Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

My favorite type of art to create is collage, using painting and sculpture as a methodology rather than separate disciplines. I use collage to bring together fragments of images, materials, and ideas through layering and contrast. Painting allows me to shape atmosphere and emotion, while sculpture adds physical presence and space. For me, collage is how I think assembling fragments of experience into something newly understood.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration through lived experience, using an autoethnographic approach rooted in my identity as a Mexican American artist. My work explores duality, culture, and self definition. After leaving a career in music industry at Sony, to pursue art, I began creating without compromise. As the first in my family to earn a master’s degree, my practice reflects resilience, identity, and the act of defining myself in real time.

What would you do with $25,000?

With $25,000, I would push my practice forward rather than stabilise it. I would invest in large-scale materials for airbrush, sculpture, and mixed media, and build a studio that allows experimentation without constraint. I would prioritise producing new work, not refining old ideas, and invest in high-end documentation and exhibition opportunities. For me, the goal is momentum expanding risk, scale, and visibility in real time.