“Here’s just a small look at how truly lost I was at the beginning of the series and how much the work has grown over the course of a year and a half.”
I guess I hadn’t really put much thought into what would come next after focusing mostly only on women lowriders. Since I haven’t been putting much time into my personal work I have had time to really step back and think about this. Just figuring out more about my main themes and how I could expand on them. Although I have done many paintings about the lowrider community and highlighting these women I feel that I haven’t explored other parts of the community beyond the topic. This was a difficult challenge for me to process and it made me feel like I wasn’t doing enough. Mostly all of the artist I follow have done different series that still highlight some of their main themes in their work but there’s some kind of exploration of materials or other subjects within it. So for the longest I was trying to figure out what I could do in response to my own work.
So after thinking about all the different themes I could be exploring within my own work I think some next basic steps would be opening up the subject matter beyond women. I’ve been considering highlighting more couple which I have done three times within this series just because in each of those relationships both of the partner’s have played a major role in their relationships with the lowrider community. I would really like to explore more of this because within my own relationship we’ve been able to bounce back ideas and our passions which have strengthened our love for lowriding and just how we approach our own cars. Another line of individuals I would like to focus more on are custom painters, upholstery people, restorers, basically any people who play key roles within the creation of a lowrider. Dating a painter it’s become apparent to me that people don’t often go beyond the car itself and its owner. Meaning that what is mainly admired by others (both outside of and in the community) is simply the car and all props is given to the owner because they had an idea. But, most of these people aren’t painting or customizing their cars by themselves. Some do go ahead and are involved with the process but there’s just as many if not more that are filtering out the work but in the end they get sole credit for the car. As a creative I think it’s important to highlight all types of artists because I truly consider these individuals to be artist in their own right. Also knowing many people who are involved with the behind the scenes work that goes into creating a lowrider I know that each part that is put into the creation is just as special to the creator as it is to the actual car owner. Another set of individuals would be the various car clubs and truly getting to know each individual that is a part of the club and painting many series based on these people and their lives. Each car club is different, the amount of people involved, the cars they have, who they are outside of that club is extremely diverse. For example there’s lowrider communities around the world, and showing their take on the community would be interesting to explore. So I would love to share the diverse individuals that make up the community as a whole.
I have also been thinking of all the ways I could explore with different materials. Some of my ideas include: working more with paper but through multimedia, working on multiple panels and connecting them in some way, working with sculpture or installation. There’s just so many ways that I could really expand on my themes and it’s really exciting that I’m beginning to figure this out. Being multifaceted/ interdisciplinary within the arts is really intriguing to me.
Those are just some ideas that I have moving forward with my work so if you or anyone you know is a lowrider or involved in the community someway please send them to me. I would love to interview them, get to know them and create a bold and impactful piece based on who they are and their community.