Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Angel Hernandez.
Hi Jose, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey as an artist started when the world was counting down the last few days of the 20th century in anticipation of Y2K (Year 2000). I reflected on my life and realized I needed to satisfy an inner desire that was asleep and unnoticed within me. As an instructor in Corporate America, I have helped a lot of people and corporations improve their performance but at that moment I could not think of anything I had done to help myself. I thought of my childhood days when I would draw my father sitting down watching television. That was when it clicked: the artist within was ready to make an entrance in the world. It was then my journey of words and colors began. A journey of creating meaningful art and public speaking.
Twenty years have passed since that awakening and after several detours, the purpose of my journey as an artist became clear in the year 2014 while living in Los Angeles: To create art that is meaningful, interactive, playful, and evokes conversation. The new focus resulted from the addition of found, recycled, or purchased objects to the flat surface of my artwork and the use of vibrant colors.
Today I live in the North Dallas area where I continue creating Mixed Media Assemblage Art. The use of three-dimensional objects has allowed me to explore and expand my body of work to include organic shapes, psychological abstract portraits, animals in a zoomorphic style, and conceptual art. Whether it is a portrait, an animal, or a concept, the 3D elements enrich the message and makes the artwork more interesting and meaningful. My collectors find connections with the composition, 3D objects, and use of color in my artwork. Creating 3D Mixed Media art has helped me satisfy that inner desire that started late in the year 1999 and will continue to the end of my life.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Finding my artistic voice was a process that took me fourteen years of trial-and-error. Time well spent searching, exploring, and discovering what I was truly meant to create. It seems self-taught artists must work harder to get recognized if they get any recognition at all. The answers to my struggles as an artist lay in what is the definition of fine art. Although my work is not accepted in some art venues, I am committed to my style and form of expression and have collectors that appreciate my work.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As an artist, I find most satisfaction in mentally composing a work of art and at the very end having the work of art communicate back to me my initial intentions. This trajectory is even more interesting when the work of art surprises me by taking a different direction during the creation process.
My mission as an artist is to create art that is meaningful, interactive, playful, and evokes conversation. Each piece has been created with objects that I have either found, recycled, or purchased and then incorporated to add a three-dimensional element to the viewing experience.
I consider art a means of communication based on the materials, techniques, and forms I use to create my intent. My abstract portraits have to do with human thoughts and the dynamic that surrounds us, and my animals are interactive and playful.
I define my work as Mixed Media Assemblage Art and my subjects include organic forms, abstract portraits of people, animals in a zoomorphic style, conceptual art.
My favorite venues are the art festivals where I get the opportunity to interact with art lovers. Having art conversations with patrons of art is not only satisfying but also enlightening.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I was raised with values of giving instead of taking. At 65 years old, it is more about how I could collaborate and support the next generation of artists. Currently, I am collaborating with a group of artists in support of mental health, depression and bipolar disorder. We create collaborative works of art and find venues to display the works. Our objective is to provide outsider artists opportunities to show their work and to create awareness and understanding of mental health.
That said, I would love to work with a group of young artists on a large-scale project with purpose. It’s been in the back of my mind for a few years to create the framework of an elephant for hanging art with specific themes, messages, etc. I call it the Elephant In The Room.
Contact Info:
- Email: contactjoseangel@gmail.com
- Website: wordsandcolors.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jose_angel_art/?hl=en
- Facebook: @wordsandcolorsJoseAngelHernandez · Personal blog
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6fGqyaQz9uUX5sCy9xPPQg
Image Credits
Raul Rivero Photography
