born in the Dominican Republic, I am a self-taught artist based in Queens, New York. My practice is rooted in migrant resilience, historical consciousness, and the transformative power of labor and materials. My artistic career was forged through a variety of occupations, each immersing me in the craft of creating new forms from unexpected sources. From auto-body shops—where metal bends and spray paint becomes a car’s new skin—to craft school, where I learned to make souvenirs from horn, bone, and leather, I developed a deep respect for material intelligence and traditional craftsmanship. Later, in a separate trade program, I studied carpentry, further expanding my understanding of raw materials and repurposing—principles that continue to shape my artistic process.
Though I earned a degree in Hospitality—a practical choice shaped by socioeconomic realities—my hands always craved deeper transformation: the kind found in the rebirth of discarded materials. What began as teenage drawings and doodles became a quiet source of satisfaction and resistance against circumstance.
Now in the U.S., my work embodies a lifetime of metamorphosis: a shift from necessity to passion, from silent observer to storyteller. Each piece is a visual manifesto, bearing the imprint of my journey through adaptation, migration, and cultural exchange.
My artistic path began in my early years as a helper—spray-painting car frames, welding steel, and shaping leather and bone in trade school. These experiences gave my work a raw, tactile intelligence. What started as mimicry—copying from art history books, comic panels, and newspaper clippings—evolved into a visceral collage practice, where borrowed images transform into original metaphors. Today, my compositions dissect the weight of displacement, weaving personal odyssey with collective memory.
Immersed in American life, I’ve become an active global citizen. My work has grown as my civic engagement to render visual dialogues about coexistence, identity, and the silent agreements that shape our communities. Through layers of narratives, I explore the tension between belonging and alienation, unity and fracture. Each painting becomes a charged space where social bonds stretch and snap, and the universal human need for connection collides with the realities of cultural difference, belief systems, and values.
Statement
Our lives and journeys are complex and more intertwined than what we see; My work explores the intricate dynamics of human migration, the fragile interdependence that emerges and the socio-economic transformations we call "progress." that shape a community. Through maps, and interwoven doodles I tell visual stories of resilient collective life: the push-and-pull of shared beliefs, the demand for resources, and the unspoken agreements that bind—or divide—us. history become a compass when draw parallels between past and present by weaving contemporary affairs and forgotten echoes. building l layers of mixed mediums, some intentional others not, as symbolism that trace the constraints that redefine communities.
My creative process is deeply shaped by lived experience. As a self-taught artist, I draw inspiration from my upbringing in the Dominican Republic, where I worked in auto body repair and trained in crafts such as leatherwork and carpentry. growing up materials were scarce, and the foundation of everything I learned was rooted in reuse and salvage. I continue to implement those same principles in my compositions—working with reclaimed canvases and paints, repurposed frames; some of my mix-mediums are auto-body filler, to create 3-dimensional projection of landscape on wood panels, pieces of fabrics and paper for texture and and background color , plus other non conventional art-supply, honoring resourcefulness and resilience. I aim to create pieces that are visual narratives amplifying open dialogues between belonging, alienation, unity and fracture. My work embodies a lifetime of transformation, storytelling the immigrant experience, and exploring the connections that form within community.
As an immigrant myself I want encourages viewers to reflect on their own story, sense of place and belonging. My work asks: What maps or layers do we carry inside us? What borders must we dissolve? What happens when the social contracts that shape our interactions begin to fade?