Take a Grandstanding Dive with Me (a.k.a. An "About Me" Section)

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Maybe it is better to think of me as a production studio. I'm not trying to be daft, or even deft, but I literally work in so many mediums, it usually annoys me and scares me into thinking that "I'll never finish any one thing because I have too much going," but then I always finish bodies of work, and the way I know something is "done" is if it brings me joy. Also, the path must be paved with joy. It isn't all roses, my art practice involves excavation and leaving no stone unturned. As an unofficial practicing Buddhist, I am dedicated to looking at everything that scares me and to feel through it all. I point my attention to joy, but as Pema Chodron says, 'everything is a mix of good and bad.'

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I think of myself as a painter, but I also write, and make movies, and my painting has expanded in ways that include sculpture, photography and concepts. For my mental health, I actually need to practice weaving objects together and to not compartmentalize, because as a woman with multiple marginalized intersections of her identity--mixed-race, Mexican-American, genderqueer ("androgynous" works for me) and with all branches of my family from the working class--until the beginning of my 40s, how I'd move through the world to try to stay safe and survive had been by compartmentalizing, fragmenting, and strategically hiding and revealing myself only in pieces.

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I'm in a period of my life where I am done with that, and it is literally for my survival and wellbeing that I arrive here in front of you confidently, raw, honest, and messy. I'm hoping that you will delight in something of what I do, and one last time, I'm not meaning to be conceited, but what I do must make me happy and be pleasurable to me first--at the cost of perhaps everyone thinking I'm bonkers or obnoxious--and appealing to anyone else second. But hey, working on my fifth decade of life and trying to thrive in this weird, challenging, absurd and yet beautiful world, it is my wish that every marginalized person arrives at a place where their own self-love and authenticity is first and foremost. There is a universe of richness that comes with no more "effs" to give.

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Fully expecting to lose followers with this one,

Truly Yours,

Morgan Flores' Alter Ego