Damien H. Garcia approaches his expressive style of art through a personal perspective of life and the world around him. Paint and paper each offer the benefit of style, color and depth. Each work begins with a limitless pallet for the expression of emotions, feelings, thoughts and dreams. Addition of color builds the mood and style. Garcia’s paintings and sculptures recreate and transfer a moment in time into an expression of those emotions, using gesture and color to define each work.
Ceramic sculpture completes the process as a study. Garcia begins with a drawing, moves through a painting and ultimately arrives at a sculpture. The original mental snapshot taken, Garcia brings the beginning idea from paper, through paint, then to a complete visual concept with which the viewer can interact. The elements create movement in the viewer's eye until the snapshot appears, one that touches each of us individually, bringing the entire process full circle, infinitely.
Garcia continues to produce pieces that allow him to grow as a person and as an artist. His work is a memoir in progress... a visual journey coming from a deep respect of his perspective of life.
Garcia has created artwork in one form or another for over 10 years. When Damien began to seriously create large paintings in 2004, he stepped away from the three-dimensional art world to create works in two dimensions. This challenge accentuated his exploration of using drawing as a foundation. Expanding on this idea, Garcia has found that the interaction of various mediums allows him to express himself more fully. In fact, the process of capturing a moment in time has been the defining evolution of Garcia's work.
Garcia has taught ceramics for the better part of eleven years. Actually, teaching has been a large part of his own learning process. Finding ways in which clay can embody one's vision and then to pass that creative process to someone else and feed their creative inspiration expands Garcia’s mind. By being around inspired people creates an energy that cannot be found internally. Garcia does enjoy the self-exploration of his own psyche, but there is nothing akin to the give-and-take that is unleashed in a teaching situation. Currently teaching his peers in Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, NY, Garcia feels there is nothing more challenging, profound and gratifying than to be an artist teaching artists.
