In the 1980s and ’90s, Rodriguez says, that didn’t matter much. People moved back and forth with ease, as if they were only crossing imaginary lines in the desert sand. Though both cities are densely populated, they felt like one small town to Rodriguez — one community, one people surrounding him.

But when Rodriguez moved to Seattle to earn a graduate degree at the University of Washington, he felt isolated. He no longer heard Spanish being spoken. He’d trek south to Burien just to hear the rhythms of the language and eat Mexican food.

“I didn’t realize that I missed it, but then Mexican culture started showing up in my work,” Rodriguez says. “That’s when I realized who I was as a Latino and as a Mexican.”

A ceramic sculptor who works out of a studio in Ballard, Rodriguez creates art that often has Mexican overtones: sculptures of quinceñera dresses, the head of a luchador, a remake of American Gothic (by Grant Wood), featuring a housemaid and a farmworker.

Now, Rodriguez has finished a new collection of work called Lunar Vessels, a collection of clay animal-head vases inspired by the Chinese Zodiac, but with a Latino twist. Reminiscent of Ai WeiWei’s Circle of Animals, the vessels, alongside a wall-mounted Mexican Zodiac, will be on display at the Seattle Art Fair, which opens today.

With work that so outrightly celebrates his Mexican heritage, Rodriguez has worried over the years that he’d be labeled “a token Mexican artist.”

“I want to talk about my culture and my identity, but I also don’t want people to know me as ‘the Mexican ceramic sculptor,’” Rodriguez says. “But that’s what I want to say. That’s who I am. I can say that and not be the ‘exotic’ in Seattle.”

While an undergraduate at the University of Texas at El Paso, Rodriguez set out to be a graphic designer. He saw that as a way to be an artist and be traditionally employable — but it was “creativity in a box,” he says. He took his first ceramics class just to get the course requirement out of the way.

But in that class, he realized ceramics was more than just pottery. He fell in love with its versatility and potential for expression. He began using clay to express himself, not just as a young Latino, but as the youngest of five in an all-female household.

“I was very nurtured, but I also didn’t have a voice,” Rodriguez said. “I was more quiet. I was creating artwork that was all me. It was like journaling in a way.”

Artist George Rodriguez poses next to one of his latest creations, a rethinking of American Gothic by Grant Wood. Rodriguez created the sculptures in the image of a housemaid and a farmworker, two jobs predominantly held by Mexican immigrants and what Rodriguez calls the new American story. (Photo by Enrique Pérez de la Rosa for Crosscut)

As a graduate student in Seattle, a Bonderman Travel Fellowship gave him the opportunity to visit 26 countries in 10 months. In 2010, Rodriguez flew to Lima, Peru, with absolutely no plan. He didn’t know anyone there or have a place to stay. His taxi driver was both his airport chauffeur and his travel agent in his first hours in the country.

It was a life-changing experience. Rodriguez traveled through South America, Asia and Eastern Europe, connecting with all kinds of people along the way.

“Even though there are exterior differences, in reality, we all want very similar things,” he says. “Being open and accepting to that allowed it to happen.”

Spending time in foreign countries also changed his sculpting process by giving him creative inspiration.

“I was like a sponge,” Rodriguez says. “All over cities like Bangkok, I saw these wonderful temples that were just covered in decoration. It felt really familiar to me.”

Rodriguez was especially drawn in by ornamentations and architectural textures that he discovered were made from smaller detailed elements. After seeing such patterns everywhere he traveled, he concluded: the aesthetic of ornamentation triggers happiness. “It’s not about the functionality of the thing,” Rodriguez says. “It’s just to be pleasurable. And I think we all need a little bit of that, just pleasure for pleasure’s sake.”