Ruben Urrea Moreno

I feel fortunate to have a voracious appetite for and a natural inclination for studying art. Like the early surrealists, I am a self-taught pupil of both the living and dead Masters. Beginning at the age of seven or eight, I set myself on a path to learn, hungrily, from the silent and colorful teachings of the likes of Michelangelo and other Renaissance greats. Thankfully, my evident curiosity and adoration for the arts was both accepted and encouraged by my family.

Today, my work is the product of various influences from the ancient to the contemporary, from classical to pop culture. I draw on mythologies found around the world and merge them with contemporary ideas and then blend this combination further with artistic traditions from my Mexican heritage. Additionally, personal experiences, the political plights of American culture and political events around the world infuse my artistic core. Story telling through my art allows me to incorporate these elements and pay homage to love and death, and the ethos of good and bad.

My growing responsibility, as an artist, is to cast a light on both the beauty and cruelty of human existence on our planet. I see that people are capable of being their own best friends or their own worst enemies. By weaving spirituality, philosophy and ethics into my work, I hope to inspire the viewer to become consciously aware that there is value in a friendlier, less domineering and more sustainable relationship among ourselves and with the rest of nature. I wish to move people toward a place of empowerment so the choice to create positive relationships can be imagined and made with hope and joy.

These are all very conscience explorations. And although, in some ways, these goals are abstract and will be cryptic in translation making them harder to understand, I must press on, or rather, paint on, in hopes that the "connections" between artistic creation and evolution will happen. It's all I have.