Forty years ago, I was standing in the small bedroom I occupied in my parents’ home in Fresno, packing my things and getting ready to move to San Francisco to start classes at the Academy of Art College.
I can still remember pulling up in front of Gilson Hall on the campus of the University of San Francisco with my parents in my uncle’s mini truck like it was yesterday. The five years that followed that pivotal moment turned out to be one of the best adventures I’ve ever had. Nothing could have been better than being an art student in late-80s San Francisco. I was young, hungry, and living in one of the best cities in the world.
In 1992, I graduated from art school and everything changed. The years that followed were a trial by fire that tested me in ways I could never have imagined. The period between 1998 and 2017 was a long, drawn-out blur of ups and downs, losses, and economic instability. Standing in line at the local food bank was a stark reminder of where I found myself at the time. Somewhere along the way, through all the disarray, I became disconnected from the hungry young man I’d been in late-80s San Francisco.
In the summer of 2022, things began to change. The flame that had been gasping for oxygen for far too long began to burn with renewed intensity. I found my voice and purpose in the aesthetic that had enthralled me for decades. The creation of my picture, Entre Sombras, marked the start of a new phase in which the artist I was becoming found a place in my work.
Hard-learned lessons and hard-won excellence have brought me to where I am today. I’ve reconnected with the hungry young man I was all those years ago, as the person I became during those difficult years has dissipated into the past. What has emerged is a new reality—one where my vision is fully present in every line I put down.
The past four decades have been a long, hard slog that has left me with a degree of resolve and tenacity I did not have when I arrived in San Francisco. Now, the next chapter begins in earnest. I’m ready to fight for the place I’ve spent forty years preparing myself to occupy and take the vision that I’ve carried for years out into the world.