Familia Castilla, 2018- ongoing.
Familia Castilla delves into my family history to explore immigrant identity, displacement and loss, political history, time, memory, and notions of kitsch. It employs photography and painting to examine how mediated images establish individual and family identity.
This collaborative project is comprised of black velvet paintings painted by Latin American artists living in Tijuana, Mexico including Enrique Felix and Zenon Matias Jimenez. The paintings are based on my immediate family’s portrait photographs and snapshots from photo albums spanning over 50 years.
The paintings depict a Nicaraguan immigrant narrative that begins with my parents in the 1960s and includes their wedding in Esteli. In the 1970s, they purchased a house in Managua and settled into an upper-middle class life with three kids. In the late 1970s, the country experienced political turmoil with Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s dictatorship coming under attack by the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional. In 1979, the Sandinistas successfully ousted the dictator and established a communist regime. In March of 1981, my family drove south to begin a new life in San Jose, Costa Rica. My father worked infrequently for international organizations for several years but without a resident visa, was unable to find full-
time work. In 1989, with savings depleted, we arrived in the U.S. as a lower class family. My parents began working retail jobs while the children attended middle and high school. Eventually, all three siblings attended universities and embarked on careers. My mother retired as a parent liaison at an elementary school in 2013 and my father retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2015.
Throughout my family’s deterritorialization, photography served to affirm individual identity and the collective of the family. In 1989, due to financial constraints, my parents made the decision to leave behind furniture, housewares, and family photo albums in storage in Costa Rica. These items remained there for many years sometimes under the assumption that they would be forever lost. Eventually, a relative traveling from Costa Rica graciously delivered them to us. Producing the black velvet paintings in dialogue with the artists is another step in reifying our identity as individuals, as immigrants, and as a family. Each painting in this project takes a journey originating in Tijuana, where they are assembled and painted, crossing over the Mexican-American border, and arriving at their final destination in the United States.
Black velvet paintings are generally considered kitsch or low culture. This project situates black velvet paintings in a fine art context and highlights the Latin American artists who practice the art form.
This collaborative project is comprised of black velvet paintings painted by Latin American artists living in Tijuana, Mexico including Enrique Felix and Zenon Matias Jimenez. The paintings are based on my immediate family’s portrait photographs and snapshots from photo albums spanning over 50 years.
The paintings depict a Nicaraguan immigrant narrative that begins with my parents in the 1960s and includes their wedding in Esteli. In the 1970s, they purchased a house in Managua and settled into an upper-middle class life with three kids. In the late 1970s, the country experienced political turmoil with Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s dictatorship coming under attack by the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional. In 1979, the Sandinistas successfully ousted the dictator and established a communist regime. In March of 1981, my family drove south to begin a new life in San Jose, Costa Rica. My father worked infrequently for international organizations for several years but without a resident visa, was unable to find full-
time work. In 1989, with savings depleted, we arrived in the U.S. as a lower class family. My parents began working retail jobs while the children attended middle and high school. Eventually, all three siblings attended universities and embarked on careers. My mother retired as a parent liaison at an elementary school in 2013 and my father retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2015.
Throughout my family’s deterritorialization, photography served to affirm individual identity and the collective of the family. In 1989, due to financial constraints, my parents made the decision to leave behind furniture, housewares, and family photo albums in storage in Costa Rica. These items remained there for many years sometimes under the assumption that they would be forever lost. Eventually, a relative traveling from Costa Rica graciously delivered them to us. Producing the black velvet paintings in dialogue with the artists is another step in reifying our identity as individuals, as immigrants, and as a family. Each painting in this project takes a journey originating in Tijuana, where they are assembled and painted, crossing over the Mexican-American border, and arriving at their final destination in the United States.
Black velvet paintings are generally considered kitsch or low culture. This project situates black velvet paintings in a fine art context and highlights the Latin American artists who practice the art form.
Lina celebrating her fifteenth birthday in 1961 in Managua, Nicaragua painted by Enrique Felix,
oil on black velvet, 36" x 30", 2019.
oil on black velvet, 36" x 30", 2019.
Osmundo at the age of 28 in a yearbook photo at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas in 1965 painted
by Enrique Felix, oil on black velvet, 36" x 30", 2019.
by Enrique Felix, oil on black velvet, 36" x 30", 2019.
Lina and Osmundo at the Club Social de Esteli in Esteli, Nicaragua in 1969 painted
by Enrique Felix, oil on black velvet, 24" x 36", 2019.
by Enrique Felix, oil on black velvet, 24" x 36", 2019.
Franco celebrating his second birthday in Managua, Nicaragua in 1976 painted by Enrique Felix,
oil on black velvet, framed, 36" by 24" feet, 2018.
oil on black velvet, framed, 36" by 24" feet, 2018.
Carlo, Franco, and Sussy in Managua, Nicaragua in 1978(?) painted by Zenon Jimenez,
oil on black velvet, 36" x 36", 2019.
oil on black velvet, 36" x 36", 2019.
Franco launching off a ramp on a bicycle in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1985(?) painted by
Arturo Ramirez, oil on black velvet, 24" x 30", 2018.
Arturo Ramirez, oil on black velvet, 24" x 30", 2018.
Franco fishing in 1985(?) in Costa Rica painted by Enrique Felix, oil on black velvet, framed, 24" x 36", 2018.
The Castilla family in Maryland in 1991 painted by Zenon Matias Jimenez, oil on black velvet, 48" x 36", 2018.
Lina, Carlo, and Osmundo at Carlo's graduation from William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA in 1996 painted by Arturo Ramirez, oil on black velvet, 30" x 30", 2019.
Franco as faculty at the Art Institute in North Hollywood, CA in 2012 painted by Zenon Matias Jimenez, oil on black velvet, 48" x 36", 2018.