Sabio Pendejo (Wise Fool)

Previously on exhibit at the Chicano Park Museum, San Diego, California 

Artist Statement:

The Painter works on the shoulders of those who have created before, Birds leave the nest, fruit falls from the tree, In the pages of the dead, immortality is found, Read, listen, ask, repeat, then perish, dejar una marca.

The unseen becomes what is viewed, Whispers of the past guide the hand, Silent echoes. As wisdom from the ancestors expands.

The wide fool guards the sacred process, in the same vein, we nurture the Cultura. There is no retirement from the blessing/curse, when we die our hand stops, but the creation lives on.

For the curators:

This is a painting about process. The hours of research to truly understand what an orange can be, what it means, how it was used and what the relationship to the self is. The eggs are idea some profound, some basura. Some become chickens and others are eaten, the possibilities of an egg that is not broken. The orange is a homage to Van Eyck. A rare and exotic fruit of value, placed on the binding of a book to enhance the value of knowledge by association. The rosary is my personal faith, but also the sacred process of creating a painting, from start to finish, a sacrifice of time and effort. The dried flower is the praise that is given, fresh from the start but dries and loses fragrance. This is a compliment, never forgotten but never validated. The bee on the egg represents the pollination of ideas between artists both past and present. The box on the bottom of the books is pandora's box, the subconscious yearning to paint creations that go against the grain, against historical canon, a suppression that needs liberation, a freedom that only comes through following the traditional course. An oxymoron.