My work portrays women of color in uplifting ways, celebrates the mestizaje (racial and cultural mixture) of my Latin roots and explores a feminine aesthetic through the use of fabric and fibers both as medium and as imagery.

My latest series of paintings called Vaivén (Sway) depicts Latin women in Caribbean-inspired settings and with hammocks. Being a Puerto Rican artist, hammocks are very symbolic objects for me. On a personal level, they represent comfort, protection and a link to my childhood because they are where I listened to my family’s stories, where I was taught how to read and where I played. On another level, hammocks represent for me a connection to our aboriginal ancestry because they are one of the few artifacts inherited from our indigenous Taíno culture still in use in modern Puerto Rico.

Textiles are a constant in my artistic production. I explore a feminine artistic language through the use of fabric and fibers because traditionally, women’s creativity found a means of expression through clothes and crafts. I believe that the dual fragility and strength of textiles adequately mirrors women’s physical vulnerability and their amazing inner strength.