The following is a description of the drawing projects on which I’m currently working.
In drawing as well as in other manifestations of graphics, in the course of my career I alternate between experimental periods and periods in which I consolidate the resulting practices and apply them to my production.
In the case of printed graphics, in the last decade the tendency towards experimentation has predominated. I have practically abandoned the production of printing plates whose end result is an edition of prints, in favor of work with multiple end results, for example, varying the combination of plates, using a wide variety of backgrounds (found material, Nepalese and Japanese papers, etc.) and combining all this with transfer, interventions involving sewing with metallic threads, folding, burning, dying and other procedures that enrich the resulting work through stress.
At the same time, employing once again the recourse of transfer prints, I starting working extensively in the production of artist’s books (which I had first explored in the early nineties) and with the possibilities of graphic polyptychs, concentrating on images that overflow the usual boundaries of paper and frame.
Tourism/Turismo Polyptych of vintage prints and frames/Políptico de impresiones y marcos vintage 2009
Constelaciones/Constellations Libro de artista/Artist´s book, 2010
II.
Estos cambios en prácticas de producción se relacionaron con cambios en la estructuración del significado de mi obra. Desde 1998, cuando elaboraré una exposición de arte objeto con tintes gráficos (Todas las cosas de a nada) en el Museo Universitario del Chopo, empezó a predominar en mi obra gráfica elementos como el palimpsesto, la narrativa, la yuxtaposición, la desconstrucción y reconstrucción de imágenes y un mayor interés en indagar en la historia y manifestaciones de la cultura.
Del finito al infinito/From the Finite to the Infinite Transferencia con marco de hierro/Transfer prints with iron frames, 1998 
Al mismo tiempo seguía con la producción de dibujos, pero en menor grado que en otras épocas, y aquí se iba manifestando un cambio temático: en la última década, en mis dibujos hay menos ambientes íntimos cargados, con personajes (femeninos) solitarios y más situaciones que involucran la interacción de varios personajes. La mayor parte de esta obra forma parte de mis indagaciones en el campo del disfraz y la idea de proyectarse a uno mismo por medio de lo otro.
Pero al dibujar me quedé situada dentro de una manera de trabajar que había consolidado a mediados de los 80: la creación de un ambiente saturado, basado en un collage o recorte fotográfico. De lo que entiendo, esta forma de trabajar cae adentro de lo que Hal Foster denomina photomontage refunctioning of an image (fotomontaje re funcionando de una imagen) o lo que Oliver Debroise consideraba, hablando de esta práctica en mi obra, una perversión o transgresión del sentido de las fotografías en que me basaba. En fin, todo se relacionaba con el campo de la apropiación.
Fiesta de Disfraz/Costume Party Grafito/papel Graphite/paper 2009 
II.
These changes in production practices were related to changes in the structuring of meaning of my work. Since 1998, when I put together a show of object art (involving a lot of graphics and called Everything from the Void, a quote from the Catechism) in the university museum El Chopo in Mexico City, in my graphic work, elements like palimpsest, narrative, juxtaposition, deconstruction and reconstruction of images, and a greater interest in history and cultural manifestations began to predominate.
Horizonte/Horizon, Paisajes/Landscapes Installation View,/Vista de instalación, Museo del Chopo, 1998
Canción para la Emperatriz/Song for the Empress Marco vintage con partitura hecha a mano/Vintage frame with handscored music, 1998
At the same time, I kept up the production of drawings, although to a lesser extent than in other periods, and in this area a thematic change was also registered: in the last decade, in my drawing there are far fewer charged intimate atmospheres with solitary (female) figures and far more situations involving the interaction of various personages. Most of this work forms part of my informal investigation in the field of disguise and costume and the idea of projecting oneself by means of otherness: assuming or working through an alternative identity.
Boogeyman Grafito/papel/Graphite/paper 2009
Meanwhile, when I drew in the same decade, I stayed situated within a way of working which I had consolidated in the 80’s: the creation of a saturated atmosphere based on a photographic collage or a cropped photograph. As I understand it, my methods fall within what Hal Foster denominates photomontage refunctioning of an image or what the French-Mexican critic Olivier Debroise, referring to this practice in my work, considered a perversion or transgression of the original meaning of the photographs in which I base my drawings. A last consideration: the work referred to falls within the boundaries of the strategy of appropriation.
Carnaval, Carnival Graphite/paper/Grafito/papel, 2001
III.
Hace unos años, leyendo la introducción de Emma Dexter a esa biblia de la generación emergente, Vitamina D, encontré el siguiente comentario:
“Mientras la pintura obscura su soporte por completo, creando la ilusión que éste no existe en absoluto, el dibujo disfruta una relación muy distinta con su fondo. El fondo blanco, según el historiador del arte Norman Bryson, funciona como una reserva, un espacio en blanco del cual la imagen emerge, ese espacio siendo perceptualmente presente pero conceptualmente ausente. La reserva, entonces, funciona como un mecanismo para mantener a raya el deseo de estructura obvia, composición, una totalidad, las fuerzas a las cuales está sujeta una pintura. Al moverse el lápiz por el papel, su sendero es local y confinado; liberado de la necesidad de considerar la totalidad, puede responder inmediatamente a “donde esté la mano ahora, in praesentia”.
Me di cuenta que mis dibujos se acercan en muchos sentidos más a su descripción de la pintura que del dibujo: se crea una totalidad estructurada, contenedor de lo propio, excluyendo lo de afuera. Hago uso del dibujo libre, con lápiz o borrador, pero para agredir o intervenir el dibujo “hecho”, ya que se haya creado esta estructura.
Pero hubo un momento en mi obra, principios de los 80, en que tomaba otra ruta, en que sí existía ese espacio en blanco del cual la imagen emerge.
Ocasionalmente retomaba esa ruta, como en estos dibujos de mediados de los 90--
El heraldo negro/The Black Herald Grafito/papel - Graphite/paper 1997 
Y la verdad es que siempre me había quedado con el gusano de explorar más a fondo esta forma de trabajar, aunque mi práctica consolidada es otra.
III.
Several years ago, reading the introduction of Emma Dexter to the bible of emerging artists, Vitamin D, I found the following commentary:
“While painting completely obscures its ground, creating the illusion that this ground is not there at all, drawing enjoys a very different relationship p to its background. The white background, according to art historian Norman Bryson, acts as a reserve, a blank space, from which the image emerges, this blank space becoming “perceptually present but conceptually absent”. The reserve therefore functions as a device to keep at bay the desire for obvious structure, composition and totality, the forces that painting is subject to. As a pencil moves about the paper, its path is local and confined, free from the need to consider its totality. It can respond immediately to where the hand is now, in praesentia”
It seems to me that my drawings just described are closer in nature to the above description of painting than of that of drawing: a structured totality is created, container of its own elements, excluding that which lies outside. I only make use of “free” drawing -gestural markings with pencil or eraser- to attack or intervene the drawing, once this formal structure is completed.
There was, however, a period of my work, in the beginning of the 80’s, when I took another route, in which there did exist that blank space from which the image emerges.
Occasionally I took up this path again, as in this drawing from the mid 90’s:
Mapeo del pensamiento infantil/Mapping of infant thought patterns graphite and prismacolor -papel grafito/prismacolor/papel 1996 
And the truth is that I have always had the urge to explore that way of working further, although my consolidated strategy has been something quite different.
IV.
Relaciono lo anterior con una práctica de dibujo que he atestiguado con mis hijos y mis nietos: a cierta edad emprendían con regularidad sendas batallas con efectos de sonido, todo esto ligado al dibujo en tándem de tanques, aviones y soldados, bombas explotando en el aire y sangre salpicando—una especie de action painting guerrera infantil.
Aparte de esto, uno de mis hijos tenía la costumbre de disculparse con las letras que borraba por imperfectas (mostrando más compasión en la paz que en la guerra). Y recientemente, al secuestrar mi nieto segundo mi computadora, me ha compartido la página web de Pencilmation, donde se desarrolla una relación conflictiva entre la figura dibujada y el lápiz que lo dibuja y agrede a la vez, como un dios personal y vindicativo.
En suma, como ya hice con mi producción gráfica, me gustaría emprender un periodo de experimentación en el dibujo, retomando la idea de proceso, del fondo como una reserva de la cual la imagen emerge, de una dialéctica entre el lápiz (o pluma) y lo que emerja de él, y manteniendo a raya el impulso de estructurar todo, en pos de explorar, por este medio, una serie de conceptos que a continuación señalo.
El vacío/The Void Grafito/papel - Graphite/paper 1983
Viaje a las pirámides/Trip to the Pyramids grafito/paper -Graphite/paper 1983
IV.
I connect this alternative way of drawing with a practice that I have witnessed in my (male) children and grandchildren: at a certain age they engage in fierce colored-pencil or felt-tipped-pen battles with sound effects, coupled with drawing in tandem tanks, planes, soldiers, bombs exploding in the air and blood splashing—a sort of action painting for infant warriors.
In addition to this and in a different vein, one of my sons had the custom of apologizing to letters that he had to erase for their imperfections (showing more compassion in peace than in war). And recently, in one of those routine occasions in which my second grandson kidnapped my computer, he introduced me to the site Pencilmation, where a conflictive relationship is developed between the drawn figure and the pencil which alternatively draws and attacks it, like a personal and vindictive god.
Noche en blanco/White Night Grafito/paper - Graphite/paper 1993
Doppelgänger & Cía
Desde hace tiempo he tenido interés en fenómenos relacionado con la idea del otro yo, el clon, gemelos siameses, la sincronicidad, y el desdoblamiento. Los dibujos siguientes están relacionados con esta temática: el primero, Las siamesas, basada en una foto soft porn de de segunda década del siglo veinte, representa, para mí, el intento de una mujer de separarse en dos, o de dos mujeres de volverse una. El dibujo que sigue revela, aparentemente, una relación lésbica, pero en realidad consiste en el desplazamiento de la imagen de una mujer fotografiada en secuencia, de una fotografía a otra, es decir, es la misma mujer representada dos veces.
El sueño de la razón/The Sleep of Reason graphite and prismacolor -papel grafito/prismacolor/papel, 1997
Existe mucho material relacionado a esas temáticas, desde manifestaciones científicas del comportamiento de quarks (una vez separados, si uno cambio de compartimiento, el otro manifiesta un cambio relacionado instantáneamente, sin importar a qué distancia esté) hasta recuerdos de películas de científica ficción de mi infancia, como la siguiente en que:
--Cada vez que se duerme una mujer joven, sale un monstruo del mar y camina por la playa, creando caos.
He dedicado tiempo a buscar la película original en internet sin encontrar una que corresponde a mi recuerdo—posiblemente fue The Creature from the Black Lagoon o más bien su secuela, The Creature Walks Among Us, aunque la situación específica que recuerdo, parece más bien producto de mi imaginación.
Otras referencias:
--En el libro de Iulian Konstantinovich Shchutskii Researches on the I Ching, Konstantinovich (quién luego murió en el Gulag de Stalin) cita al sinólogo Joseph Needham cuando explica el fenómeno de pensamiento correlativo característico de la cultura china. Dice Needham:
In coordinative thinking, conceptions are not subsumed under one another,, but placed side by side in a pattern, and things influence one another not by acts of mechanical causation but by a kind of inductance…symbolic correlations or correspondences all form part of one colossal pattern. Things behave in particular ways not necessarily because of prior actions or impulsions of other things, but because their position in the ever-moving cyclical universe is such that they are endowed with intrinsic natures which make that behavior inevitable for them. If they do not behave in these particular ways they could lose their relational positions in the whole (which made them what they are) and turn into something other than themselves…they react upon one another not so much by mechanical impulsion o causation as by a kind of mysterious resonance.
Las Siameses/The Siamese graphite and prismacolor -papel grafito/prismacolor/papel, 1999
Doppelganger & Company
For a long time I’ve been interested in phenomena related to the idea of an alter ego, clone, Siamese or conjoined twins, synchronicity, and what in Spanish is called desdoblamiento: a splitting apart, or unfolding into two, of the self. The following drawings are related with these themes: the first, The Siamese Twins, based on a soft porn photograph from the second decade of the twentieth century, represents, for me, the intent of one women to separate herself into two, or of two women to merge into one. The drawing which follows revels, apparently, a lesbian relationship, but in reality was created with the displacement of the image of a woman photographed in sequence, from one photograph to another, that is, the image consists of one woman drawn twice.
There is a lot of material available relaed to the theme I’ve laid out, from cientific manifestations of the behavior of quarks (once a pair is separated, if one changes its conduct, the other manifests a corresponding change instantly, no matter what distance might be between them), to memories of Sci-Fi movies from my infancy, la the following (which I have never been able to find again) in which:
--Every time a young woman falls into a trance a creature rises out of the sea and walks along the beach, creating havoc.
Other references:
-In the book Researches on the I Ching by Iulian Konstantinovich Shchutskii (who incidentally died in the Gulag) Konstantinovich cites the sinologist Joseph Needham’s explanation of the phenomenon of correlative thinking characteristic of Chinese culture:
In coordinative thinking, conceptions are not subsumed under one another,, but places side by side in a pattern, and things influence one another not by acts of mechanical causation but by a kind of inductance…symbolic correlations or correspondences all form part of one colossal pattern. Things behave in particular ways not necessarily because of prior actions or impulsions of other things, but because their position in the ever-moving cyclical universe is such that they are endowed with intrinsic natures which make that behavior inevitable for them. If they do not behave in these particular ways they could lose their relational positions in the whole (which made them what they are) and turn into something other than themselves…they react upon one another not so much by mechanical impulsion o causation as by a kind of mysterious resonance.
La persistencia de la memoria/The Persistence of memory graphite and prismacolor -papel grafito/prismacolor/papel, 1987
Más...
También:
-En septiembre de 2006 fue reportado en la revista Nature que Shahar Arzy y colegas del Hospital Universitario, Ginebra, Suiza, inesperadamente habían reproducido un efecto fuertemente reminiscente del doppelgänger fenómeno por medio de las estimulación electromagnética del cerebro de una paciente. Aplicaron estimulación eléctrica focal a la junción temporoparietal izquierda de la paciente mientras se mantenía plana en una cama. La paciente sintió de inmediato la presencia de otra persona en su “espacio extra personal”. Aparte de la epilepsia, para la cual la paciente estaba siendo tratada, estaba psicológicamente en forma. (De la Wikipedia, comentarios sobre doppelgänger)
Y
-de las anotaciones relacionadas con estas líneas en The Wasteland de TS Eliot,
|
| |
Who is the third who walks always beside you? | |
| When I count, there are only you and I together | |
| But when I look ahead up the white road | |
| There is always another one walking beside you | |
| Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded | |
| I do not know whether a man or a woman | |
| —But who is that on the other side of you? | |
Anotación:
360. The following lines were stimulated by the account of one of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers, at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted.
-Otro cuento leído y ya no ubicado, en que un gemelo se nutre de forma parasítica de su hermano débil, y mientras el fuerte se vuelve grande y bello, el débil se vuelve una sombre, apenas visto de reojo, que acompaña a su hermano como fantasma.
Con estas ideas ya estoy armado secuencias de imágenes, después verán el resultado.
More...
Also:
--From the notes related to these lines in T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland:
| Who is the third who walks always beside you? |
| When I count, there are only you and I together |
| But when I look ahead up the white road |
| There is always another one walking beside you |
| Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded |
| I do not know whether a man or a woman |
|
| —But who is that on the other side of you? |
360. The following lines were stimulated by the account of one of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers, at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted.
Plus:
--Another story once read and now lost, about a twin who nourishes himself parasitically through his weaker brother, and while the stronger grows large and beautiful, the other becomes a sort of shadow, scuttling alongside his sibling like a ghost.
With these ideas I have begun to put together sequences of images-- the results will be seen here-- but later.
Rizoma/Rizome Grafito/papel - Graphite/paper 2000
