Artist Statement

Born to teenage, Mexican-American gang members; I was abandoned at three months old and placed in a series of foster homes.

Lost in a lifestyle of violence/drug abuse, I escaped by creating a playful world that evolved from origami cranes.

In time my escape escaped me, I became the lifestyle with one reach: death.

In its grasp, I found Calder’s massive, red-orange, Los Angeles sculpture, “The Four Arches”. He/it gave me a new reach: life.

I decided I am not what happened to me, I am my response.

I broke from the violence of my birth name “Gomez-Martinez” by choosing “Hacer” [Spanish verb: “To make”] and became a sculptor who designs/builds large-scale, metal, origami-inspired forms in bold, solid colors.

It is the choice to be, as Calder and those like him, my part in a creative process that is bigger than me individually but impossible without the “me’s” collectively.

As I learn to shape my work, afraid, I move forward through the familiar unknown and learn to re-shape myself, lessening the past’s grip.

Like the dynamic, formative process hidden by my seemingly simple designs; my work’s simple existence aims to elicit a dynamic response about the viewer’s relationship to their formative process: childhood.

Through this interaction, we [like I with Calder] can all begin anew.

Featured Work: RED

“Red For The Sake Of Red”