TAYLOR CHAVEZ

My work focuses on creating narratives based on personal memories and experiences. My art serves as an autobiographical time capsule of the people and events that have impacted my life the most. The desire to remember certain moments in time is important to me due to my sentimentality for the past during this ongoing era of social distancing.

My work has so far been primarily based around my heritage, the resilience of family and more recently, the emotional distresses brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. As someone who is Mexican-American, family has been at the heart of everything I do, and has been a major source of emotional strength during this pandemic. Losing numerous family members in a short timespan were painful reminders that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and became a drive to visually capture as many important faces and memories as I could to remember them. This work pays homage to the family members depicted and my relationships with them. Certain audiences may find a familiarity in the work, whether it be because of a similar cultural background, or a similar experience of loved ones.

The work takes on a notable shift as it moves to convey negative memories of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. I became focused on becoming freer in my approach to painting, through the utilization of expressive paint application as well as Covid-19 related objects such as face masks and gloves in order to document emotional distress and experiences with the illness, as well as frustration towards people’s responses to the Covid-19 reality.