They Don't See Us Like We Do draws on my experience as an immigrant. The many layers of cultural nuance and difference are reduced to caricature. They cluster, drift, and keep their distance, a simplified map of the tension that runs through multicultural landscapes everywhere.

Every face shares the same features, because underneath, the souls are the same. What separates them is whether their eyes are open. The faces that close their eyes to those who don't look or act like them turn black and settle into the shadows.

Gouche, acrylic, tar gel on handmade watercolor paper.

© Montse Diaz, 2026