Dichos y Refranes

Ok, so this is the beginning of a big project. I'll have to get better pictures of these, but for now this is all I have. They are now in the hands of the Illustration department ready to be judged for spring show.

So what's the story? Like in every culture, Mexico is full of wonderful sayings. My mom always uses them. Her and Roberto compete to see who knows more. One day I realized, that although I am Mexican I was not born in the sacred land of my people. And I vowed, like all Pochos do, to be more Mexican than my fellow Pochos. (For those that don't know the term: Pochos= Children born in the USA from Mexican parents). I figured a good place to start was by really learning the sayings (dichos). I couldn't reverse my birthplace but I can speak like I was born in Guadalajara. Between my mother and Roberto they gave me a list of almost 200 dichos! I'm working on illustrating a book and these are the first I have done. The characters at the corners are the characters of my book and are none other than the 2 people that provided me with all those dichos. Thanks to them I am becoming less Pocha.

Boca cerrada no entran moscas= Literal translation: Mouth closed, flies don't get in. Basically, it means to shut your mouth and not to gossip or tell secrets. Or just plain, shut up.
Cuentas claras amistades largas= Translations: Clear dealings makes long friendships. In other words, if you record and sign all your monetary transactions with friends and family, your friendships will surpass time and money. Very important! Trust me!

Guess who

Here's something that I'm working on right now. Its just a sketch, but you guys might know who this is. If you guess, I'll give you a cookie.



OK, so nobody guessed. We're a week into May and a week past this original posting. Here is the final version and maybe this will help you guess who this is. Any kind of cookie you want. Mmmmm....

Burning One Roomate at a Time

My make-up class continues. Burn victim. Supposedly, I burned 2 of his fingers to the bone and the rest are blistered from the heat. But if you know me the you know I always want to go the extra extra extra mile to make it work. In the words of Andre "Designers, make it work." I kept trying to really light the chicken bones I had glued to his fingers on fire, but they wouldn't catch! We finally taped a match to the back of it and put his hand to the stove and I took the picture just as the gas lit the match. Its a rare thing to catch those tiny moments. The other picture is with the flame and the colors were mesmerizing. So this is me burning one roommate at a time.

Selfless Gene

An editorial about altruism in the genes.

Thank you Marco and friend for your help on this one. I really couldn't have done it without you guys. You 2 rock! ...Marco, do you see what I just did? Go back to that sentence. Translation, U2 rocks! Yes they do. Rock on, little brother.

Leather Canvas

So I'm taking this one class, as sort of a relaxer, since I'm taking 3 illustration classes. I've been having such a good time doing the homework here that I thought I'd post the transformations. Its a special effects make-up class. When I was a kid, apart from the many other things I wanted to be when I grew up (doctor, model, detective, zoologist, mud wrestler, etc..) I also wanted to do movie make-up. It all started when I saw Mrs.Doubtfire and all I dreamt about was making prosthetics and painting people's faces. Now I paint canvases, which I've had as a steady dream since I was 4, but its always fun to get a new surface to paint on.
So here they are....my models. I tried to put them in order by the 1st to last I did. (In order to protect their privacy, I won't use the model's names....but if you know me then you probably know these people by association, so tough luck)

Introducing, my roomate...clean cut guy transformed into drug addict.
Followed by my mother... average happy woman first gone sexy momma then aged to about 200

And my sister...modern social to 70's chick.

My boyfriend is my next victim... good looking and young suddenly frozen dead and old geezer.

Then a good friend... from simply fun to Russian doll fun.

And the other sister... from beautiful lush curls to nothing.


Last but not least... myself from plain to wounded and zany.