Bloodline
The Eastside Arthouse was having their 2nd annual group show. This years theme was duo collaborations in honor of the Arthouse’s 2nd birthday. The show was titled “Duality” and I was lucky enough to get paired with Perry Picasshoe.
Perry and I began our collaboration by having hours of heart to heart conversations about everything that led us to where we are today. We connected over struggles with identify, culture, and following our passion to create. Especially all the things about ourselves that contradict: being brave yet scared to follow our dreams, not being from here nor there, our feminine and masculine aspects, gender roles placed on us from Mexican vs American culture, and having indigenous and colonizer roots.
We then created a shared album of all our inspiration and tried to find the common thread. We seemed to connect on the idea of magical realism and realized it encapsulates all the art we are inspired by.
After we had gotten deep and made a thorough analysis of our taste we agreed we wanted make sure it was fun to create. I felt somewhat burnt out from my last major project and was determined to enjoy the process. So we agreed to lean into the idea of PLAY. We started by doing some art experiments to get the juices flowing.
First up was the “Red glasses challenge” this was something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I learned in beginning art and photo that if you take a red filter you can better see value and as long as the values are correct, the color can be anything. As my teacher would say “color gets all the credit but value does all the work, ”
Next, we did a swap challenge. The idea here was that we would each create a concept sketch and the other would paint it in with any color scheme or add to it. We loved these concepts so much they would end up being the jumping off points for our final artworks.
Then, just for funsies, we just thought it’d be hilarious to recreate this photo:
We figured we might as well do the whole shoot….
We had such a blast with this! It turned into and entire parody photoshoot series and we got way into character. Swipe below for more method acting…
Perry took the boxing photo and took it a step further by recreating their flyer..
Then a step more by printing them out and stapling it to a pole:
Then a step more by tagging them up. I loved how much this turned into its own thing. This was the funniest thing and helped us bond more as collaborators.
Okay okay!
After all that fun. We had to make a decision on our actual painting. We took time to create our own concepts and then compare. Turns out we actually had the exact same color schemes. So we knew that was the fist ingredient. We sat for days just going over compositions and the elements we wanted. We had a hard time making any concrete decisions. But we were very open with each other about the pressure we put on ourselves. We felt stuck…
Then Perry said “I know a spot”… and we went on a photoshoot! It was the perfect relief we needed and we felt inspired again.
Our Final Piece!
Next we painted our self-portraits. We wanted them to 1. tie into our main piece 2. work as individual paintings 3. complement each other 4. tell our individual stories. It was a lot to ask for but these portrait concepts flowed out of us so naturally. With these portraits we explore our opposing identities.
As much as I hate to admit it, my last name carries a bloody history of colonization. Think, Hernan Cortes. Most, if not all, knowledge and records of my indigenous roots is nearly impossible to trace back. But I know it’s there. The erasure creates an identity crisis, feelings of belong neither here nor there. There’s a saying in Spanish “tiene el nopal en la frente” (they have a cactus on their forehead) it is used to talk down on someone who is or looks Mexican but is Americanized. It happens naturally but also that assimilation was decided by our immigrant parents to avoid discrimination in their new country. It was self-protection, much like the nopal symbolizes. I posed for my portrait with a confident (borderline smug) and masculine posture. This was intended to reflect the patriarchy that was also brought on through colonization. If has been my feeling that in order to succeed or be respected one must think, act and work like a man. I often find myself embodying those traits as I navigate my career often leaving me feeling drained. I have only recently started to question where that all comes from. I have decided to start the journey of reconnection and of self-preservation.
You can read about Perry’s paintings in his own words here.
All in all this was an amazing collaboration and I think we both got a lot of value from it. Perry was like a breath of fresh air and I am so happy I got to collaborate with him. There was so much connection, fun and realness we tapped into. Can’t wait to work with him again❤️
