ARTIST STATEMENT
My quest has always been marked by my travels; my research; archaeology as a path inherent to me; my fascination with minerals; the attraction of stones as vestiges of our journey through the world; astrology and its secrets; and, above all, by my visions, which I have experienced in lucid dreams, also called astral travels, where I have traveled through time and space without chronology or concordance. Through these journeys, I had an ancestral vision. In that vision, I was able to connect with Apollo and then with the pre-Columbian culture of Saint Augustine, where, after awakening, my first work was born. It was the one that gave me the insight to flow with my language, and which later transcended, leading me to explore pre-Columbian cultures, as well as Greek and Western cultures, which I studied on my travels through America and Europe, where I went into and investigated the background of our roots and our world. At that moment, I really understood my work, and I started creating a dialogue between the past and the present, between tradition and modernity. A dialogue that would connect with ancestral power and the vivacity of the present. So, I did not only fuse iconography and color, but I created a symbolic language, with hieroglyphics and messages about power and energy that my works seek to convey through the strength and power of ancestral cultures. I’ve called this language Johnnyglyphs, and it has become an inherent part of my work and a form of expression that seeks to strengthen self-sufficiency. That’s why my artworks, more than anything else, are totems that represent power, strength, struggle, fertility, and so many other things that ancestral cultures valued and considered sacred parts of their culture.
Over time, my research continues to lead me to explore more about ancestral cultures, as a constant source of fascination and admiration. As in all my work, they are reinterpreted and fused with elements of Pop Art, such as color, texture, and irony.
Ultimately, my work is a reflection of my own cultural and personal identity. Therefore, as an artist, I seek to explore and express my connection to my roots and my surroundings, and at the same time, find a universal language that can be shared and enjoyed by all, and that connects with all the strength and power of the ancestors.
