Jose Quinonez

Jose Quinonez, with no formal training in art, states that he “started my creations as a therapy to recover from an accident that required eleven surgeries to rebuild his left jawbone. I found that getting immersed in these creations kept my mind free of the pain and gave joy to continue my journey”. He only uses acrylic as my medium for expressing his creations. He often paints on stretched canvas, but from time to time, he has been known to upcycle abandoned materials as "canvases" for new creations -- from abandoned pieces of plywood to an old butcher's board (and even his wife's old metal filing cabinet!)

Jose describes himself - with some accuracy - as a primitive cubista painter. Through his paintings, he tries to capture both the vitality and images of traditional Guatemalan life as well as the tragic reality of the past day nation. Their straight lines, geometric patterns, and brilliant colors are inspired by the patterns used in traditional Mayan textiles. The juxtaposition of colors in my paintings creates an almost textured quality so that at times one is tempted to reach out and feel the woven pattern I am creating. His creations with the feature-less faces cry out for both an end to the suffering and for justice for the indigenous peoples of Latin America.

He paints to give expression to the joys, rhythms, and meanings he finds in life, in community, and in nature. He weaves in the colors, patterns, textures, and symbols of Latin American indigenous communities to honor their experiences of joy and of horror, of connection and of fragmentation, of exploitation and of belonging.