Metal works involving copper, bronze, and silver used to share pieces of my personal life and culture. I am creating symbols and metal crafts to represent me, my family, and the culture that we embrace together
A Rocking Chair to Remember
A Rocking Chair to Remember is a copper and brass sculptural piece. I used the process of etching and riveting for this project. The patterns on the metal originate from a triangle shape produced from the negative space between a chair from my parent's home. The pattern created by a space between a chair is then placed onto an image representing a chair, I think that sounds quite interesting!
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This work revolves around the idea of attaching a person onto a particular object or activity as part of your memory. In this case, I took the image of a chair that my great grandmother used to always sit on during her last days. She passed away when I was young and I never really got to know her, yet I still find myself thinking of her when I see this rocking chair.
Spade Necklace
This spade necklace is a mix of copper and brass using the soldering technique to connect the main shape being the upside down heart as well as the round shape below completing the spade iconography. This metalwork features texture and the natural process of oxidation.
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The spade is a symbol that I deeply connect with as someone who prefers to be independent. Being an introvert in my early days in life, but also growing to understand the social scene, I naturally transformed into a person who is self-contained.
Memoria de El Grullo (In Progress)
Memoria de El Grullo will be a mixed media piece consisting of copper, fabric, and aluminum tabs from soda cans.
My grandmother from my mother's side resides in El Grullo, a small town in Jalisco, Mexico where my mother grew up in before leaving early to immigrate to California.
The materials I have chosen will function as a memory of my grandmother and my memory of my time in El Grullo. I want to create this work in order to honor my grandmother as a loving mother to many and as a caring grandmother to me all while reminding me of the origins of my parents before immigrating to California where I was born. With the copper, I will create a circular frame with the image of the cactus where the fruit called Pitaya or otherwise known as a Mexican dragon fruit grows. The Pitaya is one of my biggest memories of El Grullo, a delicious fruit that i will always link back to this town. The aluminum tabs are a reminder of my grandmother who sew many handbags with the tabs in her free time. The tabs will serve as a background along with the tan fabric in representation of the Earthly element that nurtures the growth of cacti and life.
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