Some may call these pieces collages or assemblages. But the origin of this series is an attempt at abstraction. I have my theories about what an abstract artwork needs to have and what it does not, based on existing abstract works, schools, and rules, known and said by fellow peers, professors, and artists alike. However, during the endeavor, I found myself letting go of these and paving a path of my own. Discovered what I wanted to say in each piece midway through the barrage of images, the combination of colors, and fragments of poems.
In the end, I found something completely new, the journey began with one aim, intended for another, and ended up with something else entirely. Tapping into a habit I did when I was young, covering the walls of our clubhouse with comic book character posters, drawing and writing on them like a caveman, unintentionally spraying paint and color everywhere. To this day, this child-like side of mine has always been there and put into good use, curating art shows, enhancing and beautifying our home now, and especially my studio today (and all my studios before), with this ability to mix and match drawings and photographs to enkindle, inspire and remind.
Some may say the outcome became somewhat likened to a mood board or a memory wall, heck, I'd even say it has roots in an evidence board also known as a "conspiracy board," or "crazy wall," from movies, but instead, I call this series, WALL POEMS. Turning into an art form, our habits of adorning, placing, and curating familiar and favorite images onto walls, may they have a connection or not, we, the ones who place them are the connection that binds them all together no matter how abrupt, contrasting or interconnected they are. As the creator, our choices compose the rhythm and rhyme in the poetry of imagery, forming a meaning, a complete idea, or not. An abstract. By placing them onto canvas (or in this case, pasted and glued on repurposed used cardboard boxes), one can keep them or move these "walls" to be shown to others. Preserving the energy one absorbs when basking in the presence of a certain collection of pictures, in the marriage of these distinct items and images.
These specific Wall Poems are about past and nostalgic items, like movie posters, sexy women in magazines, trading cards, stickers, post-it notes, and fragments of poems and paintings I've previously done which when all combined remind me of earlier iterations of my walls, and preceding inspirations for my art. A collection of whatever I could still remember from past versions of myself, bits and pieces of memories and experiences I now want to let go and exorcise, and some that I want to relive, sealed and remember forever. These are my WALL POEMS, these are my MEMORY DEBRIS.
