By the time Julio Humberto Rodriguez Perez was 5 years old, he was drawing palm trees and loving life in his birthplace of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. “I think my Mother made a mistake in naming me after the famous Spanish painter, because I’ve never been able to stop painting for long.”
His middle school teachers must have noticed his talent because although he was accepted at both FIT and The High School of Art & Design, he decided to attend Dodge Vocational High School in The Bronx instead. “My parents wouldn’t let me go to those schools, they were just too far away from our home in The Bronx.”
When the Cuba blockade occurred, Julio was off to sea with the U.S. Navy for 3 years. Back in The Bronx, safe and sound, he was accepted at Bronx Community College where he studied art history, African art and figure drawing. “Palm trees were still my favorite subject, but in those days, selling art was hard work with small profits, so I decided to put my art away and became a chef. ”
For the next several years he worked at many restaurants including Horn & Hardart, the Brass Rail and the Rainbow Room. He also studied at the International Bartending School and taught bartending for many years. Although it was fun, there was no money in it, so he went back to cooking and got creative. Chef Julio has written two books: Dolls Kitchen and Cooking Columbus, a history of cooking in the Caribbean; plus he has 20 videos on you tube. His mantra became: “I will paint when I retire.”
In 2010 his dream came true. He retired and purchased $2,000 worth of art equipment from Shipman’s a neighborhood art store that was closing. He was ready to return to his true passion – painting! “Most of my paintings are themes of the Caribbean, with sunrises, sunsets, water scenes, animals, musicians and palm trees. My colors are bold and vivid and often alive with movement. My style of painting is surrealism. Sometimes the paintings have soft brush strokes and at other times they are rough and painted with an art knife. “
Julio used to paint large canvasses, but he got tired of lugging them home after an exhibit. One day he had a dream and the message he received was “paint small”. He decided to follow this angelic advice and began painting 8×10’s which started selling very well. He realized that people coming to an art fair or an exhibit want to purchase art, but don’t want to spend too much, so his paintings are reasonably priced. One of his favorite themes to paint are roosters. He has about 20 rooster pictures that he will be showing at the upcoming National Puerto Rican Artisans Fair and Book Expo being held at Hostos Community College on Saturday, November 17. He is inviting everyone to come by and say hello!
“I enjoy painting almost every day and plan to do several art exhibits every year. I have lots of catching up to do and also have a personal goal of producing 40 paintings per year. My paintings come in all sizes and prices and range from $150.00 to $1,000.00. I want everyone to be able to purchase a Rodriguez painting to exhibit somewhere in their home.”
Why PRIDA?: “I joined PRIDA to get exposure for my art at different levels.”
Contact at: Jrodriguez244@gmail.com or at 347-556-9347.
Edited by Clara Galvano.