Red sunset over the city and the mountains

fotografía

I'm walking on infinite rooftops

looking over infinite sunsets

or have my eyes just changed?

keep 2023.05.30

nico antuna

fig. 001 looking west

166 frames
sun & night
el paso, texas

scroll ↓

El Paso

a vast plain of dryness

with cruel soil

where nothing grows

Rain and dust blowing over a desert plain

and the harsh winds tear out all roots

that's where I'm from

ozymandias · keep, 2025.02.20

Ladders

Where I'm from
There's no ladders
Except the ones
You build yourself

keep 2026.03.24

sol,me tomas

me quemas

fig. 015 the same sky, twice from "oda al sol", Burning

02 every evening

sunsets 85

Clouds lit gold and black over a rooftop — fig. 021 holy weather

h o l y w e a t h e r

window

figs. 029, 032, 036, 084 from the plane, from the car; the view keeps moving

where am i
in this desert

Haze write your name on the sky keep, 2025.08.20

dusk

every frame in the archive, sorted from the brightest to the darkest. hover or tap a sliver.

goldblueblack

all of the light fell through my hands like water keep, 2021.06.24

noche

vi dos luces

figs. 015, 067 two lights · veo el cielo y me callo keep, 2025.11.21

07 the signs answer back

correspondencias

Commerce

I am not afraid of commerce
It makes the city move
It rushes blood to new places
Brings new art to life

Without it
Things waste away
Dying on the vine

keep 2024.09.16

as above, so below. fourteen signs from the camera roll, each paired with something it did not know it was saying: a second photograph, a line from the phone notes, a gloss.

PLAZA→umbral

We live on a border
A liminal space
A bridge
A threshold
There is another bridge
Between us and God
All you have to do
Is walk across it

keep 2025.11.08

a plaza is the square where a town crosses itself. the whole city is built on a crossing.

Lit stairs climbing into the dark — fig. 070 stairs, night

NACIONAL→el río

Pilgrimage

I walk the river
Where they built the wall
And washed my feet

All of life
Is one long pilgrimage
Walk
Walk
Walk

keep 2025.10.12

national is a word painted on both banks of the same river.

A road running to a low horizon at dusk — fig. 042

ELECTRICITY→señales

Belief in God
Is to have faith that the shapes coming out of the noise
Are meaningful messages from heaven

keep 2022.10.29

current in the wires, current in the sky. both arrive as noise first.

A utility pole against a red sky — fig. 019 crossed wires in the mind sky

SUNFLOWER→sol

The bright sun
Burns me
With anger
And me
Burning inside
With anger
Until the cool breeze
Under a tree
Brings me down
Another day
Passed

keep 2021.06.16

a bank named for the flower that turns to face the sun, lit up after the sun has gone.

The sun breaking over a ridge in rays — fig. 076

A wall sign that reads LAUNDRY over a drawing of a basket

LAUNDRY→mirando

But then

Sometimes
All of a sudden
I feel fantastic
Sitting in the laundromat
Watching the clothes move
I feel great

keep 2025.11.07

the ordinary room, the turning drum, an eye that keeps watching. grace does not need a church.

A painted eye in a black circle on a brick wall — the eye on the wall

PISTO · VINO · CHEVE→¡arre!

Wine Key

This is a waiter's
Corkscrew
Or better said
A wine key
Because it opens up
Bottles
It also opens up
Situations
At the bottom
Of the bottles

keep 2022.04.04

three words for a drink in border slang, then one for get moving. the lamps stay on after close.

Clusters of hanging lamps glowing in a dark room — fig. 025 last call

LIQUOR→vino de misa

Materia Prima

The fruit of the earth
Is the fruit of the vine

Schist marl or desert clay
Like the vines push their desperate roots to the watertable
I push my soul to God

keep 2024.11.04

the same fruit, sold on the corner and lifted at the altar.

A bottle of Brunello di Montalcino on a bar — corte dei venti, brunello riserva 2016

A red shield sign for Batard-Montrachet on a brick wall

BÂTARD→la pucelle

I find my life between the Sacred and the Profane

You know that I drink from the cup of the best wine

keep 2024.07.23

two vineyards on the same hill in Puligny: one named for the bastard, one for the maiden. sacred and profane, a few rows apart.

A blue shield sign for Puligny-Montrachet Clos de la Pucelle — puligny-montrachet, clos de la pucelle

GIN GIN→dos lunas

Sometimes

Going up feels like going down
And to go up
You have to go down

keep 2024.08.01

the sign says it twice. the moon came up twice over the same road.

figs. 004, 009

A tiled street sign reading CALLE DEL CARMEN under a painted Virgin

CALLE DEL CARMEN→azulejos

Veo la caída de la luz
En los azulejos
Techos frentes al cielo azul

keep 2025.06.05

a street named for the Virgin, fired into tile. the light falls on her the same way every afternoon.

A tiled fountain with a painted saint — a fountain in blue tile

CRUZ→cristo rey

INRI

Ser peregrino
Es fácil
Solo hay que andar

Y
Yo ando
En la sombra
De cristo rey

keep 2025.11.21

the cross is a sign too; it was lit before any of the others.

A lit cross on a church tower at night — a tower, night

The towers of the Sagrada Familia lit at night

SAGRADA→catedral

I saw

The Sagrada Familia
Under Construction
Blessed myself
With the holy water
Coming out the fountain
Below

Forever
In God's
Last
Cathedral

keep 2025.05.26

a church still being built. so is the city; so is the book.

PLAZA, again→el sueño

The Dream

Is really
In the place
I Dreamt It

keep 2026.03.07

the same sign, taken while moving. the place keeps the dream; the photograph only keeps the blur.

Blue streaks of light from a moving camera — fig. 005

A stone plaque reading God said let there be light and there was light

LET THERE BE LIGHT→luz

This is a dream

This is all a dream
This is what it looks like
Spilling out of the Godhead

keep 2024.08.16

a stone plaque quoting the first day. the sky quotes it back every evening.

Light breaking through clouds in rays — fig. 002

08 long exposure

nights 81

the useless,
purifying
burning

fig. 016 from Burning, MFA thesis, UTEP, 2020

10 phone notes, 2022 to 2026

cuaderno

typed into a phone at night, on the road, at the bar after close. dated the day they were written; newest first.

2026.09.29

When I was a kid
I thought life could be anything
Anything at all

Endless horizons

2025.12.26

I dont like art that is too fragile
Reality is chaotic and damaging
My art is anti fragile
The more distressed it is
The more beautiful it becomes

2025.11.24

The present
Is wondrous

Staring at the paint on the wall
So many details
In the evening half light

2025.11.21

Asi me siento
Y no me arrepiento
Veo el cielo y me callo
La oscuridad
Un regalo
Que la vida me ha dado

ando en la sombra de cristo rey

2025.11.13

Breathe in
The cool air
Of the creosotes

The mountainside sings

2025.03.25

Incense

A burnt offering
Myrrh
Human Clay

Prima Materia

2025.03.10

The Architect's Truth

I put my finger into reality
Deliberately
And the waters ripple
Outward
From it

2025.02.20

El Paso
A vast plain of dryness
With cruel soil
Where nothing grows
And the harsh winds tear out all roots
That's where I'm from

2024.11.04

Primordial

Yet Elegant
Like the first civilization
To emerge from mud

2024.03.06

Adulthood

Is the slow extraction
Of all color
From a whitening fabric

2023.05.30

I'm walking on infinite rooftops
Looking over infinite sunsets

Walking along the freeway
City lights in the distance
A desert summer night
Is life more beautiful today
Or have my eyes just changed?

2022.07.31

Scala dei
Ladder to God
Priorat

11 the rest of the work

dj / artist / poet / sommelier

Music

Rooftops and lounges: smooth, melodic progressive house and Balearic chillout. The underground: techno, trip hop and industrial sounds for late-night floors. Mood and movement first.

Founder, Xenoglossy Records · listeners in Mexico, Germany, Argentina · support from Sven Väth, Widerberg · over 100,000 streams

Listening links will appear here once the Spotify and Bandcamp pages are chosen.

Painting

Painting from a Mexican American border identity in a post-Informalist, abstract expressionist language. Layered surfaces and restrained symbols; roadside shrines, milagros and Catholic images, never literal.

Books

Where am I in this desert. Duende Nuevo Press, December 2019, limited first edition. Poems, paintings and photographs.

Burning. MFA thesis, University of Texas at El Paso, May 2020; 55 poems about occult magic, the Catholic eye, the mind jewel, and the color of skin under the summer sun.

Wine

Certified Sommelier, Court of Master Sommeliers. Wine as ritual and as place: mission vines, the Mesilla Valley, el paso del norte.

vino de misa

Write to me

booking · paintings · wine · the book · prints