ARTIST STATEMENT

Series of the Sirens draws on my growing up near the ocean in Valparaiso , Chile and my life in Carrizozo , New Mexico ,site of the lava flows that sit atop a brackish aquifer . The fossilized seashells i discover during my hikes are reminders that this desert , too , was once an ocean .

Just as waves shape the shore and magma reconfigures the desert sands, flux and flow characterize my work . My intent is to reveal the mystery that underlies the most primal of forms . Working with a piece of wood or stone is a meditative process . I note marks that guide me gradually throughout the process of direct carving , as i internalize unique and earthly features that merge with the dream world that flourishes inside me .

The synthesis of the tangible and visionary gives rise to archetypes that also live below the surface . Sirens , female Magi , Pachamama , the Inca Mother Earth and , more recently , painted images of La Pincoya , the Siren that lives in the sea of Chiloe’s island in the south of Chile , emerge from once hard and cold raw material that holds an enshrined world of its own . As water and lava unveil a new landscape little by little , with chisel or paintbrush in hand , so do I humbly seek to release images that link us all from the deep recesses of ancient materials before me .