Bee

Year of birth: 2000
Where do you live: Phoenix, Arizona
Your education: Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Strategic Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and a Studio Art minor.
Describe your art in three words: I, don’t, know
Your discipline: Oil and acrylic painter
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Your art seems to be deeply inspired by your surroundings in Phoenix. How does your local community influence your work and creative process?

Phoenix is a city that so desperately wants to become something grander. Things are happening that are engaging a sort of hunger within people, an itch has been brewing. Every artist wants to be the next person to be truly Arizonan and be known worldwide for their craft. They see that things are changing and they badly want to be part of it all but there is something that just will not allow it yet, it seems almost divine. The local arts community influences my work and creative process because it ignites this urge, this sort of justice within me to prove that we are special. I want to be part of this art boom by presenting my authentic self. I was born and raised in the heart of downtown Phoenix. I know what we are. We are a city of people that dutifully persists against the heat (both metaphorical and literal). Artists here have such a deep sense of longing that inspires me. Largely influenced by indigenous and Mexican culture, there is an iron sense of community in Arizona, a camaraderie. Being a first-generation Mexican-American queer woman, my art reflects a classical Mexican arts aesthetic which is influenced by my Phoenix environment. I paint by my window on one of the busiest streets and just listening to city life is enough to juice my painting session, there is always something going on. Phoenix is this vibrant, imperfect, desert of naive potential and resilience for both the good and the bad.

Surrealism and portraiture are significant themes in your work. How do these themes help you express your personal journey and emotions?

Surrealism and portraiture are so cool. Portraiture within fine arts is a skill check. You get to see the talent of an artist. I also have this habit of people watching and portraiture feeds this hobby of mine, just seeing an individual’s nature is so funny. I like to see everyone’s puzzle pieces, what makes them themselves. I have a good intuition with people, I can always predict what they are like. Which leads to surrealism. As much as I can get a good read on people, no one ever really knows anyone 100%. I have had an obsession with surrealist artists since college. The whole idea of these people engaging with their subconscious and putting it on display is just so bizarre. These truly wacky images that only their minds understand. Artists who are self-aware enough to genuinely explore their own psyche are so cool. The art they produce are like mystical artifacts to me. I want to explore this as well. I struggled with my emotions so much in my younger years and it became hard to build my identity. I had difficulty processing and identifying my emotions. Surrealism feels like my little key to understanding my own mind and what happens and why. Seeing it all visually is like a map. Surrealism is deeply personal to my artistic identity.

Bee | And Me | 2025

You’ve mentioned struggling with apathy in your developmental years. How has your art helped you process these feelings, and how does it inform the way you approach your creative process?

Yes, apathy is a close friend of mine. I have always been a good noodle. I was a quiet little girl, always did my homework and followed the rules. I just did not genuinely care for anyone. Not my friends nor my family members. I have always had to force myself to behave a certain way to regard social rules or because my mom taught me better but it has always been a conscious effort to stop my natural apathy. I always experimented with forms of art like writing, photography, theatre and such. Art has always helped me understand how other people feel. Observing how they dealt with their emotions helped me develop what it should look like within me. Heavy feelings were always so easy to understand, sadness and anger, but others like excitement or jealousy, even contentment were a little harder to truly feel or portray. My creative process is not even really a process. I get ideas for paintings very sporadically and then I get to it. I never have an exact image either. I never know what I am going to end up with or what it will look like. I learned to process my emotions in this way. I taught myself to recognize the patterns of a feeling and even if I do not understand it, I just let myself feel what I do and then figure it out later. With painting, I let myself start whatever idea and then figure out what it might mean or represent later too. I still wrestle with this apathy inside me every day but my art allows me to practice this physically rather than mentally, which is therapeutic and validating.

Your work combines vibrant colors and spontaneous shapes. What role does color play in your art, and how does it relate to your exploration of human emotion and identity?

Color is everything. I am a very superstitious person. I adapt the meanings of colors and numbers into everything. I heavily studied color theory before and playing with colors is very intuitive. I love color so much I cannot even explain it. Within my art, it is pleasing when colors harmonize and are easy on the eyes. I love building layers so a bright beautiful color can sit on top. Color mixing is so much fun! I love color matching and dissecting colors so much, I am so good at it! I think it does have to do with the way I handle emotion. I used to observe others and go “Okay, that is how you are supposed to be sad. Okay, that is how you show that you are amazed, got it.” But obviously there is not just one way to show and process emotions, it was exhausting to me. Feelings are complicated. Color is so easy. I recognize the different colors it takes to make one and go at it. Even if I do not get it right the first time, trying again and again is meditative. It trained me to find the joy in trying again and again with understanding emotion. I love color as much as I love molding my identity. I love changing my own colors and being somewhere new or building new habits or mannerisms. I love it. I never reject change, it is like seeing a rainbow; majestic and I yearn for the next time I see it.

Bee | Esqueleto | 2024

How do the teachings of Surrealist masters like Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, and Remedios Varo shape your artistic vision? Do you aim to build upon or re-interpret their influence in your own work?

First of all, art history is so cool. The teachings of the old masters shape my artistic vision by showing me what humans are capable of. Kahlo’s and Varo’s artistic eyes are something beyond inspiring. To be able to translate your experiences and worldviews in such dreamlike ways is astounding. Vulnerability is so, so difficult for me. I am a great performer. I can be extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, whatever, but someone sitting me down and forcing me to be honest about anything, everything, is terrifying. They seem to do it so effortlessly and I would like to build to that! Dalí is one of those people who are so shamelessly themselves. No explanation nor debt, he is himself through and through. People like that put me in awe. When it comes to my artistic vision, I want to push myself to be just as free. There is just something still hesitant in me. I do not aim to build upon their influence. I just think about them a lot and study their nature hoping I too can manifest my own rabbit hole. They are so authentically themselves, I cannot help but stare, learn and create.

As a self-described shy artist, what gave you the confidence to start calling yourself an artist and share your work with the world?

Not a what but a who. My best friend, my lover, Isaiah. Every single piece of art I made as a kid I ripped up, burned it, threw it away, anything to keep anyone from seeing it. It was almost compulsive. In college I accidentally took an oil painting class and it was uncomfortable to paint in front of others but learning oil was worth it. I made some stuff I was slightly proud of but never called myself an artist. It felt too official and imposterous. I went through my first real break-up during my last semester and stopped painting, shoving the passion somewhere out of sight. I met Isaiah May of 2022 and long story short we fell in love so much. He is this wildly creative person who thinks differently from anyone I have ever met, everyone says this about him! We talked about art and music a lot so eventually I showed him some stuff I had hiding around. He would accuse me of being an artist and I would just scoff. The more I saw how he channeled his own creativity and imagination, the more my hands would twitch. I started painting again and even found a job teaching at a local paint and sip business. To summarize, he just kept poking at me, telling me to get out there, create and be with the world. I love him too much to ignore him, plus he is so obnoxiously loud, so here I am.

Bee | Alien Lover | 2024

You’ve shared a desire to foster empathy through your art. Can you elaborate on how you hope your work will impact the viewers and the art community?

Empathy seems very important. From what I have seen, empathy might be what fixes everything. All the kid shows are right, it really is all about love and friendship. When you create art that you want to share with others, you automatically contribute to a community. With that, if I create a community, I want it to foster empathy and have everyone learn from each other in hopes that the rest of the world will do this as well. I hope my work keeps evolving to be vulnerable and striking enough to be able to impact the viewers. Not for attention but to instill what the old masters instilled in me, a want to be vulnerable and authentically myself, a want to be so human and be open with others. I believe this will help fix things in the world. I hope my art fosters wonder and an itch for others to create as well.