Hi, I’m Ro. I’m a mixed Mexican/American California-born-and-raised trans & nonbinary artist based in Northern California. I’m in love with color, inspired by folk art, and playing with paper and clay.
What is Papel Pic-Arte?
It’s a type of art I made up!
My work started out as a take on papel picado, the traditional Mexican folk art of cut paper. Some of my work still fits that category, but mostly it has morphed into something totally different, although still inspired by papel picado.
I still take a single piece of paper and create a design using negative space cut from the whole. But the layers and designs transform it into something totally new.
Pic-Arte is a made up word, combining the words for cut (picado) and art (arte). You know I love a good portmanteau. While I’ve seen other people do papel picado, and layered cut paper art, I’ve never seen anyone combine them the way I do. This new form of art deserves a new name!
Why So Many Skeletons?
There’s a long history of calaca (skeleton) art in Mexico (year round, not just limited to Día de Muertos), from Jose Guadalupe Posada’s lithography to the cartonería (papier mâché) of the Linares family. I’m drawn to calaca art both because of the tradition and because it strips all of us down to the literal bare bones.
calavera cyclists by José Guadalupe Posada
fortune teller cartonería by the Linares family
Inspiration
Mi Abuelita Chave
my great-grandmother who taught me how to cook, speak Spanish, and guilt-trip loved ones
Birds! Birds! Birds!
no-armed mostly-flying-but-sometimes-grounded monsters that make me laugh and feel at peace