I picked up painting during the pandemic lockdown as a means of expression and release. As of yet, acrylic is my medium of choice. For the past half-year, I’ve been working on a series of paintings entitled “Uncomfortable Truths.” The series is inspired by my lived experiences and scenes I’ve witnessed throughout my time living in LA, contextualized by my own research and education in underlying socioeconomic and political issues that affect the city and state at large. Read more below:
Uncomfortable Truths – series in progress
“Uncomfortable Truths” explores the paradoxical relationship between the beauty and terror of Los Angeles. Notorious for its agreeable climate, tales of celebrity glamor, and progressive politics, Los Angeles is simultaneously plagued as a city of extremes, suffering from generations of racial inequality, residential redlining, and political turmoil. My project aims to capture the jarring nature of daily life in the city as these cruel realities are overlooked and systemically brushed aside, seemingly hidden in plain sight.
“Night Watch” 2025
Rest (and a safe place for it) is a human right. Fundamental to all, yet denied to far too many. This piece is inspired by my local grocery store and gym parking lot. While we have the privilege of returning to our own sanctum, our comforts, our roots, many spend long nights out in the open. This begs the question: what keeps them safe?
“Today’s Issue” 2025
Painted this in 2024 as the election season painfully crept along. Political dissonance at large. Red or blue, the state of things remains the same. Check your local city block corner for reference. While many politicians and media platforms focus in on contemporary “buzzword” subjects such as the rise of AI and surveillance, cities like LA still face a historic housing crisis that has yet to be seriously confronted by its leadership. It begs the question: who or what does our vote really serve?
“Beach Day” 2024
Scenes from the Ballona Creek bike path. I’m constantly pondering the relationship between urban sprawl and public infrastructure. While capitalist systems largely operate on the basis of “value” and private property, thousands of individuals and marginalized groups are pushed to the fringes of society. More often that not, said people resort to “public” property as a physical space barely fit for survival. Freeway overpasses and exits, sewers, parks, waterways, etc. We have collectively exiled mandated entire populations to living a life of subsistence in the bowels of the city.
“New Developments” 2024
While the Ballona Creek may be a somewhat serene escape for many (including me) in the midst of the Westside sprawl, it is also home to many Angelenos who’ve taken residence under its many overpasses or, as is illustrated in this painting, within or near the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve. The new luxury apartment/condo construction in the background provides a stark contrast to the lived experience of the Creek’s residents. Much of this series explores the relationship between public infrastructure and homelessness. While ample funds flow towards the construction of luxury housing, the city’s poorest are left to make alternative, often substandard, use of public lands and structures as a means of refuge and subsistence.
“Cut Flowers” 2024
Based off a flower shop near the Beverly Hills Shopping Complex, “Cut Flowers” alludes to the intersections between homelessness and consumerism in Los Angeles. The painting portrays a far-too-common sight of a houseless person sleeping beneath the harsh light of a storefront with their few belongings out on display. The use of signs and familiar iconography contextualizes the piece in LA’s culture of hyper-consumerism; a city where the act of buying in excess is considered second-hand nature, yet far too few can afford such a lifestyle.
“Exiled” 2024
A common sight across LA neighborhoods, this painting is based off a freeway underpass just a few blocks down from where I live. These tracts of public land that slice through the city and enforce its hardlined neighborhood borders act as haphazard shelters for the houseless population.
“Day at the park” 2023
This piece is loosely based off the quiet corner of my local park. Like many parks in LA, it has become home to many houseless people for years now. As I created this work, I kept thinking about how a child must first perceive the reality of homelessness and our nation’s blantantly obvious wealth gap. What effect does this societal “norm” have on the psyche of the youth as they develop?
“La Virgen moderna” 2023
Informed by my extensive solo travel across Mexico, La Virgen moderna is an ode to the central, yet often neglected role of women in Mexican society. The main homemaker and caretaker is depicted amidst the backdrop of an ailing population, unstable economy, and corrupt political sphere. By referencing examples of common cultural and religious iconography, the painting addresses the duality between la Virgen de Guadalupe as an omnipresent symbol of protection, purity and hope, and the generationally-imposed standards Mexican women face throughout their lives.
Other works
“Senseless” 2021
“Cruisin’ down Whittier” 2021
Things by Theo 