ARTIST sTATEMENT
First Person is a continuation of the signature food paintings Sanchez has come to be well known for. The new series of oil paintings includes Louisiana crawfish, a pack of H-E-B original flour tortillas, a tub of Canel’s chewing gum, and a convenience store carry-out bag complete with a 6 pack of Modelo, Mexican Coke, American Spirit cigarettes, and Trojan condoms. Each oil painting is painstakingly crafted with particular attention to scale and composition, stripped of all nonessential information, and placed on a stark white backdrop to elevate what is commonplace and to create a new iconic symbol of her bi-cultural and Tex-Mex experience. “Each of my paintings represents snapshots into moments and reoccurring themes in my life that tell a larger story about geography and culture.” For Sanchez, food plays an important role in understanding who we are and how we see ourselves. Food creates a sense of belonging, particularly while we are the furthest away from home. The cravings we develop are often directly linked with the comforts we associate them with and the vivid memories they evoke. Food can transport and connect us with past and present family and friends, important events, and particular periods in our lives. Sanchez explains she uses food as a way to talk about her life and celebrate her identity, “I love food and its power to carry memory, create community and shape identity, and as the subject of my work, it’s the way I express my family history, life in San Antonio, and contemporary Mexican-American culture. We all have a unique relationship with food, and the idea of making art that explores that relationship and is welcoming to people outside the art community is important to me. You don’t have to be an art critic to understand or connect to the emotions that food triggers.“