c marquez
lives in El Prado, NM
born in Los Angeles, CA
cmarquez.net | @cmarquez.x
“The intention of this work is to honor vulnerability, impermanence, and cycles of life on our planet,” c marquez says of their work, which includes two-dimensional pieces, sculpture, installation, and the results of a daily sketchbook practice. With materials drawn solely from one plant growing in abundance near their home base of El Prado, New Mexico, these pieces—even limited in their material—are varied in what they evoke.
Marquez uses the tall tumble mustard, a scrappy plant that can grow even in sand. Slender limbed with tiny yellow flowers, when it reaches maturity it dies, uproots, and blows across sidewalks, highways, and into arroyos: the quintessential tumbleweed. This makes the plant particularly useful, as marquez explores themes of impermanence and the natural cycles of life that can be witnessed all around us.
The sculpture work is spare, the twiggy plant sculpted into delicate formations, though the cumulative effect is striking. Time is an active ingredient in the work, as deterioration and weathering shape the natural material. The conviction that shapes the process underlines the themes evident in the work. “They are the integration of my experience and surroundings,” marquez describes in their artist statement, fusing the work, “as lightly and sensually as possible,” in the environment—the whole wide world—which is imagined anew in the pieces themselves.
