Hammer Blog

Frank Lloyd Wright said "Tip the world on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles." I didn't consciously moved to L.A. to work, actually when I first arrived I didn't work at all, I was spending my days driving around, exploring the city. Then manifest destiny.

On Wednesday July 30, I had the pleasure of delivering a Lunchtime Art Talk to a group of Hammer Museum enthusiasts about Clarissa Tossin’s installation Brasília, Cars, Pools, and other Modernities. I met Clarissa around 2010 in Houston, Texas, when the car (the central piece of the artwork) was still in Brazil—in her parent’s garage to be more precise—and the thought of one day bringing the car to the United States was a dream wrapped in a logistical headache.

I was born in Los Angeles County, in Pomona, studied art at Pomona College, Claremont Graduate School, and began my painting "career" living in West Hollywood. It was just natural.

Part of me says: Where else in the U.S. would a gay, Mexican goth live and make art? It’s true. My wife and I are originally from California. We’re like homing pigeons, keep returning to what’s familiar. We’ve found amazing makers and thinkers here.

Well, firstly, Cypress Hill was my favorite hip-hop group as a kid. I lived in West Hollywood with my mom for a short time in 1990-1991. I loosely remember going to the mall and having a good time . . . I also had a Skittles 'collection' which I kept in a wine glass decorated with white felt bunny ears, googly eyes, a pink felt triangle for a nose, and whiskers fashioned of monofilament. Because of the heat, the color evacuated the candies and they fused together into a white blob with a small pool of colorful gunk sitting at the bottom of the glass.