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Perpetuity Series:

Perpetuity Series (Large-Scale Works on Paper)

2005 – 2015

This series is comprised of paintings on canvas and large- and small-scale works on paper.

The works are staging a kind of “memento mori,” the classic theme of the transitory cycle of death which is always waiting in the background. Many of the images in this series are based on actual gravesites I saw in the Panteón General, an inner-city cemetery in Oaxaca, Mexico. This densely packed cemetery is a chaotic mixture of multi-level stacked tombs, each uniquely designed and decorated by families with odd but ordinary bathroom tiles, gates, stairs, benches, miniature landscapes and other symbolic imitations of the home. Vases of fresh-cut floral bouquets stand on most tombs — memorial offerings that evoke a living room interior. Tree roots and weather upturn and de-construct these carefully designed, idiosyncratic architectural enclaves, reminding us of the irony of the word Perpetuidad that is written on the headstones and wall vaults.

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