Sorry to be late with my Sunday Stills post, I have been preparing myself for my new job at Bates College as an Admission Counselor.

Thanks for visiting!

It was a jam packed year, but one that gave me valuable experience and knowledge for the future.  I did an immense amount of networking both in the outside world and Bates.

I graduated this past Sunday and had my folks up for the first time at Bates.  They did some site seeing in Portland, Maine.  This is where this collection of photos is from.

I am sorry for my absence, but I hope these photos make up for it.  But also I hope my thesis work does too; it was a year of hard work and lots of growth artistically.

Thanks for visiting!

Artist Statement:

I have never developed a photo in a darkroom.  I was raised in the era of digital photography and feel like the process of taking a photo, uploading it, and making quick changes in Photoshop is unsatisfying because I have been drawing for a long time and think of drawing as a more active and physical process.  I want to find the satisfaction I get from drawing in my photographic process, so I have spent the last few years experimenting with ways to combine photography and drawing.

I begin by drawing on a transparency that I place over my printed photo.  The drawing emerges as a reaction to the photo, the pose, and my relationships with my models. I eventually scan the transparency so I can superimpose the line drawing onto the photograph using Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Shortly after I began this work, I discovered the artist Dr. Lakra, a Mexican tattooist who superimposes tattoo designs on found objects.  Ideas from his work inevitably trickled into my thesis.  My drawings are much different than his; I am influenced by indigenous art forms from Mexico, Central, and South America that I render in a contemporary way, that borders between tattooing and graffiti.

This work has been driven by my search for a meaningful balance between these media as well as my need to stay true to my subject matter.  I am interested in documentary photography, so it is important for these images to remain realistic. I see the photographs as documents, and the drawings add another layer of interpretation.  Rather than including text to describe my work, I hope my drawings suggest ideas that might otherwise be explained through text.

I am aiming to explore the identity of Latinos without offending or misrepresenting them.  These images show pride—an element I see missing in the popular portrayals of Latinos.   The current anti-immigrant climate in the U.S. can complicate the question of pride for Hispanics.  But I also hope this work speaks beyond the issue of immigration.

Trust me it will be good.  If you are wondering what I have been up to for the past year art-wise, this is the time to find out.  Otherwise if you have tuned into my blog you have seen teasers of what I have been doing.  Once the show goes up I will put up my artist statement and the rest of the work will slowly be posted on the site.

Bates did a great job of making a teaser for the show that  gives a brief description of my work:

Senior Exhibition 2011: Uriel Gonzalez

“Calaveracoatl” (2011), inkjet print by Senior Exhibition artist Uriel Gonzalez.

Gonzalez combines his love of two media by drawing on a transparency that he superimposes on a photo he has taken. While his work taps indigenous art from Mexico, Central and South America, he has also been influenced by the Mexican tattoo artist Dr. Lakra. “I aim to explore the identity of Latinos without offending or misrepresenting them,” he says. “These images show pride — an element I see missing in popular portrayals of Latinos.”