Art That Connects

A look at artist Saul Jerome E. San Juan ’s distinctive portraits.

By CONNOR BEHRENS

I perceive to be others’ proud feelings of moral and aesthetic superiority—feelings of superiority that I admit indulging in myself as I choose how to make art.”

The Lone Star State has been an inspiration for San Juan lately, which is evident in his landscape pieces. “I am inspired by the summertime, the rivers of the Texas Hill Country, country music, contemporary art, art history and more,” he notes.

“My landscape paintings are done onsite and in one sitting, so they are definitely responses to the momentary scene. I can enjoy the wonder of the place, made more precious by the limited time. The spontaneity and physical immersion of my landscape work are foils to the extremely time-consuming artifice of my studio work.”

San Juan also enjoys experimenting with other media and finding additional ways to tell stories that spark audience conversations and emotional reactions.

“My studio work, which is represented in the Houston show, involves hoarding visual material through the internet and photo shoots,” he explains. “I then sift through it all and experiment to create pieces that I can take delight in working on for days. It allows me to speak to my audience politely and elegantly, justifying my indulgence in the raw material.”

San Juan believes that art is more important now than ever before, because people are looking for a means of escape. He appreciates how art allows people to experience a shared connection with one another.

“Paradoxically, in a world that is hyperconnected with instant communication, empathy between human beings is easily lost,” he says. “I feel that great art has the ability to slow us down and get us to empathize with other people—to find out what keeps them going and, more broadly, remind us what it means to be human, to appreciate our shared feelings of being alive through suffering and pleasure, even as our technology has largely desensitized us and caused us to cower from the awfully beautiful mess that is the wondrous complexity of existence.”

San Juan hopes his pieces will spark dialogue and many thoughtful conversations among those who see his works.

“My art, to me, comes alive in dialogue with an audience and the feelings, experiences, and preconceptions they bring,” he says. “Part of my pleasure in making art is the expectation that others will see it and be somehow affected by it, even minutely.”

What: Figurish art exhibit

When: Through March 12

Where: Bill Arning Exhibitions, 604 W. Alabama Info: billarning.com and sauljerome.com