Hola, que onda!?

I’m a visual artist with a passion for food, cooking, and storytelling. I grew up in a Mexican enclave on the east side of Aurora, IL, where both my parents settled after immigrating from northwestern Mexico (they met in the USA!). I went to art school because I wasn’t sure where else I’d fit in. I made artwork that explored storytelling through drawing, photography, video, and sculpture. I graduated with a BFA from Columbia College Chicago, and went on to get an MFA in studio art and transmedia from the University of Texas at Austin. Like many children of immigrants, I was the first in my immediate family to finish college. Then I got a Fulbright research grant to study the relationship between storytelling and the ancient art of back-strap weaving in Peru and Bolivia, and that’s when my entire perspective on contemporary art practice changed. In 2015, I moved to the East End of Long Island to continue to work in the art world. But my obsession with food and food production took over to the point that I left that world to focus on my main creative outlet, cooking and growing delicious food for my friends and family. Today, I write about food, sell tortillas, and work as an assistant to the inimitable cookbook author and host of the Barefoot Contessa cooking show, Ina Garten. I still live in East Hampton, NY with my husband Bill, daughter Francesca, and Freyja & Conchita the terriers.

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