La Fusion de Tres Culturas c/s
The Chicano Experience y La Fusion de Tres Culturas c/s
Started in the 1970's...
Drawings in the 1980's...
Working in the fields in the 1980's...
Writing began in 2010..
Paintings in 2022
Hecho en el San Joaquin Valley, Califas
Artist Statement:
My life and artistic philosophy are rooted in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. I am a fusion of "Tres Culturas," a fusion of Three Cultures. This new series is titled The Chicano Experience c/s. The paintings are fragments of how the Latino, Chicano, Mexican, and Mexican-American coexist and strive proudly throughout Central California. I am that mestizaje. I act as the facilitator of my painting and palette. I re-tell the stories in my head from my childhood and experiences and apply them to the canvas. My illustrations encourage my viewer to reflect on my past and the present and conserve these stories not taught in schools but learned in the streets and the fields. I want my audience to participate, to be active, and to be inquisitive. The illustrations are composed in an opus style involving fragments of my Chicano experience and the quotidian life of working in the fields of California.
The Fusion:
Chicano Life: As for growing up Chicano, I was immersed in the Lowrider culture since I was a young boy in the 1970s. My most significant influence was my Uncle David with his premiered 1949 Chevrolet Pick-Up, then his 69 Buick Riviera to a 1963 Impala. He's gone from a multi-award-winning 1952 Chevrolet Bomb to his current ride, a cherried-out Cultless Supreme. Being too young to own a car myself, I built dozens of Lowrider models cars and bikes. Lowrider's "culture" is in my roots. Now it's time to put my lowrider roots on canvas.
Farm Worker: Being a son and grandson of a migrant farm-working family from Michoacán, Mexico, working in the field was a trained behavior for a 10-year-old, and that's where I got my work ethic: work/paint from dawn to dusk. You learn from elders. You work alongside other children. You get calluses at a young age, and it is a way of life. A hard life. The farmworker life.
Mexicano/Americano: I am Mexican by blood, sweat, and tears. I am American because I was born in the USA. Sometimes neither side accepted me. I embraced both. I became both. I am proud of my mestizaje .
I'm back on this series I began in 2020. It's time to paint my RAZA.
I'm a California-based painter, sculptor, poet, writer, and storyteller of the little-misunderstood realm of my imagination.
-Diego Gutierrez Monterrubio
Started in the 1970's...
Drawings in the 1980's...
Working in the fields in the 1980's...
Writing began in 2010..
Paintings in 2022
Hecho en el San Joaquin Valley, Califas
Artist Statement:
My life and artistic philosophy are rooted in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. I am a fusion of "Tres Culturas," a fusion of Three Cultures. This new series is titled The Chicano Experience c/s. The paintings are fragments of how the Latino, Chicano, Mexican, and Mexican-American coexist and strive proudly throughout Central California. I am that mestizaje. I act as the facilitator of my painting and palette. I re-tell the stories in my head from my childhood and experiences and apply them to the canvas. My illustrations encourage my viewer to reflect on my past and the present and conserve these stories not taught in schools but learned in the streets and the fields. I want my audience to participate, to be active, and to be inquisitive. The illustrations are composed in an opus style involving fragments of my Chicano experience and the quotidian life of working in the fields of California.
The Fusion:
Chicano Life: As for growing up Chicano, I was immersed in the Lowrider culture since I was a young boy in the 1970s. My most significant influence was my Uncle David with his premiered 1949 Chevrolet Pick-Up, then his 69 Buick Riviera to a 1963 Impala. He's gone from a multi-award-winning 1952 Chevrolet Bomb to his current ride, a cherried-out Cultless Supreme. Being too young to own a car myself, I built dozens of Lowrider models cars and bikes. Lowrider's "culture" is in my roots. Now it's time to put my lowrider roots on canvas.
Farm Worker: Being a son and grandson of a migrant farm-working family from Michoacán, Mexico, working in the field was a trained behavior for a 10-year-old, and that's where I got my work ethic: work/paint from dawn to dusk. You learn from elders. You work alongside other children. You get calluses at a young age, and it is a way of life. A hard life. The farmworker life.
Mexicano/Americano: I am Mexican by blood, sweat, and tears. I am American because I was born in the USA. Sometimes neither side accepted me. I embraced both. I became both. I am proud of my mestizaje .
I'm back on this series I began in 2020. It's time to paint my RAZA.
I'm a California-based painter, sculptor, poet, writer, and storyteller of the little-misunderstood realm of my imagination.
-Diego Gutierrez Monterrubio