Gabriel Sencial

Influences on my work

This started as something else that didn't work, so I cut it down to what was good. It has a Carnavalesque feel, lots of geometry and colors. There's also a calligraphic or Japanese sense, which I owe to all those Japanese calligraphers. The Japanese accept calligraphy as a form of art and we in the West don't. I blow them up and make them mine. Painting, you know, is a kind of signature.

If you take the beautiful textiles from Peru and blow them up you get some similarities to this painting.

The thin veil creates something, like looking at a woman through a negligee. I've been experimenting with veils, like the northern California fog, to invoke emotional responses. How do you put emotion into abstract art other than through very thin layers of paint?

A humorous self-portrait, one that reminds of what Picasso would do of himself. One has to learn to laugh at one's self first before you can laugh at the world. In essence I'm looking at Picasso, answering him and contesting him. This picture just happened. I'd cut all these things, I had another picture underneath. I cut some stuff, said this looks like me, did a few other strokes and -- boom, boom, boom -- there it is.

For more information, please contact Gabriel directly: (707)431-8388.

early days in Medellin

The early '90s

The latest work

	This started as something else that didn't work, so I cut it down to what was good. It has a Carnavalesque feel, lots of geometry and colors. There's also a calligraphic or Japanese sense, which I owe to all those Japanese calligraphers. The Japanese accept calligraphy as a form of art and we in the West don't. I blow them up and make them mine. Painting, you know, is a kind of signature.
If you take the beautiful textiles from Peru and blow them up you get some similarities to this painting.
	The thin veil creates something, like looking at a woman through a negligee. I've been experimenting with veils, like the northern California fog, to invoke emotional responses. How do you put emotion into abstract art other than through very thin layers of paint?
	A humorous self-portrait, one that reminds of what Picasso would do of himself. One has to learn to laugh at one's self first before you can laugh at the world. In essence I'm looking at Picasso, answering him and contesting him. This picture just happened. I'd cut all these things, I had another picture underneath. I cut some stuff, said this looks like me, did a few other strokes and -- boom, boom, boom -- there it is.