Artist Statement

       My name is Alexander Martinez and I am a visual artist. 

I am currently employed as a videographer, and am studying film. 

What I hope to do in film is to culminate the skills i have learned

from my experience in painting, photography, animation, and music. 

These various mediums are in a sense the building blocks of cinema,

and this will help me to communicate my conception of existence

effectively to my audience.

      Here is one example of a concept which i have become obsessed

with and that has cropped up in recent paintings and sketches. 

The flesh is a bewildering topic and one of much fascination to me 

personally because of its unsettling nature. It can be a source of warmth,

emotional comfort, or an object of sexual desire, and yet the flesh can

also disgust and repel us. This is because of the disconnect between

the body and the soul. 

      When a lover puts their arm around you, we think nothing of it. 

It is merely he or she who touches us. But what is actually touching us?

If we were to sever the limb of that lover and they were to place it on you

with intent of touching you, would you not say that both scenarios 

are the same in that your lover has touched you? No, obviously you 

would not, and this is because the severing of the limb forces our

consciousness to realize that the arm is only an appendage and

that the person lies not within the body but somewhere else, 

somewhere vague and intangible.