Carlos is a deeply psychological and self-reflective piece that explores the artist’s memories of their childhood. Carlos is part of a series of paintings that were inspired by conversations that Miguel had with his analyst, in which they discussed the summers that he spent as a child on the beaches of northern Mexico. Miguel explains that all of these summers were spent alongside a boy cousin that was the same age as him. Together they would spend the days on the beach exploring and discovering dead sea animals that had washed up on the shore. Miguel was fascinated by the different states of decay that they found these animals in. Often, it would be hard to identify what kind of animals they were discovering as their flesh had rotted away.

Carlos visualises this childhood experience and presents a dreamlike, surreal scene in which a sullen boy stands alongside a near-mythical, abject creature. Throughout the composition, Miguel’s colour palette is moody and intense; behind the boy a black sea crashes against the pale shore and deep red lines slice across the ominous grey sky. The boy stands in a trance-like state; he refuses to let the viewer into his inner world as his expression remains glazed over and distant.