﷯ Ruben Salinas Born in Monterrey, Mexico 1956 Educator and Owner at Art Studio Press Oneonta, NY _____________________________________________ EDUCATION 2003 MFA in Art. Stephen F. Austin State University. Nacogdoches, Texas 1980 Bachelor of Science in Communications. Universidad Regiomontana. Monterrey, Mexico. _____________________________________________ "The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science." -Albert Einstein The essential nature of my work is gesture; an intuitive, suggestive, direct and vivid response to the impetus provoked by the contact with the medium and its fluidity over the paper or the canvas. Since childhood, I have always had a fascination for epic subject matter found in films, books, illustrations, and paintings. I started to express this fascination through the suggestive qualities of form and gesture. I have a deep interest in exploring the possibilities of mark making through traditional and digital media. I think of art as an active process of growth and development, a process where expression is the by-product of emphasis. We all choose heroes in our lives, people that inspire and influence us. In my case, it happened at a 1992 art exhibit at Blue Star Art Center in San Antonio, Texas. The show was entitled “Aspects of Contemporary Mexican Art.” The work of one artist in particular, Alejandro Colunga from Guadalajara, Mexico awakened my interest in painting. One year later I took a drawing and painting workshop with him. I learned about his non-attachment approach to image making which triggered his enigmatic characters and fantastic scenarios. When I paint, my efforts focus on getting to the absolute essence. Intuition is my guide when exploring and experimenting with wet and dry media. At the moment of creation the arm, the wrist, the shoulder, and the heart are totally at one with each other. There is no destination and no preconception, no motif, only motivation. It all becomes a unified and transcendent experience fueled by the subconscious mind, a state of being where there is no sense of duality or self-awareness. It is a venture into the unknown. The final work becomes a sheer extension, a vehicle of my passion and inner voice. The works included in this web site were produced using black liquid tempera and acrylic on paper and some of them on canvas. Wide loaded brushes were used to build up the mass gesture and dry brush was used for textures and suggested details. The average work size is 22" x 30".

THE MYSTIC IMAGE