Chucho’s Biography
“I lay down an original idea or thought and use the medium to bring that idea to life.”
My name is Jorge “Chucho” Hernandez. I graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. I’ve been an artist for over twenty-five years working in several different mediums including drawing, illustration, ink on paper, portraits, and photography. I like to concentrate on oil on canvas. The bigger the better. A large format allows me to create a scene that demands notice of the finer details within a concentrated scope.
I come from a long line of family storytellers. Dyslexia made it difficult for me to continue an oral tradition. In painting, I found a vehicle to continue my inherited storytelling skills. I remember being entranced in the stories my grandmother was telling me, yet so fearful when I went to open my mouth.
Watching my grandfather work with wood was a major influence on my art. He taught me that being alone never meant you had to be lonely. I believe alone-time is where the magic lives. Attention to detail and precision is part of every painting I create. Watching my grandfather working with wood cultivated the development of using both right and left sides of my brain. The peace found in my grandfather’s heart is also a part of every piece I paint.
Being of Brasilian decent, you can almost hear the samba beat in every stroke. I use music to transform my thoughts…shaping and defining them…before brushing them against the canvas. I’m focused on a moment, a beat…transposing that thought…that glimpse…into a zillion strokes…that create a hypnotic, visual scene.
Featured cover artist for San Diego CityBeat magazine.
January 2011 I was one of a few artists to be represented by The Picture Arts Foundation, Los Angeles.
I recently collaborated with Sports & The Arts, where my painting was commissioned by The San Francisco Forty-Niners and will remain on display at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
I live on the Central Coast of California and keep an artist studio on the family vineyard where I try to get a daily dose of yoga, painting, and meditation.
My name is Jorge “Chucho” Hernandez. I graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. I’ve been an artist for over twenty-five years working in several different mediums including drawing, illustration, ink on paper, portraits, and photography. I like to concentrate on oil on canvas. The bigger the better. A large format allows me to create a scene that demands notice of the finer details within a concentrated scope.
I come from a long line of family storytellers. Dyslexia made it difficult for me to continue an oral tradition. In painting, I found a vehicle to continue my inherited storytelling skills. I remember being entranced in the stories my grandmother was telling me, yet so fearful when I went to open my mouth.
Watching my grandfather work with wood was a major influence on my art. He taught me that being alone never meant you had to be lonely. I believe alone-time is where the magic lives. Attention to detail and precision is part of every painting I create. Watching my grandfather working with wood cultivated the development of using both right and left sides of my brain. The peace found in my grandfather’s heart is also a part of every piece I paint.
Being of Brasilian decent, you can almost hear the samba beat in every stroke. I use music to transform my thoughts…shaping and defining them…before brushing them against the canvas. I’m focused on a moment, a beat…transposing that thought…that glimpse…into a zillion strokes…that create a hypnotic, visual scene.
Featured cover artist for San Diego CityBeat magazine.
January 2011 I was one of a few artists to be represented by The Picture Arts Foundation, Los Angeles.
I recently collaborated with Sports & The Arts, where my painting was commissioned by The San Francisco Forty-Niners and will remain on display at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
I live on the Central Coast of California and keep an artist studio on the family vineyard where I try to get a daily dose of yoga, painting, and meditation.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
“Man with a Blue Guitar”
Influences
Faith Ringold and Italo Scanga were both instructors at UCSD that helped shape my abilities as a storyteller. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Arturo Sandoval, Milton Nascimento, Tony Gwynn, Dr Seuss, every graffiti tag I have ever seen, comic books, animation, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Francis Ford Coppola, and Quentin Tarantino are some of my primary influences.
Painting ” Tag”
Artists Statement
Stepping in front of a blank canvas is what I equate to walking on a tightrope. At every stage of a painting I have to control my mind. I deflect my tension through application of oils: texture and color lend balance so I don’t fall.
Painting, the physical act, at some point becomes my way of meditating. I lay down an original idea or thought and use the medium to bring that idea to life.
Ultimately, I create art so I can go on a trip. The viewer is as a passenger on my journey. My hope is they might experience something that first affected me as a thought and helped me create and hone that idea into a reality, albeit a reality on canvas.
