A story from his mother and observation of his grandfather gave Armando the idea and techniques that would form the basis of his artwork. He is a Tarascan native-born in the village of Santa Maria, Michoacán, in Southwestern Mexico.

When Armando was a child, his mother told him the story of a doll her father made her when she was a girl. She said the doll was so infused with a magical human likeness that the eyes (made from marbles) seemed to follow all that went on around it.

The story became etched in Armando's young mind, and at age 4, he began making dolls with the notion of instilling in them the same magical qualities as the doll in the story.

His technique comes from hours each day watching his Abuelito at work weaving baskets, making benches, or fashioning toys. Observation soon turned into action as Armando began making his creations.

In Santa Maria and the surrounding villages, the people knew his grandfather as a master basket weaver and exceptionally talented all-around craftsman. He was also a teacher of crafts in and around his village.

The underlying structure of his work stems from the folk art tradition of fashioning figures out of corn husks, twigs, reeds, and grass. Children used these toys to play while their elders tended the crops.

Armando's materials are river willow twigs, corn husks, reeds, cattails, onion skin, dried flowers, ceramic clay, native grasses, 24k gold leaf, and egg tempera. He weaves and binds these materials into saints, angels, altars, and other more worldly figures. He uses both native and Catholic imagery in his mixed media work and paintings.

He lives with his family in Abiquiu, New Mexico, on an organic farm that he tends in his spare time. Many of the basic materials used in his 3-D mixed media sculptures are grown or collected on the farm. He also sculpts and fires the ceramic panels, heads, body parts, and ornaments he uses in his work.

You can see his work online or in his studio in Abiquiu. Contact him for an in-person appointment at his studio.

The Artist’s Statement

My life is not separate from my art; my life is art and has always been art. I am, for all intent and purposes, self-taught. I have an unshakable belief in La Unidad, Unity in all things. I believe we are all connected to everything and everyone. I see myself as a spiritual storyteller; the narrative-symbolic allows me to tell a story in which I am not the sole interpreter; the viewer is also an interpreter.

My imagery is intentionally accessible and universal by way of archetypes that are open and flexible enough to allow for many interpretations—not one interpretation. My use of visual language, the symbolic, expresses my intent to engage the viewer in a dialogue. Through this unspoken dialogue, an intimacy arises and the space to dream, imagine, contemplate—that, to me, is freedom.

Entering into a Dialog

Aesthetics are an essential consideration; however, symbolic meanings are the predominant force in his work. His visual language is not arcane. Instead, the images and their place within a scene are easily understood. On the other hand, they are open enough to invite the viewer to make their interpretations of the deeper and more personal meanings. In this, Armando is not telling the viewer what should be seen, thought, or felt; he is inviting the viewer to enter into a dialog. For him, visual storytelling serves to convey the continuity of storylines between media, past and present, above and below, and what lies in-between. Symbolic language expresses stylistically, acting as a through-line, tying together all of his work.

Armando cites Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros as major, early influences. His intent is not to be part of a particular genre, although his work is closest to Magical Realism. Upon close inspection, the figures in his paintings include facial elements that align more with figurative abstraction, while contradictions of reality align more closely with surrealism.