Edgar Flores, aka Saner, paints in a small upstairs room in his suburban enclave outside Mexico City, where light pours in from a wall of windows. Opposite are cabinets and shelves with neatly organized books, labeled boxes of pens, brushes, and other supplies. Large, unfinished canvases hang on a third wall, and the last holds an ever expanding mask collection. A custom-made table complete with storage compartments and adjustable drawing surface, an artist’s dream, dominates this room where masks float around him like trophies.
Saner has painted murals and participated in exhibitions everywhere from Morocco to Arkansas, combining contemporary Mexican and ancient Aztec and Mayan iconography with local history and folklore from around the world, as he tries to understand what divides us, and, hopefully unites us. Such travels have strengthened his roots and resolve to be part of a generation that learns from elders, teaches its youth, and creates positive change in a complicated world. “Sometimes society builds walls,” he tells me, “but if we never break them down, we’ll never have the opportunity to find out what kind of society we can have.”
