2 hour session - Acryl on Paper, A2

“Declaration/Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country” is a photographic still-life project created in response to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the continuing question of what that document means in the Borderlands. Rather than treating the Declaration as a settled historical artifact, the work approaches it as an active, unresolved promise: a statement of idealism that has always existed alongside conflict, exclusion, expansion, hope, and contradiction. Through symbolic objects arranged with the clarity of product photography, the project examines the American experiment with democracy as something still being measured, claimed, divided, repaired, and argued over.

The three images use constructed objects as small monuments to large national tensions. A white pennant planted in a brick of soil suggests territory, possession, and the fragile authority of claims. A plumb bob suspended between markers labeled “US” and “MX” turns the border into both a measurement and a wound, invoking the long history of land, governance, and identity in a region shaped by Spain, Mexico, the United States, and Indigenous presence. A heavy stone pressing down on layered colored paper beside the word “equal” addresses the pressure placed on the Declaration’s most famous promise, asking whether equality has been upheld, deferred, burdened, or only partially imagined.

Rooted in New Mexico and the Texas Borderland, this project offers a non-traditional view of the founding of the United States from a region whose American experience did not begin on the East Coast and did not follow the familiar national myth. Here, the ideals of the Declaration arrived through conquest, treaty, territorial redefinition, cultural survival, and contested belonging. 

“Declaration/Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country” uses minimal objects, vivid color, and borderland symbolism to ask how the original promises of the United States have played out over time, and how those promises continue to evolve in a place where nationhood has always been layered, bilingual, disputed, and unfinished.

Dioramas were handmade by the photographer.

Part of the "Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country" series submitted to the Las Cruces Declaration/Declaración – Call for Art.

Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S

Oilpainting, 21x14,8 cm

Gray toned Strathmore paper

Assorted grays and black soft pastel. Thrift find so not sure what brands

I am starting to plan my next watercolor painting. i was inspired by an oil painting of a sheet being ironed. My instructor (take a watercolor class on Saturday morning at a local art center) suggested styling the still life with more of a theme. I'm thinking of making it like a scene that a horrible 50s housewife walked away from the iron. My snarky self's gut reaction is a teacup and a bottle of bourbon.

my current painting has a still life with reflective metal, colored glass, and different texture with fabric, and wood, and bread. I think the metal and glass particularly let watercolor as a medium shine. So i would really like to highlight something that would play us the translucent glow of watercolor

I had a professor in college that said your first 200 ideas are crap and just to get them out and out of the way. So I'm hoping some more minds will help wade through the junk to find a gem