Shuri Painting

I believe that the universal language of the arts can break through cultural and personal barriers bringing us closer together as human beings. I was raised by a strong and loving community of women. They have been a big influence throughout my life. Common themes represented in my work are cultural diversity, gender equality, race and the empowerment of women. I offer my perspective about the characters that I portray that remain close to my heart. Portraying the uniqueness and strength of the individual allows me to speak to the sameness of our humanity in parallel to the beauty of our cultural differences. I do this with a deep sense of respect and admiration for the characters I choose to portray. As a Latino living in the US half of my life creating my own identity has become one of the many challenges in my artworks. Things like education, family, money, politics, religion, and sex; all these topics have affected my life and career. All those things help to define who we are; But, our nature is complex and should not be a label for the social need to look for acceptance. I think we all are multi-dimensional. I always admired beauty, but not only in the obvious stereotype. I always find beauty in the oddest of subjects. Color, lines, composition, and style are important things to consider when I chose an image or character to portray. As years passed by, I have found my inner voice. I believed that what makes us equal is that we are all different. Leonardo Montoya