It is not difficult to demonstrate that there is a historical relationship between art and religion. One only needs to look at the vast array of artistic works created with the intention of conveying stories considered sacred by a human group. The fact that in many pre-Columbian cultures, forged in relative isolation from the rest of the world until the arrival of European conquerors and missionaries, there are artistic works depicting their gods is quite telling, as it indicates the human impulse to represent their religious beliefs in a tangible way. Even the prohibition in certain religions against creating visual representations of their deities (or worshipping these representations) shows a connection between art and the religious because this prohibition may stem from the assumption that the sacred is incomprehensible to us and beyond our senses and that attempting to make it accessible to beings with so many flaws is blasphemous, thus suppressing the desire to perceive the divine through the senses. 

My view on this matter is that art is the closest thing we humans have to divinity, as it is the way we create something new from a blank canvas, a clean sheet of paper, or silence broken by a musical note. Our senses and our brains are the means by which we relate to what surrounds us, and although they are imperfect, we have no other tools to understand material reality—at least not to my knowledge. For me, my work is a manifestation of the Malhechos who appear so that we may know they exist among us, and depicting them is not blasphemy, as it is they who appear in my mind for me to paint and speak to me, so I can share their message. 

Furthermore, painting and writing about the creators of the world with my own hands is a way to resist a world where humans are at risk of losing their creative ability due to the development of new technologies gaining the ability to depict the world around us. We are wasting the power that Toga gave us by entrusting the responsibility of interpreting and representing our surroundings to a few algorithms and commercial formulas. In my view, art is what makes us human, and the loss of art created by human beings with the intention of connecting with other human beings would be the same as losing our condition as the chosen ones. That is why both my paintings and the writing that accompanies them are made by a real human being. 

In this regard, I believe it is crucial to emphasize that the myth in the reader’s hands is the creation of an artist, with all that this implies. In an era where, in my view, art is seen as secondary and is being replaced by the entertainment industry (one only has to look at the large number of paintings, films, literary works, and musical compositions created solely to meet market demands), it is necessary to restore art’s spiritual character, understood as the reconnection of human beings with the mystical, themselves, and with other human beings, with nature, and with the possibility of a better world for all.