The Bundy Museum Presents:

Identity Disturbance
by Miguel Amaro-Santiago

Opening Reception First Friday
March 4th, 2022 - From 6:00PM – 9:00PM

Exhibition on display from 3.4.22 – 5.1.22
Located in the Bundy Museum 3rd floor art gallery
Admission to art gallery is always free
Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 5pm

• No RSVP is required for the First Friday event

For regular visiting hours, walk-ins are welcome, however, booking a reservation online is recommended. Upon arriving, please check in at our visitor’s center at
133 Main St., Binghamton NY.

COVID-19 Mask Policy:
Our galleries are currently open following Covid-19 guidelines. Masks are not required, but are recommended for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated visitors.

Watch a virtual tour of the gallery below, or in the videos section at Facebook.com/bundymuseum and The Bundy Museum YouTube channel.

Artist Statement: By Miguel Amaro-Santiago

“The works in this collection are varied, but are brought together from two thematic series, with a third set falling under the category of my general work. My work generally deals with themes of transformation, or some kind of hybridization of life forms, and moving from one stage of life to the next. The two other broad themes are Tortured Souls, and the Carnival. My work is sometimes dark, twisted, or grotesque. I draw on imagery from the natural world, leaning toward aspects of organic life not always seen as beautiful, such as rot and decay, however these are equally important in the life cycle and beautiful in their own right. Many of the pieces in this collection portray monstrous humanoids, or humans that have been twisted in some way through the trials of life or the tribulations of death. These are meant to reflect inner turmoil and darkness in a more visible way - which is particularly salient in my Tortured Souls series. The transformation peices and reptile imagery in particular are metaphors for my own experiences with mental illness - I often feel as though there is a beast inside of me trying to claw its way out and destroy what I have worked so hard for, which I call The Reptile or The Lizard. Sometimes I do not feel like a human, but rather a chameleon blending in and pretending. Some of my pieces draw on the imagery of sideshow carnivals, and the carnivalesque. I have long been fascinated by these artifacts of history as places where loners, ‘weirdos’, and ‘freaks’ - those who did not fit in with standard society - could find comradery and create a life with others like themselves. As someone who has felt on the outside throughout my life, this idea is appealing. The Carnival is also a place of inversion, where we can make light of or make fun of some of the dark things we are not supposed to, and so by bringing these things up to the surface we can better understand their role and minimize their grip on us. Since my background and training has mostly been in illustration and tattoo work, pen and ink have been my favored tools, though recently I have pushed myself to learn new mediums. For the past few years, I have been learning to use watercolor, and even more recently digital painting and illustration. I often lean toward multimedia, combining watercolor with pen and ink, or pen and ink with colored colored pencil, or many other combinations. I find this often creates a more textured look and gives a more tactile, visceral feeling to my pieces. On a practical level, it also allows me to adjust the level of precision I can reach with particular mediums. The tools I use are very much that of an illustrator, and so many of my inspirations are illustrators, dark artists, or visual effects artists in monster movies, which comes through in my work. It is my intention that my work tell the stories I can not put into words - some of these stories my own inner struggles, and others more for entertainment. I am a bit of a prankster - that hobo clown spirit - so sometimes I just want to gross people out, make them chuckle, or creep them out. I want to take them out of the mundane world for a minute to somewhere where their imaginations can run as free as I do as I create them.”

Artist Biography: Miguel Amaro-Santiago

Miguel was born in Owego, NY to a Puerto Rican father and a mother of German/Irish descent and long local ties. As with many other artists, drawing and art have played a significant role in his life since he was in elementary school, starting his long journey with a ballpoint pen, #2 yellow pencils, and lined notebook paper. Art and fantasy have always been a true form of escapism for Miguel, he could escape from some of the troubling aspects of life where he felt circumstances were chaotic and out of his control into a world of his own making. Godzilla stomped into his life as a small boy and he was forever changed. He loved dragons and dinosaurs, and the story of a giant dragon monster destroying everything appealed to him for reasons he can’t fully articulate. Though over time he learned the history and the message of Godzilla, and that the monster is mankind's destructiveness and hubris in the form of nuclear weapons. From there, he was onto the classic Hollywood monsters and horror films, the Wolf Man, King Kong, Mummies, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Pumpkinhead, Hellraiser, Swamp Thing, and many more. For him, every monster represents a different part of our history and our turmoil as a society or individually. The idea of the meaning behind the monsters, and what monsters can help us understand about ourselves is a significant philosophical theme that runs through Miguel’s artwork. Miguel finished high school in 2007 and did a year at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. While his dream at the time was to work on the special effects teams that bought to life so many of his favorite horror and monster movies, sometimes life has a longer and different journey planned. After moving back to New York, he began an apprentice as a tattoo artist and piercer in 2009 and later became a co-owner of a shop in Binghamton. He took a break from art for a handful of years and became a commercial bus driver until 2018. In August of 2018, everything reached a breaking point. After a lifetime of ups and downs, unmet mental health needs, alcohol abuse, traumatic experiences, and heartbreak all bent to a breaking point with job stress, he had a mental breakdown. He started hearing voices in addition to the already very dark place he was in and checked himself into the hospital. Through this, he ended up with a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder 2, Borderline Personality Disorder, and PTSD. It has been a long slow process of healing, finding the right medications, and doing the work to cope, but it is paying off. Art has been a lifeline through all of this. Miguel’s artistic vision and drive have been reinvigorated and have given him a sometimes grotesque, but always unique way to work through, process, and communicate his experiences with mental illness and trauma. In late 2019, he met and started dating his partner, Rachael. With her support and encouragement, as well as the world-changing in unforeseen ways, Miguel decided to fully pursue his passion for art and make it a career. He plans to sell art at comic conventions and to grow his art business online. Focusing on creating art and bringing his visions to life has given him a sense of peace, purpose, and satisfaction he did not always think was possible.

More artwork from Miguel Amaro-Santiago
www.instagram.com/Ghostcrowart
www.etsy.com/shop/Ghostcrowartwork
www.Ghostcrowartwork.com
www.facebook.com/GhostCrowart

Art Exhibit Virtual Tour:
Identity Disturbance by Miguel Amaro-Santiago

Feel free to direct any feedback by contacting us.

The Bundy Museum of History & Art

129 Main St. Binghamton, NY 13905

(607) 772-9179 - info@bundymuseum.org