Visual & Conceptual Art
My practice as a creative writer and artist is rooted in storytelling, which may assume narrative, expressive, or conceptual modes. I tell stories, as well as invite others to tell theirs. In these offerings and provocations, I often challenge the audience's notions of what stories can be. My work spans analogue and digital, as well as the many places where formats overlap. These range from books to films to sculptural installations to paintings to websites and more. My personal, professional, and academic experiences related to feminism, language, folklore, environmentalism, social justice, mass media, and architecture inform many of my projects. Specifically, I use Quail Bell Magazine as a playground for much of my process.
Lately, I have used storytelling to provoke questions about my mother’s native El Salvador, personal identity, and mass media. Connected is my interest in how U.S. media professionals such as my Anglo-American father portray El Salvador and how these portrayals influence Americans under the Trump administration. In making these connections, my artwork generates further stories and questions about warfare, immigration, definitions of “whiteness” across borders, cross-cultural notions of femininity, and other matters.
Lately, I have used storytelling to provoke questions about my mother’s native El Salvador, personal identity, and mass media. Connected is my interest in how U.S. media professionals such as my Anglo-American father portray El Salvador and how these portrayals influence Americans under the Trump administration. In making these connections, my artwork generates further stories and questions about warfare, immigration, definitions of “whiteness” across borders, cross-cultural notions of femininity, and other matters.
