Please note that, due to silverpoint’s highly reflective qualities, the drawings below were photographed in low light to reduce glare and represent their full value range. Though many of their backgrounds may appear gray or vary in temperature, they are a bright white in person, as demonstrated in the Installation Shots portfolio.
CULTIVO UNA ROSA BLANCA
Dating from 2011 through 2019, these select drawings revolve around my mother’s Cuban immigrant family. Interweaving motifs of syncretic Spanish and indigenous taíno cultures with cinquecento-inspired gilding, these works pay homage to the trajectory and triumph of strangers in a strange land—and acknowledge how I stand on their shoulders.
Cultivo una rosa blanca, or “I cultivate a white rose,” is from a line in a poem by José Martí, a Cuban patriot beloved by my mother’s South Florida exile community. Silverpoint’s ephemeral quality mirrors the fleetingness of their recalled memories and narratives, and its inevitable, gradual tarnishing reflects the sacrifice and equanimity brought on by distance and time.
