So I went to go check out the Carlos Huante and Jose Fernandez show, "Fallen", in San Francisco at the Varnish Gallery last night and let me say that it was AMAZING!!!!! I already knew that Carlos was a great artist but realizing the scope of how detailed and how much you can pick out and appreciate in his pieces was staggering. If you have seen his previous book "Monstruo", expect some different type of paintings here. These are more reflective on the human will and spirit rather than twisted, grotesque monsters. He wrote poems to go along with a lot of his pieces that compliment them very well. I got to talk to him for a bit and I was asking him about how it was as an artist in the film industry. He said he loved working for films but he strove to have more of the artists being recognized in the movie production, like in movie guides, that's why he first came out with "Monstruo". He also talked about some of his influences, which I found a few surprising. He would integrate a lot of fine line quality and shapes inspired from Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt, pick out the negative spaces like J.C. Leyendecker and choose adventurous subjects like N.C. Wyeth. He was a very down to earth guy and really nice, and I enjoyed meeting him. Jose Fernandez of course is an incredible sculptor! All his pieces never seemed to be static, there always was some type of fluidity in them and looked malleable. He was telling me how he worked with Jordu Schell, along with Carlos, on a little movie called "Men in Black" and I really couldn't imagine Jose sculpting little aliens and creatures because all his sculptures were epic and weren't really grotesque. Again, Jose was a very nice guy and down to earth, and he offered me a piece of his gum! *swoon* ha ha. Anybody who is in San Francisco needs to go check out this show! Varnish Gallery 77 Natoma st. @ 2nd. Be There!
