Fragments is a handmade and thoughtfully curated deck of fifty-two cards. In many ways the best way to describe this project is essentially as fragments.
It’s fragments of who I am as a person. What are the surroundings of my current living situation? Who are the people in my current and past live that have
shaped me in some way or form? What issues (personal and global) intrude my mind and keep me thinking of our society and our collective future? How do I see
my future and what words would I use to describe it? What brings me joy? What was my first pet? What brings me peace? What scares me? These are all questions
that I had in mind while creating this deck and questions that I encourage the viewer to reflect on. We’re humans, and I believe that we aren’t who we are
without the people in our past and current live. As original as we claim to be, we take away a lot from everyone we encounter. It could be as small and simple as
sharing the same love for ice cream to something bigger as values. We are shaped by our experiences and our memories and these are created with the help of others.
Coming to this conclusion wasn’t so easy. The knowledge was already inside, but I didn’t realize how far it was composed of. The first twelve cards are divided by
personal traits that I believe I carry. A friend, someone that is independent, an artist, a gentle person, a liar, someone that is reliable, an observant, an explorer,
someone that is cunning, a courageous person, a hard worker, and a leader. As I came up with these traits with the help of a couple loved ones, I realized that a lot
of these words (not just here but throughout the entire deck) are very abstract. It’s not so simple to come up with an image to represent the word courageous or reliable.
However as I read through my list of words and pondered about how to represent them. The more I read the traits the more I realized that I wouldn’t have specific traits
without certain people in my life. In many ways a lot of the traits could also be applied to others in my life, and through this I was present. I am who I am thanks to
my parents. I am the person I am, and I am comfortable with myself and with my skin thanks to those that have shown me love and appreciation. I have been able to grow
and demand more growth from myself thanks to those in my life. In many ways this project is more than a piece of art. It is an expression of who I am. It is a dissection
of Mateo, and what makes Mateo, Mateo. It is an homage to those that have supported in different ways.
My deck is divided into two sections. Blue and Red. The first section is blue and consists of my traits and my future. The second section is red and consists of current
world issues along with sights around the city. Each section consists of twenty four cards (not counting the wild cards). The first twelve were described above and the rest
will be described next.
The second set of twelve cards represent how I see my future (career wise) to be; Fun, Energetic, Creative, Growth, Big, Prosperous, Meaningful, Original, Successful, Promising,
Remarkable and Fulfilling. The third set of twelve represent world and personal problems that I believe are important to think about and come up with ways we can resolve them.
These are; Racism, Trash, Climate Change, Water Quality, Poverty, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Food Insecurity, Sexism, Debt, War and Health Care Crisis. The Final set of twelve cards
represent some of my favorite and iconic scenery from New York City streets. Thrift Stores, Cafes, Street Lights, Posters, Delis, Parks, Trees, Door Traps, Murals, Pizza, Bus Stops
and of course, the lovely New York Dogs. In addition, my deck contains four wild-cards. These are, my wonderful and lovely dog Hope, Lake Michigan where I grew up next to,
the realization that I’m growing up and I’m no longer a kid, and of course the joy I get from hanging out with friends and good company.
The creation of my card design goes hand in hand with the theme of my deck. I reused old decks of cards and their pieces to create my deck as a whole. In addition I made cuts and carved
out shapes in the old cards to give them a new design and show what the inside of the card is composed of. Not only does this add texture but it also gives the card a rugged and distressed
look which is also a representation of who we are as people. We are not clean and perfect. We all have different scars and scratches, and we must acknowledge this and appreciate these parts
of us. It makes us who we are. While the design for each card is different and abstract, the colors stay pretty consistent. I made an emphasis on focusing on primary colors since these are
the “main” colors that make up the rest of the color wheel. It is where it all begins, and after that colors can take many different paths. Similar to us and all the paths we can take in life.
The back design of my cards are also very representative of who I am as a person and an artist. I love my name. I’ve been obsessed with my initials ever since I learned how to write my name
and have consistently come up with different ways to write my initials. I also love typography. I am currently into gothic and medieval fonts and I wanted to incorporate this into my deck.
To view the rest of my deck,
I have attached all of my cards at the top right corner.
Here.
Thank you.
