Java.Sept.2017-1

confidence to step out more as an artist. Right before graduating, Gonzales was
able to show at a gallery.
After graduating from college, Gonzales moved to New York with his girlfriend.
Living in New York was sort of a dream come true for such an ardent hip-hop fan
and artist in general. While living there, he got married. He was producing art full
time, and life was good for the most part. Unfortunately, things didn’t stay in blissful
stasis. The relationship between him and his partner devolved, and he ended up
having to get a divorce.
“Getting divorced really played a huge role in my life,” said Gonzales. “I started to
just paint. It was this whole self-revolution, an unfortunate event that sparked an
evolution in my work. Tragedy often breeds some type of creativity. It was great—
you chop a tree down and all these sprouts come out. I got to experience life alone
living in New York. It was intimidating but it was still exciting,” Gonzales said.
Fortunately for Gonzales, he was able to reconnect with an old flame from
junior high. After a long distance courtship, they eventually decided to try out a
relationship again, and he moved back to Arizona, where his story began.
speaks to me for whatever reason and will try to fit it into the composition,” said
Gonzales.
“My work takes different elements from nature and puts them together to see
what happens,” Gonzales said. “It’s a lot of play. I like to play with elements that
don’t necessarily thrive together in real life. It’s like an artificial realism. There’s
this element of design and a mixture of realism, along with graphic elements as
well. It’s a contemporary approach to an age-old subject matter. I’m just trying to
present it in a new way. If you strip it down, these could be scientific illustrations,
but I try to make it believable on the surface.”
Eventually Gonzales got a job as a preparator at the Mesa Contemporary Art
Museum. Now he does art when he can, which sometimes means waking up at
five in the morning to paint. Recently he’s done murals at Starbucks throughout the
city and shows in the annual Chaos Theory exhibition. He has exhibited throughout
the West Coast and in Santa Fe. He has a kid with his partner and has a studio in
his mother’s backyard. The hero has returned, and he’s happy.
The Hero Returns
After spending 12 years away from Arizona, Gonzales returned to his origins.
“Moving back to Arizona, I fell in love with the desert again. I collect a lot of
cactuses. I love to see them in people’s yards. I’ll use them for inspiration to start a
drawing on panel with those elements. I’ll look for a reference and find a bird that
JAVA 11
MAGAZINE