Artist Statement

I was born in El Salvador and moved to the United States at the age of five. I grew up primarily in New York City, surrounded by parents, siblings, and cousins who loved the arts. At nineteen, I went to Paris for a year to study French at the Sorbonne and at the University of Grenoble. I visited the Louvre Museum and the magnificent châteaus along the Loire River. And I traveled to Rome, Florence, and Venice with my famous cousin, Alicia Nash (who was portrayed in the movie A Beautiful Mind).

Back home in the United States, I continued my studies. I had been impressed by European art, and so I majored in studio art at the Worcester Art Museum, through Clark University in Massachusetts. When my husband and I moved to California, I transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz, and changed my major to comparative literature. I raised three children while teaching Spanish and working on advanced degrees. I received my MA in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley. I am currently working on my PhD dissertation in comparative literature from the same school. Teresa of Avila and Don Quixote figure prominently in my dissertation.

I taught Spanish for seven years as a teaching assistant/graduate instructor at UC Berkeley, UCSC, and MIIS, and also worked as an SAO at UC Extension. I returned to painting in 2002 and joined Fourth Street Studio, where I painted at night after work. After I retired from UC Berkeley in 2005, I was able to devote myself more fully to painting.

Although I'm primarily an oil painter, I use oil and collage to illustrate the Supreme Yoga Meditations, sections 1-9. These meditations are from the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist tradition, as received orally from His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun and in writing from his longtime disciple Katherine Metz. Because Black Sect Tantric Buddhism comes from China, Tibet, and India, incorporating-in its fourth stage-Western culture and religion, my illustrations reflect influences from Eastern art (primarily Tibetan thangkas, Buddhist paintings on fabric) as well as from Christianity and from modern Western life. These illustrations typically depict colorfully garbed gods and goddesses surrounded by blue-jeaned disciples.

Metaphysics has been my lifelong passion and has influenced my endeavors in painting as well as in literature. Proving the proverb "A picture is worth a thousand words," I am now teaching through my art.

My painting style is varied. Whether I'm painting metaphysical subjects, flowers, landscapes, abstracts, or portraits, what unites my various styles is an explosion of color and a sensitivity to line. When I paint, I prepare myself, consciously direct my work-and then let go. I often surprise myself with what emerges.