THE UNRESTRAINED GARDEN

“I do not have to be only an architect, only a designer, only a painter or only a muralist, In this home, those identities exist together, alongside my personal life as a husband, a gay man, an immigrant, a friend and part of a family. The garden became unrestrained as those boundaries began to dissolve.”

The Unrestrained Garden is an immersive, autobiographical environment created throughout my 900-square-foot Victorian apartment in San Francisco. Painted imagery moves across walls, ceilings, cabinetry and doorways, connecting the rooms through an evolving landscape of trees, water, mountains, flowers and figures.

Developed gradually since 2020, the work responds to the apartment’s existing architecture—its moldings, openings, corners and transitions. Paintings and drawings displayed throughout the home are not treated as separate objects; they enter into conversation with the imagery surrounding them, extending their narratives beyond the frame and into the rooms.

The environment draws from my experiences of migration, family, love, loss, healing and transformation. Two central trees represent my husband and me, while water, mountains, branching lines and blooming forms carry memories of Venezuela and the emotional landscapes of rebuilding a life elsewhere. Furniture, collected objects and the rhythms of everyday domestic life have also become part of this continuously evolving work.

Begun in Panama and completed in Spain in 2016, Manipulated Emotions carries an earlier chapter of my life and artistic practice into The Unrestrained Garden. Its female figure, flowers and intertwining organic forms connect naturally with the visual language that later developed throughout the home. Installed in the kitchen, the painting no longer exists as an isolated object: the surrounding branches appear to move beyond its edges, allowing the work’s narrative to continue into the architecture.