Artist Statement

This body of work celebrates my Panamanian heritage and encapsulates the memories from my childhood living on Ft. Clayton, now Ciudad del Saber, and the desire to stay connected to this part of myself today. Growing up in the Midwest with my mother living in Panama, it was and continues to be a struggle to feel a part of this community. Through this work I am able to honor and identify with my Panamanian background.

The forms are inspired by Pre-Columbian Coclé pottery, with soft rounded handles and voluminous bodies. I hand build the forms using coil and slab techniques, a repetitive and meditative process of manipulating the clay to create the desired shape. They act as canvases for layers of drawings and patterns that I carve into the surface through a technique called sgraffito. This process involves creating a collection of drawings, what I call a visual library, that I can pick and choose from depending on the form. Each chosen image is then carefully drawn on tracing paper and retraced with a stylus onto the leather hard clay, creating a light guide to assist in completing the final carvings. The pallet is simple allowing the graphic quality of the linework to pop against the black surface while pinks, greens and yellows reference the vibrancy found in the architecture and the tropical environment of Panama. Patterns and motifs within the work reference Molas, a textile art created by the Guna, an indigenous group in Panama and traditional Panamanian pottery.

Other imagery harkens to my childhood in Ciudad del Saber as well as the ways in which technology has allowed us to stay connected today. I remember seeing the “Diablico Sucio,” or “Dirty Devils” in a parade as a child in Santiago, so striking with their colorful, ornate masks and their black and red striped outfits. These masks as well as tigers, papayas, flowers, portraits of myself, and family are pulled together in elaborate compositions on my ceramic forms. This work feels light, and celebratory, with pops of color and busy loud patterns similar to the graffitied public transit buses known as “Diablo Rojo” in Panama. These buses, full of travelers and booming reggaetón music, capture the frenetic and vibrant energy of contemporary life in the city, which composes the backdrop of my work. The forms and the drawings carved into them are my way of creating a language that speaks to my desire to stay connected to a part of myself and community that has often felt very far away.