ABOUT

 

The Machine Series was created using rubbings from industrial machines at my family’s metal fabrication shop. On-site found materials including grease, oil, and soot are incorporated in the compositions, along with traditional art materials.

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Drawing from my roots in my family's shop, my work speaks to the inherent beauty found in utility. It explores the intersection of labor and machine-driven rhythms. The creative process itself is a meditation on repetition and authenticity.

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The rubbings (or frottages) are created from the raised lettering on the machines that identify their models, manufacturers, and safety warnings. Several of these machines are from when the shop was established in the 1940s and are still in everyday use. Words like, machine, steel, and operate are found on the machines create singular conversations, meditation phrases, invocations, internal dialogues and arguments, pleas, and droning mantras when repeated through the compositions on the canvas.

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By draping the canvas over and working directly on the machine, there is a physicality to the work. The print process is mechanical in nature, but as my hands tire, my arms fail, the consonance and dissonance of the compositions fluctuate. My hand becomes evident not only through the imperfections, but also with the smudges of grease as unintended evidence that the artist was there.  

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This work is a continuation of the shop’s rhythm; a form of storytelling forged through material and raw sincerity. It is an offering to those who work with their hands, to those who build without acknowledgment, and to the subtle poetry found in utility—to family and tradition.

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These are self-portraits. These are confessionals. They are both a collective cry and a solitary call. These embody the spirit of working-class resilience. These machines carry their own histories and scars. I work with them as collaborators. We are all machines.

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Dedicated to León.