I always start with a photo on my phone. Sometimes I don't look for images: the images are just there and I happen to capture things. Last year I started making works that portrayed flowers in buckets, the ones sold by flower sellers on the highways or simply on the street. I started thinking of them as still lifes. I continued to continue with them. Walking through the Flower District, there is so much beauty, and I started thinking about the people who make them. They created something beautiful, but maybe it's just a job for them. It makes me think of my own family history: my dad's family is from Puebla, Mexico, and his business is growing flowers. One of my uncles on my father's side also came to the US a while ago and since he already had the knowledge, he ended up landing in the Flower District. That's what I've been thinking about as I make more flower pieces.
My main goal as an artist is to always make work that reflects my identity and experience. I am an immigrant and a lot of what I do is through that lens, how we live as immigrants.
Medel works on one of her textile art pieces in her Los Angeles studio
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“I think about the durability of denim and I think about my dad, who is a gardener. He wears jeans because they are thick enough to protect him from the roses.”
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
I used to work a lot with vinyl and because I used to work in the Fashion District, I was close to all the fabrics there and it became a way to experiment. I tried denim once. Since then, I've been working with heavy denim. I think about the durability of denim and I think about my dad, who is a gardener. He wears jeans because they are thick enough to protect him from the roses. I think about the working class and I think about the whole history of denim in America: the fashion, the Americana, the whole world that denim represents. It's very ingrained in American identity and in this myth of America.
This floral piece is a continued exploration of my own identity and who I am as a person, but also my connection to Los Angeles. What is my connection to this place? I moved to the United States when I was 13 years old. Through the process of assimilation, I feel like I lost much of my own sense of who I was and had to become an American. It took me many years to go back and realize that there is so much here, so much culture, that connects to Mexico.
—As told to Elisa Wouk Almino.
Erick Medel embroiders denim with an industrial sewing machine, creating works that touch on everyday life in Los Angeles, particularly those who live and work in Boyle Heights and the city's east side. The meticulous craftsmanship of his embroidery is slow and meticulous, a complement to the instantaneous scenes he depicts.
