Mitos y Raíces (Mythos and Roots) is my latest collection and probably the most personal that I have worked on so far. None of these works are meant to directly portray Cuban stories or Cuban reality. Instead these paintings tell a story of myth-like embellishment to evoke feelings of longing for a culture that is mine yet feels so far and ephemeral. I give each main character at least one prop, whether it be animals or inanimate objects that reference something from my childhood or something that I see as uniquely Cuban. I italicize inanimate here because even the most inanimate objects here are animate. In fact, that is one of my current intellectual interests in painting: How can textiles filled with patterns or other ornate accessories bring movement and life to a painting such that it rivals the animation of the animals or the people inhabiting the painting?
