Art By Paco - Paco's Friends

art by paco felici

paco's friends

EDWARD VELASQUEZ (b. 1963)

Edward Velasquez is Paco's neighbor. A nartive of Lockhart, the multi-talented Ed produces some amazing artwork which he oftentimes composes employing found objects, including anything from mixed media sculptures using lumber, discarded compact disks, and alkaline batteries, to more traditional paintings rendered with paint on wood.

In addition to painting and sculpture, Edward is also drawn to photography, woodworking, design and manuiacture of fine furnishings and furniture, digital art, sculpture, gardening, and tile work.

The subject matter that Ed draws upon is richly varied. Much of it is insprited by current events and carries with it a profound social consciousness. Among the first pieces Ed showed Paco was a rendition of Afghani men and women inspired by a news clipping shortly after American troops were deployed to that country, skilfully executed with realistic precision with pencil on the back of a discarded pizza box.

He has also painted figures of the Virgin of Guadalupe onto alkaline batteries -- knowing full well that the artwork has a limited lifespan once the battery begins to corrode, and thus perhaps reminding the audience of both the consumer-driven and disposable culture in which we live, and perhaps, more poigniantly, reminding us of our own limited time on earth.

Self-taught, Ed's style is remarkably varied. The paintings shown here are a small sampling of his extensive talent. Above is a trypical Mexican ice cream vendor, painted with realistic exactitude and fine detail onto a scrap piece of wood.

The caged bird, below - left, brings into focus Ed's ingenuity in piecing together scrap found objects. The bird is painted on wood and "caged" in a meshed metal panel -- discarded perhaps from a large piece of machinery. To the right is a piece that underscores Ed's imagination -- two mouselike representational figures, whose garb casts them as medieval nobility. And finally, below, another traditional painting of two girls, rounding out a trio that is a testament to Ed's versatility.