"Bulerías" is the result of listening intently to and being captivated by flamenco music.

Extremely physical and emotional, flamenco is expressed through dance, song, and theatrical representation. Each painting in the exhibit is named after a particular Spanish guitar piece. While creating this series, I let flamenco guide my imagination while responding to its rhythm and unique musical vocabulary.

The process of translating a musical language into colors and compositions is not original. Its theoretical foundations lie in the traditions of automatism (rhythmic art) and abstract expressionism. Based on sensory imagery, memory, free association, and introspection, this approach to painting reveals the inextricable interconnectedness between the rational and the emotional embedded in our subconscious.

In "Trafalgar", for instance, the central theme is a woman and her pensive state of mind.

"Anak" explores aging from a woman's prospective, the gradual loss of physical beauty, but the preservation of mental and emotional vitality.

Each painting revolves around a central idea: suffering and compassion in "Entre dos Aguas"; the impenetrability of a man's soul in "Improvisación flamenca"; dancing and joie de vivre in "Zapateado"; rhythm notation in "Bulerias # 22 Con Palmas."


Like flamenco, painting permits the rational and the emotional to coexist, to be examined, and to be liberated.

October 28, 2009