Local In-Home Art Show Gives Artist Voice by Kayla Sheldon - City News Group, Inc.

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Local In-Home Art Show Gives Artist Voice

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

Eric Martinez wrote a brief background of this series of paintings, as well as a special thanks section at the bottom. This was the first thing you saw as you walked in the gallery.

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

This painting by Eric Martinez is called "The Looking Glass" that was described as "a physical manifestation of self-reflection."

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

This painting is called "Learn To Swim" that shares "One can choose to drown in his or her wickedness, or learn to swim and reach out to others in need."

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

"Promised Lands" was painted on donated sheet metal. "The 'Promised Lands' are those fantasies that someone destroys when she or he realizes the grass is not greener on the other side."

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

This painting "On With The Show" is about the artist Eric Martinez's grandmother and her illness.

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

This painting is called "Slowkill Trafficjam", and it's description states that, "the artist shares his vision of the traffic jam that is created when the lifestyles and belief systems of the people lead them all to the same, barren place."

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Photo Courtesy of: Kayla Sheldon

Artist Eric Martinez stands with his wife Sara in front of his painting "The Looking Glass", in their art gallery, also known as their living room.

By Kayla Sheldon, Community Writer
October 1, 2014 at 09:39am. Views: 50

On Saturday night, Sept. 27, local artist Eric Martinez hosted an art show featuring his first series of paintings. Martinez and his wife Sara, hosted the show at their house with the gallery right in their living room. Martinez and friends Hector Agremon and Joel O’Neal were instrumental in making the gallery. They built the display for the paintings themselves and gave the living room a complete makeover and built the framework to hang the art up. Martinez was born and raised in Colton. The house that the art show was held used to be his sister’s house. “We live among art,” Sara Martinez said while laughing. There were five pieces of his art on display. However, there were many other pieces from the set that were just too big to be displayed in the room. Martinez selected which paintings he wanted to be displayed that night, and left the others out. Each piece had a small note on the side with a description that told the story behind each one of the pieces. Sara briefly explained the process behind Martinez’s work. His paintings never turn out to be what he envisioned from the beginning. According to Sara, when he would finish a piece, he sometimes wants to keep going, or keep making changes, and ends up destroying the piece entirely. “If you like the painting, get it because it’ll be completely different the next day,” she said. The five paintings displayed were titled “Slowkill Trafficjam”, “On With The Show”, “Promised Lands”, “Learn to Swim”, and “The Looking Glass”. Two out of the five pieces were painted on wood, while the other three were painting on donated sheet metal. “On With The Show” was a painting about his grandmother. The description read: “The artist comes to terms with his grandmother’s illness and addiction to antidepressants in this nightmare fantasy of psychiatric intervention.” The artist, Martinez, shared, “For the past three years I have struggled with these five paintings. I will not lie to you and say that any part of this process was easy.”

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