Autoretrato de la jungla

On December 18, 2022, the painter Héctor Madera posted a photograph of himself standing beside this canvas on his Instagram account, with the location Ciudad de México (Mexico City) and a caption on what making art asks of him.

One has to, he wrote, "confiar que por algo uno ha llegado donde a llegado, confiando en uno mismo y no en lo que los otros quieran que tú hagas" (trust that one has come this far for a reason, trusting in oneself and not in what others want you to do).

"La gente se conforma con hacer lo mismo y toca explorar para llegar a lugares que nunca has llegado. Sin eso de que vale hacer arte entonces?" (People settle for doing the same thing, and you have to search out places you have never been. Without that, what is the point of making art?) He signed off "Sin miedo" (Without fear) and tagged the post "domadordefieras" (tamer of wild beasts).