 My work mainly focuses on my identity as a Venezuelan immigrant. I found that art was a really productive tool for me to explore what that means, just because of how the dictatorship has influenced a lot of people's lives, including my own. So whenever I'd start a project, it would be based on a lot of research, whether it's what I see in the news, what I hear from my family members, or what I hear from people here in the U.S. It's usually informed by what's going on over there, but also how it's perceived here. One of my recent works is an 8' x 6' painting. Once you're working that large, you're not commanding the painting, but it's commanding you. And I feel like working at that size is as physically immersive as the psychological processes for me. Art is so productive in a social sense. You don't need to know a certain language to be able to get a message from a visual, and I feel like that just expands so much more of who you could reach. It expands your audience so much. One of my biggest focuses in what I incorporate in my art is expression, and I feel like that connects with people even if you're not involved in this. In university, people have come up to me and ask me, like, oh, what is this about? What are you working on? And the fact that my work makes people ask questions is all I need to know, and it makes me super happy. My pieces are just to spark curiosity and kind of face you with a flash of this reality. So then you sit back and you think about it, and you get curious, and maybe you'll go and read more. In the moment, creating is a very emotional process. It's me sitting with myself, and as I'm painting things, I remember parts of my childhood where I remember things that I've had people say to me, whether it's family, friends, strangers. To me, the Fine Arts are a calling for me to stay connected with Venezuela and to just maintain that relationship with my background.