Ricky Armendariz was born at the crossroads of American and Mexican culture and geography. From his vantage point of El Paso, Armendariz lived where the skies of Texas meet the Rockies and where a river blends the cultures there into a distinct group of people in the United States. Because of his early years on the border, Armendariz’s aesthetic and artistic tastes have become uniquely flavored.

For Serie XIII, Armendariz created The Way a Mi Corazon es un Bumpy Road, a print reflecting the artist’s American and Mexican heritage. The piece is inspired by old western films that relied on images on mystic, open skies that Armendariz has adapted for use in his artwork. The images consists of an eagle and a condor moving across a stretch of sky in front of a setting sun. Both are intertwined and appear to be moving down as if the condor landed on the eagle in mid-flight. The title of the piece is an original song written by Armendariz specifically for this image. Many of Armendariz’s works are titled in this manner in an effort to alter the brands made upon the two cultures he grew up knowing as one: “I often use a mix of both English and Spanish to say more with the combinations that any one language can say itself.”

Armendariz received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1996 and followed up with his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1999. He has works exhibited across Texas and the United States, and in Mexico, Chile, and Peru.

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