Houston full-time artist and stay-at-home dad Raul Gonzalez showcased his art in an exhibit titled “All in a Day’s Werk” last Thursday in the Rusteberg Hall Gallery at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville.
The solo show featured Gonzalez’s art inspired by work.
The artist’s father was a construction worker and Gonzalez wanted to highlight the art of construction and labor.
As time went on, Gonzalez learned that work was not just a manual task but also a labor of love. This was his inspiration for the body of work presented.
“I would say the main inspiration behind all of it is, like, just labor and work, thinking about how we define and look at … labor, and how we sort of assign gender roles, like, based on what type of work is being done,” Gonzalez said in an interview with The Rider.
He said the overall message in his work is to get people thinking about the way society views manual labor versus domestic labor.
Gonzalez aims to break the stigma that men cannot be nurturing parents. He has found an appreciation for the work and sacrifice of parents and construction workers and demonstrates it in his art.
“A lot of times, like, guys are almost always, you know, shown as macho or, like, clueless when it comes to parenting,” Gonzalez said. “So, I wanted to, you know, like, forget all that. This is what I’m doing with my time right now and how I’m trying to balance being both a full-time parent and a full-time artist to really give people that perspective to look at.”
Gonzalez paints and draws on various different mediums. Some of the pieces from his show were painted on shards of concrete that he found from the foundation of his home.
The symbolism behind it to Gonzalez that concrete is the foundation for construction and homes. He also said he uses different materials when creating art, including house paints, acrylics and pens.
This resourcefulness of materials comes from his daughters, June and Cecelia.
“I start with house paints and then I do layers and layers of acrylic, and some of that acrylic paint that I use comes from when I’m at home with the girls in the studio,” Gonzalez said. “We’ll do painting and they always have a lot of leftover paint. So, a lot of times, I’ll take a lot of that leftover acrylic and use that to build up the layers.”
He said the most difficult part of creating his art is finding the time.
“I don’t have time to make artwork, like, during the day with my girls,” Gonzalez said. “If we go to the studio, I’m not usually getting work done; it’s kind of like setting them up to do stuff and I kind of just get things sort of ready for the nighttime when I can work.”
Some things he does to get in a creative space include listening to music, working out and dancing.
Asked what advice he had for aspiring artists, Gonzalez replied, “Come up with your own path and wherever it is, just keep going with it, ’cause, like, I didn’t take [any] sort of straight and narrow path. I also listened to a lot of advice I’ve received over my lifetime, but I’ve also ignored a lot of advice I’ve received.”
For the next six months, Gonzalez will work on his first-ever public art commission for the San Antonio City Hall to highlight the city’s diverse musical landscape, including Tejano Conjunto culture, the ’80s heavy-metal scene and early jazz scene.
The exhibit, which is sponsored by the UTRGV College of Fine Arts, continues through Nov. 22. Admission is free. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.
