Being born, especially being born a person of color, is a political act in itself. |
I like the aesthetics of the Church. |
I have never voted in my life. |
I like going to Church for aesthetic reasons, rather than spiritual ones. |
I usually refer to myself as Hispanic. |
An artist is nothing without his or her obsessions, and I have mine. |
Whenever possible, I operate outside the system. |
My work has social implications, it functions in a social arena. |
My use of the medium - photography - is in some ways traditional. |
I don't think that because I am Hispanic I should therefore do Hispanic work. |
One of the things that I am happy about in my life as an artist is that I am not considered a Hispanic artist. |
I think if the Vatican is smart, someday they'll collect my work. |
I am an artist first and a photographer second. |
My work is intensely personal. |
I have always felt that my work is religious, not sacrilegious. |
As a former Catholic, and as someone who even today is not opposed to being called a Christian, I felt I had every right to use the symbols of the Church and resented being told not to. |
People have to find ways of explaining the work. |
Unfortunately, the Church's position on most contemporary issues makes it hard to take them seriously. |
I am just an artist. |
Some people have compared the Klan images to ecclesiastical figures. |