"Art is the only salvation from the horror of existence"

My full name is Juan Carlos Vela Jr.  I first became interested in art while traveling with my family. I was a military dependent.  Drawing occupied my mind while on long road trips.  Comic books and paperback covers by the artist Frank Frazetta sparked my imagination.  Due to my extensive traveling and living in different states like, North and South Carolina, New Mexico, California, Virginia, and Texas.  I have been exposed to different cultures within our society. The most interesting place that I have lived in was Misawa, Japan. I lived there for 3 years during my teens. There I was exposed to Japanese culture and art.  Intricate patterns in Japanese shrines and temples fascinated my meticulous nature.  During that time I became interested in illustration.  I became skilled in pen and ink work.

After graduating High school in Quantico, Virginia .  I attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Classes in art history, life drawing, and design educated me in the styles and philosophy of art, But what really inspired me was the city, graffiti, and tattoos.  I incorporate all that in my art now.  A lot can be learned outside of the classroom.

Although I attended this university. I consider myself to be without formal training in painting  since I prefer to experiment with composition and color on my own. In an effort to expand my creativity I have worked in different mediums like watercolor, pastels, acrylic, and oil paint.  The result of this cross mixing of studies are my surrealistic paintings that fuses folk and contemporary styles. Everyone of my paintings is a representation of the collective unconscious. A dream with a dream. I see patterns  or images in nature and human behavior that can be manipulated into interesting thought provoking designs I want the spectator to relate to.

Fall to pieces
    24"x30"
Acrylic and oil on canvas

                                                                                                   The Painter (to himself)
​​                                                                                                        Every point counts-
                                                                                     every thickness and thinness counts
                                                                                      every direction - every brushstroke
                                                                                                                      counts-
​                                                                               and so do the most differentiated color shades-
                                                                                           They do not count for themselves
                                                                                       their velocity and power is manifested
​                                                                                                 in magic relation unto them-
​                                                                                       Make the picture furrowed like earth
​                                                                                                        and brilliant like sun
​                                                                                            make it pearl and diamond laden
​                                                                                                   with colour in every shade
                                                                                           make it hard and weighty like rock-
​                                                                                                          but dewey like fruit
​                                                                                               and pulsating like blood does in 
                                                                                                                 a loving heart
                                                                                               and fill it with life and laughs and 
                                                                                                                          tears
                                                                                               that it may be felt how you have 
                                                                                                                          felt it
                                                                                                    as the maker of a new world

​                                                                                                                                            Hans Hoffman, 1955