David explores art in multiple mediums such as drawing, painting, video, and performance. His works are mainly psychological and are formed in an abstract manner. My favorite pieces of his combine abstraction and collage. His vibrant colors used in his paintings are an interesting contrast to the darker topics he is trying to address. I found myself deeply drawn to his works, taking notes and feeling particularly inspired this week.
In last week’s writing, I wrote about the topic on where people were “from” and how at times it could be a difficult question to answer. After reading an interview he had, it was interesting to note that a lot of people thought of him as a “foreign” artist, and he responded to that saying “I felt like I didn’t belong here nor there”. Cruz moved around a lot as an artist, and never felt like he belonged to one particular place. I thought it was interesting that he mentioned that-- a lot of artists feel the same way.
My favorite pieces of Cruz are his pieces exploring queerness and LGBT voices-- his exhibition One Day I’ll Turn the Corner simply knocked my breath away. There is always so much going on in his paintings, and the more you look at it the more you get sucked in, trying to see and explain every detail and crevice. Through his artworks, he is able to give queer people of color a place in the art word-- to feel represented, giving them respect and making them visible-- the way it should always be. Despite the terrible times they go through in their daily lives, Cruz is able to give them beauty. His color theory is amazing-- his colors all mean something. An example of this would be his usage of green representing immigration, showing the more-than-complex lives they live through and that they have so much more background than presented. A piece I thought about after hearing about Cruz and doing further research about him was an oil-pastel multimedia piece I made of a trans woman named Nuali who came to the States as an immigrant. I listened to her story, and although I knew everyone had complex stories, it struck me even more that people just need to listen sometimes-- everyone has their own story to tell. I asked her if I could draw a portrait of her, and it meant a lot to have someone let me even try to tell their story through a single frame of their abstracted face. I blended multiple mediums such as vibrant oil pastels and aluminum foil to show the “divide” she faced as not only an immigrant but also someone in the LGBT community. It is interesting to compare my piece with his, seeing how we both used vibrant and bright colors to at times represent at times a heartbreaking issue/ story.
Cruz’s art reminded me of the 20x20 artist Maia Cruz Palileo’s work. Their exploration of colors are similar-- they both try to use colors with a statement. They use colors intentionally, Palileo using reds showing superstition and history, and Cruz using greens showing migration and immigration. It feels like to me that their paintings could be cousins. Like Cruz, she also explores migration and the concept of home. She is also a storyteller, and explores memories of her family in her paintings just like the same way Cruz explores his relationship with his sexuality and his family in certain paintings.
By looking at Cruz’s paintings, I can tell he is always confident with his strokes and decisions. It is rare to see that just through a painting, but I can tell the expertise he has with his subject matter to tell their stories through one frame of art. I hope one day I will be able to do the same thing, exploring different topics and painting them in beauty and confidence the way they should be-- giving the voice they deserve.
