FAMILY LEGACY 

A look at the importance and significance of cultural heritage in a person’s life through graphic design. This exhibition reveals the story of family history and will encourage refection upon your own personal cultural heritage.

Artist Statement

My work examines the unique relationship between people and the importance of their cultural heritage. The images express the impact and meaningful contribution of heritage and how it can affect a person’s life. Each culture reveals aspects of the individual country that is unique to itself through vivid images, history, food, language and architecture. My cultural heritage of Cuban, Italian, French and German reveals a story unique to me that evoke thoughts of the audience’s recognition and feelings about their own personal heritage.

The process begins with traditional hand drawn sketches that are then scanned. The scans are then recreated in Adobe Illustrator. Colors, shapes and intricate details incorporated in my designs are my strengths as an artist. Common, yet whimsical, cultural elements play an integral part of each of my works. I pull my inspiration from lifelong traditions such as having three-course Italian dinners at my Grandmother’s house. Across my designs can be found inspirations from the family stories which I have grown up hearing over the years, such as my Great Grandpa Leo making wine for the holiday season and my father’s family’s cattle ranch in Cuba being confiscated by the military.

Some images depict events that had a significant impact on the life I came to live, such as my Uncle Andres avoiding military recruitment at age 13 by being sent to Illinois through the Peter Pan Project and my Abuelo leaving Cuba on the last Red Cross mercy ship. The stories of my Italian Grandmother’s life and her involvement with Hull House and time with Jane Adams are also a part of my cultural history as well as the history of Chicago. These visual descriptions of my rich heritage invoke the memories of the history and cultural backgrounds our ancestors play in our present lives and how their cultural traditions have shaped us into who we are today.