Juan rodriguez, classical contemporary artist

Since childhood, Juan has passionately expressed his response to his world through sculpture, drawing, and painting. His lifelong works reflect the life he has lived and is experiencing.

Juan’s great-grandparents and his grandmother, as an infant, arrived in the United States with documents in the early twentieth century.

Juan is empathetic to immigrants who risk their lives to come here today. He understands they come here because of their desperate situations. Their choices are extraordinarily limited. He knows immigrants did not knowingly risk their lives coming here to “freeload” on our welfare system.

Juan is emotionally affected by the many deaths of migrants attempting to cross our borders from the Sonora Desert. He sketched a series of migrant death drawings to process his response to this human tragedy.

Juan’s art searches for the soul of the Indigenous American identity with skulls, shape-shifting shamans, and crows. He draws and paints animals and objects from the natural world.

He creates large sculptures with natural found objects and solid wood carvings. He makes small abstract figure sculptures with fired clay.

He draws and paints on topics, with an anguish series showing the anguish of both good and evil persons, satires of politicians, and other aspects of the world that affect him.

He draws the human figure as a daily habit to hone his technical skills. His drawings are evocative of the Renaissance masters and are objects of art to collect. These pastel, charcoal, and pencil drawings are emotional, hauntingly beautiful, and riveting.

Juan received a degree in Fine Art from the University of Washington. During his studies there, he focused on the Renaissance techniques of Leonardo De Vinci and Michaelangelo.

His sketches and oil painting techniques are based on those of the Renaissance masters, and it shows. One gallerist in downtown San Fransisco noted when critiquing his six-foot charcoal sketch, “Wings,” – “It is not of this century.”

His topics in his artworks and personal style are his own, however, and have a deep, dark resonance to them that define the unique spirit of the pieces. Each work is a remarkable object to collect and treasure as an heirloom.

In addition to his lifelong passion for creating art, Juan served a term of duty in the United States military. He taught autistic children in Bremerton, WA public schools for many years. He has also given many individual and group art classes from his studio. He is retired from teaching and focuses on his studio artwork practice and teaching art from his studio.

Juan’s life efforts have contributed significantly to this society, as has been the case with immigrants and their descendants in this country since its inception. Our country is richer for his life here.