MinerAlert
MinerAlert
Miguel is an El Paso born artist who specializes in jewelry, small sculpture, and drawings. He will receive his BFA in both Metalsmithing and Drawing from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2020. Although still exploring his artistic fields, he has exhibited his work throughout El Paso and has been featured on multiple occasions in the Annual Juried UTEP Student Show, showcasing his large figural drawings, typographical prints, and rustic works in metal. His future prospects include a solo exhibition to be displayed in the UTEP Glass Gallery, a master’s program abroad, and eventually a career in jewelry production and exhibiting artist.
My work is focused on how the 1990s saw the use of music, art, fashion and cinema to directly confront prominent social injustices, inequalities and disunion. These, as well as other media, became avenues to give a voice to those being oppressed, discriminated against, and legally and morally violated. I am highlighting the transformation of the long-time tradition of using music as a form of communication by American slaves into other forms of expression used to pass on messages to American society and the world. My artworks are a reminder of what it truly means to put aside hatred and prejudices, put words into actions and to be the change we each want to see in our society. In other words, a recollection of what it means to come together as opposing forces, to confront the state of our current being, having hard conversations and a recognition of the power of individuals in the transformation of social norms.
Songs such as Waterfalls by TLC, The Ghetto by Too $hort, and Sound of da Police by KRS-One addressed critical social issues for blacks in the 1990s. Artists were able to bring national attention to subjects such as AIDS, economic inequality, gentrification and police brutality. Movies like Boyz in the Hood, New Jack City and Menace II Society brought inner city disadvantages and black-on-black violence to the forefront of American consciousness. Soul Food and Waiting to Exhale addressed challenges that are faced specifically within black families. Threats and obstacles that were commonplace were brought into view of people outside these everyday struggles. Institutionalized racism and sexism were able to become focal points and bring awareness to people other than those who experienced it. More directly, the potential, talent and capabilities of blacks was becoming more recognized through these various arts and they were becoming part of the Hollywood elite.
The bright colors in my pieces are reminiscent of the brands of clothing such as Cross Colours, Pelle Pelle, FUBU, Lugz, Adidas, British Knights and the myriad of other companies who dedicated time, money and energy to promoting social equality through art, music and fashion. All progress starts at the individual level. I want my art to be a catalyst of this progression so that individuals will be inspired to commit to some kind of action.
Illustrating the figures pulled from my imagination in the form of painting and drawing I utilize the use of pastel and bright colors to give hints about each figure. Each figure has a name that ties and works in harmony with their written story. Thus, I illustrate paintings in various ways from scenes of their would-be lives, to them interacting with each other and even portraits.
The first to have been created was Dawn, he has bright blue hair embodying my love for the sky. The second is Echo created from the inspiration of Dawn, has soft green hair and alongside Echo is his twin brother Toshi who’s name can be translated to Mirror. Toshi was created based on the fact that I am an identical twin and also plays on the fact that although identical twins are physically similar, emotionally and personality wise they can differ drastically. Finally, we have Spring, who has airy purple hair. The choice of their specific hair colors has no significant meaning but to keep them expressive and bright!
However, not one can stand alone, they bring a bigger presence with each other and as such they will always be presented as a group! As a group they are depicted attending to mundane tasks or simply just presented as an aesthetic figure incorporated with abstract design.
It is important to state they are not imaginary friends I have created these figures to add a bit of something different to the surrounding world.
The inspiration for the creation of these fantasy figures is purely tied to my childhood, I grew up being told stories ranging from princesses to superheroes. As I grew older, I realized I could create my own and make them unique in their own way, in a way that embodies the saying “Everyone is unique, you are you and I am I.”
As an artist I want to challenge the idea as to why when adults grow up, are we embarrassed or lose the ability to express our imagination? Which is why I have chosen to illustrate them in a cartoon style, playing on the idea that adults can also use their imagination and have fun with it.
As a child I was always interested in nature. It began when I went on a camping trip with my father. I was fascinated when I saw the forest for the first time and the big difference from being in the city. The smell, the weather, the ambiance and its beauty captivated me. I have kept my love for mother nature throughout the years and still hold its value to the highest.
Using clay gives me the opportunity to take the simplest of raw materials and create something beautiful that helps me connect with the person buying my work on a deeper level. There is a personal connection between the potter and the one who is using the potters work. Whether it’s a coffee mug, a bowl, a plate or even a teapot, the user is connected to my work that I have created. I feel that connection when I see my brother enjoying a cup of coffee, while using one of my mugs, with a smile on his face.
I base a lot of my work on nature, such as teapots that look like turtles, or a beer mug that looks like a wooden barrel. I like basing some of this work in order to pay homage to my love for nature. Although my current work involves a lot of mechanical objects such as gears and steel plates, I still like to go back and make my turtle teapots and wooden barrel beer mugs. It gives me great satisfaction when I make a pot and people fall in love with it and want it in their homes. I personally would want a piece sitting in someone’s home rather than be in a gallery. I think of my pots as a thing that needs a companion.
I have done a project with a group of fellow veterans, promoting mental health. As someone who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, pottery saved my life. I found that working with clay, gave me the therapeutic escape that I needed.
I will continue to work with clay as long as I am able to and keep providing a pot for a home in need.
My Artwork is about combining imagery from many different sources including collage, drawings from my imagination, and pictures from newspapers and magazines, I also incorporate free association to aid in the process of creating wild and busy compositions, that include very well rendered illustrations or cartoons. This process brings together all images in a cohesive way for the composition and it creates an idiosyncratic world that evolves every time a new artwork is made.
My illustrations are also composed in a balance between the use of brushiness' of painting and the really graphic quality of cartoons, most works of art are started by staining a surface, and later on such stains dictate parts of the final composition this takes part along with the previous method descried.
There are several artists that have impacted my work. One of those that I feel made the biggest change on the way I work, and has influenced my work ever since I met him in person is Robert Williams, the father of the lowbrow movement. My art before exposing my eyes to Williams work used to be more inclined towards realism and just copying images. Now my works are similar aesthetically but I am also very inclined to the movement itself; lowbrow considered non-intellectual or poor in taste as oppose to highbrow where is suppose to be scholarly or of good taste. It is important for my work to have a lowbrow aspect because I am interested on bringing in elements consider as highbrow into a composition that include lowbrow imagery, to either bring down the "good taste" of the images or to raise low brow culture; this also helps with satirical depictions of the subjects I include in the work.
Not only aesthetics play a role in the artwork, but the conceptual meanings of the elements in the piece are as important. I get inspired conceptually by Franz Kafka based on the way he explains bureaucracy, tyranny, abuse of power and oppression, and how these things can be an endless cycle. another important factor is how most of the protagonists in his literary works tend to feel like an outsider or the undesired of a certain society and this tends to reflect or parallel themes in my own work.
The ideas behind my works are strongly inclined to politics, for example immigration, the environment, and US presidential terms. Other themes that I touch base on my art are human stupidity, satire, pop culture and consumerism. I have a preference to do this type of imagery because for a long time I felt like an outsider on political themes; I was an illegal alien and my opinion did not matter in this country. I found a solution in my works where I felt the freedom to express what I think about a particular subject where most of the occasions I take the time to make a satirical statement about it.
My work explores the idea of childhood, playfulness, and the exploration of materials. My subject matter examines aspects of the world around us, past, present, and future through a whimsical and colorful lense. As an artist, I deconstruct an image or idea and I reconstruct in my own view to be seeing the world through the eyes of a child. My ideas are to be represented to be playful to the viewer and make them reminiscent of their own childhood. My work ranges from figures, retro objects, puzzles, games, and the environment. I allow the materials to express my emotions and ideas and allow my inner child to create and explore and overcome fear by playing with the materials.
In my work, I aim to represent the feeling of nostalgia and the familiar sense of place. Through the use of color, texture, material, and form, I represent and portray an affinity of place and memory. Rustic, earthy colors hint towards the rich soil of my hometown of Presidio, TX. Pinks, purples, and light blues depict the unknown sky above the town. Growing up surrounded by small buildings, farmland, and a vast desert has affected my perception of the landscape in El Paso, TX, a new place that I am navigating which has increased my longing for home. My work exists as iterations of feeling, expressing the way a physical environment can reside as an emotion, recreated through sculpture and jewelry.
My work explores the idea of childhood, playfulness, and the exploration of materials. My subject matter examines aspects of the world around us, past, present, and future through a whimsical and colorful lense. As an artist, I deconstruct an image or idea and I reconstruct in my own view to be seeing the world through the eyes of a child. My ideas are to be represented to be playful to the viewer and make them reminiscent of their own childhood. My work ranges from figures, retro objects, puzzles, games, and the environment. I allow the materials to express my emotions and ideas and allow my inner child to create and explore and overcome fear by playing with the materials.