.Car­los Don Juan
www​.car​los​don​juan​.com
Hous­ton, TX

Car­los Don Juan was born in San Luis Potosi, Mex­ico in 1982 and is cur­rently liv­ing and work­ing in Dal­las, Texas. He attended the Uni­ver­sity of Texas and received both his B.F.A in Draw­ing and Paint­ing and his M.F.A. in Stu­dio Art. While at school he won 1^st Place, 25^th Annual Juried Stu­dent Art Exhi­bi­tion at The Uni­ver­sity of Texas at San Anto­nio two years in a row. He now teaches Draw­ing at the Uni­ver­sity of Texas at Arling­ton. He cur­rently has works in the col­lec­tions of Cheech Marin Col­lec­tion, Jim Harithas, Dio Suma­gaysay, Joe Diaz Collection.

Curbs and Stoops:  Tell us a lit­tle about your­self. Where you’re from, where you’ve been…

Car­los Don Juan: I was born in San Luis Potosi, Mex­ico. My par­ents brought my broth­ers and me to the U.S.A. ille­gally when we were very lit­tle. I have lived most of my life now in Dal­las, Texas. I’ve done some trav­el­ing, but not enough. I have gone all over Mex­ico, Texas and Cal­i­for­nia. I should be trav­el­ing out to Italy, Ger­many and all South Amer­ica in the near future.

Curbs and Stoops:  You were born in Mex­ico, but spent most of your life in Dal­las, TX. How has this mul­ti­cul­tural upbring­ing shaped you as an artist? What types of themes present in your life can most often be seen reflected in your painting?

Car­los Don Juan: Being born in Mex­ico but liv­ing in the U.S. has been inter­est­ing. I have learned to appre­ci­ate the lit­tle things. My cul­tural back­ground has given me so many sources of inspi­ra­tions. One exam­ple is immi­gra­tion and how immi­grants are treated in this coun­try. Its tough not know­ing Eng­lish, not hav­ing a social secu­rity card, and being dis­crim­i­nated because of the color of your skin. That being said, immi­gra­tion and racism are some of the reoc­cur­ring themes in my work.

Curbs and Stoops:  I under­stand that you’ve been involved in graf­fiti for over ten years, help­ing to form the super tal­ented TX-​based crew Sour Grapes. Graf­fiti is more than an art form, its a lifestyle. Many artists started in graf­fiti, for excite­ment, for fame, for com­mu­nity, and later devel­oped an inter­est in aca­d­e­mic art. Which came first for you, graf or fine art?

Car­los Don Juan: As a kid, I loved draw­ing comic book art and copy­ing the stuff from Lowrider Art Mag­a­zine. At the age of 15 or 16, graf­fiti pretty much took over my life. Until this day at the age of 27, I still make time to paint a wall here and there. I got into more art stuff when I was a junior in high school. My teacher thought me about Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Fer­nando Botero and many oth­ers. After that, art and graf­fiti were always a part of who I was.

Curbs and Stoops:  In your artist state­ment you write, “The atti­tude that I have when I cre­ate a paint­ing is sim­i­lar to the one that I have when I am paint­ing in the streets. My men­tal­ity is part ego, part adren­a­line, part com­pet­i­tive, part street…” How does this trans­late styl­is­ti­cally? What ele­ments of graf­fiti do you bring into your paint­ing that make your exe­cu­tion unique? How do you keep that graf energy, that sin­gu­lar dog-​eat-​dog men­tal­ity, rel­e­vant to your prac­tice in your cur­rent aca­d­e­mic context?

Car­los Don Juan: First is the graf­fiti atti­tude that I have devel­oped. You have to stay on top of things because the com­pe­ti­tion is though and always pro­gress­ing. That is the rea­son why I am con­stantly mak­ing work and stay­ing busy. My process for paint­ing is sim­i­lar to my graf­fiti because that is the way that I learned to build a work of art. You buff, sketch, fill-​in, details, high­lights, back­ground and final cuts. My graf­fiti and paint­ings are made in the same order. I paint on raw birch wood pan­els, which to me feels the same as spray paint on a brick or cement walls. Fame in the graf­fiti cul­ture comes from hav­ing your work present in the streets. Pop­u­lar­ity in the art world comes from hav­ing shows and being art gal­leries. My work cur­rently exists in both worlds.

Curbs and Stoops:  Speak­ing of aca­d­e­mics, you got your M.F.A. from the Uni­ver­sity of Texas San Anto­nio. Tell me a bit about that expe­ri­ence. How did peo­ple respond to your style and per­sona in a uni­ver­sity envi­ron­ment? Did you come across oppo­si­tion or doubt based on where you came from and how you pre­sented yourself?

Car­los Don Juan: It was amaz­ing hav­ing pro­fes­sors at U.T.S.A. that really appre­ci­ated my work and where I came from. They always chal­lenged my ideas and thought process to see if I was com­ing from a true gen­uine place. They really helped my art grow con­cep­tu­ally and tech­ni­cally. I really had to do some soul search­ing to show that my work had much more to say. Re-​discovering old ideas and find­ing new ones was quiet a jour­ney for me. I did come across some oppo­si­tion, but I think it was for my own good. Going to grad school was one of the great­est things that I have ever done for myself.

Curbs and Stoops:  I under­stand that you’ve been teach­ing draw­ing at the Uni­ver­sity level. How do you like teach­ing? How do your stu­dents respond to you?

Car­los Don Juan: Teach­ing at the uni­ver­sity level has been great. I try to give my stu­dents the advice and guid­ance nec­es­sary to cre­ate good draw­ings. I share my expe­ri­ences and knowl­edge with them and hope that it’s ben­e­fi­cial. I have seen some great work come from stu­dents and I totally feed off of their energy. Most stu­dents think that I am a class­mate of theirs on the first day of class. I guess its because I look young to them. One of the funny things is that most stu­dents know some­thing about me before we ever meet. They look me up online and find my web­site (www​.car​los​don​juan​.com). Usu­ally they have ques­tions about my work and request for me to teach them graffiti.

Curbs and Stoops:  There are a lot of strong art his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ences in your work. Many of your com­po­si­tions attain an impres­sive blend of con­tem­po­rary fla­vor and Old Mas­ter tech­nique. Tell me about some of your favorite artists, and great­est influences.

Car­los Don Juan: Many artists influ­ence me and I am always look­ing for new work to look at. Here is a short list in no par­tic­u­lar order. Michelan­gelo, Raphael, Goya, Alice Neel, Fer­nando Botero, Frida Kahlo, Fran­cis Bacon, Alex Katz, Jean-​Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschen­berg, Jenny Sav­ille, Phillip Pearl­stein, Barry McGee, Mar­garet Kill­gallen, Rebecca West­cott, Jim Houser, Alex Rubio, Chaz Bojorquez, Vin­cent Valdez, Revok, Saber, Nace, Kaws, etc. This list can go on forever.

Curbs and Stoops:  When you start a new piece, what do you have in your head? Are you a man of many prepara­tory draw­ings or do you just go with the flow?

Car­los Don Juan: It’s a lit­tle bit of both. I work off of sketches, books, pho­tos, mem­o­ries and ideas. There are usu­ally planned out ele­ments mixed with the unknown.

Curbs and Stoops:  Do you lis­ten to music while you paint? What kind of tunes gets your cre­ative juices flowing?

Car­los Don Juan: I have to have music when I am paint­ing. I love all kinds of music. Here is a short list in no par­tic­u­lar order. Buena Vista Social Club, Aniceto Molina, Sonora San­tander, Ray Bar­retto, At the Drive-​In, Deftones, Glass­jaw, Recover, John Holt, Bar­ring­ton Levy, Bob Mar­ley, Diplo, Buraka Som Sis­tema, Toy Selec­tah, Tittsworth, Nadas­trom and many many more.

Curbs and Stoops:  You paint a lot of por­traits. Who do they rep­re­sent? Do you have peo­ple sit for por­traits, work from photos?

Car­los Don Juan: My por­traits rep­re­sent the peo­ple that sur­round me phys­i­cally and men­tally. I do believe that there are spir­its that guide me in life. Most of my paint­ings are based off of sev­eral pho­tographs that I take. I usu­ally have 4 to 5 pho­tographs for one por­trait. It’s been dif­fi­cult to get peo­ple to sit for me because every­one is so busy all the time, so pho­tos work the best for me.

Curbs and Stoops:  Some of your por­traits include placas.Some peo­ple would see these pla­cas and imme­di­ately asso­ciate them with gang activ­ity or vio­lence. Do you ever get neg­a­tive responses to this ele­ment of your work? How do you respond? What does neigh­bor­hood and com­mu­nity play in your life and art?

Car­los Don Juan: I don’t get much neg­a­tive feed­back when it comes to my tat­tooed por­traits. If you look at them closely, you will see that they are not gang related. The viewer knows that a paint­ing cant hurt them, so they can approach it and inves­ti­gate it. They appre­ci­ate it for what it is and its qual­i­ties. If they were to see the actual per­son on the streets or at an art recep­tion, they would keep their dis­tance from him. Just because you have a young His­panic Male with tat­toos, it doesn’t make him a gang mem­ber. I think it’s a strange reac­tion, but I pur­posely use it to cre­ate more of a dia­log between my work and the viewer. Its fun. My neigh­bor­hood plays a part of who I am and my work. I grew up in the Oak Cliff neigh­bor­hood, which is located in Dal­las, Texas. I have seen my fair share of crime, friends locked up, and friends killed. Its pretty sad, but it has allowed me to really appre­ci­ate all of the oppor­tu­ni­ties that I have had.

Curbs and Stoops:  You also do some amaz­ing pho­tog­ra­phy and print mak­ing. How do these other medi­ums fac­tor into your artis­tic prac­tice. Do you pri­mar­ily focus on paint­ing, or do you split your time pretty evenly?

Car­los Don Juan: My main focus is paint­ing, but some­times I need a break from that. This is why I also work in pho­tog­ra­phy, graf­fiti, print­mak­ing, dig­i­tal film, t-​shirt print­ing, mural paint­ing, etc. All of these other cre­ative out­lets enhance my paint­ings and help me grow artistically.

Curbs and Stoops:  You seem like a man of many hob­bies. What other inter­ests occupy your time when you’re not cre­at­ing art?

Car­los Don Juan: Fish­ing, base­ball games, trav­el­ing, gro­cery shop­ping, laun­dry, rid­ing my bike, read­ing, and hang­ing out with my fam­ily and friends. No t.v. or video games for me. There is too much to do and not enough time.

Curbs and Stoops:  What kind of projects do you have on your hori­zon? Where can fans go to keep up to date with what you’re creating?

Car­los Don Juan: I have sev­eral art shows planned. I think I might be booked for the rest of the year. Some of the high­lights include my first pro­fes­sional solo show. Art Basel in Miami and show­ing in the Cheech Marin Col­lec­tion. Cheech from Cheech and Chong is a very respected art col­lec­tor and has the largest pri­vate Chi­cano Art Col­lec­tion in Amer­ica. He recently bought two of my paint­ings and they should be part of a trav­el­ing exhi­bi­tion soon. Peo­ple that want to keep up with me can look at www​.car​los​don​juan​.com