The show focuses mainly on paintings completed since moving permanently to the Bronx about three years ago.  Since then I have tried to immerse myself in the community and respond to its changes, needs, and gifts through art.  The irises in the show are inspired by the many community gardens in our area (the highest concentration in the city).  The other two highlights in the show are layered paintings.  One depicts basketball players in flight (Goodwin dunking on Porzingis) painted over an impression of Wanaqua garden (E. 136th street) the other depicts Basquiat emerging from a Magnolia blossom.  All things herein mentioned, nature, basketball & artistic icons are what motivate me to do art, to contribute to the symphony of life.

My work is a constellation of all that has produced me.  Whether it be finding beauty amongst despair like Romantic poets who used nature as a critique of a repressive Industrial Revolution, Social Dreamers that have dared to protest conformity, corruption, and commodification or Impressionist painters working directly from nature opting for representation of feeling over realism.  Regardless of subject matter my work is political since I am an undocumented immigrant.  It has been shaped by formal training at boarding school and college, by growing up in a predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, and having lived and spent time in Harlem, Western Massachusetts, rural Ohio, Cincinnati, Washington DC and now The Bronx.  Finally, after severe engagement in the immigrant rights struggle through civil disobedience, hunger strikes, & detention I've come to the conclusion that only art can save us from ourselves, can offer a relief and point to a better way, one that is less damning and more celebratory.

web:   harvestwonderful.com

instagram:   @vivabartleby