Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza
Isla, 2020
Pastry box, scenery materials, acrylic, trash
Courtesy of the artist

This work is on loan for the exhibition, Living Here, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, June 20 - December 20, 2025

Filipino treats were not widely available in Southern California when the artist was growing up during the 1970s. Instead she ate pastries in pink boxes from local Chinese American bakeries. The impression the pastries left on her—“familiar and slightly different at the same time”—shaped the creation of Isla and Immigrant. “I'm archiving memories associated with objects such as a pink pastry box; it is representative of culture, location, and identification. The palm tree is like a happy surprise...like how the notion of a pink box feels in my memory, triggering positive associations to food and culture. In Isla, the island is polluted with trash, showing the reality of our shared memories of an idyllic island.”