Miel de la Tierra Studio
from Max Del Bosque
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Welcome to Miel de la Tierra Studio, the place where art and life come together. Creating food in the kitchen, explorations in the garden and in nature, and daily life all converge in works of art.
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Max Del Bosque
The Artist
A common theme that runs through every genre of my work is identity. My work focuses on identity relating to gender and gender roles, ethnicity, class, and--more recently--on its relationship to home, place, and food.
I grew up as a second generation Latin-American in a household where my parents chose not to speak Spanish to my siblings and me. If discrimination and racial bias drove my family to disown aspects of who they were, then the question becomes, how can art be a remedio for this disconnect? Through art, I attempt to bridge the gaps that occur when we limit ourselves to verbal language, time, or place. Arte becomes a vehicle to find our commonalities and tap into our collective humanity.
The medium of paint marries my deep love of color with line and shape. Text and words, along with the narrative rhythm in my compositions, recall beloved childhood picture books and Mexican Retablo paintings. My arte is a visual translation of literary "magical realism" evident in the distortions of scale and space, the allusions to stories and dialogue that never blatantly “tell.”
The realm of the domestic, like houses, bowls, and beds, interior spaces and lush gardens, serve as references to home, family, and the roles we play in these spaces and relationships. Collage and mixed media are often utilized as direct allusion to day-to-day life, as signifiers of the small details of our existence that are precious but often overlooked.
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Recent artwork is motivated by my explorations of cooking, food production, and the environment. In considering the critical roles pollinators, soil microbes, and other living organisms play in ensuring we can sustain our planet--these works grapple with both the beauty and destruction of the world we live in.
bio
Max Del Bosque has an MFA in Studio Art and Certificates in Museum Studies and Dream Studies from bygone programs at a small university in Berkeley, CA. That university no longer exists, but we artists and scholars who studied there, continue to make art, teach, and do good throughout our communities. Max has exhibited throughout California and the West and has work in private, university, and corporate collections throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He has also curated numerous exhibitions, both independently and in conjunction with schools, museums, and municipal organizations. They are currently Professor of Art at a college in Southern California where they teach various studio, museum studies, and art history courses. When not teaching, Max can generally be found mucking about in the kitchen, growing food and herbs on their urban micro-farm, experimenting in the studio, and looking at bugs. He's recently returned to school to complete a Masters of Divinity at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary to more critically examine the intersection of art, spirituality, and social and environmental justice.
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© 2021 by Miel de la Tierra Studio
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