In case you forgot, we're different, but lowkey the same.

Hello all! I hope youre all having a nice humpday! im here groggy from my late night last night watching the Mexico game! Go Mexico!

But either way I felt inspired enough to complete a painting i started working on recently.

In case you forgot, we’re different but lowkey the same began with questions I couldn’t stop asking myself: What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be Mexican? What does it mean to be me? More importantly, who was I measuring myself against, and why did it always feel like I was falling short of a standard I never chose?

This painting became an exploration of comparison. It reflects the quiet ways we rank ourselves against one another—through nationality, race, masculinity, power, desirability, and success. It also acknowledges that we don’t all begin from the same place. Systems create advantages and barriers long before we have any say, yet we often carry those differences as personal failures instead of inherited circumstances.

The relationship between the two figures isn’t about opposition so much as projection. They embody identities I have wrestled with: American and Mexican, dominant and submissive, confident and insecure. Although they wear different cultural symbols, their mirrored poses and exposed bodies suggest that beneath these constructed identities, they are simply two human beings. That’s where the title comes from. We’re Low-Key the Same is almost flippant in its wording because the idea itself feels so obvious: we’re all human, yet we spend so much of our lives measuring ourselves against each other.

This work also marks a shift in my own practice. It was an exercise in abandoning perfection and allowing myself to paint more expressively. For awhile now, comparison has shaped not only how I see myself, but also how I paint and work! Always questioning whether I’m capable enough, whether my work is enough, or whether I’m living up to what others expect from me. This painting is my attempt to trust my intuition over my self-doubt.

The materials themselves carry meaning. Cardboard partially blocks the Latino figure, functioning as both a literal and psychological roadblock. The same cardboard texture appears in the upper left corner, but there it has been painted into, suggesting that an obstacle for one person may barely register for another. Throughout the landscape, cacti appear as recurring symbols whose meaning is still unfolding for me. Like identity itself, they resist a single interpretation.

Rather than offering answers, We’re Low-Key the Same asks whether the boundaries we use to define ourselves and each other are as real as we believe them to be.

“I thought about how fun it would be if we were able to show or hide the highly censored and feared penis. “

When making this piece—and really all of my work—I have social media censorship, especially Instagram’s, in the back of my mind. It’s something I’m constantly navigating, finding creative ways to express what I want while still being able to share the work as intended. I thought about how fun it would be if we were able to show or hide the highly censored and feared penis. That idea led me to physically cut the penis out of the painting, making it interactive so the viewer can decide how they want the work to be displayed. In doing so, the act of censorship itself becomes part of the artwork rather than something imposed upon it.

the starting canvas was actually a canvas I found at a secondhand store. It was some weird live laugh love picture and if you look closely at the finished piece you’ll notice the painting still underneath.

Vc