I am a Mexican painter of portraits, self-portraits and works drawn from the nature and artifacts of Mexico. I use a naive folk art style to question identity, postcolonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society.
The person outside the work — what they're learning and tinkering with.
Before I chose art as a career I studied drawing with printmaker Fernando Fernández and, in 1925, became his paid engraving apprentice; I also learned photo retouching. That training gave my art its precise line.
In 1943 I took a teaching post at La Esmeralda, the national school of painting, sculpture and engraving. I taught students to value Mexican popular culture and folk art and to draw their subjects from the street.
